Week 49 Advent

Isaiah 11:1-3, 10 
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 — and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears…
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

   Cut a tree down and what do you get? A leftover stump. A once glorious tree pruned to uselessness. But then God… In His good pleasure He takes dead things and resurrects them. Despite the ragged leftovers of David’s dynasty, He brings forth the Reconciler, Immanuel – God with us to restore mankind to God’s original plan. Image-bearing, creative, fruitful, fully alive, a dwelling place.
   Because of our faith in the Root of Jesse, we, while dead in our trespasses, were grafted into the Branch and became the Fruit it bears. He in us and we in Him.
Isaiah 11 is as much a prophecy of the coming Church as it is the coming Messiah. 

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