Advent Reader - 2nd December

2nd December 2019

Isaiah 11: 1-16

The Righteous Reign of the Branch

11 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.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
    and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
9 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.

10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

12 He will raise a signal for the nations
    and will assemble the banished of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
    from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
    and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
    and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,
    and together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab,
    and the Ammonites shall obey them.
15 And the Lord will utterly destroy
    the tongue of the Sea of Egypt,
and will wave his hand over the River
    with his scorching breath,
and strike it into seven channels,
    and he will lead people across in sandals.
16 And there will be a highway from Assyria
    for the remnant that remains of his people,
as there was for Israel
    when they came up from the land of Egypt.

There is Hope

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (verse 1).

Just a withered tree stump. Robbed of its trunk and top. Chopped down and useless. The stump looks dead. No hope. Nothing has become of it for so long. Abandoned. Seemingly never to grow again.
But, a small shoot sprouts from the root of this dry stump. Because of its unsightliness and misery, the branch isn’t named after David but after his father. It emphasises the humble nature of the Messiah. It is far humbler to say, “from Jesse” than to say, “from King David.”

If we are feeling like the dead stump, rejoice, for there is hope. We may feel chopped down. Everything of worth taken from us. Yet, in His time, a branch appears from the roots. And where there is a branch, no matter how weak or humble, there is the hope of future fruit. That future fruit depends on the Spirit of the Lord.

“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.” (verse 2)

Jesus lived and ministered as a man. A man filled with the Spirit of the Lord. The wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord Jesus displayed in His ministry didn’t flow from His “own” deity, but from His reliance on the Spirit of the Lord who filled Him. In the same way, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to nurture our tender branch and produce the life and fruit of God in us.

Pete and Sandra C