The Perfect Nature of Christ’s Glorious Kingdom

Yet all of this wisdom and power does not in any way challenge the overarching authority of almighty God, as human kings usually do in their arrogance. Rather, King Jesus will “delight . . . in the fear of the Lord” (v. 3). That means that the exaltation of Christ is actually an exaltation of God himself.

Isaiah 11:3-5

Jesus judges perfectly, not relying on his five senses but reading people’s hearts by the standard of absolute truth. Therefore his judgment will always be perfectly righteous because he seeks to please the Father (John 5:30). Because Jesus delights in the fear of the Lord, he has wrapped righteousness and faithfulness as a sash around his waist (v. 5); and by this wisdom and power he will judge the poor righteously and slay the wicked powerfully—with merely the command from his lips. Thus, in Christ’s kingdom righteousness will be perfect and crime will be gone forever. Scripture teaches that Jesus will be the Judge of the whole earth, and every human being who has ever lived will stand before him to be judged (Matt 25:31-32; John 5:22; 2 Cor 5:10). At that judgment, Christ will weed out of his kingdom all those guilty of lawlessness and will destroy them eternally in hell (Matt 13:41). Those saved by his grace will shine in perfect righteousness forever.

Isaiah 11:6-9

Human governments and societies cannot be characterized by perfect peace because of the seething wickedness of the natural heart (Isa 57:20-21). Because of the righteousness and power of Christ’s judgments, there will only be perfect peace forever in his kingdom. Verses 6-9 capture that peace in powerful imagery. These well-known verses are favorites for those who teach a literal millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ physically on earth. The doctrine of the millennium comes from Revelation 20:1-7; it is distinct from the eternal state (the new heaven and new earth) in that there is still natural life, including births, sin, and death.^[6] This passage speaks of infants playing beside the cobra’s pit and not being harmed (v. 8). So also animals that would naturally have been enemies (wolves and lambs, leopards and goats, calves and lions) will live in complete harmony with each other, the predator no longer consuming the prey. However, all of these things could still be true in the eternal state as well—all except the existence of infants. So whether these verses refer to the millennium or the eternal state, they will most certainly be literally fulfilled in Christ’s future kingdom—a kingdom of almost indescribable tranquility. The consummation of that kingdom is captured powerfully in verse 9: “The land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water.” No longer studying how to kill one another or feed their own lusts, redeemed sinners will study the Lord’s glory in all aspects of a magnificent creation.

Isaiah 11:10-16

Verse 10 stands as a pinnacle for the glorious spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth: this humble King, the Root of Jesse, will stand prominently before the eyes of all the nations on the face of the earth; and his resting place will be glorious. As we’ve seen in Isaiah 2, people from all over the earth will stream to that banner, loving and worshiping Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all their aspirations for a perfect king and a perfect society. The land he rules will radiate with his glory, and all creation will glow with astonishing beauty. Christ will reach out his sovereign hand to gather the scattered children of God and make them one (John 11:52). In Isaiah 11:11-16 their nations of origin are listed as “Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west.” These localities symbolize the geographical extent of the spread of the gospel, beginning in Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8). The streaming of “his people” will be like the original exodus of Israel from Egypt (vv. 15-16), only this time it will include Jews and Gentiles alike.

We must learn not to judge God’s work by mere external appearance. The Jews and the lineage of Jesse seemed to be completely cut off, but God ordained an infinite glory to arise from the stump of Jesse. So also Christ’s kingdom, so silently and imperceptibly advancing among the meek and lowly of the earth, cannot be assessed by the five senses. We who have embraced Christ and entered his kingdom should be fully dedicated to advancing the gospel by proclamation, not looking for utopian societies to come by flawed human governments. Every presidential campaign carries the usual promises, and most of them fail in the end. Christ’s promised kingdom is far more glorious and can never fail.