Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas to one and all! Many of us have heard of Christmas trees but have you heard of the Jesse Tree?

The Jesse Tree is sometimes used as an Advent calendar and is so named from Isaiah 11:1 "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots." Jesse in the Old Testament was the father of David, specially chosen by God from among Jesse's sons, to become king of the Israelites.

The Israelites through the descendants of Abraham were chosen by God, and when they were imprisoned by the Egyptians, they cried out to God for deliverance from their oppression. And so He delivered them to a place where they could worship and serve Him in peace and joy instead of serving Pharaoh in hard service. But as they settled into the land that God had given them, they forgot God and began to believe that the power and the strength of their own hands have gotten them these things. The people began to worship the false gods of the land and even gave offerings to the idol ba’al, supposedly the god of rain and fertility of the land, thanking him for the prosperity they enjoyed.

Because they had forgotten God, they also forgot to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. God sent prophets Amos and Jeremiah to warn them of the consequences of failing to be His people. Most of them would not listen, and continued to worship the idols of ba'al, to cheat the poor, steal from each other, neglect the needy, and do all manner of evil.

So God let them go their own way and suffer the consequences of their choices. The Babylonian armies came and destroyed the temple, the city of Jerusalem, the land, and took the people into slavery. The choice planting of God that had such promise, that God had tended so carefully and encouraged to grow, was cut down and became a mere stump. Isaiah had spoken of a time when God would cause a new shoot, a new king, to spring from the cut-off stump of the lineage of Jesse, David’s father.

And the midst of their failure and hopelessness, God chose to forgive and they returned to the land. But across the years, they again struggled to obey and live up to their calling. But the great kingdom that they dreamed of restoring remained only a dream. They had hoped for a new king to lead them into a glorious future and longed for peace and deliverance from the tyranny of a sinful world. The prophets again brought the word of God to them, and promised a newness. God was faithful to that promise, and a new King, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem.

The Jesse Tree helps to retell this story and express this hope of peace and deliverance.