The pre-Christmas buzz

Lunminthang Haokip *

A SHOOT FROM THE STUMP OF JESSE: Isaiah 11:1. "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots, a Branch will bear fruit." We all have our roots in our ancestry. Lord Jesus also had His physical roots in the lineage of Jesse. Jesse was the father of king David. Of the genealogy of Jesse, Ruth 4:22 records, "And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David."

David stood central in the lineage of Jesse. But in the above verse in Isaiah 11:1, 'The Shoot was linked to Jesse, and not to David.' It was so to prove a point that the Messiah would be a lowly and humble Lord, born and placed on the manger of an animal shed who would, however, have the divine power to deliver any human, high or low, from the clutch of sin men inherit from the first parents.

Philippians 2:7 gels well His ordinary birth and upbringing, "But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."

His ancestry was compared to the stump of a tree because, in the past 600 years before His birth, no historically prominent personality emerged from Jesse's lineage. Jesus was the 'Shoot' that stemmed out of a mundane 'stump.' The words He shot out in critical turns of His life on earth 'stumped' the wisest players in the scene.

THE FAITH OF RUTH WAS A GAME-CHANGER: Psalm 34:15 says, "The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry." Ruth had no impressive ancestry. She was not from the chosen tribe of Israel. She was a Moabitess. The Moabites were West Semitic people who lived in the highlands east of the Dead Sea (now in west-central Jordan).

The unfaith of the famine-scared Bethlehem-resident-Elimelech family led to their temporay shifting of base to Moab. Ruth happened to marry Mahlon, the elder son of Elimelech and Naomi. She was ill-fated to have become a widow at a young age. When 'bitter' Naomi was itching to return to her original place, she told her hubby-less daughters-in-law to return to their parental homes.

Orpah, the younger widow grabbed the 'freedom' permission. But Ruth, having tasted the truth of Jehovah God in her in-laws' home, would not settle for anything less. Her faith-enriched answer to Naomi's opportunistic approach left her mom-in-law dumb-founded, "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

The righteousness Ruth exhibited catapulted her status to creating a niche for herself in the 'royal' hierarchy of Christ's family tree (Matthew 1:5).

GOD POURED OUT HIS LOVE TO MAKE US HIS OWN: When a tree is cut down, the better part of the stem is gone. The stump that is left finds it hard to survive. We all have a family tree. If our forefathers knew no God and lived according to the dictats of the flesh, we their descendants inherit a dead stump. Nothing good appears to come out of such a stump.

Within 600 years before the birth of the messiah, Jesse's lineage could not produce any outstanding 'branch.' But Jehovah's efforts to salvage mankind from the trickery of the devil's ploy to destroy souls through sin, never ceased. God's heart throbbed with love for men He had created in His own image (Genesis 1:26). His desire was to reclaim souls-gone-berserk and make them His own children again.

1 John 3:1 says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him." Jehovah gave us His Word so that we may know Him for what He is worth. Once faith in the LORD through meditation of His Word activates our spiritual sanity, 'We come to our sense, and to ourselves, like the prodigal son did (Luke 15:17).'

There begins our journey back to our Craeator's favour. We become a shoot that stems out of our ancestral 'deadness' of spirit. The Spirit enlivens our spirit to wake up to divine prompting. The the be-all and end-all of Christ's birth and crucifixion on the cross was to facilitate our 'sonship' in the family of God.

TREASURES OF WISDOM HIDDEN IN CHRIST: Isaiah 11:2, The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding ...." Jesus is the wisdom of God. Many worldly figures thought they were the ultimate in wisdom. They had to cut a sorry figure. Without accepting Jesus as one's personal Lord and Saviour, what man regarded as 'wisdom' will result in the contrary culmination. Human wisdom is no patch on the wisdom from above.

No one and nothing can contradict that God has made to be He who would excel in wisdom. 1 Cor 1:30 says, "It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us Wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption."

The world's greatest inventions and discoveries happened to those who 'did not rely on their own understanding,' but sought wisdom from the LORD. When no living person on earth could tell as to whether the earth was round or flat, Christopher Columbus sought the answer from the Scriptue.

God showed him Isaiah 40:22 that proved that the earth was round, "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth ….." But, it takes true conversion to have great truths revealed, which are otherwise hidden. Colossians 2:3 says, "In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

GOD'S OWN GRACE AT WORK: Isaiah 11:4, "But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth...." In Christ we have a Judge who will never deviate from the path of righteousness.

In worldly judgment of things, the corruptible human mind tilts heavily towards one's own advantage. Even when glaring evidences are there to establish a wrong, an honest prompting to take sides in favour of what is right is held back, if one's own interest stands to be harmed in the bargain.

But in Jesus, no such lopsided considerations are there. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). In a sinner, He sees spiritual poverty. The only way to scrape through condemnation is to appeal for His grace and mercy. In passing judgment on others, we mortals are troubled by our own prejudiced notions like 'what will the victim think of me?' The Lord's primary concern, however, is, "For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent Me (John 6:38)."

The only way for a sinner to come out clean is to repent, confess sin and seek the Lord's pardon. Whoever does that with a broken heart, Jesus justifies with His own righteousness. 2 Cor 5:21 says, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

In the Lord's scheme of things, men can rest assured that as long as there's a sense of repentance for sin, and a feeing of worthlessness in the sinner, the Lord's grace will be in effect to impute righteousness.

JESUS WAS GRACE-PLUS: Keep aside His divine empowerment. Even the amazing feats Jesus achieved as a 'Man of woman-born' was simply mind-blowing. He had the in-built power and authority to command the Angels to destroy any one who dared to 'raise His hackles.' But the Son of God never used this supra-normal ability for personal vendetta. He was humility personified.

His birth to take human form after having enjoyed the other-worldly perks of heaven, by itself, presupposes that his purpose as the Saviour was over the top. The height of His sacrifice was given in Phil. 2:8,

"And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." His 'likeness of men' ended in the bodily form he took. In everything else, He was 'unlike men.'

There was no trace of disgrace in Christ. The choice of the place of His birth itself was proof that 'His grace was sufficient' to convert a 'base place' into a chaste 'palace' of a heavenly Sage.

There was no person in history the story of whose future birth was foretold hundreds of years in advance. Micah 5:2 is a case in point, "But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel (Jesus)."

His mission on earth was equally unique, "And she shalt bring forth a Son, you shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21)."