Friday, December 13, 2013
Isaiah 11:10-12 And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious. It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
THE KING GATHERS HIS SUBJECTS
These verses follow immediately after the beautiful description of the wolf dwelling with the lamb and the leopard lying down with the young goat, and the little child playing near the cobra's hole. They describe how God will establish that peace by gathering people from all nations into His kingdom. He will gather the remnant of His people who had been scattered among the nations and He will also gather Gentiles from every nation on earth to join them. He will bring them all together into one.
When is "That Day" when He will do this? Notice verse eleven where it says, "It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea."
The first time God gathered His people from many of these nations was after the 70 year captivity when He brought a remnant of His people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and temple.
When was the second time? Those nations mentioned correspond with the nations that the people all came from on the day of Pentecost. On that Day the Holy Spirit was gathering the remnant of His people into His kingdom. Three thousand souls from all these nations were brought under His rule of grace.
After the day of Pentecost the gospel began to go out into all the world and gather the gentiles from every nation into God's kingdom. Wherever Christ is held up as a banner to the people through the preaching of the gospel, hearts are opened by the power of the Spirit and Christ begins ruling there to give peace.
This promise is still being fulfilled to this day. We are among the gentiles that God has gathered from the nations. Through faith in Jesus we too have been brought under His glorious rule. We can also be a part of the gathering process by holding up Christ as a banner before our friends and neighbors and by sending missionaries out into the four corners of the world.
Truly "His resting place [is] glorious." When we come to Jesus with our burdens of sin, we do find rest for our souls -- glorious rest.
