Message Three

The Age of Restoration
and
Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah
and the Fruit of the Earth

Scripture Reading: Isa. 4:2-6; 2:2-5

1. In that day in Isaiah 4:2 refers to the coming restoration of the nation of Israel—Matt. 17:11; 19:28; Acts 1:6; 3:21; 15:16:
   1. Basically, between eternity past and eternity future, there are three ages—the age of the old creation, the age of the new creation, and the age of restoration:
      1. From God’s creation of the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1 to the beginning of the age of grace is the age of the old creation.
      2. The age of grace is the age of the new creation; the work of God in the age of grace is to produce the new creation—John 1:16-17; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.
      3. The coming age will be the age of restoration—Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21:
         1. In the coming age God will neither create nor produce the new creation; rather, He will do the work of restoring the old, fallen creation—Rom. 8:20-22.
         2. A restoration will be brought to all things; in this restoration death will be limited, and there will be abundant life and much praise and rejoicing—Isa. 65:18-25.
         3. After the age of restoration, the entire universe will be changed from the old to the new; then there will be the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem—v. 17; 66:22; Rev. 21:1-2.
      4. Isaiah prophesied concerning the age of restoration (Isa. 2:2-5; 11:1-10; 61:4-9); chapter 35 is a marvelous picture of restoration.
   2. God’s judgment on the haughty nations ushers in the God-man, Christ (4:2, 5-6), issuing in the restoration of the nation of Israel (vv. 3-6; 2:2-5), which brings in the kingdom and consummates in the new heaven and new earth (65:17).
2. The all-inclusive Christ is the center and the circumference, the centrality and the universality, of God’s eternal economy—Col. 1:15-18:
   1. As the embodiment of the Triune God, Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe—2:16-17.
   2. God’s intention in His economy is that Christ be everything; therefore, it is crucial for us to see that God wants nothing but Christ and that in the eyes of God nothing counts except Christ—vv. 16-17; 3:4, 10-11.
   3. Because Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s move, the book of Isaiah reveals many aspects of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy—6:1-8; 22:22; 53:5, 10b-12; 54:5; 55:4-5.
3. In 4:2 there is a pair of aspects of Christ—the Shoot of Jehovah and the Fruit of the earth; the Shoot is in comparison to the Fruit, and Jehovah is in comparison to the earth:
   1. God is eternal, and man came from the earth; the Fruit of the earth refers to a man made from dust—Gen. 2:7.
   2. Christ as God came from eternity, but as man He came from the earth, so He is the Shoot of Jehovah and also the Fruit of the earth.
4. The Shoot of Jehovah refers to Christ’s deity, showing His divine nature—Isa. 4:2a; John 1:1; 20:28; Rom. 9:5:
   1. The Shoot of Jehovah typifies not only Christ’s divinity but also the sprouting and development of Christ’s divinity through the incarnation of God—John 1:1, 14; Heb. 1:1-3; 2:14.
   2. The Shoot of Jehovah is a new development of Jehovah God for the Triune God to branch Himself out for His increase and spreading through His incarnation—Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:22-23.
   3. In His incarnation Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah branched Himself out in His divinity from the territory of divinity into the territory of humanity—John 1:1, 14.
   4. In His incarnation Christ came from eternity into time; from ancient times, from the days of eternity, the Triune God was preparing to come forth out of eternity into time, to come with His divinity into humanity—Micah 5:2.
   5. The sprouting and development of God in Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah are for the expression of all the riches of divinity in Christ’s humanity, that is, for the rich attributes of divinity to be developed into the virtues of Christ, the God-man, in His humanity—Eph. 3:8.
   6. The incarnated God, in His divinity, will be the beauty and glory of God’s chosen people in the day of restoration—Isa. 4:2a:
      1. Our God with His divine nature is our beauty and our glory—60:1, 9, 13.
      2. Because Christ lives in us, we are partakers of the divine nature; in this sense, we are not only human but also divine, and the divine nature is our beauty and our glory—Gal. 2:20; 2 Pet. 1:4.
5. The Fruit of the earth refers to Christ’s humanity with His human nature—Isa. 4:2b; Luke 1:42:
   1. As the Fruit of the earth, Christ was born a man of human blood and flesh from the earth; the earth was the source of Christ’s humanity, just as eternity was the source of His divinity—Heb. 2:14.
   2. Christ as the Fruit of the earth is for the multiplication and reproduction of the divine life in humanity—John 12:24:
      1. God in Himself, in His divinity, has no way to be multiplied.
      2. For His multiplication and reproduction, He needs humanity; humanity is the soil, the earth, for the Triune God to be multiplied and reproduced—20:17; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10.
   3. As the Fruit of the earth, Christ, in His humanity, which expresses His divine beauty and glory, will be the excellence and splendor of God’s chosen people in the day of restoration—Isa. 4:2b:
      1. Even today in the age of grace, we should live a life that expresses Christ’s beauty and glory in a divine way and that expresses Christ’s excellence and splendor in a human way—1 Cor. 10:31; Phil. 1:11, 20.
      2. A proper Christian is both divine and human, having the divine beauty and glory of Jesus and the human excellence and splendor of Jesus—vv. 8-9; 1 Pet. 2:12.
6. In Isaiah 4:5-6 there is a second pair of aspects of Christ—a covering canopy of glory and an overshadowing tabernacle of grace:
   1. The second pair is the issue of the first pair and is produced by the first pair:
      1. Because Christ is the Shoot for God’s new development and the Fruit for God’s reproduction, He has the divine beauty and glory with the human excellence and splendor; therefore, He can be a canopy covering us and a tabernacle overshadowing us—vv. 2, 5-6.
      2. Our Jesus is the God-man, the One who is both divine and human; as the God-man in His divinity and humanity, He, the Shoot of Jehovah and the Fruit of the earth, is a covering canopy of the divine glory and an overshadowing tabernacle of grace in humanity.
   2. The God-man, Christ, is a canopy, which is the covering glory of Christ in His divinity that covers all the interests of Jehovah God on earth—v. 5.
   3. The overshadowing tabernacle is the God-man, Christ, in His humanity with His grace, as illustrated in 2 Corinthians 12:9; this is Christ as our overshadowing protection and defense—Isa. 4:6; John 1:14.