Bible Reading for Christmas (Isaiah 11:1-9)

If you want to get a book to read on Christmas and you have been all too familiar with the gospel narratives in the New Testament, you need not go Christmas shopping again (although it is a curiosity how many people visit the book store during Christmas). All you have to do is turn back the pages of your Bible to the book of Isaiah. The book is full of Jesus Christ although it was written 6-8 centuries before the birth of Christ. I have a number of passages that I really, really love but here's the passage from chapter 11 which  is my Bible Reading for this Christmas.

Isaiah 11: 1-9 

The Branch From Jesse

 ¹ A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
   from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
   the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
   the Spirit of counsel and of might,
   the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—
³ and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

   He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
   or decide by what he hears with his ears;
⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
   with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
   with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness will be his belt
   and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

This is what Heaven will look like

 ⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
   the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
   and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
   their young will lie down together,
   and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
   and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
   on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD
   as the waters cover the sea.