Chapter 11

Future Restoration: 11:10-12; 15-16

Future Empire: 11:1-9; 11:13-16.

There will be a king of Israel who will be a perfect king--so perfect that there will be perfect justice in his kingdom: "they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain" (11:9)

Compare this to 2:4: "He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.... Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."

Who is "he"? It is the LORD--the God of Israel himself.

Every king of Israel was a failure, every king of Judah was a failure. In this future kingdom, there will have to be a different kind of king than anyone who came before. 

What will make this king different from any who came before? This king would almost have to be superhuman.

In Isaiah's first description of the kingdom of heaven, The LORD himself is the king (2:4). In this second description, the king is a son of David: "a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit ... (11:1); "with righteousness he will judge the needy ... he will strike the earth with the rod of  his mouth" (11:4).

So, this king in the kingdom of heaven is somehow superhuman--both God and the son of David. I wonder who that might be?

Judah and Israel are united in v. 13 and then together they go on the offensive and conquer the surrounding nations (11:14).

In v. 15 Isaiah describes the return of a remnant to Zion after the Assyrian conquest.