Isaiah also likened Christ to a tender plant growing up before Jehovah and a root out of dry ground (53:2). Christ’s growing up before Jehovah was a matter before God. A tender plant growing up refers to Christ in His childhood. In God’s eyes, when Christ was born to be a man, He grew up before God even as a child. Christ’s coming out of dry ground was a matter before men. A root growing downward refers to Christ in His youth. In man’s eyes Christ came out of a poor family as dry ground. This shows that from the time of His childhood and youth, Christ lived a life of godliness before God and a life of hardships before men. He lived such a life on earth for His whole life.
In Luke 1:42 Elizabeth said that the baby in Mary’s womb, which was Christ in His conception, was the fruit. Here and in Acts 2:30 (“fruit of his loins”), fruit is used to denote Christ as a human offspring. In Isaiah 4:2 (“the fruit of the earth”) it is used to denote Christ’s humanity, and in Revelation 22:2 it is used to denote the fruit of the tree of life. Fruits are produced by trees to be food to man. The Bible likens Christ not only to a tree but also to the fruit produced by the tree. Thus, the Bible uses figures and signs to show that Christ is the root of the tree, the tree itself, the shoot of the tree, the branch of the tree, and the fruit produced by the tree. He is the fruit of Mary and of David; He is God becoming man to bring God into man that we may eat of Him as the tree of life.
In Hosea 14:8 God said that He is like a green fir tree. A green fir tree never grows old or dries up but is evergreen. It is a symbol of God, who never changes and who is ever new. God is the eternal God, and His life is the eternal life. Hence, He is ever-existing, ever-unchanging, and ever new. God never grows old or becomes worn; He is the same from beginning to end. He is ever-unchanging and ever-unfailing toward His people; He is always new and never grows old, and He never fades away. Therefore, assuredly, we can trust in Him. We receive our fruit from Him.
The Holy Scriptures use various plants, trees, and flowers to signify God, Christ, the church, the saints, and the world. In this lesson we have covered eight representative items. The Shoot of Jehovah typifies Christ’s divinity and the sprouting of Christ’s divinity through the incarnation of God. It also typifies the divinity that sprouted in Christ to develop from His incarnation to His entering into glory in His resurrection and then to pass through His ascension to attain to His beauty and glory in the kingdom age.
The Shoot of David typifies the development and growth of Christ’s humanity. The development of His humanity began with His birth as the Son of Man and passed through His human living on earth, in which His humanity was filled with divinity, and His divinity lived out all the divine attributes through His humanity in His human virtues. Then it arrived at the uplifting of His humanity into His divinity in resurrection, that is, the mingling of His humanity with His divinity for Him to be the firstborn Son of God with divinity and humanity, the One who is glorified in divinity and humanity and who will manifest the splendor of the glory of His fullness in the restoration of all things in the coming kingdom. Eventually, it will attain to the condition of the consummate glory in full in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
The sprout coming forth from the stump of Jesse typifies Christ as the descendant of Jesse who came out of a lowly family; it also typifies Christ as the descendant of David who inherited the throne of David. Although He was born of a poor family, eventually He became the Christ, the Messiah, of God to be the King of God’s elect for eternity. This indicates that the history of Christ’s becoming a man in His humanity is that He first humbled Himself and then was exalted with honor.
The branch from Jesse’s roots typifies that Christ was a branch that came out of the roots of Jesse. The root, the source, of Jesse was God; the branch of Jesse, that is, that which was born of Jesse, was a man. This indicates that Christ came out of God to become a man. He was the God-man for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy.
The root of Jesse typifies Christ as the source, the origin, of Jesse. In His divinity Christ came out of God; God was His origin. Hence, He was the root, the source, the origin, of Jesse. The root of Jesse is also called the Root of David, indicating that Christ was also the source of David. Hence, although David was Christ’s forefather, he called Him Lord.
The tender plant growing up before Jehovah and the root out of dry ground indicate that when Christ was born to be a man, He grew up before God even as a child. Moreover, in man’s eyes He came out of a poor family as dry ground. Christ lived a life of godliness before God and a life of hardships before men for His whole life.
Fruits are produced by trees to be food to man. The Bible likens Christ not only to a tree but also to the fruit produced by the tree. As the fruit of Mary, He was Christ in conception; as the fruit of David, He was a human offspring. He was God becoming man to bring God into man that we may eat of Him as the tree of life.
The green fir tree never grows old or dries up but is evergreen. It is a symbol of God, who never changes and who is ever new. God is ever unchanging and ever unfailing toward His people. He is always new and never grows old, and He never fades away. Hence, assuredly, we may trust in Him.