Isaiah 11:6,9, “The wolf shall lie down with the lamb….They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of YHWH as the waters cover the sea.”
A few thoughts….
First, the Branch is, of course, Jesus Christ (Rev.5:5). He is the Shoot that rises up from the stump of David’s dynasty, from the ruins of Israel. It is through His reign, inaugurated at the cross, that all of these things will be brought about. Yes, it is—and will be—through the reign of the crucified Christ who is raised from the dead, seated at the right hand of the Father, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, it is through His reign (a reign which is, in the present time, mediated through His Spirit-filled Body on earth), it is through His reign, that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of YHWH (Hab.2:14), in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor.4:6) as the waters cover the sea.
Secondly, this true, saving, peace-bringing knowledge of YHWH comes through the gospel of the Branch, through the good news of the crucified and risen Lord. Yes, the reign of the Branch fills the earth with the knowledge of YHWH because the Branch is YHWH incarnate, and His gospel—the Word of the cross—is the means by which the transformative knowledge of YHWH is disseminated to all the world. Yes…that is how YHWH is known in all the world, that is how the knowledge of Him pervades ever weave and fiber of creation: in the face of Jesus Christ; through the gospel of the slain and risen Lord; by the proclamation of the Word of the Cross.
But then, thirdly, consider the effect of this knowledge. It is not a matter of being theologically informed, it is not ammunition for clear-minded conversation, it is not a promise of universal orthodoxy….now, where this knowledge is established, all things are drawn into their rightly order. This knowledge is the magnetic field that draws the disparate iron shavings of fallen reality into the ordered form of a revelatory cosmos. It is the note that pulls the dissonance of all things into harmony. It is the holy and true alchemy that turns the base metals of an exiled creation in the pure gold of the new heavens and earth.
When true peace comes, when true shalom dawns, when all horrors are stalled up into wonder, when the warring and opposition and violence that are currently hardwired into all sentient life are silenced, when this happens, it will happen because—from strings to galactic superstructures—the universe will be filled with the knowledge that YHWH is the one we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. This knowledge brings unity, this knowledge creates harmony, this knowledge heals and raises and washes and purifies and aligns and clarifies. As Malcom Guite has said, all things—all things—will eventually be made sense of, but only in the one in whom alone anything truly makes sense: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. In Him all things hold together (Col.1:17), in Him all things will be summed up (Eph.1:10), in Him peace comes to heaven and earth (Col.1:20).
That last allusion is the one that, perhaps, fits best with this text from Isaiah. We have said so far that the universal peace of Isaiah 11:6-9a comes because the righteous reign of the Branch (1-5) brings about the pervasive knowledge of YHWH (9b). Similarly, in Colossians 1:20 (and the preceding verses), we see that Jesus—in whom all the fullness of deity is pleased to dwell—reconciles or harmonizes or draws into consent all things in heaven and on earth, “making peace by the blood of His cross.” This peace by the blood of the cross is, I’d argue, the peace of Is.11:5-9a; and within the phrase the “blood of the cross” is the eschatological revelation of YHWH that fills the world in Isaiah 11:9b. Yes, YHWH is made known in all the world in and through and by and as the crucified Jesus Christ, and it is this knowledge of Him, the knowledge of His glory in this face that will permeate and so harmonize reality.
The wolf lying down with the lamb……Certainly this may be literal (I think it is), but is it—and the similarly arresting imagery in the following verses—is it not also a picture to us of the too-good-to-be-true Shalom that God is intending for all of His creation? Is it not also a picture of the Jew and Gentile in joyful fellowship? Of the peoples and nations that were once as opposed to one another as the hungry wolf and helpless lamb, now reconciled (by divine blood!), now at peace? Is this imagery not an invitation to hope all things? To hope wonders beyond imagining? To hope reconciliations beyond our heart’s present capacity to anticipate? Is it not an image that tells us, at the very least, that YHWH’s final purpose for His creation is a peace that truly passes all our understanding?
And why should this not be so? At the roots of created reality is the God-Man in whom creation is bound to God for her good; in whom the rebellion of all peoples is borne and the punishment of all peoples is swallowed up. If God is the one we meet in the reconciling revelation of Calvary, if this One is, indeed, the firstborn of all creation through whom and for whom all things exist, then we ought to expect that as creation is drawn into consent with Him, it will also be drawn into consent with itself. Yes, as the knowledge that this one is God permeates reality through the words and works of the Spirit-filled Bride, we will see incrementally—and, at last, completely—True Peace.
