Jesse Tree- Day 1

November 30, 2009

Jesse Tree- Day 1

Tonight we began our new advent tradition of the Jesse Tree. Each evening after dinner, we will do a small devotion that point us to the birth of Christ and God's eternal plan of redemption as we travel from Creation to His birth. And as we do, we will create an ornament for our tree.

Tonight's scripture was Isaiah 11: 1-10:

¹There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. ²And 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. ³And 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, ⁴but 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. ⁵Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

⁶ The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
⁷The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
⁹ They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

In this prophecy of the Messiah, we see that among other things, God promises that He will come from the line of Jesse. Verse 1 tells us that a shoot will come forth from the stump of Jesse. It is from this verse that we get our Jesse Tree. Jesse was the father of David, of whom Joseph was a descendant. Jesus was in the family tree of Jesse. As I was reading about the Jesse Tree and today's passage, I came across an interesting nugget- our idea of a family tree looks backwards to previous generations. In the Old Testament, the tree of Jesse looks forward towards the coming Messiah. As we celebrate this season, I am excited at anticipating and looking forward to the celebration of the birth of the Messiah with my boys.

Key Verse: ¹There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Symbol- Tree