Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isaiah 9:14 stands within Isaiah 9:1-18 as part of a prophecy of judgment on Israel. That larger prophecy holds conditional promises of national restoration and blessing if Israel believed and obeyed the gospel. On that condition the kingdom would be restored to Israel. Gentile nations and their kings would then come under heaven's government. The prophecy describes future events in the present tense. It speaks of the Messiah's birth as already accomplished even though it still lay centuries ahead, showing that prophetic wording can present what is still future as if already done.
The image of head and tail teaches that religious authority must not be reversed. The tail must not be made the head, nor the head treated as the tail. God, and not the people or human founders, is the source of authority in religion.
Isaiah 9:14 stands within Isaiah 9:1-18 as part of a prophecy of judgment on Israel. That larger prophecy holds conditional promises of national restoration and blessing if Israel believed and obeyed the gospel. On that condition the kingdom would be restored to Israel. Gentile nations and their kings would then come under heaven's government. The prophecy describes future events in the present tense. It speaks of the Messiah's birth as already accomplished even though it still lay centuries ahead, showing that prophetic wording can present what is still future as if already done.
The image of head and tail teaches that religious authority must not be reversed. The tail must not be made the head, nor the head treated as the tail. God, and not the people or human founders, is the source of authority in religion.