God's Heart for the Nations

Isaiah swings back and forth from judgment and woe to hope and comfort in the coming Messiah. The end of Isaiah 10 is very dark. 

God brings judgment through Assyria and demolishes the size of His chosen nation. 
Isaiah 10:22–23 (ESV) For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

God will bring a whip of discipline such as He formerly brought on their enemies. 
Isaiah 10:26 (ESV) And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.

God brings judgment against the leaders who misled the people into idolatry and sin.
Isaiah 10:33–34 (ESV) Behold, the Lord GOD of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. 34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.

The Jewish Bible is full of the darkest realities of their history. God was no respecter of persons toward them. Indeed, this is one of the key reasons to trust the Bible's accuracy and historicity. Ordinary people would not write about these terrible times brought on them by their own evil actions. 

YET, as is common in Isaiah's ministry, God would relent and once again bring comfort to His people. Hope will rise out of the despair.

Isaiah 11:1 (ESV) There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Christ will come from the house of David. He will be led by the Spirit of the Lord. 
Isaiah 11:2 (ESV) And 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 the fear of the LORD.

And Christ will deal righteously with the heart of Israel, not simply on the surface. 
Isaiah 11:3–5 (ESV) And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

Isaiah not only looks to the age of Messiah's reign in the Church age, but also beyond to the glorious kingdom He will establish on the Earth once and for all. 
Isaiah 11:6–7 (ESV) The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

And this Messiah will not simply be One for a single nation, but all nations. 
Isaiah 11:10 (ESV) In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Christ will gather His own first from among scattered Israel and then beyond them to the nations.
Isaiah 11:11 (ESV) In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

The prophecy here was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost through the Apostle's witness to that moment. The crowd gathered lists the areas from which the Jews had traveled. Notice the similarities. 
Acts 2:9–11 (ESV) Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

Those names point north, south, east, and west. Just as Isaiah 11 mentions in an ancient list. The point is clearly made, God is seeking to save from all directions and the Gospel must go into all the world. It will all happen, of course AFTER God brings severe judgment on Israel many times over from this prophesy onward. A reminder that God brings good news out of the darkness every time. 


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