New life from God’s fruit shoot/root

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

The scope of God's promises in Isaiah is breathtaking. Some of the word so far has been an extreme challenge, because I think God wants to shake his people out of pride, comfortable religious habits and destructive, self-centred behaviours which cause injustice. All these things can only exist alongside a superficial awareness of God, perhaps a belief in his existence without wisdom, respect and true knowledge of his fearsome power and what it means.

God's promise is to fix this. I love the description of the righteous man, who we can recognise as Jesus. He will grow, thoroughly blessed and defined by the Holy Spirit and, in good righteous relationship with Father God, his life will be earth shattering. Not only will God get recognised properly by a few, but the earth will be filled with - and changed by - knowledge of the Lord.

I think this reading is not just about an afterlife or the idea that things will be better when we can escape the misery of the world. God is making clear that he intends his presence to change the world as we know it in our lifetimes.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God cares deeply both for his chosen people and for "the nations", and he has promised that we can trust in him to overcome oppression and injustice. God also calls his people to recognise and rally around Jesus. Intriguingly, the prophecy refers both to "the root" and "the shoot" of Jesse. Can one person be both the source and the offspring of a family? Only if that person is eternal and timeless - as Jesus claimed, "before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58).

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I need to stop kidding myself that God's ambition for me, other believers and the rest of the world is in any way ordinary, mundane and limited by my own powers of imagination. If I'm going to be changed by the knowledge of God, I need to get to know Jesus properly and follow him.

Who am I going to share this with?

There are people I know who find church a bit irrelevant and offputting but love the idea of changing the world. They really need to meet Jesus! I don’t think I can adequately explain why believing in him is so good, but I would love to provoke them into investigating for themselves. Could God’s incredible promises here grab their attention?