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Find The Rhythm

Find The Rhythm - Isaiah 11:1-10 I refuse to accept that the world must always remain broken and unjust as it is. In 1929, times were hard and about to get harder. Everyone was looking for a messiah. Isaiah spoke these words 2,500 years ago, but we have made only incremental progress toward his vision. Today, wars rage in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Terrorism, hate crimes, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia stalk our planet. Greed, theft, addiction, poverty, and mental illness spread their suffering with no sign of diminishing. Isaiah faced the deep grief and despair of Israel's impending destruction head-on. Yet, in the midst of that void, he trusted God to bring new life from the ruins. Isaiah 11:1-10 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— 3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. Israel had placed their hope in David’s eternal and reigning family tree About 150 years later, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and ended the Davidic line.Though God's promises seemed to fail, He reaffirmed His unwavering commitment to them. Isaiah 11 pushes us forward in time, faster and faster. The passing years compress as the centuries fly by. He takes us well past the earthly life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We speed beyond the year 2025 and do not slow until we come to a day yet future when this same Messiah who came 2000 years ago will reign over the entire earth. Isaiah holds up snapshots of what it will be when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Even knowing the end score of a game, it is still fun to watch. In Isaiah’s time, the question everybody had was, “Is there anybody out there who cares? Will rescue us, take up our cause?" That was the mood in 1928 America, and just as it is now as well. Isaiah knew something about stumps. He knew that a cut-down tree still has life beneath the ground. Even when all seems lost, in the dark silences of the earth, a tree can grow again. Whether you come to worship like the shepherds and Magi, or shrug it off like Herod and his advisors, you need to know what you can expect from this infant King named Jesus. Have you seen life spring from a totally unexpected place? I have known people with addictions that were killing them and destroying the lives of others until they turned to Jesus. We are not simply products of our past. We are also drawn by our vision of the future – who we can become and the kind of world we can create.