Advent Pictures of Peace Part 2
Readings
Isaiah 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12
The Lorax
“A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.”
This memorable line is from one of my all-time favourite Dr Seuss books.
The story of the Lorax is a timeless treasure about a little creature who stands up for the environment in which he lives.
The story is narrated through the voice of the “Once-ler” a once business man who took advantage of the land in which he lived.
The land was full of truffula trees, beautiful fuzzy trees that sustained a whole host of creatures.
The Once-ler turns these trees into a garment called a “thneed”, a “fine-something-that-all-people-need.” The Once-ler in his greed starts manufacturing many of these thneeds.
The Lorax pops up to warn him that he must stop. What he is doing is affecting the environment.
Many creatures are suffering, but the Once-ler keeps going until he knocks down the very last tree.
This leaves the land smoggy and depleted, with no life in it. The Once-ler retires with shame and guilt.
One day the once-ler meets a boy to whom he tells this story. He gives him the last truffula seed to plant, in the hope that the boy might turn things around.
The seed is a sign of hope, a glimpse that maybe things will turn around and get better.
The Lorax is a bracing story of our ability to be selfish and shortsighted and get things all wrong, and the Lorax himself is like a furry little orange prophet.
He functions a bit like Isaiah in that he comes with a warning and he also holds out a message of hope. He says: “I am the Lorax who speaks for the trees, which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please.” He is a prophet with a message.
We hear that he “spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy.” The prophet Isaiah certainly knew how to be blunt with his message too.
The Stump
In today’s reading from Isaiah the opening picture is one of a stump.
Verse 1 says “A shoot shall come from out of the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”
The stump illustrates the current state of Israel according to Isaiah.
A stump is the bare remnant of what was once a glorious tree. A stump is a symbol of death. It is barren, dry, cut right back, a bare remnant of what once was.
When we think about this in contrast with the image of the Psalmist in the first Psalm of the Bible we see how start it is.
Psalm 1, talking about a life flourishing says this:
Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
This is an image of flourishing and delight. Those who delight in the law of the Lord and who follow him are like tall luxurious trees that are nurtured and grow.
But the contrast is the stump.
It is a shocking image.
Earlier in Isaiah we hear that God has raised up adversaries against his people to bring judgement on them for ignoring Him and for ignoring his laws.
The people have failed to act justly, to care for the poor, and to be God’s faithful people. Because of this they have faced God’s judgment.
Chapter 11 depicts Israel as a stump, a tree that has been cut down by the Assyrian forces. All seems lost.
But there is another part to this image.
This stump is one with a promise of a shoot of new growth coming out of it.
The stump of this tree has roots, it can still grow, it isn’t completely done with, God has not given up on His promises to the people.
Talking about the promise of God that a remnant will thrive and grow, Isaiah 10:20 says: “On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.”
Here the Lorax’s line comes back to me:
“A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.”
The invitation for the people is to lean on the Lord, to look to Him.
God promises that he will provide a way forward for the people, that there is hope beyond their present situation.
The one to bring this hope is the promised shoot, the promised branch that will come from the stump of Jesse.
We will look at this in a moment, but first let’s skip ahead a bit to the picture of peace that this passage in Isaiah gives us.
What is this hope which Isaiah is pointing toward?
The Picture of Peace – Lion and Lamb
(slide) From verse 6 we hear that the “wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze and their young lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den…”
This imagery is outrageous isn’t it?
Thinking of this kind of imagery Woody Allen once said: “The wolf shall lie down with the lamb. But the lamb won’t get much sleep!”
Nature as we know is red in tooth and claw. I grew up being fascinated by wildlife documentaries that have given me plenty of evidence that lions hunt to kill and that nature while creative and glorious is not always nice.
Can you really imagine a vegan wolf? Little red riding hood would be a very different story.
What parent in their right mind would let their child play near the whole of a snake? I can feel my parental anxiety rising up within me at the thought.
The image is absurd and is meant to provoke wonder and outrage.
Some commentators have spent a lot of time spilling ink over this image of Isaiah’s speculating if it is indeed to be taken literally. Is it saying that in the age to come animals will cuddle up instead of kill?
But I think that to get bogged down in such speculation isn’t the point of Isaiah.
Isaiah paints an evocative picture of hope for God’s people using figurative language. These are images, pictures of peace, that speak of God’s kingdom and what it looks like when it comes.
When God’s kingdom comes violence, insecurity, danger, and evil will be done away with.
God’s creatures will relate to one another in a different way.
John Calvin applied this image to God’s people saying “the people of Christ will have no inclination to inflict injury or be fierce or cruel. They were previously like lions or leopards but will now be like sheep or lambs, for they will have laid aside every cruel and brutish disposition.”[1]
The image is evocative of a paradise of nature, living in harmony and peace. Our minds might go back to the beginning of the Bible, to Genesis and the creation story. God creates the world, giving people stewardship over it, to care, to tend, to be creative and reproduce.
Sin enters the picture; people step out of the boundaries and vocation given to them by God and things go wrong. Ever since that moment we see in the story of the Bible this brokenness spill out all over the place. This has an effect not just on people but on all of creation.
The picture of the wolf and lamb lying together is a hopeful picture of a restored world, one in which all will be well. It is an image of the world as it will one day be when God’s kingdom comes in all its fullness.
But how will this happen? How will this peace come? How will this outrageous vision become a reality?
Let’s skip back a bit to verse 2 and here we see a description of the one who is promised to come and bring God’s peaceful kingdom.
Verses 2-5 paint a picture of the Messianic King.
The Righteous King – A description
The people of Israel had a very rocky history of kings. Some were godly, plenty were ungodly. They were a very mixed bag.
Despite what they were like, the kings played an important role in Israel either for better or worse. They were responsible for leading the people and establishing a just and flourishing society.
In Isaiah 11 we hear about the promise of a good and righteous king.
We are told of the qualifications of the king – He is wise and understanding, knowledgeable and fears the Lord. We are told of the justice of the king – He will judge fairly, caring for the poor and the meek. In his authority he will judge the wicked. He is faithful and righteous.
This King we are told will be empowered by the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel, and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
In 1 Samuel we see that both Saul and David as kings were anointed with the Spirit for their tasks. To use the phrase that “God’s spirit was upon someone” was to say that they were acting with a capacity and authority beyond themselves.
The people of Isaiah’s day were desperate for this kind of leadership. They had seen many kings come and go, many of whom were self-serving and wicked.
There was a desperate need for leadership.
No regular king would do.
What Isaiah looks forward to is the Messiah, the promised king from God who will rescue the people decisively.
Isaiah in chapter 11 points to Jesus as the King to come. That is why as we begin to anticipate Christmas, we read this passage.
What we see in Isaiah 11 is Israel depicted as a stump, dry and dead.
What we also see is a glimmer of hope, a new shoot.
And it is a small and surprising beginning.
The stump of Jesse is a humble description in comparison to the proud trees of Assyria depicted by Isaiah.
Verse 6 says “a little child shall lead them.”
The images in this passage illustrate the humility with which the new king will come to rule.
Isaiah calls us to look to this king of promise with hope.
Advent people – our invitation…
This advent as we consider this “picture of peace” from Isaiah, what might God’s invitation to us be?
What if we come back to the image of the stump?
Maybe you know what it’s like to feel a bit like that stump? The invitation from Isaiah is to look to the green shoot of hope that can be found in Jesus. It may be small, it may be humble, but if we ponder it, I believe that we will notice God at work in each of our lives in ways we might have missed. This is the good news – that God takes us as we are, as dry, broken, stumps, and in Jesus Christ he heals us and brings new life. The invitation for you is to come to him.
Or maybe you know what it is like to feel like that tall, proud, leafy, green tree planted by the river. That’s good. But there is a reminder in Isaiah never to be puffed up in pride in that place. Isaiah reminds us that we are to constantly look to God with thanks and praise for every good gift. The invitation for you is to humbly give thanks.
The story of the Lorax finishes with the Once-ler giving the boy in the story a seed to plant the very last truffula tree.
The boy becomes part of the restoration of the truffula forest.
Our final invitation is to remember that this story is not just for us. We are called to invite others to meet Jesus, the true and good king, the prince of peace who gives us healing and hope. May we like Isaiah the prophet have the news of his coming on our lips this advent. Amen.
[1] John Calvin, Crossway Commentaries, Isaiah