Isaiah 11: A Messianic Prophecy!

As Isaiah’s prophecy to King Ahaz continues, concerning the northern tribes, we get to a pivotal place in Isaiah 11 with a chapter that is filled with strong, Messianic references. One of the challenges of interpretation is to figure out which of these apply to our Lord’s first coming, which apply to His second coming and which apply to both. There are many blessings in this chapter! Let’s start by reading the chapter:

1 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. 6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. 10 "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious." 11 It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. 12 He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth. 13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, And Judah shall not harass Ephraim. 14 But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; Together they shall plunder the people of the East; They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; And the people of Ammon shall obey them. 15 The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River, And strike it in the seven streams, And make men cross over dry-shod. 16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people Who will be left from Assyria, As it was for Israel In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 11:1-16 (NKJV)

Because the chapter is relatively short, I am going to discuss each verse by itself. So let’s begin with the first verse:

1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

What we see here is a family tree. A Rod shall come forth, and that Rod will come out of the stem of Jesse. We know that in the Millennium, Jesus will rule this planet with a rod of iron. When reading the Old Testament, we frequently skip over the lists of who begat who, but those lists have their own blessings, as they point to the birth of our Lord, Jesus. Here’s one of those blessings from the genealogy. In Matthew, we see the genealogy of Christ through Solomon, the by-product of the illicit relationship of David and Bathsheba. That led to Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, though we know the Holy Spirit was responsible for impregnating Mary. Matthew, being Jewish, was concerned with the legal bloodline of our Savior. Luke took another line, as being a physician, he was more interested in the real bloodline. Instead of going through Solomon, Luke takes the line of Jesus through another of David’s sons, Nathan. This bloodline goes through Heli, the father of Mary. So whichever way you want to look at it, whether from Mary’s family or Joseph’s, Jesus was in the Davidic line! This is another of those amazing ways the Bible fits together perfectly. Mary would have no rights of inheritance to pass forward, based on the Law in Deuteronomy 21:16. Yet in Numbers 27, the daughters of Zelophehad approached Moses, who then in turn approached God, on a change concerning the rights of inheritance to a family having no sons. God heard their cries and the Law changed to include daughters in a family of no sons. As Mary had no brothers, she would not be mentioned in the bloodline without that change! Everything points to Jesus!

Jesse was the father of David. He was a poor shepherd, and God promoted his son, David, to be the King of Israel. David was the second king, after Saul, and the first godly king. In fact, as you remember, King David was the king all the rest were compared to, and his heart was for the Lord. Don’t confuse this with David being perfect or infallible, as he was a murderer and an adulterer, concerning the issue with Uriah the Hittite, one of the soldiers in David’s army. To remind you, David lusted after Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and then slept with her. When she became pregnant, David had Uriah killed in battle to hide his sin. It is also likely that David was not the best of fathers, judging from his sons and their behavior. All of this is comforting, to say the least, as it reminds each of us that God continues to love us through our failures, if we ask for forgiveness and have hearts for Him. Though David began a royal line in his family, by the time of the birth of Jesus, the Davidic line had returned to a line of peasants. That might have something to do with the usage of Jesse in this passage, rather than David. The Branch that will grow out of the roots of David is Jesus. The word “Branch” means “live sprout.” The branch falls dead from the tree and sprouts back to life, and brings others to life!

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

The second verse contains an additional nugget for us, as I have mentioned before. In Revelation 1:4, 3:1, 4:5 and 5:6 there are references to the seven Spirits of God. In the Bible, as we have discussed, seven is the number of completeness, and we know that God is complete! In order to understand Revelation, you have to have a mastery of the Old Testament, as it is loaded with references. Here is one of those! In Isaiah 11:1, we see the sevenfold aspect of the Holy Spirit! He is:

1. The Spirit of the Lord

2. The Spirit of wisdom

3. The Spirit of

understanding

4. The Spirit of counsel

5. The Spirit of might

6. The Spirit of knowledge

7. The Spirit of the

fear of the Lord.


We know that when Jesus lived as a man, He walked in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit, and when He comes back to rule on the throne of David, He will rule in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit, so the Spirit of the Lord will be upon Him. He will rule with wisdom, and that wisdom will be perfect. Remember, one of the many things Jesus cannot do is He cannot learn. In regards to wisdom, we are null and void in comparison. Check out this verse:

30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-- 31 that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD. '
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 (NKJV)

Jesus is also filled with the Spirit of understanding, which is another word for spiritual discernment. As gifts of the Lord go, this is a biggie! We read that in the latter days, many will be fooled by the false prophets. If you measure everything you hear against what you read in the Bible, you will know the truth, and that truth will set you free! Jesus cannot be fooled, even by the treachery of Satan, and as long as we keep our eyes on Him, Satan won’t fool us, either! Think of how Satan tried to fool Jesus, by quoting parts of the Word, out of context. Jesus knew the Word…in fact, Jesus is the Word! We also see the Spirit of Counsel. Only a few chapters back in Isaiah, we saw one of the titles of Jesus, Counselor. He counsels, and doesn’t need counsel from anyone! Then we have the Spirit of might, which is power. We are baptized into His resurrection and the power thereof:

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death
Philippians 3:9-10 (NKJV)

Here’s another interesting piece of information. When Solomon built the temple, he added a porch. There were two pillars made of brass. Brass is always emblematic of judgment. Those pillars stood alone…they didn’t hold up anything. We can read about that in 2 Chronicles:

17 Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of the one on the left Boaz.
2 Chronicles. 3:17 (NKJV)

Why do I mention this here? Because Jachin is the Hebrew word for counsel and Boaz is the Hebrew word for might! The last two attributes of the Spirit are knowledge and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. Both of these come from staying well-grounded in the Bible. Each story gives us more knowledge of God. Remember, He told us that His ways are not our ways. One of the best ways we have of seeing His ways is by reading about God and His actions! When we see all that He did, all that He said, and all of the promises He has made, these give us a reverence for Him, a true fear of the Lord. These are all the attributes that a “Spirit-filled Christian” should have. We should be bubbling over every moment with what the Lord has done in each of our lives. Sadly, we let the cares of the world get in the way and take that focus away, at times. Don’t lose sight of this when you pray for His Spirit to fill you. These are the characteristics others should see in each of us! Onto verse three:

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;

Though Jesus is the Lord, He has a fear of the Father and the Holy Spirit. It delights Him to walk in that path. We should feel the same way. He freed us from sin, and the bondage that we were in. Why is it that we still can gravitate back to those ways? After He had given us the free gift of salvation, we should be able to look back with perfect hindsight and see the destructive path our sinful lives took. Satan was able to fool us as non-Christians, as he lured us in with the pleasure of sin. As I have mentioned before, sin is a cancer that eats away at every fiber of our being. I love the term remission of sin, for it reminds me of cancer being in remission…the cancer is no longer eating me up! It should be a joy for us to walk away from that sin and follow Him. Don’t forget what Jesus said:

15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:15 (NKJV)

Jesus will not have to judge by His eyes or ears as He can do something no other judge is able to do. He can see inside of the heart of each of us! How easy it will be for Him to settle a dispute as He can see not only the actions, but the motives. My pastor once told me that there are always three points of view: ours, their’s and God’s! With our hearts being deceitful and desperately wicked, as Jeremiah writes, we never have a pure motive. Yet God’s motives are always pure! Now, verse four:

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.

By looking at our justice system today, we can see that the poor are not represented the same as the wealthy. I am sure they never have been. A wealthy man can hire a smarter, more-experienced attorney, and all a poor man can hire is a free, public defender. Most of the decisions in those cases will go to the hired gun. But Jesus is my Counselor, my Defender, and He is free. Well, at least I don’t have to pay! Don’t ever forget that the gift He gives might be free to us, but it did not come cheaply. He paid for it with His life! There will finally be equity for the meek. Meek actually means “quiet strength.” When Jesus looked at the men selling wares in His Father’s house, He looked with eyes of meekness. There was no question in anyone’s mind that He meant business. Most people think of gentleness when discussing this word, but it is gentleness with strength! The meek shall inherit the earth, and I think that refers to each of us who have come to know Him as Lord. This verse goes on to say that Jesus will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth! The “rod of His mouth” is sharper than a two-edged sword and it is the Word of God. With the breath of His lips, He will slay the wicked, just as the garrison fell back in the Garden of Gethsemane when He said, “I AM!” He breathed the world into existence and can breathe the life out of the wicked, just as easily! Let’s go to verse five:

5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

A quick look to Ephesians 6 will remind us which part of the full armor of God is being discussed here:

14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Ephesians 6:14 (NKJV)

Truth, righteousness and faithfulness will be apparent in every action and every decision that Jesus makes. Even little white lies are lies! We know how faithful He is as we can see every promise He has ever made come true. The Millennial prophecy continues in verses 6-8:

6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den.

Some people have heard Jesus described as the “Lion and the Lamb.” Many people confuse this area of the Bible in Isaiah with that verse. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Each tribe had an ensign, a rallying sign, and Judah’s was a lion. Yet, He also is the Passover Lamb, who shed His blood for us. We can see a reference to both in Revelation:

5 But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." 6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 5:5-8 (NKJV)

These verses in Isaiah are depicting something else entirely. They are showing us in simple terms how different it will be to live in the Millennium! All of creation changed when Adam sinned and this is what it will be like when the curse of sin has been removed! The animals will become vegetarians. I don’t know if we will become vegetarians, or not. I am also guessing that the animals will talk. You might think that is an outrageous statement, but in the Garden of Eden before the fall of man, when the serpent had the discussion with Eve, she didn’t fall over with shock. It seems that it must have been commonplace to have a discussion with an animal! If we are not vegetarians, we will probably have to ask the animal if he minds if we eat him! I am basing my opinion on the Garden of Eden, but I am guessing we will be vegetarians. Adam and Eve did not know death until God killed a lamb to make skins to clothe them. Based on that, I don’t think Adam and Eve were eating meat. With the curse removed, creation will return to the way it once was, or will at least be similar to those ways. The snake had legs in the Garden of Eden. I wonder if that will happen again? I don’t think I would like them any better with legs! It also says, “a little child shall lead them.” That reminds me of one of the most important attributes of that little child…big faith. Faith can carry each of us a long way, but even that is a gift of God. Okay, verse nine:

9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

We have already discussed in Isaiah that war will be gone in the rule of Jesus. We live in the present age when so few believe in God, fewer follow His ways and evil seems to be rampant in the place that Satan has dominion over. It is so hard to visualize this earth filled with believers! That is exactly what will take place at the beginning of the Millennium. We, as believers removed in the rapture, will stand before God in the Bema Seat judgment, where every bit of phoniness will be removed. Only our good acts, desires and attributes will remain. At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus will slay the wicked and they will remain “asleep” for 1,000 years, until the Great White Throne judgment. Those who came to know the Lord in the tribulation and lived through it will remain alive as humans and will repopulate the earth. As I have mentioned earlier in this Isaiah study, the children of those humans will still have to make a commitment to the Lord, as each of their descendants will. Yet, at the beginning, every person on earth, whether in an earthly body or a glorified one, will love the Lord! How exciting that will be! That is what it will be like for the earth to be full of the knowledge of the Lord!

10 "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."

I remember seeing a plaque with this verse on it just outside of the Empty Tomb in Jerusalem! I love this verse. Jesus is the Root of Jesse, as He came from the line of David. In Isaiah 53, He is described as a “Root out of dry ground.” This verse even points to the Israeli flag today! What is right in the middle of that flag? A star of David, called the “Mogan David.” The sign of David shall stand as a banner to the people. This also refers directly to one of the seven redemptive names of God used in the Old Testament. Jehovah-Nissi means "The Lord Our Banner." You can find it in Exodus 17:15.

And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-LORD-IS-MY-BANNER; 16 for he said, "Because the LORD has sworn: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."
Exodus 17:15-16 (NKJV)

This verse in Isaiah might have confused the Jews, who saw the Messiah coming as a mighty warrior, and another King in the Davidic line. After the Babylonian captivity, there were no more kings in Israel, and there will not be another one until Jesus rules on the throne of David. Yet, the Jews thought He would rule when He came the first time. Yet in other parts of this verse, it does seem to apply to His first coming. The Gentiles will seek Him. Though He came to save the Jews, His chosen people, the Gentiles followed Him. We are still following Him today, as that prophecy continues to have meaning. When it says, “His resting place shall be glorious,” I think it has many levels of meaning. As it says in Isaiah 53,

And they made His grave with the wicked--But with the rich at His death,
Isaiah 53:9 (NKJV)

His “resting place” was a rich man’s grave in Jerusalem. But I also think that heaven is His “resting place,” as well. And the time of His rest is between His first coming and His second coming. Lastly, the verse can easily apply to the Millennium, too, as this earth will once again be glorious! We have never seen it in glorious form! Now we come to a verse that applies to today:

11 It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea.

Every teacher of the Word has certain sections or attributes of the Bible that excite them. I love prophecy. Being that God willed me to be alive today, this is one of my special sections, for I can see the prophecy being fulfilled right in front of my eyes. Eight centuries, or so, before the life of Jesus, God gave this to Isaiah, and here we are that many years later seeing the fulfillment of it! It shouldn’t surprise any of us. Look at this verse:

7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
Amos 3:7 (NKJV)

One of the keys to this verse is the phrase “the second time.” God will set His hand to recover the remnant the second time. When was the first time? That’s easy! It was when He brought the Jews back from their 70-year captivity in Babylon. Babylon is also known as the Land of Shinar in the Bible. We can see in two different ways that this verse applies to a different gathering of the Jews. First, the Holy Spirit overtly tells us that it is “the second time,” yet the additional clue is in that initial gathering of the remnant, the Jews were not spread out around the entire world. Cush is modern day Ethiopia. One of the biggest problems in the last 10 years in Israel has been the absorption of Russian Jews and Ethiopian Jews into the land. The “islands of the sea” is a Hebrew colloquialism for distant lands. In 1948, the Jews returned to a land they had vacated for more than 1,800 years! So many “experts” of Bible prophecy had assigned every aspect of prophecy concerning Israel to mean “the Church,” as Israel had not existed for so many years. Some, amazingly, still do that! It is called “replacement theology,” and is straight from the pit of hell. The Jews swarmed back into the land in 1948, and that continues to this day. In 1967, they took Jerusalem, their Holy City, once again, too. This is one of two parts of this gathering. The first will be in unbelief. As you can see, though God has put them back in their land, they still are not following Jesus. Most are agnostic and are not looking to God, the Father, either. One man described an agnostic Jew as someone who knows exactly how to worship the God he doesn’t believe in. Even their leaders have been humanists, who put the emphasis on mankind (with the exception of Menachem Begin, their sixth prime minister). We also know that there is a future gathering in belief, when the Jews will call upon Jesus. Why is God doing this? Have they called out to Him for forgiveness? Not as a nation, but they will. But His reason is to show His grace and that He always comes through on His promises! Read these verses:

16 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 17 "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. 18 "Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it. 19 "So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. 20 "When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name--when they said of them, 'These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.' 21 "But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. 22 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 23 "And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, ' says the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. 24 "For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 "Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. 29 "I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. 30 "And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. 31 "Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 "Not for your sake do I do this," says the Lord GOD, "let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!"
Ezekiel 36:16-32 (NKJV)

That shows the heart of God and He is not willing to do anything for the Jews that He has not done for each of us! What a blessing. This continues in verse 12:

12 He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.

This verse demonstrates that the prophecy does not refer to the House of Israel or the House of Judah, but all of the nation. He will assemble all of the dispersed and all of the outcasts. For those concerned with the 10 lost tribes, there is nothing lost here. Once again, we see the word “banner.” Jehovah-Nissi! Now, verse 13:

13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

There was a huge split between the northern tribes and the southern tribes. We see here that they will be one nation again. God’s plan was for Himself to rule over the Jews. The Jews wanted a man, to be like the other nations. Now, God will be ruling, as His original plan! With His permissive will in the past, this will be His perfect will! Ephraim, the largest tribe in the north, will no longer envy Judah, the largest tribe in the south. All of the enemies of Judah will be cut off. We know this is still a future event, as all the nations of the Islamic world hate Israel. Listen to the comments of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the sixth and current president of Iran. He wants to wipe them off of the earth. We know God will not allow that! Let’s continue with verse 14:

14 But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; Together they shall plunder the people of the East; They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; And the people of Ammon shall obey them.

One of the areas the Israelis still do battle with is the Gaza Strip, on the west coast of the country. It is filled with Arabs (Philistines). Any doubt how that conflict is going to work out? When the victory has been predicted almost three thousand years before we could see a battle, it makes it easier, doesn’t it? The people of the east will be Syria (Israel’s greatest enemy,) Iran, Iraq, and the rest of the Arabic nations. When we get to Isaiah 17, you will see part of this in greater detail. The geographic name “Ammon” sure is similar to the largest city in Jordan, “Amman.” I am sure it applies! In the Millennium, Israel will be the political center of the world. How could that not be the case with Jesus ruling on the throne of David there?! Okay, verse 15:

15 The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River, And strike it in the seven streams, And make men cross over dry-shod.

This is a prophecy that we see elsewhere in the Bible, in Revelation. The river in discussion is the Euphrates. This is the “tongue” that comes from the Mediterranean. In this Fertile Crescent was the birthplace of civilization, and it will also see the last battle. Let’s look at Revelation:

12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." 16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
Revelation 16:12-16 (NKJV)

Remember, God is the same yesterday, today and forever! He dried the Red Sea for the Jews to pass through. He dried the Jordan River for them to do the same. This time, He dries the Euphrates with a breath, His mighty wind, for the forces to pass on their way to Har-Megiddo, Armageddon. In Hebrew, “Har” means “mount.” Mt. Megiddo overlooks the plain where the final battle will take place. Now, the last verse in this chapter:

16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people Who will be left from Assyria, As it was for Israel In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.

The remnant will have something better than a pathway back to its land. Highway, as I mentioned before, refers to a clean path. You can take the high road and be on high moral ground. The remnant, by this time, will have called for the return of its Messiah, and it will return to the land of Israel in the same manner the Jews came from Egypt, with God leading the way! Isn’t this an amazing chapter? We can see things that have happened already, things that are happening now and things that will be happening very soon. It puts us in a position of knowing how close our Savior is right now! We should each take that as a warning to live in a manner worthy of Him. It also reminds us to tell people about our Lord and His amazing love!