A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
Isaiah 11:1-3a
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him–
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD–
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
I have this palm tree (affectionately known as Jungle Jim) growing in my living room. Despite having enough vertical room to grow, it decided it liked growing sideways towards the window rather than up. After putting up with it for too long, it was finally decided that one of the two trees in the pot had to go. When the sawdust had settled, only a small stump remained.
A couple weeks ago I decided enough was enough on the other one. Rather than violently cutting it all the way back, too, I chopped off about half of it. Unbeknownst to me, the other tree wasn’t dead. In the last several months, it sprouted a shoot from the stump with vibrant green leaves poking out of the side.
I’m not sure how many trees are able to do this. I’m most aware of olives trees’ abilities to grow shoots out of their stumps. I think that’s the imagery Isaiah was conveying above. In the preceding verses, God says “He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax” (10:34). Who can stand against God’s judgment? But out of it sprouts new life.
Jesse was the father of King David. God promised David that the Messiah would be one of his descendants. The generations passed and then the kingdom went into exile. What had happened to the line of David? Had all hope been lost? But out of the stump came a shoot. The Hebrew word for shoot is netzer. Eventually a group of the descendents of David created a village which they called Netzer-et (Nazareth or Shoot-ville). We remember that our Messiah Jesus grew up there. God had not abandoned his people.
Sometimes God does some painful trimming. But out of that pain can come new life. With time and trust, he can take even the most hopeless of circumstances and turn them into something beautiful.