Jeremiah 23:5; Luke 3:23,31

Isn't it curious to see words we use to commonly have deeper meaning and actually have origin in Scripture?  I can remember my grandfather calling my brother a little sprout when teasing him. I never gave it much thought at the time, until the commercial for the Jolly Green Giant were popular.  The giant had a son called Sprout.  That made sense and it was a fun play on words.

A few days ago we talked about family trees, searching for members of our family line and discovering things about our ancestors we did not know before.  Jesus comes from David's family tree or the root of Jesse.  David is known as a man after God's own heart.

The Scripture for today refers to Jesus as a righteous Branch and my commentary defines Branch in this instance as a luxuriant sprout. Luxuriant means lush, fertile, flourishing.  The Jeremiah text is heralding a rich shoot, branching out on God's family tree.  Over and over again the Old Testament foretold of Jesus' coming. Don't you love it when the Old Testament meets the New Testament?  All the references to trees, family trees, branches, vines, tree of life, (we could go on), come to fruition with Jesus' birth.

The days are coming,” declares the LORD, 

“when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, 

a King who will reign wisely 

and do what is just and right in the land.

Read the text here