Thoughts for the Day

* The 4th year anniversary of these Thoughts occurs on 24th March 2024 - I would love to hear from you all, to help me keep going for another year!

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
he calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples;
the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Watching a tiny seed grow - one I thought I had lost, and couldn't see when the soil in the little pot had been accidentally spilt - has been amazing. I go away for the day and return to find it has grown another centimetre! I have great hopes that this small seedling will grow into a huge sunflower in due course.

Our reading today is one we often hear before Christmas, but of whom is Isaiah speaking? Is it an earthly king or the Messiah? In the 8th century BCE the people were constantly threatened by the mighty Assyria to the north and Samaria and the northern territories would be destroyed by them eventually. So was God promising them a king like David, the son of a village farmer and the youngest and most insignificant of his brothers, yet God chose him to be king over His people? Or was Isaiah's prophecy speaking of the Messiah who would come to all the 'nations' (ie the gentiles)?

Isaiah says 'a shoot' shall grow - a symbol of hope for the people of the time who were suffering under the evil king Ahaz, and with the Assyrians on their doorstep. Indeed his prophecy was to see some good kings come out of the old 'stump' of what was left, as in Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah among others. So on the human level Isaiah speaks of an earthly king. But on another level, for Christians this prophecy was to see its fulfilment in Jesus as the King, who passed on the power of God's Spirit to his followers at Pentecost and to each of us at our Baptism. We are inheritors of that tiny shoot as we allow God's Spirit to feed and nourish us each day.

Lord God,
You promised through Your prophet Isaiah
to send the people a new king
who would lead Your people,
and You sent Your own Son
to be the Messiah.
Help us to remember that we are heirs
to this promise.
Feed and nourish us each day
with Your Holy Spirit
that we may help to bring
Your Kingdom of Love into our world.
Amen.