BRANCH

When we see a shoot coming out of the earth, or a small branch from the side of a tree stump, we might wonder if it will survive. That stump testified to a tree that is now fallen. Will this new branch fare any better? The new shoot is so delicate, so weak it appears frail and easily damaged. Many times we have heard of someone’s hopes and ambitions hanging by a thread, held together by a shoe lace, but later achieving great success. So appears the work of God: sometimes hanging by a cord from a window, or a rope over the wall, seemingly tenuous indeed. But that branch is a living thing. For a while people wondered if the roots had entirely died. But once the branch sprouted we knew that beneath the surface life is at work. Hope is alive again that what appears so weak can grow into a mighty plant greater than the original growth.

The reference to Christ as the Branch is mentioned in Isaiah 11.1: ‘There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots’; see also Isa. 4. 2; Zech. 3. 8; 6.12. This image refers to the fact that Solomon’s side of David’s family carried a curse with it which disqualified those descendants from occupying the throne. Jeconiah or Coniah was the last king of Judah from Solomon’s line. To him the prophet said, ‘Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah’, Jer. 22. 30; see also Jer. 36. 30.

After Coniah the family tree was cut down as far as producing kings. Joseph, Mary’s husband, hailed from Solomon’s line as we see in the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1 verse 6. But Mary was of the family of David’s son Nathan, Luke 3. 31. No curse hindered her from being the mother of Israel’s king. So the Branch from the stump of David’s lineage has sprung up as the legal son, by marriage, of Joseph, but the actual son of Mary.

Where sin abounded, in David’s family, grace much more abounds. He has caused ‘to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness’, Jer. 33.15 NKJV.