O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardareonens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths,
to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.
To a modern reader, genealogies may simply seem like a list of names. To God’s people, Israel, those names represent their story, their family, the very faithfulness, purpose, and plan of God unfolding in time, space, and history. It was a story filled with misfits and mess-ups, a story that carried a promised Messiah, but seemed cut-short. Out of the ache, the confusion, and uncertainty, a root, a shoot of Jesse… the Savior. A Root from which God would carry His love to the ends of the earth.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. - Isaiah 11:1-10
‘And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.’ - Luke 2:10
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