Second Advent | When hope sprouts anew

In Israel’s deepest cri­sis, Isai­ah pro­mi­ses a new off­spring from the stump of Jes­se – Jesus Christ, the spi­ri­tual­ly gifted Prin­ce of Peace. In him beg­ins God’s rene­wed crea­ti­on, in which jus­ti­ce, peace and a deep rela­ti­onship with God reign. This king­dom grows incon­spi­cuous­ly, but wins peo­p­le from all nati­ons through its power of attrac­tion. Tho­se who trust Jesus alre­a­dy car­ry the fra­grance of this new life and beco­me a «green branch» for others.

Some­ti­mes it seems to me that our world resem­bles a defo­res­ted rain­fo­rest: abu­se of power ever­y­whe­re, exces­si­ve debt, per­se­cu­ti­on, forced migra­ti­on. Many things seem to have fal­len apart at the seams. Isai­ah takes up a simi­lar image – that of a fel­led forest as a word of jud­ge­ment against Assy­ria (10:33f). But not only Assy­ria, Isra­el also resem­bles a devas­ta­ted forest: the nor­t­hern king­dom has alre­a­dy peri­s­hed, its inha­bi­tants scat­te­red. And in the sou­thern king­dom of Judah, from 587 BC, the most serious cri­sis to date befell the peo­p­le. The land is con­que­r­ed, the temp­le des­troy­ed and wor­ship beco­mes impos­si­ble. Fri­ends and neigh­bours are abduc­ted. Isra­el lies on the ground – like a fel­led tree stump. Isai­ah, the pro­phet of God, steps right into this hope­l­ess situation.

Green branch

«A shoot will come forth from the stump of Jes­se – a new shoot will bear fruit from his roots. The Spi­rit of the LORD will 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. He will take plea­su­re in the fear of the LORD. His jud­ge­ment will not be based on out­ward appearan­ces, he will not deci­de on the basis of what he hears. He will ensu­re jus­ti­ce for the poor and bring jus­ti­ce to the oppres­sed. He will smite the land with the rod of his lips and slay the wicked with the breath of his mouth. Righ­teouskeit is his belt and truth is his strap»(Isai­ah 11:1–5 NLB).

The pic­tu­re speaks for its­elf: Isra­el is like a rot­ten stump. The tree, once in all its sple­ndour, has been fel­led. Now lies the stump of Jes­se – Isai means «gift of God» or «God exists» – almost dead on the ground. Jes­se was the father of David, the king who led Isra­el to pro­spe­ri­ty. But for Isai­ah, this gol­den age was around 500 years ago.

Nevert­hel­ess, the pro­mi­se that David once recei­ved still appli­es: «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). More than half a mill­en­ni­um later, this pro­mi­se is begin­ning to ger­mi­na­te: A new, vigo­rous branch is gro­wing from the old stump of Jes­se – the pro­mi­sed ruler of the end times.

The Hebrew word for «shoot» (nēṣhe) is the lin­gu­i­stic root of «Naza­reth». When Matthew wri­tes that Jesus will be cal­led a «Nazo­re­an» (Matthew 2:23), he is deli­bera­te­ly allu­ding to Isaiah’s pro­mi­se: Jesus from Naza­reth is the pro­mi­sed off­spring, the incon­spi­cuous Mes­siah emer­ging from obscu­ri­ty. He grows out of the histo­ry of Isra­el like a fresh shoot from an old tri­be. By the way Jesus hims­elf claims to be the Son of David in various places.

Plants grow incon­spi­cuous­ly, almost unno­ti­ced – and yet unstopp­ab­ly. This sto­ry testi­fies that God ful­fils his pro­mi­ses. Jesus is pro­of that God crea­tes new things whe­re we only see decay. «Look; I am doing some­thing new; it is alre­a­dy sprou­ting. Do you not see it?» (Isai­ah 43:19 NLB). Many peo­p­le know the fee­ling of only see­ing a rot­ten stump in their own life. But 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 Spi­rit of God rests on this coming ruler in a seven­fold descrip­ti­on (v. 2): Spi­rit of the LORD, wis­dom, under­stan­ding, coun­sel, might, know­ledge and fear of the LORD. The­se are all func­tions that are ele­men­ta­ry for the Prin­ce of Peace of an eter­nal king­dom. The num­ber seven sym­bo­li­ses divi­ne per­fec­tion and is a sign of per­fect ability.

The ama­zing thing: The same spi­rit dwells in all who trust Jesus. The resour­ce of the coming king­dom lives in us. We belong to the roy­al priest­hood, and our «reign» does not mani­fest its­elf in ruling, but in ser­ving righ­teous­ness, jus­ti­ce and the fear of God – espe­ci­al­ly among the poor and oppres­sed. The poor and wret­ched are expli­cit­ly men­tio­ned. This socio-ethi­cal motif is a typi­cal cha­rac­te­ristic of the king­dom of God.

Just as the old pro­mi­se to David was ful­fil­led after a thousand years, Jesus will cer­tain­ly 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 in a sta­ble in Beth­le­hem – small, poor and incon­spi­cuous. But he does not remain insi­gni­fi­cant: he is the Prin­ce of Peace who estab­lishes the final mes­sia­nic king­dom. As the bea­rer of God’s crea­ti­ve spi­rit, he con­quers all vio­lence not with wea­pons, but «with the breath of his mouth» (v. 4). It is God’s word that brings forth the new crea­ti­on – just as it did at the begin­ning of the world. The refe­rence to the «rod of his lips» refers to the crea­ti­ve and at the same time jud­ge­men­tal power of his word. Lan­guage beco­mes the instru­ment of the new creation.

Isai­ah descri­bes this new crea­ti­on with images of pro­found peace: enemies live tog­e­ther, pre­da­tors lose their pre­da­to­ry instincts, child­ren are safe even with sna­kes. This is not a poli­ti­cal com­pro­mi­se, but a com­ple­te­ly rene­wed world order. Peace encom­pas­ses not only peo­p­le, but the enti­re order of life. Redemp­ti­on through Jesus Christ is holi­stic; He rede­ems not only human souls, but the who­le of crea­ti­on. The ori­gi­nal crea­ti­on is res­to­red, per­fec­ted and exalted.

The balan­ce of power is rever­sed: a small child tends to the ani­mals. Weak­ne­ss beco­mes the new strength. At the heart of it all is a rene­wed rela­ti­onship with God, which as a Know­ledge of the Lord is descri­bed: «As the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be fil­led with the know­ledge of the LORD» (V.9 NLB). The Hebrew word is also used for the inti­ma­te rela­ti­onship bet­ween man and woman. An imme­dia­te, per­so­nal and deep rela­ti­onship bet­ween peo­p­le and God is the basis of the ulti­ma­te king­dom of peace.

What would that look like today? Per­haps like this: The neo-Nazi moves in with the migrant. Peace reig­ns in the Midd­le East. Defence com­pa­nies build wind tur­bi­nes. Women are no lon­ger afraid of their hus­bands. Skin colours are sim­ply beau­tiful. Selen­ski and Putin toast to a bet­ter future tog­e­ther. Women are being pro­mo­ted under the Tali­ban. And the Ira­ni­an regime is enjoy­ing fri­end­ly eco­no­mic rela­ti­ons with the USA. All this shows: The king­dom of peace bears the cha­rac­te­ristics of Christ.

This king­dom began with Jesus» first coming – small and incon­spi­cuous like a green branch. It will be com­ple­ted with his second coming. Peo­p­le in whom the spi­rit of God lives can alre­a­dy make this peace visi­ble. We live in the ten­si­on bet­ween «alre­a­dy» and «not yet».

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 king­dom of peace that has daw­ned has Jewish roots. From the stump that was belie­ved to be dead, other bran­ches grow along­side Christ: peo­p­le, churches, com­mu­ni­ties on which God’s spi­rit rests. Each of the­se bran­ches exu­des the fra­grance of new life – a fore­tas­te of the coming king­dom of peace.

It is remar­kab­le that the Mes­siah does not spread through power and mili­ta­ry cam­paigns, but through attrac­tion. Peo­p­le «will tire­less­ly ask for him». Peter also assu­mes that a life of hope is attrac­ti­ve: «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). This rai­ses ques­ti­ons: Is our life attrac­ti­ve? Is our church a place whe­re peo­p­le beco­me curious? The key lies in the know­ledge of the Lord. Tho­se who regu­lar­ly expe­ri­ence deep com­mu­ni­on with God are chan­ged – and that is attractive.

The stump of Jes­se is a remin­der of a natio­nal affair that took place 3,000 years ago in the Ori­ent. But the green branch from this stump has world­wi­de signi­fi­can­ce and will be a sign to the nati­ons. Again and again the prin­ci­ple appli­es: first to the Jews/people of Isra­el, then to the Gentiles/nations. Every green branch grows on Jewish soil and car­ri­es the DNA of Jesus Christ and his king­dom. God has cho­sen Isra­el to bless the who­le world. His hope is for every human being, and the new hea­ven and the new earth will be bound­less and mul­ti­na­tio­nal – yet roo­ted in Israel’s history.

Getting on a green branch

Do you want to get off to a good start and lead an attrac­ti­ve life yours­elf? Then learn from the litt­le boy at the mar­ket: A boy was sit­ting in the mar­ket­place in the mor­ning with a bas­ket full of man­goes. He shy­ly offe­red his fruit – wit­hout suc­cess. The sun was bur­ning, his voice beca­me sof­ter, his dis­ap­point­ment grea­ter. Final­ly, he took a man­go hims­elf, tas­ted it – and his face brigh­ten­ed. The fla­vour spread. Passers-by got an appe­ti­te – and soon his bas­ket was emp­ty. The boy rea­li­sed: Words alo­ne are not enough. It was only when he show­ed how good the fruit was that peo­p­le grab­bed it.

It is the same with the green branch of the gos­pel. When we our­sel­ves tas­te what we are tal­king about, our lives beco­me a sign – and others will ask.

Possible questions for the small groups

Bible text: Isai­ah 11:1–10

1. Whe­re do you see «rot­ten stumps» in your own life, and whe­re have you expe­ri­en­ced God gro­wing new shoots from them?
2. Which of the seven qua­li­ties of the Spi­rit of God (Isai­ah 11:2) do you par­ti­cu­lar­ly desi­re in your ever­y­day life – and why?
3. How can you set signs of the coming king­dom of peace today – in deal­ing with peo­p­le, con­flicts or weaknesses?
4. What some­ti­mes pre­vents you from being an «attrac­ti­ve green branch» that makes others curious about Jesus?
5. Which hope from Isai­ah 11 would you like to live or prac­ti­se in the coming week?