The Names Of Jesus - “The Tender Shoot”

The Names Of Jesus - “The Tender Shoot”

Isaiah 11:1

“Then a Shoot will spring from the Stem of Jesse and a Branch from his Roots will bear fruit.”

After describing the desolation of an entire forest in chapter 10, Isaiah looks across the landscape of what once was a forest of trees and sees nothing left. Nothing, that is, except for one Stump that remains. And from that Stump, he sees a Shoot that begins to ascend from that single trunk. That Shoot, says Isaiah, is the promise of something new; it is the glint of Life and a new beginning.

Later in Isaiah 53, we read one of the most beautiful descriptions of the coming Messiah in all of the Old Testament. In that description, Isaiah describes the expected Savior as a Tender Shootz:

Isaiah 53:2

“For He grew up before Him like a Tender Shoot and like a Root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”

Have you ever seen a brand new tree as it forms out of the ground? It looks so small and fragile, like nothing could ever become of it. Yet the mightiest oak, the tallest cedar, the most majestic of all the trees begins with that little shoot sticking out of the ground.

This is what’s new life in Jesus is all about. He is that Tender Shoot that grows out of the lone Stump that used to be a forest. That Shoot may not seem significant at first, but our new life in Christ begins just like that little tiny shoot that transforms into a sapling, then into a vibrant growing tree that eventually overshadows the entire forest with its majestic branches and leaves.

Jesus is the Stump bug He is also the Shoot, the Riot and the Branch. Tomorrow we’ll look at the Root of the Tree.