A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. – Isaiah 11:1

Today's Scripture Reading (February 10, 2020): Isaiah 11

It is a sad thing to drive through the mountains and notice that there are places where it seems that only the dead remain. Usually, the cause of death is fire, but death also comes because of disease. However, it doesn't take long after a disaster for the cycle of life to begin again. Green starts to appear between the old, dead trees. Sometimes, a dead tree weakens and falls over, becoming a nursery for small growth. If the woods are given enough time, the forest will recover. It is the way that the forest has been designed to replicate. Fire is an essential tool for recreating the forest, destroying the old to allow the new to begin to grow.

Isaiah continues to tell his story. He prophesies of a massive fire that has swept through the forest, leaving nothing in its wake but dead trees. Some of those trees have weakened and fallen, leaving only ugly, broken stumps pointing at the sky. But then, on one stump thought to be long dead, green appears. A shoot starts to grow out of the dead stump, a shoot that, one day, will be a tree, and will, someday, bear fruit.

Isaiah calls the stump Jesse. He could have called it David, but he opted to name the stump after David's father. All of the kings of Judah had come from the line of David, which was probably the point. The Davidic line was a royal line, a line of kings. The lineage of Jesse was not. Jesse was just a rancher from Bethlehem, whose son would one day become king. By calling the stump 'Jesse' rather than 'David,' Isaiah is returning to everyday reality. Generations later, another Isaiah would revisit the prophet's words and speak of a "Suffering Servant."

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him (Isaiah 53:2).

The words of this Isaiah do not match those of the Stump of David. There was beauty found in that stump. The Messiah was expected from the Stump of David. He would come and, with his power and authority, restore Israel to its proper place among the nations. But the stump of Jesse? What kind of fruit might a shoot from that stump produce?

The answer lies in the life of Jesus. Jesus was of the Davidic line, but Isaiah describes him correctly as coming from the stump of Jesse. He was not what was expected of a Messiah. Jesus was a king, and yet he wasn't. Jesus was a priest. He came as a simple shepherd, and not as a glorious general. He came to save his people, not to destroy his enemies. Jesus was different from what was expected, and that was exactly what we needed. Because out of the stump of Jesse grew a life that could envelope us all, and not just the select few.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 1

Originally Published on February 10, 2020