1 Dec. Isaiah promises a new king from the family of King David
“The army of Assyria will enter [Israel] near Aiath. Its soldiers will walk through Migron. They will store their food in Michmash. The army will go over the pass… They will shake their fist at Mount Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.”
“Watch! The Lord GOD All-powerful with his great power will chop them down like a great tree. Those who are great will be cut down; those who are important will fall to the ground. He will cut them down as a forest is cut down with an axe. And the great trees of Lebanon will fall by the power of the mighty one.”
“A new branch will grow from a stump of a tree; so a new king will come from the family of Jesse. The Spirit of the LORD will rest upon that king. The Spirit will give him wisdom and understanding, guidance and power. The Spirit will teach him to know and respect the LORD.”
“This king will be glad to obey the LORD. He will not judge by the way things look or decide by what he hears. But he will judge the poor honestly; he will be fair in his decisions for the poor people of the land.”
“At his command evil people will be punished, and by his words the wicked will be put to death. Goodness and fairness will give him strength, like a belt round his waist.”
“Then wolves will live in peace with lambs, and leopards will lie down to rest with goats. Calves, lions and young bulls will eat together, and a little child will lead them. Cows and bears will eat together in peace. Their young will lie down to rest together.”
“Lions will eat hay as oxen do. A baby will be able to play near a cobra’s hole, and a child will be able to put his hand into the nest of a poisonous snake. They will not hurt or destroy each other on all my holy mountain, because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water.”
“At that time the new king from the family of Jesse will stand as a banner for all peoples. The nations will come together around him, and the place where he lives will be filled with glory.”
(Isaiah 10:28-34,11:1-10)
In his prophesy, Isaiah, writing in 731BC, predicted the invasion of Israel by the forces of Assyria (which occurred in 722BC). He charted the progress of Assyria’s army from Aiath in the north of the country, across the Michmash pass to Geba and Ramah, before moving south to attack Jerusalem (see Isaiah 10:28-32).
Isaiah foresaw the death of the king and all the important men of Israel, cut down in their prime just like cedar trees in Lebanon were felled with an axe (see Isaiah 10:33-34).
Then he went on to prophesy that a new king would arise like a fresh shoot coming from the stump of a felled tree. This new shoot would spring from the ‘root of Jesse’ – who was the father of King David. So he would be a descendant of the mighty king who ruled over Israel when it was at the height of it power from c.1004BC to c.971BC (see Isaiah 11:1).
This new king would be filled with the Spirit of God, and would rule with wisdom and integrity, following the guidance of the LORD (see Isaiah 11:2).
The coming of this new king would usher in a new era of peace and harmony when even wild animals would become tame – when “calves, lions and young bulls will eat together, and a little child will lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)
In the New Testament, Matthew opened his gospel by tracing the family history of Jesus from Abraham, through Jesse and his son David (see Matthew 1:1-17). During Medieval times, the genealogy of Jesus began to be represented artistically by a ‘Jesse tree’, a depiction of Jesus’s ‘family tree’ starting with the ‘root of Jesse’ and moving up through 43 generations to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
The photo shows the Jesse Tree from the Spinola Hours by the Flemish ‘Master’ (court painter) of James IV of Scotland (1510-20).
You can read more from Isaiah’s prophesy about the return of the exiles from Assyria @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/39-isaiah-predicts-the-fall-of-israel-amp-judah/isaiah-foresees-the-return-of-the-exiles/