Advent – getting off on the right foot

How can a per­son grow a green branch? The ans­wer is in Isai­ah 11, whe­re a green branch grows from an old tree stump. It is the Mes­siah who came into the world as a child in Beth­le­hem as the Prin­ce of Peace. Through his word he is buil­ding a king­dom of peace which will be com­ple­ted at his return. The King­dom of Peace of God is of world­wi­de significance.

As a result of the war, when Rus­sia occu­p­ied Kher­son, the city was com­ple­te­ly des­troy­ed. It resem­bles a stone desert cut off from elec­tri­ci­ty. Are the­re signs of hope for the inha­bi­tants? In 2020, the­re were lar­ge-sca­le bush and forest fires in Aus­tra­lia with devas­ta­ting effects for ani­mals and plants. Ever­y­thing lies in ruins. But at some point, green sprouts will shoot up again. In 587 B.C. began the worst time of cri­sis that the peo­p­le of Isra­el had expe­ri­en­ced up to that time. The land has been des­troy­ed and con­que­r­ed. The temp­le no lon­ger stands. Ser­vices can no lon­ger be con­duc­ted. Good fri­ends and neigh­bours have been taken away. The land is on the ground. In this situa­ti­on Isai­ah appears, a pro­phet of God.

Green branch

«From the stump of Jes­se a shoot will come forth – a new shoot from his roots will bear fruit. On him will rest the Spi­rit of the LORD – the Spi­rit of wis­dom and under­stan­ding, the Spi­rit of coun­sel and might, the Spi­rit of know­ledge and the fear of the LORD. He will delight in the fear of the LORD. His jud­ge­ment will not be based on exter­nals, he will not deci­de on the basis of what he hears. He will bring jus­ti­ce to the poor and will bring jus­ti­ce to the oppres­sed. He smites the land with the rod of his lips and kills the wicked with the breath of his mouth. Jus­ti­ce is his belt and truth his gird­le»(Isai­ah 11:1–5 NLB).

The meta­phor for Israel’s hope­l­ess situa­ti­on is a stump. After the tree was cut down, the stump of Jes­se now rots. Isai can be used with Gift of God or God exists can be trans­la­ted. He is the father of King David, who led Isra­el into a gol­den age. At the time of Isai­ah, this gol­den age was alre­a­dy almost 500 years ago. Howe­ver, at that time it was alre­a­dy pro­phe­sied about the house of David: «When you die, I will appoint one of your des­cen­dants as your suc­ces­sor and I will estab­lish his king­ship. […] I will set him over my king­ship and my king­dom for all time, and his thro­ne will be estab­lished fore­ver.» (1 Chro­nic­les 17:11–14 NLB). A litt­le more than 500 years later, the eter­nal ruler of the end times grows like a green branch from the stump of Jes­se alo­ne. Jesus of Naza­reth claims to be the Son of David. Two times 500 years of pati­ence!

Plants grow wit­hout us being able to watch them. But this sto­ry is pro­of that God keeps his pro­mi­ses and Jesus real­ly is the one who builds an eter­nal king­dom. «Look; I am doing some­thing new; it is alre­a­dy sprou­ting. Do you not see it»(Isai­ah 43:19 NLB)? Some­ti­mes we look into our lives and also see a hope­l­ess­ly rot­ten stump. God keeps his pro­mi­ses and will also give new shoots in your life. Jesus is the green branch, with Him we come to a green branch.

The green branch is the bea­rer of the Spi­rit of God, which is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by the fol­lo­wing qua­li­ties: Wis­dom, under­stan­ding, coun­sel, power, know­ledge, fear of God, jus­ti­ce, righ­teous­ness and truth. All the­se are func­tions that are ele­men­ta­ry for the Prin­ce of Peace of an eter­nal kingdom.

And now the kicker: The exact same Spi­rit of God dwells in a per­son who lives in a rela­ti­onship of trust with Jesus. So within us dwells the per­fect resour­ce to reign with Jesus in his king­dom. We belong to his Roy­al priest­hood. This govern­ment has not­hing to do with proud rule, but with a com­mit­ment to jus­ti­ce and righ­teous­ness among the poor and oppres­sed, and with godliness.

The pro­mi­se David recei­ved was ful­fil­led 1000 years later. It is just as true that Jesus will come again and com­ple­te His King­dom of Peace.

New creation

«Then the wolf and the lamb will live tog­e­ther in harm­o­ny; the leo­pard and the goat will camp tog­e­ther. The calf, the lion and the fat­ling will beco­me fri­ends and a litt­le boy will she­p­herd them. Cow and bear will gra­ze tog­e­ther. Their cubs will rest next to each other. The lion will eat straw like the catt­le. The infant will play at the otter’s loopho­le. Yes, an infant puts his hand into a poi­so­no­us snake’s den. In all my holy moun­tain no one will do evil or cau­se mischief any more, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be fil­led with the know­ledge of the LORD» (Isai­ah 11:6–9 NLB).

The green branch is born as a child in a sta­ble in Beth­le­hem. He does not remain small and insi­gni­fi­cant, but is the Prin­ce of Peace who builds the final Mes­sia­nic King­dom of Peace.. As the bea­rer of the crea­ti­ve Spi­rit of God, he over­co­mes all evil vio­lence and ungod­li­ne­ss not with world­ly force but with his Word (v.4b), with which he also crea­tes the new crea­ti­on – a king­dom of jus­ti­ce and peace. The ori­gi­nal crea­ti­on is res­to­red, per­fec­ted and exal­ted. The peaceful coexis­tence of humans and wild ani­mals, even with the sna­ke, indi­ca­tes that the­re is no lon­ger any dan­ger in the new crea­ti­on. At the heart of it all is a rene­wed rela­ti­onship with God, which as a Know­ledge of the Lord is para­phra­sed. The Hebrew word for know­ledge is an inti­ma­te rela­tio­nal term. God’s enti­re crea­ti­on will be ful­ly cha­rac­te­ri­sed by the God of love and peace.

Ima­gi­ne: The neo-Nazi moves in with the migrant, peace reig­ns in the Midd­le East, arms com­pa­nies build wind tur­bi­nes, no woman has to be afraid of her hus­band any more, skin colours are sim­ply beau­tiful, Selen­ski toasts a com­mon future with Putin, women are pro­mo­ted under the Talib­ans and in Iran’s regime the­re is eupho­ria over the lively trade rela­ti­ons with the USA. The king­dom of peace bears the cha­rac­te­ristics of Christ. He embo­dies its culture.

In the light of the New Tes­ta­ment, we reco­g­ni­se Christ as the Ful­fil­ler and Finis­her of all pro­mi­ses (2 Corin­thi­ans 1:20). As the Risen One, He estab­lishes the eter­nal king­dom of peace at His Second Coming. This king­dom of peace stands in the ten­si­on bet­ween «alre­a­dy» and «not yet». With the first coming of Jesus, the reign of God has daw­ned, small and incon­spi­cuous like a green branch on a stump. Peo­p­le in whom the Spi­rit of God lives can alre­a­dy express it in fragments.

Global significance

«Then the root of Jes­se, from which new shoots grow, will be a sign to the nati­ons. They will ask for it tire­less­ly and they will live in glo­ry»(Isai­ah 11:10 NLB).

The eter­nal king­dom of peace has Jewish roots. The stump that was thought to be dead pro­du­ces other green bran­ches in addi­ti­on to Christ. Meant are peo­p­le and churches on which the Spi­rit of God is. Each of the­se bran­ches spreads the glo­rious fra­grance of new life, a fore­tas­te of the king­dom of peace. This is so attrac­ti­ve that peo­p­le from all nati­ons tire­less­ly ask why.

The stump of Jes­se recalls a natio­nal affair that took place in the Ori­ent 3000 years ago. The green branch from this stump, on the other hand, has glo­bal signi­fi­can­ce. The gos­pel of the hope of glo­ry is rele­vant to every per­son on earth. That is why Jesus chal­lenges us to go into all the world and bring peo­p­le the good news about him and his kingdom.

It says that peo­p­le do not need to be con­vin­ced or even per­sua­ded. The root with the green shoots will be a sign, so that peo­p­le will ask tire­less­ly. Every green branch grows on the soil of Juda­ism and car­ri­es the DNA of Jesus Christ and his king­dom. Does the king­dom of God shi­ne out from my ever­y­day life? Does my inter­ac­tion with other peo­p­le and my pos­ses­si­ons smell like Jesus? Is my life mark­ed by hope in glo­ry? Is it love that dri­ves me?

Peter alre­a­dy assu­med that a life of hope would cau­se a stir: «Make Christ the Lord of your life. And when you are asked about your hope, always be rea­dy to give infor­ma­ti­on about it, but in a fri­end­ly way and with respect for others.»(1 Peter 3:15f NLB). Our hope is the com­ple­ted king­dom of peace. Green bran­ches in our own lives and in the com­mu­ni­ty help us not to lose our focus.

How can we live a life that makes peo­p­le ask tire­less­ly? With a bas­ket full of fresh man­go fruit, the litt­le boy had gone to the mar­ket in town that mor­ning. He sat under a tree and offe­red his fruit. He had no expe­ri­ence in sel­ling yet. Fear­ful­ly he sat the­re. The more despon­dent he beca­me, the wea­k­er his voice beca­me. The hours pas­sed. It was noon. The sun was hot. Peo­p­le were thirsty but his beau­tiful man­goes were not noti­ced. He beca­me dis­con­ten­ted. He was dis­ap­poin­ted and very frus­tra­ted. Final­ly he said to hims­elf: If no one wants my beau­tiful man­goes, at least I want to tre­at mys­elf to one. He took a nice fruit from the bas­ket and bit into it. The juice refres­hed him, ran a litt­le down the cor­ners of his mouth and the man­go fruit spread its fra­grance. His eyes gai­ned lust­re. You could tell he enjoy­ed it. He was enjoy­ing his man­go. The peo­p­le who pas­sed by smel­led the fra­grance. They saw the litt­le man eating with relish and got an appe­ti­te. The demand was now so gre­at that the bas­ket was quick­ly emp­ty. The litt­le boy now knew how to get the man­goes to the peo­p­le. All the tal­king had been of no use. Only when he ate hims­elf and the peo­p­le saw how good the fruit tas­ted, did they grab it.

We must enjoy Jesus, reco­g­ni­se Him more and live in His love. Then the demand for our fruits will increase very quick­ly. Inti­ma­te cont­act with God chan­ges us. A good oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence this Know­ledge of the Lord to live is the offer from VGB (United Bible Groups) cal­led Moments of Silence. From 14 – 30 Decem­ber the­re will be dai­ly medi­ta­ti­on exer­ci­s­es via Zoom at 21:00 to 21:30. You can sign up for this on the VBG website.

Do you want to get on a green branch in your life? Then the­re is no way around the off­spring of the stump of Jes­se. He was born incon­spi­cuous­ly in a sta­ble in the hin­ter­land of Judea. He is the Prin­ce of Peace who is buil­ding the inde­scri­ba­ble glo­rious King­dom of Peace. Whoe­ver beco­mes part of it is on a green branch.

Possible questions for the small groups

Bible text: Isai­ah 11:1–10

1. What does the meta­phor of the stump of Jes­se mean? What does it mean that on this Root a new sprout emerges?
2. Befo­re the king­dom of peace descri­bed, jud­ge­ment is descri­bed (v.4b). What is meant by this?
3. The Spi­rit of God brings qua­li­ty into life. How do you expe­ri­ence the­se qua­li­ties in yourself?
4. Jesus Christ estab­lishes an eter­nal king­dom of peace through his word. Whe­re do you see it alre­a­dy? What will it be like based on this description?
5. The sprout from the root of Jes­se has world­wi­de rele­van­ce. Whe­re do you see your con­tri­bu­ti­on to the spread of the Gospel?