Reflection on Isaiah 11:1-10

 

Isaiah 11:1-10 (NRSVue)

 ¹ A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
  and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
 ² The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
  the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
  the spirit of counsel and might,
  the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
 ³ His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

 He shall not judge by what his eyes see
  or decide by what his ears hear,
 ⁴ but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor
  and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth;
 he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
  and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
 ⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist
  and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

 ⁶ The wolf shall live with the lamb;
  the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
 the calf and the lion will feed together,
  and a little child shall lead them.
 ⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;
  their young shall lie down together;
  and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
 ⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
  and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
 ⁹ They will not hurt or destroy
  on all my holy mountain,
 for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
  as the waters cover the sea.

  ¹⁰ On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Reflection

“Cut down.”  “Cut off at the knees.”  “Cut down to size.”

The people of God were once the great tree that God planted.  The people of God, together, were once a great cedar tree planted on the mountain of God upon which all eyes could look for guidance and inspiration. 

But the people of God forgot they were that tree.  They forgot that the fruit of their branches were for the benefit of all, so that all people could eat and find shelter; especially the poor, oppressed, and forgotten.

And when trees bear no fruit, they get cut down.  Assyria, and later the Babylonians, attacked and that kingdom was no more.  The once mighty tree was left as a stump. 

Has shame and guilt ever cut you down to size?  Have your past mistakes cut you off at the knees?  Do you feel cut down in life, unable to walk properly?

“Where do I go from here?” the woman asked after being abandoned by family and friends because of her lying and stealing.  “What am I supposed to do now?”  The woman felt utterly cut off, literally and figuratively.  She did not know how to live life without the support of the family and friends that she once had.  She wanted some wisdom that could just fix it all.  She wanted some way to gain everything that she had lost back.

There is hope.  “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots,” Isaiah promises (Isaiah 11:1).  Maybe, the first thing to do is simply acknowledge that you are a stump.  Martin Luther put it this way as he gazed at his own life and action in his last moments, “We are beggars.  This is true.”  We are beggars.  We are unable to help ourselves.  We are stumps.  Stumps cannot grow fruit.

Or can they?

Have you ever seen a tender shoot sprout out of the side of a stump?  Just because the tree and fruit became bad does not mean that the roots are rotten.  The roots of love and righteousness, the roots of trusting in the Lord and following the Lord’s ways, are still below, holding firmly to the ground, and they can send out a new, tender shoot that can grow into a full-sized tree.

Isaiah envisions a new leader of God’s people who will grow from the roots.  This leader is the one who we beggars can cling to.  This leader is the one who will be what we often fail to be.  Isaiah says that “The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2-3).

This spirit filled, tender shoot will trust in the Lord’s ways.  “He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth” (Isaiah 11:3-4).  This new savior will care for those who are poor, oppressed, and forgotten.  This new savior will open the eyes of the blind, feed the hungry, preach good news, and welcome the outcast and forgotten.  This new savior will take the sin and failures of stumps and beggars like us and bring them back to new life.  Even stumps will not be forgotten.

Jesus Christ is our tender shoot.  He is the new life for old stumps.  He is the one to whom we look for peace and life.  He is the one who can create a kingdom in which “the wolf shall live with the lamb” and in which it is safe for a child to “play over the hole of the asp” (Isaiah 11:6-8).

When Jesus comes to dwell with us, to stand with us, to hold us upright so that we are no longer cut off or cut away, all people can look again upon the mountain with that mighty cedar tree and find life!  On that day all people “shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10).