A Thrill of Hope
This is a very promising prophecy that Isaiah delivers to a people who have been cut down and reduced to almost nothing.
When you’re down to nothing, God is up to something. If you’ve had a banner year or a barren year, God is up to something in your life!
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” Could it be that the branch Isaiah speaks of is the baby that was born in the town of Bethlehem, could it be that the eagle eyed prophet is seeing through 7 centuries into our present hope?
Peter calls it “A living hope.”
The author of hebrews calls this hope the anchor for our souls. You have a hope, a certain kind of hope, real hope that is like an anchor. It doesn’t float on the surface of your situation, but it gets down to the bottom and holds on tight while you’re going through hell. Patience is the proof of Hope.
1.) It had to be hard.
It had to be hard for Joseph to really believe that his wife, who had not had sex with him being a virgin, was pregnant.
It had to be hard for him to really take that at God’s word.
It had to be hard for Mary to look people in the eye and convince them that what she was carrying was from the Holy Spirit. The way God chose to come into the world shows us the nature about how He works. Not only did God pick a virgin, and pick a womb that represents impossibility, so that he could bring forth infinite potential. Not only did he pick the hardest situation to bring forth his son but he didn’t even make hotel reservations.
A quick history of the Bible reminds us of the Great things God accomplishes doing things the hard way.
“A shoot will come up from the stump”Isaiah 11:1a Isaiah is prophesying to a people under Assyrian oppression and Jesus comes into a world under Roman oppression.
God loves to come into hard situations.
Even in the pruning there is a promise.
“I see a stump cut down to nothing but I see a shoot coming forth from the stump” and God is up to something in your life this Christmas season.
If it wasn’t hard, you would think it was you. if it wasn’t hard, you would trust in yourself, and yourself is not an adequate support system for the glory of God.
Sometimes God will allow some impossible things in your life so you and I can know what Mary knew, that nothing shall be impossible with God!
Jesus comes into a hard place in weakness, so you would know in your weakness and hard places He will be strong. Cutdown for a comeback!
as a believer, you have the ability within you to bounce back. Jesus was laid in a borrowed tomb, and God showed the world they can try and put you down at rockbottom but they can’t keep you from bouncing back.
You have a hope that bounces back!
The harder the bottom the higher the bounce. I see a shoot coming from the stump. Your root system will always show if you have real hope. 2.) It had to be hidden.
Jesus spent the first few years of his life being hidden from Herod.
When God brings a promise into the earth, it alerts the enemy.
Real hope is hidden down deep in your heart where people can’t get it.
Some people give their Hope away easily because they have not learned how to hide it. You have hope when good things happen but how is your hope when God seems silent?
The roots are the part of the tree. you can’t see, but that’s where the action is.
As long as the tree stays rooted, it has the promise of new beginnings.
God can turn your disappointment into a deeper hope.
We have what Isaiah hoped for, but do we take for granted because we have it?
Your faith is hidden beneath your feelings. Hope doesn’t need a “how” when it knows the “Who.”This living Hope is an anchor of our souls. Hope is here but it is not yours until you take hold of it. You cannot have the fruit of fulfillment without the branch of Jesus Christ. This Hope is being born today as the word of God goes forth. This is the hope, He is the branch, Now is the time.
