The Branch

 

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word:

 

Isa 11:1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots

 

Isaiah continues with the analogy of trees. He has just likened the soon fall of Sennacherub and his armies to the destruction of the cedars of Lebanon. Here’s the thing about a cedar, when you take it down to the stump, it’s a goner. It doesn’t sprout any further growth. That’s how final and complete the destruction of the  devil and his forces will be!

 

Not so for the mighty oak! Cut an oak down to a stump and it will sprout. When Jesus arrived on the scene the mighty oak of the nation of Israel had been cut down to a mere stump.

 

They hadn’t heard from a prophet of the Lord for 400 years and were under the heavy hand of Rome. But look! A Rod, the Hebrew word literally means twig! A twig sprouts forth from the lineage of Jesse, who was the father of David.

 

A twig, kind of tough picturing Jesus as a mere twig isn’t it? Isa 53:2 describes Him this way: “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

 

But this twig will grow into an oak of righteousness and it will be given a name and that name is Branch. Zec 6:12 "Then speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, saying: "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the LORD;

 A life giving Branch will grow out of what appeared to be dead stump of Jesse and He will build the new temple, the Body of Christ, the Church. “That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." (Isa 61:3)

 

Jesus is the Branch, the vine spoken of in Joh 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

 

Jesus is the Tree of Life. Abide in Him, bear fruit and live!

 

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.