Read Isaiah 11 at Biblegateway.org
Read Isaiah 65 at Biblegateway.org

Interpreting the Passage

Shalom

Shalom, the Hebrew concept of peace, indicating not only peace in terms of international or personal conflict, but reflecting a whole vision of life.  When things are in a state of shalom, EVERYTHING is in a state of shalom.  Everything fits together, the relationships work like they were designed to, and things just work right.  The inverse is true as well:  the brokenness of the world isn’t just about the human heart, but has social, international, and even ecological implications.

There are lots of passages in Isaiah that describe the shalom of Isaiah’s vision of the future, but some of the most familiar language may be that which is common to chapters 11 and 65.  The version in chapter 11:1-9 is a bit fuller, and perhaps the preferable option for a class.  The first five verses are messianic, and we’ll comeback to those in a minute, but in verse it turns to the shalom concept, depicted by sets of enemies living at peace with each other.  Isaiah pairs a wolf with a lamb, a leopard and a goat, a calf and a lion, a cow and a bear, and a child and a viper.  All of these are very visual elements, and Isaiah is using them to help us imagine a world in which even those things we consider natural enemies live at peace with each other.  The variety of images conveys that Isaiah isn’t just talking about a singular peace, like the cessation of violence between nations, but is an all-pervasive vision of peace that even affects the relationships between wild animals.

Israel’s Experience, and Ours

The images are all the more incredulous when they are compared with the intense conflicts that Israel and Judah experienced during the time of Isaiah.  The early exile at the hands of the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom, and while Judah escapes destruction, the escape is costly, and by a thread.  Assyria only stops after a frightening siege of Jerusalem, after ravaging the other cities and towns of Jerusalem.  Judah lives on, but certainly suffers at he hands of the Assyrians.  Isaiah also records something of the Syrio-Ephraimite conflict, when Judah felt threatened by her sister nation to the north.  Furthermore, Isaiah’s writings indicate that there is conflict enough to go around within the borders of Judah, with power struggles and the difficulties of the lower classes being oppressed by the richer ruling classes.  Take all that together, and Isaiah’s listeners had enough conflict in their lives to be startled by these idyllic images of predators and prey hanging out at peace together.  The images portray a world starkly in contrast to the world in which Isaiah spoke these prophecies.

It’s not just Isaiah’s world that is at odds with this vision, though.  In our own lives, we experience on a number of levels.  On the largest scale, we are aware of the international conflicts and wars that perpetually fill the world, if not our little corner of it.  Regional conflicts and struggles between different groups of people are not news to us, and tension exists even in our seemingly civilized world between races, generations,  and other groupings that come in conflict.  Most personally, relationships between individuals fail to develop or are broken as we find reasons for conflict in ideology, values, culture, or in the preferences and personal habits of each other.  Some causes for conflict are real and seemingly unavoidable, some begin with perceptions that quickly become real enough to do significant damage.  It doesn’t even really stop with conflict between persons, though, as most of us experience some measure of conflict within ourselves.

All of this conflict hurts.

Some of it causes us to grow, some of it is because of evil, some of it is perhaps justified by various reasons.  But all of it hurts, and we have no rest while it dominates our lives.  So maybe this can be a place where we can see ourselves in the Judah of Isaiah’s time.  Perhaps this can be a place where we find some common ground with our ancestors in the faith.  Maybe this is a place where we can listen with them to God’s vision of the future, and feel with them the same hope that these images convey.

God’s promise here is that there will come a time when all of that conflict ceases to exist.  Even the things that we see as naturally opposed to each other will get along, and both can rest, and feel at home in each other’s presence.  It is a radical vision of hope.    

Messianic Peace

Such a radical vision of peace cannot be attained on our own efforts, though.  Isaiah 11 puts the fulfillment of this vision in the right place.  Conflict doesn’t go away when humans just get it right, or when we figure out on our own how to get along.  Peace comes through the work of Jesse’s descendant, a man through whom God’s power is distinctly at work!  The Messiah establishes justice, and establishes shalom through the work of the Spirit of the Lord in him.

As disciples of Jesus, we have to think about what it means to think of our Lord as the one who establishes such peace.  Disciples of such a “prince of peace” might well be challenged to live lives that mirror this call.  What does it mean for us to live at peace with ourselves, our friends and families, and our neighbors here in Little Rock and around the world?

Ultimate Peace

We might well wonder why, if this passage is about the messiah, why we who live after Jesus don’t experience this peace already.  To be sure, that is both a personal question and  a theological one.  In other words, there may be personal reasons why I don’t experience peace, but another set of reasons why the world as a whole hasn’t achieved this vision.

It is helpful at this point to turn to Isaiah 65, where very similar language shows up.  In this passage, though, it isn’t placed in a necessarily messianic context, but one of ultimate divine recreation.  We might well question if Isaiah intended those to be different, but from our perspective it makes sense that while a measure of peace came with the advent of Jesus the Messiah, there is a sense of ultimate and final peace yet to come.  In other words, while Jesus has already created the possibility for peace, (a possibility that to some extent is already being realized in the world), that possibility awaits a time when it will become the ultimate reality of history.  The world still waits to be recreated, and we wait with it.  If we believe that, then the question isn’t just “Why hasn’t this become reality?”, but “What should we be doing until it becomes reality?”.

Teaching the Passage

Idea: normally, the discussion format works by the teacher asking questions, and the group providing their thoughts as answers.  What if this lesson worked the other way, with the teacher presenting the material, and then saying, “What questions arise when we read this text?”  Just a thought, try it if you wish.  Below are more conventional discussion questions that may be useful in teaching these texts.

Discussion Questions

Warm-up:  Name some classic enemies (Batman and Joker, etc.)


In reading Isaiah 11:1-9, which of these pairs stands out to you as being a particularly striking image?  Which pair seems most unlikely?


In what areas of your life do you experience the most conflict?


Where does conflict come from?  Is it all evil?


What kinds of feelings does the Isaiah passages evoke?  What would it mean for you, right now, to enter into a life without conflict?  What price would you pay for that?


In what way does Jesus offer us peace?  In what way does his influence over the world bring more peace?  Does it fail to do so?


In what ways might you, as a disciple of Jesus, understand yourself as an agent of peace?  What is our responsibility to become peacemakers?


What are some misunderstandings about peace in the world?


Do you see around you a longing for peace, in the shalom sense?


How does the conflict that we see around us reflect the broken nature of the world?  What is your expectation of that being redeemed, eventually?