A Tender Plant out of dry ground

[VictoryinJesus]

Isaiah 53:1–4​

Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

For He grew up before Him
like a tender shoot,
like a root out of parched ground.

He has no form or majesty
that we should look upon Him,
no appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

He was despised and forsaken by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
like one from whom people hide their faces,
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

I put this under debate because I don’t know if everyone agrees.
When you read the above do see this tender plant grown put of dry ground:
Is the text speaking of Jesus Christ?
Or is the text speaking of Israel?
When I looked up the passage since it’s been in my mind lately…
Google said some say it’s Israel and some say it’s Christ.
I’m curious but I also want to help… I don’t see a debate.

 

[Lambano]

Some say Christ IS Israel personified.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Some say Christ IS Israel personified.

Yes I can see that as valid.
For me it’s both. Because of the fig tree where Christ should be the root, and Israel the branches. So I agree just as Christ is the Head, and His many members the body. It’s both because they are One?

 

[Lambano]

Yes I can see that as valid.
For me it’s both. Because of the fig tree where Christ should be the root, and Israel the branches. So I agree just as Christ is the Head, and His many members the body. It’s both because they are One?

Or because Christ sums up all of what Israel was meant to be? (With nod to theologian N.T. Wright here.)

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Or because Christ sums up all of what Israel should be?

The reason this helped me is I do read the whole passage in Isaiah 53 as speaking directly (prophetically) of Christ as the Lamb of God. It helped though to teach me it can be both. So when my husband and I have differing views… the fig tree (root and branches) taught me to consider my husbands perspective because sometimes it can be both. How sometimes two are saying the same thing but arguing as if it can’t be both.

 

[Rockerduck]

Jesus is the man of sorrows. It also reflects the death of Rachel with birth of Benjamin in Gen 35:18. Rachel named Benjamin "Ben-oni" meaning "son of my sorrows" , then Jacob changed his name to Benjamin, "son of my right hand". You see Jesus is at the right hand of the Father now.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Jesus is the man of sorrows. It also reflects the death of Rachel with birth of Benjamin in Gen 35:18. Rachel named Benjamin "Ben-oni" meaning "son of my sorrows" , then Jacob changed his name to Benjamin, "son of my right hand". You see Jesus is at the right hand of the Father now.

I didn’t know this. Thanks for sharing.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Two thoughts on: A tender plant out of dry ground. I'll break it into two separate post.

Isaiah 53:1–4 Connection to Job:

A tender plant emerging from dry, parched ground.

Job 38:25–28

“Who has cleft a channel for the flood,

or a way for the thunderbolt,

to bring rain on a land without people,

on a desert without a man in it,

to satisfy the waste and desolate land

and to make the seeds of grass sprout?

...

Who has given it birth?

(Job 38:30) Water becomes hard like stone,
and the surface of the deep is imprisoned.
reference: (Who shall descend into the deep?...
Romans 10:7 that is to bring up Christ again from the dead.’
And ‘hard like stone’ referring to the heart/ground.

The connection: life emerging from desolation in both Isaiah and Job.
God is not dependent on favorable conditions.
He brings life where there is none.

The “tender shoot” in Isaiah reflects the same divine power seen in Job.
Life originating in impossible places, sustained solely by God.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

I’m especially drawn to the phrase “Who has cleft a channel for the flood” (Job 38:25). It echoes Revelation, where the earth opens and swallows the flood the dragon casts out. The imagery of God controlling or redirecting overwhelming waters seems consistent across both passages.

The earth swallowing the flood from the dragon (Revelation 12:15–16)

In Job:

God creates channels for overwhelming waters
He directs what seems uncontrollable

In Revelation:
The dragon sends a flood to destroy
The earth opens and swallows it—redirecting it. I've always wondered how dirt can open to help.
Should we praise the earth that opens? Or God who creates the channel?

(Ezekiel 31:4-5) The waters made it grow, the deep made it high.
With its rivers it continually extended all around its planting place,
and sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.
Therefore, its height was loftier than all the trees of the field.
And it boughs became many and it branches long
Because of the many waters as it spread them out." ...I get this is speaking as a negative. It grew high and lofty.
But that is what makes God redirecting the channels of water to the desolate places so miraculous.
Same as He helps the contrite and brokenhearted.

Also, the woman is carried into the wildness.



When God says:
“Who has cleft a channel for the flood… to bring rain on a dry land… to satisfy the desolate land?”

It’s not random power talk.
It’s revealing something specific:
What God says to Job doesn’t feel empty to me—it feels deeply hopeful. When He describes making channels for the flood and bringing rain to desolate places, it shows that His care extends even to what seems unseen and forgotten. That makes His words less like a rebuke (in Job) and more like a quiet assurance: nothing, and no one, is outside His attention.