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Saturday 8 December 2012

Preparing for Christmas #8: Root of Jesse


 

 What is this?  Where would you find it?  What is it a part of?  Why does a plant have roots?  Roots keep a plant from blowing over, and they bring water in the soil up to the rest of the plant.
   Trees need roots too.  If we cut down a tree at the trunk and left the stump, could the tree still live?  Sometimes a stump may look dead, but all of a sudden a little green shoot can come from an old willow or basswood stump.
   In the Bible, Jesus is called the Root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:10; Romans 15:12).  Who is Jesse?  He was the father of King David.  After King David died, one of his sons took over as the next king, and God promised that this family would always be the kings of Israel (2 Samuel 7:16).
   After many years rulers from other countries took over and no kings from David’s family were in charge of Israel.  It seemed as though the tree was chopped down and had died, and that no more kings would ever come from the line of David.
   But Jesus was born as a Jew into the family of King David (Matthew 1:17; Luke 3:23,31).  Jesus is the King from that family of kings.  The root was still alive so that Jesus could come into the world at God's time, more than 2000 years ago.

“O Come, O Come Immanuel”, verse 4
            O Come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,
            Unto your own and rescue them!
            From depths of hell your people save,
            And give them victory o'er the grave.

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