The Tree Part of the Jesse Tree (from Isaiah)

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

And 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

Isaiah 11:1ff

We hear this every Advent, and this is the basis of the Jesse Tree, but did anyone else spend most of their life wondering what "a shoot from the stump" even means?

Basically, it means this:

Image by Ian W Scott

Let's look at some of the "branch prophecies" in Isaiah. The Calling of Isaiah is described in Chapter 6, where we get the "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." This is a preface to the real presence of God which is why we say/sing it right before the consecration at Mass.

After this, Isaiah describes some pretty miserable stuff. We're going to skip ahead to a Suffering Servant prophecy, but we'll come back to Immanuel, I promise.

In Isaiah 40:2, we read:

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that her warfare is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the Lord's hand

double for all her sins.

It's odd that Israel would receive a double dose of suffering. Until now, the Hebrew understanding of suffering was (a) a punishment or consequence for sin, or (b) an opportunity for growth (Job). Here, Isaiah begins developing the idea that suffering, undergone faithfully, can be a sacrificial offering. God is preparing Israel for the coming Messiah -- and our Catholic understanding of redemptive suffering begins here.

Back to Christmas, and Isaiah 6. Here's the message God sends with Isaiah (6:9ff):

Go, and say to this people:

'Hear and hear, but do not understand;

see and see, but do not perceive.'

Make the heart of this people fat,

and their ears heavy,

and shut their eyes;

lest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.

The rhetorical device here doesn't mean God is making everyone's hearts stubborn, but that God knows they will be stubborn but will work out his will anyway. They'll be stubborn until they hit rock bottom and turn back to God. Isaiah and God continue their conversation:

Then I said, "How long, O Lord?"

And he said:

"Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without men,

and the land is utterly desolate,

and the Lord removes men far away,

and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

And though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump remains standing

when it is felled."

The holy seed is its stump.

A terebinth is a kind of tree, so the picture we want here is of a formerly-flourishing field that's now utterly destroyed, and what was a huge, powerful tree is now just a stump on the ground. The stump represents the House of David, the "holy seed" from which the Messiah is supposed to come.

Let's go back to Chapter 11, which I'm going to copy/paste this time because that finally occurred to me. Source. I'll add some commentary in italics along the way.

Image by Ian W Scott

[a]There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

Remember the photo? Israel was reduced to what looked like nothing, but there's still life in the stump.


2 And 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.[b]
3 And 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;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

So he will be just; this descendant of David will be good.

and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

This is violent imagery for the wicked -- but it will all come through his words. How did Jesus treat the Pharisees?

5 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist,
    and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall feed;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

Animal imagery is a throwback to Eden.

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.

How much does water cover the sea? All of it, or it wouldn't be the sea. That's how wide knowledge of God will spread -- everywhere everywhere.

10 In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples;

An ensign is like a flag or a banner, and we use the Cross this way -- we lift it up and put it on top of our church steeples as a way of denoting who we are and what the church building is. Also, see John 12:32, where Jesus says "and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

 him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.

11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant which is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

This refers back to Exodus, when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and refers forward to the anticipated second Exodus. Christians understand this as being brought out of the bondage of sin, but we can also understand it as God bringing back all the Israelites -- ten tribes were lost when the Assyrians invaded and nobody knows what happened to them; they must have just gotten assimilated into other ancient nations and sort of disappeared. The Israelites are still special to God, and bringing the whole world to himself is a way of making sure he's gathered all the descendants of Abraham.

12 He will raise an ensign for the nations,
    and will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
    from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of E′phraim shall depart,
    and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;
E′phraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
    and Judah shall not harass E′phraim.
14 But they shall swoop down upon the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,
    and together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab,
    and the Ammonites shall obey them.
15 And the Lord will utterly destroy
    the tongue of the sea of Egypt;
and will wave his hand over the River
    with his scorching wind,
and smite it into seven channels
    that men may cross dryshod.
16 And there will be a highway from Assyria
    for the remnant which is left of his people,
as there was for Israel
    when they came up from the land of Egypt.