The Stump

Isaiah’s assignment in 740 B.C. was to confront Judah about their sins. Isaiah’s commission is probably one of the most difficult assignments given, similar to Jeremiah’s commission in 586 B.C. to take the message of the need for repentance to the Jewish people.

These Jewish ancestors had resisted God until He sent Nebuchadnezzar to sack Jerusalem and to take them away into captivity. We’ve looked at that in depth this past year.

The people Isaiah was called upon to address were the ancestors of the people Jeremiah had to address. Once they were stubborn, and now they were even more stubborn. Once they wouldn’t listen to God, and now, guess what, they still won’t listen to God.

They had become hard-hearted. They had refused to listen to truth.

Are we like them? From generation to generation, do we turn toward the Lord with regularity and trust, yet do we often forget to do so? Do we neglect ongoing prayer, which is also needed?

Are we like the Israelites? From generation to generation do we turn toward the Lord with regularity and trust, yet do we often forget to do so? Do we neglect ongoing prayer, which is also needed? Click To Tweet

740 B.C. God’s Message to the Jewish people came to Isaiah:

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”

“Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.‘ Thus Isaiah volunteered without knowing the message he would be given to say to them. He made himself available to the Lord and responded positively to the question.

⁹“And He said, ‘Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing indeed, but do not understand;

keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people dull,
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
¹¹ Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste,
¹² and the Lord removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
¹³ And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump remains
    when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.” (Isaiah 6:9-13 ESV).

God knew His people. He knew that they (we) will be stubborn, that they (we) will choose not to take action, that they (we) will forget the commitments we have made when moved solely by emotion, rather than by our total commitment to love, to obey, and to follow the Lord for all our days.

We will forget the commitments we have made to the Lord when moved solely by emotion, rather than by our total commitment to love, to obey, and to follow the Lord for all our days. Click To Tweet

All of that happened to them, and, having studied their ancient evil practices, even sacrificing their children to idols, we now know why this trial was heaped upon Judah when Nebuchadnezzar showed up, stripped away their goods, flattened their temple, and destroyed the walls and everything inside them.

We look at our own nation and wonder if this is the work that God is now doing here among us.

Elected officials lie and create more harm than good, attempting to shove abortion, violence, and drag queens down our throats. Crime is rampant. Prices are soaring. China grows increasingly interested in World War III, floating a surveillance balloon across our nation and yet receiving no immediate response.

Ukraine and Taiwan tug at us. How much money can we throw at the situation? Politicians lie, cover up, hide, steal, and violate their own words by not sticking to their plans.

We are becoming like a dried up stump with no hope of it ever producing fruit.

This was the condition of the Jewish people at that time, too. There was no hope. If we take our eyes off the Lord, that can easily become us.

Nothing good can come out of a dried up old stump built upon sins, crimes, and deliberate disobedience of an entire people group, God’s chosen people. But what about us?

The Triune God sent Messiah, One with the Father, One with the Holy Spirit, Trinitarian, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Three in One. Messiah Jesus is the only one who could take on the death and disillusionment of the Jewish people after they returned and resettled in Israel. Time passed, religious groups that adhered to strict obedience to the law robbed the people of awareness of the true God.

And so, God Himself entered the picture. Messiah, the One come to save, to bring the dead back to life.

When we think there is no hope, the Lord is already working. Do we pray? Do we ask for His help? Do we have #faith? Click To Tweet

When we think there is no hope, the Lord is already working. Do we pray? Do we ask for His help?

When the tree is dead, and there is no hope, do we ever pause to pray, to hope, to trust the Lord. It has been cut down and the bark is gray, no life, no growth is going to appear. It seems impossible.

(Isaiah 6:8-13 ESV) Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord meant his mission would be difficult and he would be ostracized as he fulfilled these instructions, for the outcome would be destruction.

“¹² and the Lord removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
¹³ And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned/purged again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump remains
    when it is felled.”
The holy seed/offspring is its stump” (Isaiah 6:12-13 ESV).

Abram planted his tent under the oaks of mamre, terebinth. That became home base. All sorts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s actions occurred there. The Canaanites were their neighbors, and Canaanite ways were harmful. They didn’t know Yahweh, and yet the Israelites made them their servants.

Daily listening to Canaanite tales and values in their tents, eventually, the people of Israel followed in the footsteps of the Canaanites, even sacrificing their own children to idols in the high places as they followed a sinful form of “worship” of Yahweh that had been corrupted by mixing in pagan worship.

As centuries passed, God found no repentance, no humility, and no obedience from leaders, and so He had them all carried off into captivity in Babylon, where they were kept for seventy years.

And then, God had Cyrus release them. They returned to the Promised Land, just as they had returned after their captivity in Egypt. They had to start over again, from the ground upward, beginning with the altar and then the entire temple built simultaneously with their dwellings. Homes and a wall around the city were next.

A future was ahead of the Jewish people that they expected to occur as an act of war. Messiah would come riding into Jerusalem on a white horse with sword raised high, they thought. Surely, he would kill their oppressors.

This was their end times perspective. But God had a different plan. He had forgiveness, healing of wounds, teaching of truth, and redemption of souls in mind. What was dead would be green.

Messiah was on His way, the Stump that was left to Israel, and He would flourish and expand and grow and love and include not only Jews, but Gentiles. Us. Thanks be to God for He is good.

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