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Isaiah 11 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
There is a good point here to be made about the wrath of God. Many skeptics are quick to point out God’s wrath, especially in the Old Testament. Of course, we have all heard the question, if God is so loving, why would He do such a thing? When discerning the character of God, we must not be quick to assume that His ways are the same as our ways. Isaiah mentions this later in his book.
A lot of the text thus far in Isaiah has described God’s judgement. When we think of wrath and judgement, we think of vengeance. We often think of hate and vindictive, selfish rage. I don’t believe this is how we should translate the text. For example, Isaiah 11:4, (while describing Jesus the Messiah) says that “with righteousness, He judges.” Isaiah 11:5 follows with, “Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.”
When I read these verses, I come the the conclusion that our presupposition for God’s judgement is His righteousness and faithfulness – not a vindictive or hateful rage. His character is flawless. He judges, not because He is emotionally overcome, but because wrongs cannot exist in His presence, and they need to be made right. It is the same reason why we stand up for truth in the face of evil.
Furthermore, this text is describing Jesus. This makes the passage even more amazing! God not only revealed his character to us in words, He sent it in a person so we had an example to follow. Jesus was the incarnation of righteousness and faithfulness. He showed us the heart of God’s judgement over sin.
So, again, I believe it is very helpful to search for God’s ways within the text instead of falsely assuming that He suffers from flaws like we do. We should applaud God’s truth and righteousness. We should thirst for it. Those of us who have already had our sin debt paid by Jesus should not fear God, but draw near to Him.