On
the scorched and blackened ground are short hills of charred wood, the cold
remnants of trees that once stood proud in the garden of God. In their midst is
one that was once the tree called Jesse, from which each new branch was a king,
now reduced to a small mound from which go roots into the now rich and darkened
soil.
Isaiah 11:1
(ESVUK)
There shall come
forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear
fruit.
Jesse,
a Bethlehemite, was a shepherd of the tribe of Judah. In the days of Israel's
first rebel king, Saul, the prophet Samuel came secretly to Jesse's house. He
told the humble shepherd that God had sent him with good news. From his family
would come a new king. Samuel had come to anoint one of Jesse's sons as this
next shepherd of the nation (1 Samuel 16).
David,
Jesse's youngest and most humble son, was anointed king that day. Years later,
after a miraculous deliverance from the oppressive Philistine giant (1 Samuel 17), and a time of exile in
the wilderness (1 Samuel 20-30) in
which his submission to God was tested and his character was forged, David did
finally take the throne of Israel (2
Samuel 2, 5). He would be the first of Judah's tribe to fulfill the prophesy
of kingship made to Judah by Jacob, his father, hundreds of years before.
David
would go on to become Israel's ideal king, called precious to God's own heart
in the Hebrew scripture (1 Sam. 13:14; also
Acts 13:22). In his reign, the prophecy of Judah's line of kings would be
renewed and expanded to David. God promised David that the kingdom established
in him will never end, that an heir of David, of Judah's tribe, would always
sit on the throne of Israel (2 Samuel 7).
During the reign of David, Israel prospered, and experienced their first time
of true rest from war or wandering since they had left Egypt .
However,
though ideal in the eyes of the nation, even David failed to be the wise and
just king God had called him to be. Once established in his power, David
arrogantly claimed the authority God had graciously given him when he was a meek
shepherd boy as his own, as though by his own strength he had earned it. For
David's rebellious and foolish entitlement, God judged the nation. Before the
judgment was complete, on the hill of Abraham's sacrifice of his son David
repented, pleading with God to let the curse for his sin fall on him alone, and
to spare the nation. For David's humility, the curse is lifted, and even David
is spared (2 Samuel 24). Though he
frequently failed, it is in this humble and willing repentance that David most
pleased God.
The
hand of God's judgment would not be held back forever. Each king after David
would repeat his acts of arrogance, each generation building upon the hubris of
their fathers (1 Kings). There would
be times of repentance, but no king after David would ever come even as close
to the heart of God as David had, though even David himself had been a failure.
Isaiah preaches in a day of utter apostasy. The judgment that was stayed in the
time of David will now return. The nation of Israel, God's garden of love and
justice in the world, will be razed to the ground, leaving only a seed of a
hope of renewal (Isaiah 10). Even the
line of kings, God's precious promise to the people of God, will be cut down to
the roots, to even before the time of the most precious King David. God is
starting over.
Hundreds
of years later a child was born to descendants of the tribe of Judah, in
Bethlehem, the city of David. The child was named Jesus. News of his arrival
was as humble as the quiet anointing of King David. The first to greet the new
king were shepherds called in by angels telling the good news, as David had
been called in from the sheep by Samuel the priest (Luke 2:8-20). Like Israel twice before him in both their
wilderness wanderings and their exile, and like King David during his flight
from Saul, Jesus would also be taken into the desert and tested (Luke 4:1-13). As Israel had been cut
down by God and destroyed by the empires surrounding her, Jesus would also be
killed at the hands of the empire of his day (Luke 23). Yet while Israel was punished for her rebellion, this
king had never transgressed a single law (Luke
23:4, 14). And, like the nation Israel was before him, Jesus was also
raised to new life by the hand of God (Luke
24).
By
his willing fulfillment of all of Israel's law and history, Jesus became the
substitution for any and all who would from then on be added to the family of
God. Though we rebel as Israel did, we need not ever be cut down. Christ, into
whose branch we may now all be grafted (John
15), has been cut down in our place (2
Corinthians 5:21). In this was the full nature of God manifest. Our Just
King did not forgive our corruption by looking over it, but by fully satisfying
the debt incurred by our wrongdoing. The death of Israel because of the
rebellion of the kings became his. At his resurrection he became the new and
final King, the firstborn of a new humanity (Colossians
1:18; Revelation 1:5), a merciful and loving God by whom all may be brought
back to justice.
Hebrews 1:1-4
(ESVUK)
Long ago, at
many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in
these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of
all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the
glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe
by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels
as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
The
Kingship of Jesus was inaugurated by his death and resurrection, but his origin
was from long before. Jesus was present in the beginning with God, and all
things were made through him (John 1:1-4;
Ephesians 1). His rule began after his payment for sin on the cross (Hebrews 1:3). His reign is eternal, the
fulfillment of the eternal kingdom promised to David. All else is subject to
change.
Revelation 5:5
(ESVUK)
And one of the
elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven
seals.”
Jesus
became the shoot from the stump of Jesse, and therefore also the root of David,
the one from whom even David takes his source. By his intervention in human
history, all debts owed by we, the rebel kings of earth, are now paid. Jesus
becomes like David, the intercessor on the hill between the judgment of God and
the people of God. Jesus becomes like us, the rebel nation deserving of
destruction. In exchange, we become like him, grafted into his new life,
drinking deep from divine roots.
Revelation 22:16
(ESVUK)
“I, Jesus, have
sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the
root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Jesus
is both the root of David, his divine source from whom he receives his adoption
into God's family, and the descendant of David, his human son, whom he
willingly became so that the lineage of David may be redeemed (Matthew 22:41-46).
By
his death and resurrection, Jesus becomes the final judge on whom all judgment
may fall.
Isaiah 11:2-4
(ESVUK)
And 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 the fear of the
Lord.
And his delight
shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not
judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with
righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the
earth;
and he shall
strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall
kill the wicked.
Jesus
came as the poor and received the judgment of the wicked upon himself. He
judges with righteousness by his own death. His judgment is equal. By his death
he set free both the oppressed and the oppressor. Every one saved by the death
of Christ has been a king like David, arrogant rulers of our own world as
though we made our own throne, and the oppressed of the land under the wicked kings
after David. The true and final King has set us free from both.
☠
Tomorrow, June 26, 2014: 1 Peter 2:11-12 - Aliens
Next Tuesday, July 1, 2014: Isaiah 11 - The New King and the New Kingdom
Next Tuesday, July 1, 2014: Isaiah 11 - The New King and the New Kingdom
Click the image to read the entire series from Isaiah. |
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