Isaiah 11:1-10
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.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 cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.
Jesus Is the Best Kind of Judge
Can you finish this lyric?
He sees you when you’re ________.
You know, when you really think about these light-hearted Christmas melodies that you hear on the radio or that populate your Spotify playlist, they can be kind of creepy. There’s this guy with a beard who watches you while you’re sleeping. He knows things about you that no one else does, including your deepest darkest secrets. He makes a judgment call based on your behaviour to decide whether you will get rewarded or punished. Santa is creepy!
And yet – as much as this is most definitely not a sermon to endorse Santa – some of those North Pole themes sound eerily similar to the kinds of things we hear about Jesus. This is what Isaiah said about Jesus in chapter 11 of his prophecy:
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.[1]
As much as we like to spend these days leading up to Christmas picturing Jesus as that gentle baby lying in the manger, the season of Advent reminds us that that’s only part of the picture and this prophecy from Isaiah is a great example.
Isaiah wrote these words 700 years before Jesus was born. By God’s direction, Isaiah was preparing the people for the arrival of Jesus. The thing is, from Isaiah’s perspective, he sees the whole picture of who Jesus would be like a mountain range in the distance. You can see peaks and valleys and all of them all at once, but, from a distance, it can be difficult to differentiate between them or to know which peak is closer and which one is farther away. You can’t know that until you get closer to them.
From Isaiah’s perspective, he sees all of who Jesus would be all at once. What Isaiah didn’t – and couldn’t – know was that Jesus was going to come to earth not once but twice. The first time, of course, was when he was born in a barn outside of Bethlehem. Jesus’ first coming was at Christmas.
What Isaiah didn’t – and couldn’t – know was that long after Jesus lived and died and rose again and ascended into heaven, he would come again – this time not as the Saviour of the world, but as its Judge.
So, even though these words were written 700 years before Jesus who was born 2,000 years before us, these almost 3,000-year-old words were written for us, to tell us what Jesus will do when he comes again. In a word, he will come to judge.
Isaiah says:
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.[2]
At first this sounds very different than Santa, right? The song says that Santa sees you when you’re sleeping. Isaiah says that Jesus will not judge by what he sees with his eyes. But it is not as if Jesus is blind to what we do or ignorant about how we spend our time. In fact, it is the opposite.
King David once wrote:
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.[3]
God knows everything about you. There are two ways to understand what Isaiah says here then (He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears[4]). The first is what David brings up: not only can God see what you do, he can perceive your thoughts and know what is in your heart to speak before you can even get your mouth to form the words. In other words, God can see what is in your heart.
So, imagine this. There is a time coming when Jesus will come to judge you. Isaiah warns us what the verdict will be for those who are found guilty:
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.[5]
This is far worse than a lump of coal. This is the death penalty. We’re talking an eternity in hell. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Jesus is coming to judge you, and he knows everything you do. He knows the lies you tell, the time you waste, the people you mistreat (whether to their face or behind their back). He knows the things you do in secret, the things that nobody else knows that you think you’re getting away with. He even knows the evil thoughts and attitudes that lurk in your heart even when you’re doing the right thing.
You remember how when you were a kid and you got into a fight with your brother or sister your parents would make you say, “I’m sorry,” to each other, so, you’d grumble those words between clenched teeth and with fire in your eyes? Your parents could see right through you. They knew you weren’t sincere.
Our hearts are even more transparent to the Lord. He knows when there’s bitterness in there; when we’re angry or resentful; when we just don’t care about how our words or actions affect other people; when we lust after and covet all the things that we can’t and shouldn’t have. He knows it all.
That’s one way to understand Isaiah when he says,
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.[6]
In other words, Jesus’ perception goes beyond what he can see. His understanding is deeper than all that he can hear. He knows it all – every secret sin, every ounce of guilt, every source of shame.
That’s kind of scary, isn’t it? That’s a different picture of Jesus than the baby in a manger. But it’s the same person. And there’s another way to understand these words. It is true that Jesus knows everything that you think, say, and do. But he knows even more than that, including all the things that he has thought, said, and done for you.
It is strange, sometimes, to prepare for Christmas by thinking about Judgment Day, but it is important. It was precisely because of Judgment Day that Jesus was born at Christmas. He was born to be your Saviour from sin, to have the Spirit of the Lord rest on him – to be filled with wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, the knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Jesus understood the cosmic calculus of sin. He knew that the wages of sin is death, that the soul who sins is the one who should die; but he also knew that God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. There is nothing that you or I can do to undo any of the wicked, hurtful, wrong things that we do. But there is one thing that Jesus could – and did – do for you: he was born at Christmas for the sole purpose of dying on a cross in your place. He offered his life as a substitutionary sacrifice for you. He washed all your sins and guilt away by the blood he poured out for you.
So, when Isaiah says, He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears,[7] he means that your behaviour does not determine your final destination. What Jesus did for you does. And because Jesus died for you, you get to look forward to a day when the wolf will live with the lamb, and when the leopard will lie down with the goat.[8] You get to look forward to a day of true and eternal peace in the resting place of the God who loves you enough to sacrifice his Son to save you. Who better to be your Judge than the one who was born to give his life for you so that you could live with him forever?
He is the one, Isaiah says, who will judge the needy with righteousness and who will give decisions for the poor of the earth with justice.[9] If you go through life thinking that your name deserves to be on the nice list, that you could survive the scrutiny of the all-knowing God without him finding any sin, then you have every reason to fear this judge. But if you know that you truly belong on the naughty list – if you recognize how much help you need, how spiritually poor you are – and if you turn to the Lord for that help, he will judge you on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness and grant you justice on the basis of his faithfulness to you.
The good news is that we do not have to keep a tally of all the right and wrong things that we do. We thank God that he does not keep a record of our sins. But this season is still about repentance. It’s about preparing our hearts for Jesus to come again. That means coming to him to find our peace (going to church, personal devotions, prayer life at home) and turning from sin to live in righteousness.
That’s what Advent is all about. It’s not about a jolly old fat man who watches you while you sleep. It’s about your eternal Judge who loved you enough to be your Saviour. Don’t be afraid of his judgment. Repent of your sin. Put your selfish thoughts and actions behind you. But put your hope in the Lord. Rally to the “Root of Jesse” and find your rest in him. Amen.
[1] Isaiah 11:3,4
[2] Isaiah 11:3
[3] Psalm 139:2-4
[4] Isaiah 11:3
[5] Isaiah 11:4
[6] Isaiah 11:3
[7] Isaiah 11:3
[8] Isaiah 11:6
[9] Isaiah 11:4