A couple of years ago I returned to visit my childhood home, a farmhouse on the North Downs in Kent. From the outside it looked just as it did when I was a boy. It still had the half timbering that it had when it was built 600 years ago. In my youth I remember it as cold and draughty. There was no central heating, no bathroom and no inside toilet. It was lacking many of the things we enjoy today, an uncomfortable place to live. It was desperately in need of restoration.
The day I revisited I was invited in by the new owners. They had just finished doing it up, in order to let it out as a self-catering holiday home. How it had changed! There was heating in every room, en suite bathrooms upstairs, lighting in previously dark corridors, modern appliances in the kitchen. What a restoration job! I thought to myself. How I would love to live there in all its comfort now!
The coming of Jesus to earth in that little town of Bethlehem was huge for humankind. The early chapters of the Book of Genesis describe the perfect beauty of God’s Creation. But they quickly move on to describe the Fall, when Adam and Eve, with their free choice, first sinned and so caused a catastrophic separation of humankind from God.
In this second verse of the hymn the words refer to the prophetic word recorded in the Bible in Isaiah 11:1:
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”
Here Jesus’ birth as Messiah is foretold. It pictures the royal line of Jesse destroyed, as a tree cut down leaving only a “stump”. But from this stump a “rod” or “shoot” would emerge a new shoot; this shoot was a symbol of Jesus as Messiah and proclaims He has the legal right to the throne through Joseph and natural birth through Mary, who were both descendants of Jesse.
In the coming of Jesus God has restored the broken link just as Isaiah prophesied would happen. When I saw my restored childhood house I could see myself living there. But in Jesus Christ I have received an even greater whole life restoration. God, through Jesus has restored for me the link to Himself that was broken by Adam at the Fall. Now I can testify that in Jesus my realisation of something missing in my life, and the discomfort that has caused, has been replaced by a new spiritual life. As I resolve to follow Him, to be obedient to Him, I am enabled to be all He originally purposed me to be and I will continue to allow Him to complete that restoration process in me for the rest of my life.
All references are from the NKJV unless specified otherwise.
John Partis
bearing-kingdom-fruit.com
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