TLP 273: The Isaiah 11 Father | and mother, Part 2

In what types of things does a Biblical Parent delight? How do they make decisions? And what do they wear? Join AMBrewster as he finishes the Isaiah 11 Christian parent series.

The First Step to Being a Good Parent
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Listen to the following episodes on Apple Podcasts by clicking the titles.
“Parenting in Christ” series (starts in episode 241)
“The Merest Christianity” series (stars in episode 95)
“The Four Family Loves” series (starts in episode 128)

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Episode Notes

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Transcript

Introduction

Last time we discussed the first two of five attributes of an Isaiah 11 Father and Mother, and today we’re going to talk about the rest.

But first, let me share my heart. 

There are a number of you who regularly listen and subscribe to this podcast. Will you please rate and review the show? I know it can be an inconvenience, and often we think there are plenty of other people doing it, or we’re just not really that sure what we’d say. 

I know that I’ve used Bible apps that I absolutely love, but when prompted by the app to rate, I click “remind me later,” and I never get around to it month after month. 

But, as the host of a podcast, I see how extremely valuable and precious they are.

So, from me to you, if all you can muster up is clicking on a star, that would be great! And if you want to drop a few lines on a review on iTunes, I would be humbled by your time and attention.

I do this because I love God and want to be the brightest lamp I can be, but I also love you and your families. We work hard to create content that will lift your spirits, challenge your parenting, and unveil Truth that may just revolutionize the way your family relates to God.

If we’ve been any kind of blessing to you, will you please leave a rating and review?

And if you’re really serious about being a blessing to us like Scott, Mindee, Lisa, and Taylor are, you can click on the “5 Ways to Support TLP" link in the description of this episode to learn how to partner with us.

Mindee, Taylor, Scott, and Lisa have each given to the ministry from their physical and spiritual resources. They have been used by God to help us shine brighter and brighter in this dark world.

And, let me tell you, when it comes to the family, it is a dark, dark world.

My family and I just returned from a two week vacation, and during that time we interacted with many, many families. And I’ve seen first-hand the blindness and selfishness and Failure Philosophies that Satan and our sinful flesh are using to obliterate God’s Truth from our hearts.

Truth.Love.Parent. wants to counter that destructive landslide and stand by the power of God against the onslaught. And we’d love to help you stand with us.

Alright, let’s review the foundation of an Isaiah 11 Father and then see how it can be practically lived out in our families.

Topic

Ephesians 5:23-24 compares the husband to Christ. And the inference is that if we are going to lead our families with the same success that Christ leads the church, we must be like Christ.

So, as we turned to Isaiah 11, we got a nutshell glimpse of who our Servant King is and how He functions in this world.

And last time we learned that in order to be an Isaiah 11 Parent, we must be two things:

1. We must live in Christ. We must be rooted in Him. We must “Parent in Christ.”

This starts with us choosing to believe God’s promises, namely His promise to make us His children as we follow His will. It’s not a call to work your way to salvation, it’s a call to believe that as you follow Him, He will keep His promises. It’s through the faith that you put in His grace that you are saved, but your lifestyle will reveal where your faith really is.

If you parent for self, your faith is in your own intelligence and power. If you parent according to the world’s Failure Philosophies, your faith is in the world. But if you submit your parenting to God’s revealed will, you show that your faith and trust has been placed solely on Him despite how you may feel or what the world may say.

Are you rooted in Christ? Do you have life in Christ?

If you’re unsure, we have a link below called “The First Step to Being a Good Parent" which will take you to TruthLoveParent.com so you can learn to believe God’s promises.

Once you’ve done that, you now have a new relationship with God, and one of the things He promises His children is that He will give them the power they need to live the way He’s commanded. And it’s the Third Person of the Trinity that fulfills that promise. The Holy Spirit indwells believers and helps them to understand spiritual Truth they couldn’t have otherwise understood and practically live out that Truth with power directly from God.

So, 2. The Isaiah 11 Parent Walks in the Spirit.

And I love how Isaiah 11 describes the Holy Spirit: “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.”

This means that the fear of the Lord, spiritual knowledge and understanding, and a life of wisdom should characterize our parenting. It also means that we should have the ability to counsel our kids and the strength to do all of this well.

Now, last time we didn’t discuss how to practically grow in this area.

I think the reason I didn’t talk about it then was that it seemed so incredibly intuitive. If I attend MIT, then it’s correct to assume that I’m not studying clowning, but that I’m majoring in Architecture, Engineering, Humanities, Management, or Science. If I tell you that I’m getting a degree in biomolecular engineering, then it’s right for you to assume what?

What do you think makes up the content of the vast majority of my conversations and reading and consumes most of my time?

Yeah, you’re going to assume that I’m reading and studying and practicing and talking about my field.

So, if you want to be a Proverbs 31 Mother or Isaiah 11 Father, then you will be a person who fears the Lord, and that fear will drive you to learn more about Him, spend more time with Him, talk about Him, and live out His Truth in your every day life.

We need to spend far more time in Bible reading, prayer, assembling with other believers, talking about His Truth, listening to podcasts about Him, reading books about Him, hanging out with community that loves Him as much as we do, and enjoying Him as a family.

There’s no other way. I’m not going to learn to be a biomolecular engineer if I enroll in a clown college. And we’re not going to be Isaiah 11 Parents if we don’t immerse ourselves in God via His Word.

So, in the same way that an engineering student is going to not only study engineering but also put his learning to work in every day life, the parent who fears the Lord is going to live a certain way. So, let’s turn our gaze back to Isaiah 11 to see what this looks like from the life of Christ.

By the way, don’t forget that we have free episode notes and transcripts at Taking Back the Family.

Isaiah 11:1-5, “1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 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. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”

3. The Isaiah 11 Parent Delights in the Lord.

In what do you delight?

Do you just go to church because it’s good for the kids? Do you only discuss Bible because you’re “supposed to?” What is your favorite music? What kind of entertainment fills your time? What are your favorite Google searches?

What do you desire? In what do you delight?

Verse three says that the Servant Messiah, Jesus Christ, would delight in the fear of the Lord.

This takes our last point and bumps it to the next level. Do we need to pray more and read the Bible more and assemble with believers more? Yes. But should it merely be a drudgery like a child who knows they need to clean their room?

This is so important, because I believe this is the difference between a nominal Christian and genuine Christian. No, the genuine Christian won’t do this perfectly all the time, but the genuine Christian is not just going to do right, he’s going to delight in doing right just like Jesus would.

So, the question is, how do we delight in something?

Well, that question is answered in our Merest Christianity series. If you’ve never heard it, I strongly encourage you to do so. That series details why we do what we do, including why we feel what we feel and why we desire what we desire.

But let me quickly illustrate it this way: I grew up as a pretty picky eater. It didn’t help that I’m also the kind of person who has never really cared for adventures in eating. If there’s something I like, there’s absolutely no reason for me to try something else that I may not like.

But, praise be to God that I’ve been growing up. Yes, I’ve actually been maturing. Here’s the most recent example of that.

I’ve never liked avocado or anything in which avocado is an ingredient — like guacamole. But one of the huge jumps in my dietary exploration involved learning to like sushi when I was in my early 20’s. But I still would avoid sushi that had avocado in it. But, for the past few years, I would tolerate more and more avocado in my sushi, but that was it. 

Well, recently I’ve been eating an alkalizing Keto Diet, and while I was on vacation, just two weeks ago, I decided to eat a huge slice of avocado on my eggs. 

Why would I do that? What’s wrong with me? What would — for the first time in nearly 40 years — would I personally desire to eat something that I only ever barely tolerated? And — what’s even stranger — why would I like it enough to start adding avocado to other meals?!

One reason and one reason only.

I was reading a bunch of articles about alkalizing Keto Diets and the benefits of avocado kept coming up. Over and over I was learning truth about how valuable avocado would be to my life. And what happened? 

It’s simple . . . I chose to believe what everyone was saying.

That’s it. After 39 years of my mom and friends and wife and son telling my I should eat avocado, I finally chose to believe they were right.

This happens to parents all the time. You do your best to convince your kids of something, but they don’t believe you. And then finally, they go to camp or hear a preacher or work with a counselor or talk to a friend and they finally choose to believe what they had refused to believe up until that point.

That’s it. I chose to believe that I needed to eat and enjoy more avocado in my life.

If you want to delight in the fear of the Lord the way Jesus did, you need to believe you need to do it. And — remember — belief is like wisdom. It’s not a mental activity, it’s a decision to live as if something is true. 

You need to delight in the fear of the Lord. You need to choose to delight in the Word of God. You need to decide to delight in parenting like Christ.

It won’t be perfect in this life, but when you apply yourself, it will grow and develop.

And that’s how we can move to our fourth point.

4. The Isaiah 11 Parent Judges in Righteousness.

Let’s read the rest of verse 3 and verse 4: “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Now, we are not called to judge the world as the final arbiter and executioner. No, we’re talking about judging that makes a decision, makes a judgement about something. 

Isn’t that a huge part of parenting?

We have to judge what’s best for our kids in their spiritual and physical health and education and friends and clothes and everything else.

We should be constantly judging our children’s influencers and activities and likes and habits and words and spirit in order to decide whether there is something more Christ-honoring they should be or do or by which they should be surrounded.

Now, the key is this. We need to judge what is the most righteous. How can we know that? Well, again, it goes back to the Scriptures. What does God say is most righteous? And when He doesn’t say specifically, what principles does He give us in order to develop a philosophy about the activity or influence in our family.

But notice too how this righteous judgement is practically lived out.

Jesus didn’t judge by what His eyes saw or His ears heard. I try to tell my kids this all the time. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing or saying. It doesn’t matter how the world thinks. We need to live like Jesus. We need to go back to what is righteous. We need to determine what will glorify God the most. 

We also need to consider what is most equitable. Jesus “decide[s] with equity for the meek of the earth.” Now, that might sound like what is “fair.” And we need to be careful with that we don’t superimpose cultural understandings onto biblical words. We need to understand as God meant it.

This Hebrew word translated “equity” refers to something being straight or flat or just or even or upright. It carries the idea of something simply being the best for the person or activity.

For example, it would be best to have a foot race on a level piece of ground. Therefore, an equitable race won’t have one person racing uphill while everyone else is going down. 

There’s another way we could understand this. If I’m being equitable, if I’m making choices that are best for people, then aren’t I loving them? If I’m doing what’s in God’s best interest for their lives, then I’m loving them.

You and your family should definitely take some time to work through “The Four Family Loves” series that starts in episode 128. This whole concept is the practical outworking of the two greatest commandments.

Judging in righteousness is love for God, and judging in equity is love for others.

So, we see that Jesus doesn’t make decisions based off how things look or sound or feel. He goes back to Truth. We need to make our decisions based off God’s revealed Truth.

And then He makes decisions for people that are grounded in righteousness and love. But He also does some very hard things too. “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.”

Now, the application to our being an Isaiah 11 Parent will not include killing people or damning them to Hell. That’s God’s job, but there is very important application here.

An Isaiah 11 Parent is going to utilize Christ-honoring consequences in their parenting.

In order to be a Christ-like, Isaiah 11 Parent, we must be prepared to give our children biblical consequences for their choices.

Now, that’s a huge discussion for which we do not have the time, but this is a good opportunity to remind you that we have a section of our website designed to categorize our podcast episodes by topic. Now, I’ll admit that categorization process has not been as detailed as it should be, and more work needs to be done on it, but we do have a category created for consequences. I’ll include that link in the description if you’d like to learn more about what Christ-honoring discipline looks like.

I do want to say that the Discipline category includes far more than just consequences. Discipline is the whole way of life for the Disciple-Making Parent. So, if you’re looking specifically for consequences, you should look under the Interpreting subtopic. Consequences are administered during the Interpretation Stage of parenting.

Alright, let’s finish up with our fifth point.

5. The Isaiah 11 Parent Dresses Maturely.

Isaiah 11:5, “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”

Why do you think this passage ends with a metaphoric image of Jesus’ clothes?

Well, I think this is important because when you see someone at a distance, what are some of the only things you can use to form a judgement about them? Their walk? Maybe their hair color? But I think most of us start formulating opinions about people based off how they dress. 

Now, I’m not arguing for sinful ways of judging people by their clothes. James 2 tells us that “If a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing . . . have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

I’m not really talking about how we are to judge people’s attire, I’m just saying that people do it, and the Bible speaks to that all of the time.

And, I believe, this is why the Bible often describes Jesus by painting a picture of His clothes. Consider Revelation 19:11-16, “11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Why the description of His clothes? Will He actually be wearing clothes that look like that? It’s possible. But I think there’s more to this. 

And we also see this in Ephesians 6 where we’re told to wear the whole Armor of God. What’s the point?

The point is that clothes are out there. Everyone sees them. The person’s character is often hidden. It takes time to discover it. But, I believe this Isaiah 11 passage is summing up the character of Christ by telling us that His character will be so obvious that everyone will see it just as they see His clothes.

“Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”

Jesus will be known by righteousness and faithfulness.

What about you? When people see you parent your kids, do they see righteousness and faithfulness as easily as they see your jeans?

When you teach and interpret and counsel and train your kids, is it characterized by faithfulness to God’s righteousness?

“Aaron, how can I grow in this?”

The same way we grow in anything else. We start at the beginning and move on to the middle.

We must be rooted in Christ, filled with the Spirit, dedicated to God’s knowledge, understanding, wisdom, counsel, and might. This will result in judgement based solely off righteousness — love for God — and equity — love for others. And a life lived this way will be characterized by righteousness and faithfulness. 

Conclusion

Do you want to be a more Christ-like parent? Do you want to be a more Biblical Parent? Do you want to be an Isaiah 11 Parent? 

Well, let’s listen and learn . . .

Isaiah 11:1-5, “1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 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. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”

In the immortal words of Jesus Christ from Luke 10:37, “You go and do likewise.”

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We’re starting Season 11 next time with a discussion about “Why Your Family Has Ups and Downs.”

And we have so many other awesome shows planned for Season 11, but I’m going to tell you about them next time. So, don’t miss it.

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And please, please, please leave a rating and review! That would be so amazing!

We look forward to ministering to you and your family in Season 11, so don’t hesitate to communicate with us. We’d love to know what’s on your heart and what topics you’d like to hear discussed.

God’s Word has everything we need for life and godliness, and we can’t wait to apply it to our parenting.

So, to that end, I’ll see you next time.