In keeping with our tradition in Trinity Kids, we will be celebrating the season of Advent by discussing and following the story of the Advent Jesse Tree. Below, you will find an explanation of the theory and thinking behind the Jesse Tree. Below, you will find a list of the symbols/ scripture for each day as well. I encourage you to create a Jesse Tree for your own family to follow as well. We will be attending to one or two symbols each week during our learning time on Sundays, but your collaboration and partnership at home will support their learning throughout the season. You may choose to purchase a Jesse Tree kit online or create the pieces yourself (check out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/InspiredTraditions, and www.christianbook.com/advent, and many others). Either way, I pray that this will be a pattern of prayer and learning that you include as a tradition in your own family as well. 
The Story of the Jesse Tree
(adapted
from an article on www.crivoice.org)
The Jesse Tree is named from Isaiah 11:1:
"A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of
his roots." It is a vehicle to tell the Story of God in the Old
Testament, and to connect the Advent Season with the faithfulness of God across
4,000 years of history. The Branch is a biblical sign of newness out of discouragement, which became a way to
talk about the expected messiah (for example, Jer 23:5). It is therefore an
appropriate symbol of Jesus the Christ, who is the revelation of the grace and
faithfulness of God.
The Israelites through the descendants of
Abraham were chosen by God to be a light to the nations. When they were
imprisoned by the Egyptians, they cried out to God for deliverance from their
oppression. And God responded: "I have seen the misery of my people in
Egypt, and I have heard their cry . . . I have come to deliver them from the
Egyptians, and to bring them to a good land" (Exod 3:7-8). And so He
entered history in a marvelous way to deliver them and bring them into a place
where they could worship God and serve Him in peace and joy instead of serving
Pharaoh in hard service. God promised to be with them and to be their God, and
they would be His people.
But as they settled into the land that God had
given them, "they forgot God, their Deliverer, who had done great things
in Egypt" (Psa 106:21). As they grew secure in the land, they began to
believe that "my power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me
these things" (Deut 8:17). Even though God had raised up godly leaders
like David, later kings and religious leaders served their own interests, and
the people began to worship the false gods of the land. They even gave
offerings to the idol ba’al, supposedly the god of rain and fertility of the
land, thanking him for the prosperity they enjoyed.
But God grieved because "she did not know
that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished
upon her silver and gold that they used for ba’al" (Hos 2:8). God had
"planted [them] as a choice vine from the purest stock" (Jer 2:21)
and had expected them to grow and flourish and carry out His purposes in the
world. But they had degenerated into a wild bush with worthless fruit.
Because they had forgotten God, they also
forgot the call of God to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with
your God" (Mic 6:8). God sent prophets to warn them of the consequences of
failing to be His people. Amos warned them to "seek me and live" (5:4).
Through Jeremiah, God promised them that if they would turn from their wicked
ways He would bless them and be with them in the land (7:5-7). But he also
said: "Take heed, O Jerusalem, or I shall turn from you in disgust, and
make you a desolation" (6:8).
Some of the people longed for new leaders, a
new "anointed" (Heb: meshiach; Eng: messiah) shepherd king
like David who would help them to become what God had called them to be. But
most of the people would not listen. They continued to worship the idols of
ba'al. They continued to cheat the poor, steal from each other, neglect the
needy, and do all manner of evil.
So God let them go their own way and suffer
the consequences of their choices. The Babylonian armies came and destroyed the
temple, the city of Jerusalem, the land, and took the people into slavery. The
choice planting of God that had such promise, that God had tended so carefully
and encouraged to grow, was cut down and became a mere stump (Isa 5:1-10).
But God did not give up on this people! Even
though they had disobeyed, even though they had forsaken God for other gods,
even though they had miserably failed to be His people and to let Him be their
God, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob still loved them. He had made a
commitment to these people that He would not allow to be undone even by their
rejection of Him.
He had already told them this through the
prophets, but they had not understood then. Jeremiah had promised a day when
God would again plant and build (31:28). And Isaiah had spoken of a time when God
would cause a new shoot, a new king, to spring from the cut-off stump of the
lineage of Jesse, David’s father (11:1). During the Exile, suffering under the
consequences of sin, they had little reason to suppose that God would do
anything new. Still, the old promises echoed across the years, even if
they could not believe them or even understand them.
In spite of their failures, in spite of their
inability to envision a future beyond exile, there came a time when the
prophets again announced a new thing, proclaiming "good tidings" to
the people: "Here is your God!" (Isa 40:1-11). The Exile was ended!
God would bring back to life a nation that was already dead (Eze 37). Long ago
they had been slaves in Egypt, with nothing they could do to change their condition,
and yet God had chosen to deliver.
So now, in the midst of their failure and
hopelessness, God had again entered history as Deliverer. They would have
another chance to be His people, not because they had earned it, no more than
they had deserved it the first time; but simply because God in His grace had
chosen to forgive.
They returned to the land. But across the
years, they again struggled to obey and live up to their calling. They would
never again slide into the worship of false gods. They had learned that
lesson. But the great kingdom that they dreamed of restoring remained
only a dream. They had hoped for a new king like David to lead them into a
glorious future in which they would rule the world. They hoped to throw off the
control of the Greeks and later the Romans and become a great nation. But it
didn’t happen. And they became disillusioned and discouraged.
So, they again hoped for God to raise up a new
king, a new messiah, to deliver them from the oppression of the world. They
longed for peace and deliverance from the tyranny of a sinful world. The
prophets again brought the word of God to them, and promised a newness. Even
though they struggled to understand and believe, they held onto the hope that
the same God who brought slaves out of Egypt, and who brought exiles out of
Babylon, could bring Messiah into the world!
We know the rest of that story. God was
faithful to that promise, and a new King was born in Bethlehem. So we can
exclaim with the old man Simeon: "My eyes have seen your salvation which
you have prepared before all people, a light of revelation to the nations, and
for glory to your people Israel!" (Luke 2:30-32).
But we also know that the world is still with
us. Even though we can have Peace and Joy through the presence of Jesus Christ,
we still long for deliverance from the oppression of sin in the world. We long
for the full reign of the King, and the Kingdom of Peace that He will bring.
So, while we celebrate the birth of the Branch, the new shoot from the stump of
Jesse, we still anticipate with hope the Second Advent, and await the
completion of the promise.
The Jesse Tree helps us retell this story, and
express this hope.
|
Day
|
Topic
|
Scripture
|
|
Day
|
Topic
|
Scripture
|
|
1
|
The
Light of Creation
|
Genesis
1:1
|
14
|
Prophecy
of the Lion and Lamb Resting Together
|
Isaiah
11:10b
|
|
2
|
The
First Sin
|
Isaiah
53:6
|
15
|
Prophecy
of the Prince of Peace
|
John
14:27
|
|
3
|
Inside
the Ark
|
Romans
6:23
|
16
|
Prophecy
of the Gentle Shepherd
|
John
10:27
|
|
4
|
The
Call to Abram
|
Genesis
12:3b
|
17
|
Prophecy
of the Suffering Servant
|
John
10:15
|
|
5
|
Isaac
and the Lamb
|
John
1:29b
|
18
|
Prophecy
of the New Covenant
|
Jeremiah
31:33a
|
|
6
|
Jacob’s
Ladder
|
Genesis
28:15a
|
19
|
Prophecy
of Bethlehem
|
Philippians
4:13
|
|
7
|
Joseph’s
Coat of Many Colors
|
Romans
8:28a
|
20
|
The
Exile
|
Jeremiah
1:8
|
|
8
|
Moses
and the Ten Commandments
|
Psalm
119:11
|
21
|
The
Return to the Land
|
Revelation
22:20
|
|
9
|
Canaan,
the Promised Land of Blessings
|
Psalm
103:2
|
22
|
The
Star
|
Matthew
2:10
|
|
10
|
Ruth
and Boaz
|
Ruth
1:16b
|
23
|
The
Light of the World
|
John
8:12
|
|
11
|
King
David
|
Psalm
23:1
|
24
|
Angels
Proclaiming the Birth of Christ
|
Luke
2:14
|
|
12
|
Josiah
Finds the Law
|
Psalm
119:105
|
25
|
The
Birth of Jesus
|
John
3:16
|
|
13
|
Prophecy
of the Shoot from the Stump of Jesse
|
John
1:14a
|
|
|
|
