Lew☦️ on Nostr: "And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse and a Branch shall grow ...
"And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse and a Branch shall grow out of his roots" (Isaiah 11:1).
With such clear prophesies about Christ the Lord, why did the Jews not believe in Him as the Messiah? Because of their insane pride, and their insane crimes against holy and righteous men. Who is that Rod from the stem of Jesse, other than the Lord Christ? Jesse was the father of King David: the Messiah was expected from the lineage of David. He appeared from the lineage of David and from Bethlehem, the city of David. The Rod out of the stem of Jesse signifies the physical descent of the Lord through the Virgin Mary--a descendant of Jesse and David--and the Branch out of his roots (Jesse's roots) signifies the revelation of that righteousness in Him which had been trampled down by many kings from the house of David. Trampled-down righteousness is like a dry tree stump: from the root of such a tree stump, a green branch sometimes sprouts. The Lord Jesus is such a self-sprouting Branch. From His mother, He is of the lineage of David; by His righteousness, He is of the lineage of David; and by His Divine Conception, He is of the Holy Spirit. In eternity, He is of the Father without a mother; in time, He is of a mother without a father. In eternity, the concept of becoming man [incarnation] remained hidden under the covering of Divinity; in time, His Divinity therefore remained hidden under the covering of humanity. Pilate gazed in vain at this Rod from the stem of Jesse and cried out: Behold the Man! (John 19:5)--the same as when one looks at a wire conveying electrical current among many ordinary wires and cries out: "Behold the wire!" Such a one does not recognize electrical current in the wire, nor did Pilate recognize God in the man.
+ Saint Nikolai Velimirovic
With such clear prophesies about Christ the Lord, why did the Jews not believe in Him as the Messiah? Because of their insane pride, and their insane crimes against holy and righteous men. Who is that Rod from the stem of Jesse, other than the Lord Christ? Jesse was the father of King David: the Messiah was expected from the lineage of David. He appeared from the lineage of David and from Bethlehem, the city of David. The Rod out of the stem of Jesse signifies the physical descent of the Lord through the Virgin Mary--a descendant of Jesse and David--and the Branch out of his roots (Jesse's roots) signifies the revelation of that righteousness in Him which had been trampled down by many kings from the house of David. Trampled-down righteousness is like a dry tree stump: from the root of such a tree stump, a green branch sometimes sprouts. The Lord Jesus is such a self-sprouting Branch. From His mother, He is of the lineage of David; by His righteousness, He is of the lineage of David; and by His Divine Conception, He is of the Holy Spirit. In eternity, He is of the Father without a mother; in time, He is of a mother without a father. In eternity, the concept of becoming man [incarnation] remained hidden under the covering of Divinity; in time, His Divinity therefore remained hidden under the covering of humanity. Pilate gazed in vain at this Rod from the stem of Jesse and cried out: Behold the Man! (John 19:5)--the same as when one looks at a wire conveying electrical current among many ordinary wires and cries out: "Behold the wire!" Such a one does not recognize electrical current in the wire, nor did Pilate recognize God in the man.
+ Saint Nikolai Velimirovic