Is 11:1-5 - "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem
of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest
upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The
Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 4
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the
earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His
lips He shall slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And
faithfulness the belt of His waist."
1) "His delight is in the fear of the Lord." God reached
out to reconcile sinful man to his holy God. How else can sinful man be reconciled to God,
but through Him Who is sinless? Man gossips, slanders, gets angry, covets, hates, murders,
etc. God is holy and has no fellowship with sin. He cannot sin. Natural man is born in
sin. Some families (and even nations) are known for their sinful traits as being full of
wrath, lazy, etc.
The birth of Jesus was different from any other normal birth. He
is fully God and fully man. He possessed two different natures. Being fully man He was
tempted in all things like we are tempted, yet His delight was in the fear of God and He
sinned not.
We also read that "the spirit of wisdom and
understanding" shall rest upon Him. That's why He could even answer His enemies when
they set traps for Him, and they couldn't answer Him again.
When they asked Him whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, He perceived their craft
and wickedness and answered them to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's
and to God the things that are God's". The Sadducees also questioned Him about the
resurrection and marriage, but He answered them that "in the resurrection they
neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God. But as touching
the resurrection of the dead, God said, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Matt
22:18 - 31)
Paul also delighted in the fear of God. He said that "I live;
yet not I but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20). When Jesus is in you, He lives His life
through you and you can no longer live in sin. Some excuse their sin by saying that it is
the flesh which causes them to sin, yet the Bible says that "if you live after the
flesh you will die" (Rom 8:13).
2) "But with righteousness He shall judge the poor and decide
with equity for the meek of the earth."
This judgment is unto salvation and life. He judges us so that we
can be justified and saved. (There is also the judgement of the wicked unto condemnation,
which we will discuss in the next point, but that's not what's referred to here.)
In Matt 5 we read that "blessed are the poor in spirit for
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be
filled."
When Jesus is in you He will point out the sins in your life and
judge you. If Jesus lives in you you cannot tolerate sin neither justify your sin. In fact
even before He is in you, He will judge you and convict you of your sin. Remember how you
realised your lost state when Jesus met you originally and you came to the cross to be
cleansed and washed from your sin. There was no pride or haughtiness or justification of
self, but you threw yourself at His feet for mercy and forgiveness.
Jesus' conviction of sin is the judgement unto salvation and not
to condemnation. Jesus in you won't allow you to gossip and slander others, flirt with the
opposite sex, or hold a grudge against your brother.
Those who acknowledge their sin when the Lord convicts them, they
are the meek. As we read in Rom 7, "for what I want to do, I do not; but what I hate,
that I do. O, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom 7:15 - 8:3).
Cry to God that He delivers you and make you a new creature in
Christ. You have to get rid of sin in your life, for if Jesus lives in you, He will not
tolerate sin in your life.
3) "He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And
with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of
His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist."
The wicked He judges unto condemnation. If you continue to harden
your heart Sunday after Sunday, He will strike you for it. If you as a child refuse to
listen to the pleadings of your parents, teachers and those who seek to turn you from your
evil ways to God's ways, God will eventually smite you for you wickedness.
Hell was created for the devil and his angels. But if you harden
your heart against God's Word, you automatically side with the devil, and you will also
burn with him.
Those who have been given much of God's Word will be judged accordingly. Woe to you if you
do not live accordingly; then it would have been better for you not to have heard the
gospel and disobeyed, than that you've heard and then disobeyed. Your judgement will be
worse.
Your conscience will devour you for all eternity on the inside and the fire on the
outside, if you do not part from sin.
Your greatest sin will be that Jesus died on the cross for your sin, and yet you spurned
Him and turned your back on His grace.
Has God given you a burden for lost souls? Maybe God has called
you but you harden your heart. You will be judged for that. See the souls that go lost
continually and cry to God for their salvation so that they might hear the gospel and be
saved from eternal damnation.
A bird that makes its nest in a sugarcane field is not wise, for
before the eggs hatch the sugarcane will be burned and the nest too.
The beaver male bird builds the nest. When he is finish the female comes and she inspects
it inside and outside. If she's not entirely satisfied she tears it apart and he has to
start all over again.
Learn from this. You are busy building right through your life. Make sure you build in the
right place and in the right way so that the fire won't destroy everything.