A Shoot shall spring forth – Isaiah 11:1-10

It is ever important for us to not forget that the coming of God in the person of Jesus Christ is rooted in the prophecies of what we have come to know as the Old Testament. Without the Old Testament, the message that Jesus brought would have no foundation.  It is through the prophecies of the Old Testament that we can truly make sense of God’s new revelation.  This passage is appropriate for the second Sunday in Advent as it foretells a time of peace as a ruler will arise from the stump of Jesse – a king from the line of David who will rule with wisdom and understanding, with counsel and might, and yet one who will never forget that such wisdom and understanding are gifts from God given that true righteousness and justice might prevail among the peoples of the world. And so the prophet gives us a picture of the character and person of the one who would be called the Messiah – the Saviour of the people.

In preparing for this message, I did some research using a trusted expositor of the Scriptures – John Calvin. Calvin’s insights into Scripture are well balanced and thought provoking. His insights into this passage give us a wonderful picture of God’s intention for the Messiah and certainly food for thought as we prepare to this year to celebrate the coming of God in Christ in Bethlehem and remain vigilant for his return as the eternal king.

The historical record that brings us to the moment of God’s incarnation in Jesus begins with the one known as Jesse. Jesse was the father of many sons including David. He was not a wealthy man nor one with great power or influence.  When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse looking for the one to be anointed King of Judah, he did not choose any of Jesse’s sons until he came to the youngest and smallest of them – David. No one would have imagined that David – a shepherd boy – would ever have risen to any great status in the life of the nation.  But that is who God looked for to become the leader of the nation. And while David did not always act in the best way, he was a king who feared the Lord and understood that he ruled the people with the blessing of God.  And so the record shows in the books of Samuel and Kings the triumphs and failures, the good and the bad of the kings who followed David on the throne. When the last king of Israel and Judah was taken into captivity, it appeared that the Davidic line of kings was cut off. The lineage from Jesse had been cut as a tree is cut with only a stump remaining. At first glance, the stump shows no life, but the prophet declares that a shoot will come from the stump of Jesse.  The stump still had life and indeed would not only bring new life but new hope and true peace.

When we read the genealogy of Jesus as found in the gospel of Matthew, we discover that, in spite of the many twists and turns that have occurred throughout time, there is a thread that connects the ancestors of the faith through David and down to the one known as Joseph. And while nowhere is it claimed that Jesus is the physical son of Joseph, his birth to Mary, the spouse of Joseph, puts him in line with the ancestors and so fulfils the promise that a king shall be born who is of the line of David and so fulfil the promise.

The one who would come from the stump of Jesse, from the lineage of the house of David would be one who would embody he spirit of the Lord in a way never before witnessed. And so God comes in the person of Jesus, born of the flesh of Mary and the Spirit of the Creator of all things, born in a stable in the humblest of conditions and raised in a working-class home to be a carpenter.

And as this shoot grew, it is recorded that he increased in wisdom until the day when the Spirit of the Lord visibly came to rest upon Him. And that Spirit filled Him with wisdom and understanding, with counsel and might, with knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  For Calvin, this verse is critical for it says to him that God bestowed upon Jesus all these gifts but not so that Jesus might be full of these things but that Jesus, being very human, might reveal and teach these gifts to us. Jesus is not just the Mediator of God’s grace and mercy but of God’s wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge.

Calvin then takes the time to briefly explain that there are subtle yet important differences in these words and that while often Hebrew uses two words to express the same thing, the relation between them is critical. For Calvin wisdom embodies all that relates to the regulation of life, while understanding helps to explain that wisdom not only to ourselves but to others. Counsel is the judgment we bring to bear on the decisions we make in our life in order to help us make decisions in keeping with the wisdom we have received enabling us to judge and exercise caution in our daily life. Finally, knowledge helps us to understand the decisions wisdom, understanding and counsel have led us to make.

Following the wisdom bestowed upon us by God in Christ, we are to be moved – like Him – to a fear of the Lord which is to say a sincere desire to worship God. In a real sense we could say that we are moved to revere or to honour God.  For Calvin this is the first mention of the gifts of the Spirit. As all are given to Christ, so Christ gives all to us.

Calvin then does a marvellous piece of exegesis when he explores the original Hebrew for the word more commonly translated “his delight”. He reminds us that the word in its form in this text signifies literally to smell. To his mind, this means that Christ will have a keen sense of smell. What he means is that Christ will not be fooled by appearances of holiness or uprightness but will be able to sense the true nature of the person and so be able to judge whether in that person’s heart and soul there is a real reverence or honour for God.  Perhaps that is why the hearts of the Pharisees and others were so clearly discerned by Christ even before Jesus revealed it to others.

This is the One whom we acknowledge as Lord and Saviour, the One who arose from the humblest of beginnings in the eyes of the world, Who seemed to amount to nothing more than a minor prophet rejected and crucified. And yet within Him dwelt the fullness of God. And to those who received and still receive Him, He imparts the grace and mercy of God, the fullness of reconciliation and peace, a life that begins here and shall last unto eternity.

Let us remember that we know the One who perfectly embodied the Spirit of God, the One who embodied wisdom, and the One who is able to discern the hearts of people and to plumb the depths of every soul. So, let us come as His people, with a healthy understanding of what it means to fear the Lord, revealing a sincere desire to honour, revere and worship the Lord our God!

AMEN