JESSE’S BRANCH BRINGS RIGHTEOUSNESS
Isaiah 11:1-10 - December 7, 2003
ISAIAH 11:1-10
111 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- 3and 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; 4but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
6The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. 9They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
10In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Society daily reminds us very vividly that we are in the Christmas Season. As believers, the church reminds us that we are in the Advent Season. In the Advent Season we look at the gifts that God has given to us and provided for us. We remind ourselves that Advent means "coming,” We prepare for the coming of our Savior as He is born in Bethlehem, and we prepare for His coming as the Righteous Judge on the Last Day. Maybe we have already been busy buying gifts and trying to find that perfect gift for the perfect person. Yet, we realize there is no perfect gift on this side of heaven, because there is no perfect person on this side of heaven.
So, it is important for us today as believers living in this sinful world to remind ourselves of the perfect gifts that come from God. Last week we were reminded about God’s gift of peace.) Today, we are going to talk about the gift of righteousness. As we look at righteousness, we are reminded that the Lord knows exactly what we need. He provides us with exactly the gifts that we need. James tells us in his letter: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows"(JAMES 1:17). Our needs, our desires and our wants may change. The gifts that the Lord gives us do not change. They are exactly what we need. Isaiah began by describing this in our text. Isaiah says that Jesse’s Branch brings righteousness. Jesse’s Branch, of course, is Jesus Himself.
Jesse’s Branch brings righteousness
I. From humble beginnings
II. With very miraculous results
I. From humble beginnings
When you go home today, take out your Bibles and read chapter 10 of Isaiah. In chapter 10 of Isaiah you would read about Isaiah proclaiming the Lord’s judgment against Assyria and against Israel. Assyria was a great nation that one-day would destroy Israel and that would be the end of them. The Lord would punish them. They would no longer rise again to be a great nation. That was God’s judgment. For Israel it was the same thing--they too would face God’s judgment--defeated at the hands of their enemies. But there was more for Israel, wasn’t there?
Now in chapter 11, we hear the Lord’s promise, a promise that from what is remaining in Israel a Savior would be born. Verse 1 of chapter 11: 1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. Isaiah describes those humble beginnings. You can picture for yourself as the Lord is picturing for us a forest that has been cut down and all that is left are stumps. They aren’t much use anymore. That was the remnant of Israel. That nation was not great anymore, and all that was left were stumps. Yet, from that stump we are told that a shoot will come, that a Righteous Branch will come out of the roots. That Righteous Branch from Jesse, from the house and line of David, is Jesus Himself.
From those humble beginnings Jesus is described: 2The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--. Then Isaiah gives us three pairs of words that describe the Spirit of the Lord resting on the shoot of the Righteous Branch--the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. This Spirit of wisdom and understanding would rest upon Jesse’s branch, Jesus, and Jesus would know and understand God’s people. The Spirit of counsel and of power so Jesus would have strength to help God’s people. He adds the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord so that He would know God’s will for God’s people. This is the Righteous Branch. Isaiah sums up this verse by saying: 3and he will delight in the fear of the LORD, not the fear of men but the fear of the Lord.
Jesse’s Righteous Branch is not going to be like any other person that is born, is He? He is not going to come and look at justice in the way that the world would look at justice or the way that we might look at justice. Isaiah describes this in the second half of verse 3: He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears. So Isaiah describes when the Savior is born. Jesus is not going to listen to the opinions of men. He is not going to be taken in by what He sees around Him; but instead as he continues, He is going to rule with righteousness and justice. We realize as Jesus lived on this earth the Scribes and Pharisees opposed Him. These leaders of God’s church opposed Jesus. No matter, Jesus always took His stand on the side of truth, righteousness and justice. He says: 4but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.... 5Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. Even with humble beginnings this Righteous Branch of David would bring righteousness to the world, a righteousness that had not been seen before!
When we look at the words of Isaiah and when we look at the words of the prophets in the Old Testament, we see very clearly that what happened on that first Christmas were very humble beginnings for this Righteous Branch. For this One who would change the world, He came in a very quiet and humble way. The Prophet Micah describes it for us: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times"(MICAH 5:2). Bethlehem, not a very important town and not like Jerusalem where the people worshiped, was just a small village. Yet, here is where the Righteous Branch would come from. Here is where that Root of Jesse would come with righteousness and justice for all people. In fact as we hear in the Gospels, there was no room for Him in the inn. Jesus was born in a stable, a very quiet, humble beginnings for the Savior of the world. Yet, it made Him no less a Savior than what God intended Him to be.
We turn to the Prophet Jeremiah: ’The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ’when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land’"(JEREMIAH 23:5). Do you see all these prophecies put together? Isaiah talks about the root of Jesse, the stem from that stump, which will come forth. Jeremiah says a righteous Branch from David, a descendant of Jesse, will be a king--Jesus the King. Sometimes, it is easy for the world around us to see all of these things, to see, yes, Jesus was born in Bethlehem; He lived and walked on the earth. Jesus was the Son of Mary and Joseph; He was the carpenter’s son. He taught and did many good things. Then the world tends to stop there. They forget the rest of what Isaiah says--that the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, power, and the list goes on. With the Spirit of the Lord resting on Him, it is not just as if Jesus had that Spirit, He was the very Son of God.
When we look in the New Testament, we find at Jesus’ baptism the testimony given that He was more than just someone from Nazareth. He was more than just a preacher walking around on the dusty paths visiting different synagogues. At Jesus’ baptism we are told: "And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven (which was the Heavenly Father): ’You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’"(LUKE 3:22).
Yes, this infant born in Bethlehem was the King and was and is still is God’s very own Son. Jesus is Jesse’s Branch that brings righteousness, not just with humble beginnings, but also with miraculous results because He is God’s Son.
II. With miraculous results
The rest of the verses of Isaiah describe for us a peace that only the Prince of Peace can provide. Again, as we look at it, we remember that it is not necessarily a physical matter he is talking about, but spiritual. Isaiah says: 6The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. We know really that if we put the wolf with a lamb, he will eat the lamb when hungry. It is the same with the leopard who will also devour the goat. It would be hard for any small child to lead any of these wild animals or even tame ones. What is the Lord reminding us of? He is reminding us that this Righteous Branch is going to come with faithfulness and righteousness, even though on this earth there is no peace, can not be peace, and there will not be peace. But still He is able to provide peace for mankind’s soul.
Verse 7: 7The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. Physically, it isn’t going to happen; but spiritually, God can make all things happen. He can physically too but here he reminds us of the spiritual implications. In verse 8: 8The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. We know there is still danger from many snakes if any of us put our hands in the mouth or near the mouth of a snake. The snake will bite.
What is the Lord talking about? Isaiah tells us in verse 9: 9They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. God’s holy mountain refers to His Church. In His Church the believers are going to find peace. In God’s church believers are going to find a peace where the serpent, Satan, no longer can harm His believers. They will understand the knowledge of the Lord.
Then Isaiah talks about the fact when Jesus comes: 10In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. There will be miraculous results from this humble beginning of Jesus being born in Bethlehem. Christ Jesus being born in Bethlehem, even though it should have gone unnoticed, it did not. Angels announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. The shepherds went and saw and told everyone, and all nations rallied to Him. God had provided His Son as salvation, not just for the children of Israel, but also for the whole world. The miraculous results result in the fact that we are saved. We are saved even though we are not at first God’s chosen people. We were not of the house of David. We were not the children of Abraham, physically descended. But today we are the children of Abraham by our faith. So the Lord miraculously saves us. Paul describes this in Corinthians: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God"(2 CORINTHIANS 5:21). He calls us God’s righteousness. When we look closely at ourselves we see that we are filled with our own sinfulness.
But God miraculously sends His Son to be born in Bethlehem and to live and die on the cross that you and I might live forever. These are the miraculous results--even though we do not deserve eternal life, we have been given it. Even though we cannot earn eternal life, we have been given it. In the Book of Romans, chapter 3: "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus"(ROMANS 3:22-24). Those are the miraculous results of the Baby born at Bethlehem. You and I are saved by the work of Christ: His redemption by the grace of Christ, His undeserved love for us, His blood which atones for all of our sins. We are reminded of that today in His Word. We are reminded of that today in His Sacrament where in, with and under the bread and wine the Lord gives us His very own body and blood as a pledge and seal of His forgiveness to us.
And our lives are changed! Our lives are dramatically changed so that when the world around us is hustling and bustling around and acting like there is no time left in getting ready for Christmas, you and I can be reserved and calm and relaxed and realize in our hearts we are ready. We are preparing ourselves once again for the joyous birth of a Savior. We are excited and anxious, not so much to open up those gifts or to get all those things done, but to realize God’s gift to us. That is God’s Light that we let shine in a sin-darkened world. Peter writes: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed"(1 PETER 2:24). He reminds us that by the wounds of Christ, by the nail prints in His hands and His feet, the sword in His side, we have been healed. Because of that then, we can live, not for ourselves, not for the desires of the sinful world, but for righteousness.
God’s righteousness has come to each and everyone of us by grace. Jesse’s Branch, the Savior of the world and our personal Savior, brings righteousness. This is another one of God’s perfect gifts that we need. God’s righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, now covers our sinfulness and us. Now when we look ahead, when we gaze into the future, we realize that heaven is ours because of what Christ has done for us. Christ who is this Shoot from the stump of Jesse, this Branch from the roots of the remnant of Israel. Jesse’s Branch brings us righteousness. We realize from the very humble beginnings from that town of Bethlehem, but with very miraculous results, that only not you and I are saved, but believers in the entire world, look forward to eternity.
Until the time Jesus returns again we recall today’s second lesson (PHILIPPIANS 1:3-11). Paul goes on to talk about how things are there and ends up with a prayer. In the last few verses he says: "Be pure and blameless until the day of Christ (He is referring to Judgment Day), filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God"(PHILIPPIANS 1:10b, 11). The Lord reminds us today that from humble beginnings, Jesse’s Branch, Jesus brings us righteousness to cover up our sinfulness. That is His perfect gift to us that has miraculous results forever. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
