Isaiah 11:10-16

¹⁰ And this will happen on that day: Gentiles will seek the root of Jesse, who will be standing as a flag to a people, and his resting place[1] will be glorious. ¹¹ This will also happen on that day: The Lord will again reach out his hand a second time to get the remnant of his people that is left, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea, ¹² and he will raise a flag for the Gentiles. And he will gather the outcasts of Israel, and he will gather the scattered ones of Judah together from the four wings of the land. ¹³ And Ephraim’s jealousy will go away, and the enemies of Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not be an enemy of Ephraim. ¹⁴ But they will fly over the Philistine shoulder, toward the sea. Together they will plunder sons of the east. Edom and Moab will be reached by their hand, and the sons of Ammon their conquered people. ¹⁵ And Yahveh will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt and he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind; and he will strike it into seven streams, and he will enable someone to walk through it with the sandal. ¹⁶ So there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people that remains, just like there was for Israel in that day he went up from the land of Egypt.

next exodus

In this amazing passage, Isaiah predicts that the Messiah will stand as a flag to a people, and they will be drawn to that flag as they experience a second exodus. Just as God had struck the Red Sea to make a way for the Jews to escape Pharaoh, he will also make a way for this people to escape back to the promised land. They will be coming from both the south and the north, so God will strike both the tongue of the sea of Egypt (the gulf of the Red Sea) and the river (Euphrates). The resulting highway will make it possible for Israelites, no longer at enmity with one another, to return to the holy land. But this people who look to the Messiah as their flag also contains Gentiles, people from other nations.

So this passage not only predicts a physical restoration of Israel, it also speaks of a spiritual restoration which will include Gentiles. Both groups together will seek the root of Jesse as their leader.

LORD, we seek to follow the root of Jesse. Lead us to your promised inheritance, a blessing you have in store for all who seek you.

[1] The word for resting place is very similar to a word for sacrificial gift. There may be a word-play here.