Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“A shoot shall come out from the stump 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.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, January 4, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
A step back, today, to David’s father, Jesse. Isaiah, as in yesterday’s psalm, is referring to the promise that God’s people would be restored under a just and mighty king who is/was a direct descendant of King David.
I wonder about Isaiah’s purpose in stepping back a generation. Jesse was no great king—just a man living in Bethlehem tending his lands and his flocks of sheep like so many others. He had several other sons, all of whom the prophet Samuel passed over in favor of David, the youngest, being anointed king. He probably had daughters, too, who remain unknown but who would have rounded out one big happy family. It is from the stump of Jesse that a new branch will grow and become God’s promised messiah.
It's a nice contrast to all the patriarchal and military “king” language that surrounds the messiah. It speaks of more humble origins, of warmth and family, of hard work in the fields and flocks, of essential humanness. This is the Jesus I know and understand—not the descendant of a mighty (and deeply, deeply flawed king), but of a farmer who was probably completely shocked when his youngest son was anointed king. It speaks to me of stables and carpentry, of the everyday and mundane life Jesus would have lived until he began his ministry—God fully embodied in human flesh, a baby, child, adolescent, and then a man. I imagine the same surprise in those around him that Jesse experienced when Jesus began to teach and heal and gather an enormous following of people who knew him to be the fulfillment of God’s promise.
It helps me to hear God’s call in my own boring, run-of-the-mill life—I can be the embodiment of God’s love in lots of ways, no matter how humble or insignificant.
How can I show God’s love in big and little ways?
