RBV: Isaiah 11:1

CGG Weekly published this essay, “The Root of Jesse,” on January 3, 2025.

“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”
—Isaiah 11:1

When settlers arrived on America’s shores in the early seventeenth century, endless miles of trees met their eyes as an immense forest covered much of the eastern seaboard. To grow their crops, the colonists had to clear the forestland by felling, ultimately, millions of trees. With axes and saws, the trees came down, and the settlers used the logs as building materials and firewood. But felling trees was the easy part of clearing land. Removing the stumps and roots from the soil required considerably more effort.

Stumps are stubborn things. They do not want to be moved, which is a primary purpose. Tree seeds sprout, sending a shoot toward the sky in search of light but also driving roots into the earth, digging deep and spreading wide to anchor the sapling and search for water and nutrients in the soil. As wind and rain assault the visible stem, branches, and leaves, the invisible root system provides a firm foundation, gripping the earth with immense strength. As the tree ages, the network of roots becomes more complex and entwined, using every available speck of rock, sand, and dirt as an anchor.

So, presented with a stump, an experienced stump remover knows he faces a challenge. Today, such workers have rugged stump grinders—massive machines with hardened steel blades powered by heavy-duty gasoline engines—to do the work for them. These machines can grind even a three-foot-diameter stump into mulch in minutes.

Conversely, if the preferred option of fire were unavailable, the colonist faced a grueling, dirty job of perhaps hours or days to remove a single stump by pick, shovel, ax, chain, and literal horse- or ox-power. Many farmers must have despaired of clearing a large enough field to sow their crops to feed their families, much less make a profit.

The Bible mentions stumps and roots frequently. In Israel, an agrarian society, trees played an essential role. Not only were trees and shrubs cleared from farmland, but they also provided food and other necessities like oil, incense, and wood. Israelites cultivated, among others, the olive, fig, almond, various fruit trees, palm, oak, cedar, pine, fir, cypress, mulberry, and terebinth. In time, metaphorical associations with these trees developed, becoming common features of Israelite writing. For instance, the oak became linked with strength, the cedar with beauty and majesty, the olive with abundance, the apple with fertility, and the fig with a life of satisfaction.

Job utilizes a tree stump in his reflections on the seeming futility of human life in Job 14:7-12:

For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he? As water disappears from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep.

In this case, the stump serves as a symbol of death. Yet, a stump may appear dead, but under the right conditions, it will revive, sending out a shoot that can grow into a new trunk, giving the tree a new life. Job asks, “Why is man different? Why do men stay dead? Is there no hope for a life after death?” He provides a positive answer in the ensuing verses, confidently asserting that God would call him and he would rise from the grave to answer Him (verses 13-15). So, the branches springing from the old, “dead” stump symbolize the hope of eternal life.

Job’s metaphorical illustration becomes the backdrop for the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 11:

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. . . . And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:1-5, 10)

Obviously, the stump from which the Branch grows is the hereditary line of David, whose father was Jesse of Bethlehem. At the time of Jesus’ birth, living members of that line existed, but it was “dead” in terms of temporal power and influence, subdued under the heel of Rome. The Jews looked for a son of David to wrest control from the Roman yoke and restore Israel to greatness among the nations, but their hope was ebbing year by year.

Yet, under the proper conditions—the aligned fulfillment of dozens of Old Testament prophecies—a shoot from the dry stump miraculously appeared among them in Bethlehem of Judah, the home of Jesse and David. The Branch, Jesus of Nazareth, Immanuel, Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God, began His human life as an infant in the town of His forefathers. The Jews should have recognized Him as the Hope of Israel, the Anointed One who would bring them forgiveness and lead them to eternal life. But they rejected Him, desiring instead the conquering warrior who would bring them political dominance with themselves as Israel’s prestigious and powerful leaders.

In reading Isaiah’s prophecy and several others, the Jews ignored His spiritual work in favor of their notion of the Messiah as a Jewish political and military champion. Their hope was in the wrong thing! They cared little for spiritual salvation. Instead, they desired earthly dominance and all that would come with it. They wanted to grind their heels into Roman necks and hold sway over the earth! So, Jesus later said to them, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it” (Matthew 21:43).

Thus, God transferred the Kingdom from an exclusively Israelite entity under the Old Covenant to those who comprise “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) under the New Covenant. The Branch has completed much of His spiritual work through His ministry, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection, and now works to sanctify His firstfruits to help Him expand His Kingdom upon His return as King of kings, as Isaiah’s prophecy goes on to foretell.

The root of Jesse proved tough and strong, tenaciously clinging to the earth to produce its greatest Son. With His roots in the earth, He has reached into the heavens, to the very throne of God, connecting the two and becoming the Way to eternal life for all who are called and believe (John 14:6). Our hope must be in Him, firmly established for eternity. And we must be like Him, as Proverbs 12:3 says, “[T]he root of the righteous cannot be moved.”