“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 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.” – Isaiah 11:1-2
INTRODUCTION
Advent is the season of reflective preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the expected return of Christ in the Second Coming. The season of Advent lasts four Sundays leading up to Christmas. Advent 2022 began on Sunday, November 27th, and ends on Saturday, December 24th.
Christmas rightly marks the occasion of the Messiah’s birth, but there is so much more to Jesus than the day He was born. We celebrate Jesus’ birth on Christmas, but no one really knows on which day Jesus was born, or even exactly what year. In 336 A.D., the Western Church, based in Rome, chose December 25 to celebrate as Christmas, meaning “Christ’s Mass.” The Eastern Church chose January 6. The day was named Epiphany, meaning “appearance.”
Eventually the period from December 25 to January 6 became known as the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’.
The above passage talks about stumps and shoots. In our villages and small towns we have several odum trees in households and when one of them starts endangering the houses, we cut them all the way down to a stump.
A few months later? New green shoots with glossy green leaves begin growing right out of that stump.
That’s the picture that the prophet Isaiah uses in the passage under reference. Isaiah gives a glorious picture of a future new world governed by the Branch, Jesus Christ. The Hebrew word translated “Branch” is netzer, which is likely the root word from which the name Nazareth is derived.
Jesus was called a Nazarene, which can mean either “a man of Nazareth” or “a man of the Branch”
THE PROMISED MESSIAH
Seven hundred years before Jesus was ever born, Isaiah prophesied that a Messiah would come from the root of Jesse. Jesse was the father of King David, an ancestor of both Mary and Joseph.
While nearly all of King David’s royal line would be wiped out, God promised a Messiah would come from the stump of Jesse.
Out of what looked like a dead royal line — when a pagan, Roman government rather than a Hebrew king ruled over Israel — God brought about that new shoot: the Messiah – Jesus.
At His first coming, Jesus, didn’t rule like King David with an earthly palace or majestic throne or royal robes conquering enemy nations through a mighty army. Instead, Jesus came in poverty and humility, to reveal a heavenly kingdom and to conquer the curse of sin through His own death.
The Messiah would be empowered mightily by the Holy Spirit in order to carry out God’s desires and purposes, especially to bring salvation to the nations.
In order to carry out His plan to save people spiritually, the Messiah also would baptize His followers in the power of His Holy Spirit. This is a necessary requirement in the ongoing work of bringing people into a personal relationship with God.
That is because only God can give people the ability to experience a personal relationship with Him, and only He can enable them to lead others effectively into that relationship as well.
The new birth and all of its effects, including faith and justification and purification and final conformity to Christ in heaven, would be impossible without the incarnation and life and death of Jesus — that is without His birth which we celebrate at Christmas.
ADVENT PRAYER:
O Father, we praise you that before the foundation of the world You chose Jesus, our Messiah, to come to earth and show us the Way to the heavenly kingdom and to be the Way to the heavenly kingdom. We thank you for making room for us who are redeemed in Your heavenly Kingdom.
Jesus, we worship You as King of Kings and Lord of lords. You are my King. You have rule over my heart and my life, my thoughts and time and goals. I bow to You only and give You full and free reign over my life.
Help me not to grip anything so tightly that I am unwilling to release it to You. You are a just King; our Prince of Peace. Help me to desire Your kingdom above that of my own making and bow to Your will above my own.
Holy Spirit, lead me in the ways of the heavenly kingdom. Teach me wisdom from above and guide me in truth. Help me to have eyes that see and ears that hear all that God has for me.
Help me to know the Lord, to fully understand His might, to fear turning away from Him and to know His grace.
We love You Lord. With all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind and all of our strength we love you. We lavish You with our worship. We come to adore You today. Amen.
MHB 257 – O COME, O COME, IMMANUEL
- O Come, O come, Immanuel
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
- O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who ordered all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show
and teach us in its ways to go.
- O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.
- O come, O Branch of Jesse’s stem,
unto your own and rescue them!
From depths of hell your people save,
and give them victory o’er the grave
- We first published this article in December 2016 but it’s relevance has not changed. Continue to enjoy it and stay Blessed!
Please continue to join us on Asempa 94.7 FM – Sunday 5.30 am., Sunny 88.7 FM – Tuesdays 5:30 am; and YFM 107.9 – Sundays 6.30am; for our Radio Bible Study as well as Sunny FM 88.7 FM every Sunday at 3:30 pm. for Hymn and their Stories
