The Prince of Peace Has Come

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.

We are waiting for a King to come to set us free and deliver us from ALL evil and suffering. This is the deliverance we have been waiting for our whole lives, victory over all darkness. However, this is not just an image of victory, but also one of beauty and comfort. Here, in this passage, is a vision of the end we are hoping for: a king who ushers in an eternal peace, where wolves lay with lambs and lions with calves. Imagine for a moment our future, no more death. No more dying. No more war. No more violence. No more argument. No more division. Only peace, because the Prince of Peace has come.