Advent Day Three: a Branch Will Grow

Over the Summer, I learned how to pot and repot plants. To me, one of the fascinating aspects of the process was analyzing the root. Every root on every type of plant was vastly different. Some roots were thick, and others were thin and stringy. Though, each root was designed to carry nutrients from the soil to and throughout the plant for sustenance and energy. When a root becomes damaged, the plant dies.

Similarly, our faith is rooted in God, who established Jesus Christ as a Branch for us to cling to. As the Branch, Jesus provides stability and through Him freely flows love, mercy, and grace upon grace for our growth and long term sustainability. What Isaiah foreshadows in the verses below is a promise of Jesus’ character that the people unknowingly and desperately needed, and they are no different than us. As this year comes to a close and we look back at all we’ve had to endure over the past few months, aren’t we glad we have a stable Branch and that the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord can abide in us because they abide in Him?

The promise of Jesus’ birth brought hope for security to a lost people, and for us, the promise of Christ’s second coming should do the same.

Isaiah 11:1-9

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
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 of the fear of the Lord.

His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.