Isaiah 11:1-9 * December 9, 2007 *
Advent 2 * Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
Between the year 1820 and his death in 1849 a part time
Quaker preacher and full time American artist by the name of Edward Hicks
painted over one hundred versions of his most famous work. It’s a fairly popular piece of American folk
art, so chances are you’ve seen one of these versions somewhere along the line.
Probably in one of those crafty type
The painting itself is an arrangement of various people and animals interacting in ways we wouldn’t normally expect. For example, a wolf harmlessly rests its paws on a sheep, a calf is curled up at the feet of a well-behaved lion, a bear gazes protectively at a couple of small children, and a cow and bear politely nibble on a stalk of grain together.
The title of this work is “The Peaceable Kingdom.” It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that Edward Hicks based his painting on the words of our text. While Hicks made his copies on canvass, we could say that God through Isaiah the prophet painted the original with the words we have before us today.
Both are pictures of hope and tranquility and serenity. Both depict a Garden of Eden type of existence. Both pictures make us think, “Wouldn’t it be nice if this could be true…”
The good news is that such a picture – or certainly what the picture conveys – is and can be and will be true. Even better news is that we are in it. So, on this second Sunday of Advent – this 4 week period of watching and waiting and wistfully anticipating the arrival of Christ – let’s consider the personal ramifications of being part of
THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM
1. Now it is ours in part
2. Then it will be ours in full
Before we focus on this thought in particular, let’s take a brief look at this entire text in general. It begins with the verse that is the basis for our beloved Christmas hymn, “Behold a Branch is Growing.” 1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. Let’s set this verse in its original historical context.
For the most part, Isaiah lived and worked at a
rather sad time in the life of God’s Old Testament people. Despite being warned time and time again, they
persisted in drifting away from Him.
Finally, God said, “Okay, have it your way. If life apart from Me is what you want, I’ll
grant you your desire” and gave permission for the world power at that time,
the cruel and unbelieving nation of
But while they would be felled never to grow again, God’s people would see new life…
Because a shoot would emerge from the seemingly dead stump of Jesse – who was a relative of Judah, who was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, to whom God made the promise that through his line “all people on earth would be blessed.” That blessing, of course, was the Savior we know as Jesus Christ. And as Isaiah indicates, He would indeed bear fruit, because He is the provider or eternal life.
In the verses that follow Jesus is described as One
endowed with the Spirit and filled with divine wisdom and understanding
and counsel and power and knowledge and the fear of the Lord. While other earthly kings had consistently
failed God’s people in one way or another, this One would not. “Righteousness
will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.”
And what kind of kingdom will He will usher in
and preside over? Isaiah takes us back
to the Garden of Eden when the whole of creation lived in harmony. This is “The Peaceable Kingdom,” where 6
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the
calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down
together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his
hand into the viper's nest.
Then as a summary statement of the depth and
breadth of the
This is quite a description. How are we to understand this? Is Isaiah saying this is the kind of world the Savior would provide God’s people through His first Advent? Or are we to perhaps go beyond that and interpret this to be what Christ will usher in when He returns for His Second Advent?
Understood correctly, the answer is yes to both.
Remember the context. Isaiah lived in what we might call a “now and then” world. Now things weren’t so great for the faithful at that time. Then things would be better. And knowing “then” was coming made “now” more bearable, more understandable, more transitory, less disconcerting.
When would “then” come for the people of Isaiah’s day? They didn’t know, but they knew it would indeed happen, and that it would indeed be wonderful. So Isaiah encourages the faithful by telling them that when the “Root of Jesse” arrived it would be a time when things would be just the opposite of what they were going through now. Now difficulty. Then glory.
That’s where this gloriously poetic and symbolic word picture fits in. He painted them a picture of serenity and peace and idealism that they – and we – could understand.
By the very mention of it, Isaiah also reminded
the people that “The Peaceable Kingdom” was not only relegated to the future
when it would find its actual and historical fulfillment in the coming of Jesus;
it was already theirs in the present. In
fact, it existed the moment God promised a Savior in the Garden of Eden. In the Gospel promise that the curse which
sin brought into the world would be reversed through the perfect life,
sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, there was
peace. Embracing and resting on this promise
placed the faithful inside “The
And so it does for us. To know Jesus as King and Savior is to know peace. Ours is the peace of knowing our sins are forgiven and we are right in the eyes of God; that we are not just a nameless number among the billions on earth, but are intimately known and dearly loved; that our lives are not being blown about by the random winds of chance, but carefully choreographed by the hand of God. That is the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Such blessings are just part of the charter for life in The Peaceable Kingdom. Knowing these things makes a difference for us, as well as for the way in which people touched by Christ look at each other.
It is interesting to note that in commenting on these passages in Isaiah, the early church fathers often spoke of the transforming effect the Gospel has on people. They talk about how the Gospel transforms even savage people with long standing animosities toward each other into gentle followers of Christ. In this harmony among people they see nothing less miraculous than a wolf lying down with the lamb or a lion peacefully coexisting with a yearling. (As a historical sidelight, maybe the painter Edward Hicks saw it that way, because in the background of “The Peaceable Kingdom” is a picture of the white European William Penn interacting peaceably with Native Americans.)
The Gospel does change the way we look at each other, doesn’t it? Far from seeing each other as threats or impediments or competition, the Gospel brings us into a family relationship. One of the great blessings of the Gospel is how it unites people from different backgrounds and social settings and ethnic origins into one single family. Just like one of our hymns proclaims:
“In Christ there is no east or west, in him
no south or north, But one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide
earth.”
“With God there is no tribe or race; in him
we all are one. He loves us as his
children through our faith in his dear Son.”
This is all so wonderful, but to be totally
accurate, while we reside on this earth the
This is not to be unexpected. While the guilt of sin has been removed, the existence and the effect of sin has not. So we still grapple with a sinful nature, fall under its spell and find ourselves struggling to do the right things. We don’t always experience the peace that we know is ours, because we allow things to get in the way.
We also feel the consequences of living in a
fallen world. Sometimes we bring things
on ourselves. Other times we find
ourselves simply getting caught in the crossfire of life on a sinful planet
full of sinful people. The mall incident
in
So, like the people of Isaiah’s day, we also live in a now and then world. There is a wonderful peace that is ours now due to the first Advent of Christ; but that peace will be ours in full then – that is, at the Second Advent of Christ. That Second Advent could certainly come in our lifetime; if not, it will certainly come to each of us at the moment of our death.
And then we will understand just exactly how literally we should take Isaiah’s words. Who knows, maybe once we get to heaven we’ll find that Isaiah wasn’t speaking symbolically at all. Maybe Edward Hicks had it right. Wouldn’t that be something!
The point of our text is simply this: we are
members of the
So as we look forward to remembering Christ’s first Advent by looking at the calendar, we also look forward to His Second Advent by looking to the skies.
After all, looking forward is what Advent is all about. May God grant each of us a blessed time of preparation during the remainder of this Advent season. Amen.