Bro. Brad's Blog: THE CHRISTMAS SERIES: ISAIAH’S FALLEN TREE

Isaiah 11:1-10 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 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 of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, And reprove 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 shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, And faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; Their young ones shall lie down together: And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. 10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, Which shall stand for an ensign of the people; To it shall the Gentiles seek:

Last week, we covered, in a three part series, our first tree: Adam’s Forbidden Tree - here, here, and here. This wee, we dive right into our next tree: Isaiah’s Fallen Tree, which deals with the prophecy of the coming of Jesus.

THE CONTEXT OF THE PROPHECY

In the first verse of Isaiah 11, the words, “stem … roots.” With the Babylonian captivity of 586 B.C., the Davidic dynasty appeared as decimated as the Assyrian army (mentioned in Isaiah 10:28-34) who came to attack. A major difference between the two was the life remaining in the stump and roots of the Davidic line. That life was to manifest itself in new growth in the form of the Rod and Branch. But while we always talk of the Davidic line to the Messiah, we see here the name “Jesse” spoken of. Why? Well, Jesse was David’s father through whose line the messianic king was to come (ref. Ruth 4:22; 1 Samual 16:1, 12, 13). ^{^[1]}

Another phrase found in that first verse I want to point out is, “grow out of his roots.” As we see from Isaiah 11:10, Jesus is the "root of Jesse.” All of this reminds us of this tremendous truth - sometimes God's greatest & most important work is like a plant's root - unseen but necessary for growth.

THE CHRIST OF THE PROPHECY

We see the name The Branch of the Lord. This is a title for the Messiah (see also Isaiah 4:2). The Messiah is also referred to as the “Righteous Branch” in Jeremiah 23:5. Jeremiah, in this chapter, denounced all the leaders (“pastors, shepherds”) of Judah for the ruthless way they treated the helpless people (vv. 1–4). Instead of leading the flock in love, they drove it mercilessly and exploited it. The shepherds didn’t visit (“care for”) the sheep, but God would visit the leaders with punishment. Because the leaders disobeyed the Law and refused to trust God, they destroyed the nation and scattered the flock among the Gentiles. God, however, promised to regather His people and transform the remnant into a nation. (The word “remnant” is used nineteen times in Jeremiah.) A remnant did return to Judah after the Captivity, rebuild the temple, and restore national life.^{^[2]}

And in a greater sense, this is prophetically filled by Jesus, especially in His Second Coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Righteous Judge.

Now, the question arises – how does this apply to our lives today?
I believe we get a greater understanding of Jesus’ teaching in John 15:1-17 by understanding Him as the Righteous Branch and the Root of Jesse. Here are three truths for us to ponder:

We bear no fruit if there is no root (vs. 4).
Love is the fruit (vs. 12-14).
And if there is no love, then there is no fruit, which means there is no root (vs. 16).