“In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.”
~ Isaiah 11:10
Hi James and Ellen,
Where has been the most idyllic, blissful place that you have ever been? During the twenty years that your grandmaa and grandpaa were missionaries in Bolivia and Guatemala, your grandmaa and grandpaa were in a number of peaceful, tranquil settings where it seemed like the world had come to a complete stop. Whenever your grandpaa went to don Enrique Klava’s plot of land – which your grandpaa named Bonanza after the TV show that was called Bonanza, that is located on the east slope of a towering butte that overlooks the railroad town of Chochís, your grandpaa felt like he was in a paradise. Don Enrique’s small farm or campo had on it a two story house that had been built using bricks made from mud. A profusion of plants and flowers around don Enrique’s mudbrick house gave off a peaceful, contented ambience. The sounds of clucking hens and chirping birds, the sights of blooming fruit trees and flitting butterflies and the smells of a nearby corral – which always had some cows and calves along with don Enrique’s horse or burro in it, and food being fixed over an open fire in a soot covered cooking area added to the serenity of don Enrique’s small Bolivian campo. Your grandmaa and grandpaa would take each summer team that they had the responsibility for – that had been sent to Bolivia through South America Mission, to don Enrique’s campo. Your grandpaa called the arduous, sometimes mucky trek to don Enrique’s campo the ‘tres kilómetros más’ or ‘three kilometers more’ walk after your grandpaa on an early hike to don Enrique’s campo asked him a couple of times how much further that it was to reach his place with don Enrique answering your grandpaa each time with ‘tres kilómetros más’. Another place that your grandmaa and grandpaa always liked to take short term ministry teams or the summer teams that OC International sent to Guatemala – which your grandmaa and grandpaa had the responsibility of leading, to the Rio Dulce area in Guatemala. The Rio Dulce (Sweet River) is a river that flows into the Honduras Bay. Your grandmaa and grandpaa would invariably see a plethora of pelicans, egrets, cormorants, herons, seagulls, etc., while wending up the Rio Dulce in a fiberglass boat. Your grandmaa and grandpaa a couple of times saw dolphins in the Rio Dulce. Fisherman in small cayucos – which are small wooden, hollowed out canoes, could always be seen throwing round, weighted nets to net fish or jigging with baited hooks from their cayucos. The Rio Dulce has a number of very interesting, unique places including a manatee reserve, a hot sulfur spring and a good size area of lily pads where guys, gals and kids could stop for a few minutes or longer to enjoy or admire.
If you have the chance to create the most perfect place where there will be total harmony between you and every other guy, gal and kid and with everything else that is on planet Earth, what would that place look like? Isaiah scribes in Isaiah 11 foreseeing that kind of place here on planet Earth. Your grandpaa believes that this is an actual futuristic period that will begin the moment that Jesus – as God the Son, returns a second time to planet Earth. The time period after Jesus – as God the Son, returns to planet Earth for the second time is referred to by some as the Messianic period. There is a belief that is believed by guys and gals who are called ‘millennials’ that right after Jesus – as God the Son, returns again for a second time to planet Earth that planet Earth is going to experience a thousand year period of peace where wolves, lambs, leopards, goats, calves, lions, cows and bears will coexist side by side together, little kids will intermingle and lead wild animals and babies will not get bit while they play near a cobra or when they put their hand in a viper’s nest. It will be a time when planet Earth will be totally covered with the knowledge of the irrefutable truths of God – as God the Father. Verse 10 says, “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.” Jesus is the Root of Jesse. Jesse was David’s dad. Jesus’ lineage leads all the way back to Jesse. That day when Jesus returns again to planet Earth will be a time when God will bring back to the land that He had gifted to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . the exiled remnant who are still living who had been displaced into the land areas that make up today’s Middle East. It will also be a time when Ephraim – or God’s specially chosen guys and gals whose roots are from the area that was lived in by the northern Israelite people group tribal clans of guys, gals and kids, will no longer be jealous of Judah – who are the two tribal clans of guys, gals and kids who lived in the south part of the land area that God had gifted to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . it will be a time when God’s specially chosen guys and gals from the two tribal clans that made up Judah’s land area will no longer be hostile towards the tribal clans that made up Israel’s land area – especially God’s specially chosen guys and gals who made up the Ephraim tribal clan’s guys and gals. It will be a time when the nemeses of God’s specially chosen guys and gals – such as the Philistine people group guys and gals and the Edomite, Moabite and Amorite nations of guys and gals, will be completely annihilated. It will be a time when God will totally dry up the gulf of the Egyptian Sea and cause the Euphrates River to become seven fordable streams. It will be a time when all highways will lead to the city of Jerusalem.
What do you think that God wants you to understand from these prophetic words that He – as God the Spirit, breathed on Isaiah to scribe? Your grandpaa wishes that he could reconcile for you everything that is scribed in the Bible – like when planet Earth will be an idyllic, safe place when every guy, gal and kid lives peacefully together.
Isaiah 11 (708)