Righteousness

This first Advent week we begin worship with:

Isaiah 11:1-5 

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.

In today’s passage, nothing is left of Jesse’s kingdom.  It is a mere stump.  For this to work, God must act, and He does!

A new shoot comes forth and on Him, the Spirit (rûaḥ) rests (nûaḥ) [Listen to the rhyme].  This is not the inaction of resting.  It is the abiding presence that provides all that is needed for Him to take His rightful place as king - wisdom, understanding, counsel and might, . . . but He does not.

Instead His delight remained in the fear (yir'â) of the LORD (Yᵊhōvâ) [Again, listen to the rhyme] and He resisted the temptation to rule so that He could become our righteousness:

Matthew 4:8-11

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God

and him only shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.