Summer 2026: ‘Wildfires’ – The Holy Spirit, from Genesis to Revelation
This summer, we’ll immerse ourselves in the person and work of the Holy Spirit: from the first verses of Genesis, to the last verses of Revelation. Often the ‘forgotten’ part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is there at Creation, and also at the climax of the New Creation, throughout history revealing the reality of God’s presence and power to the world. So, let’s celebrate the Wildfire of the Holy Spirit, and continue to welcome His presence in our lives today!
Note: all Inspirations are now uploaded for the week – scroll down for Friday’s, and earlier posts…
Saturday 4th July – Luke 11:1-13 ‘Ask to receive’
One of the huge questions people often ask about the Holy Spirit is this: if the Holy Spirit is given to all followers of Jesus (which it is), why does Jesus tell us to ask for it? Which is it? Is it automatic or only given on request?
This question has caused endless debates within the Church. So you will find, in the blue corner, those who advocate that we don’t need to keep asking because it is a once-for-all gift which we just need to cultivate. And, in the red corner, those who make much of the need to keep asking, that what we get at the start isn’t enough. Seconds away…!
As is so often the case, the argument tends to polarise towards either/or, when actually the bible seems quite comfortable with ‘both/and’.
(As an aside, you’ll find this a good rule of thumb in most debates about faith – the answer is usually not either/or, but both/and. We get into trouble whenever we try to ‘resolve it’ – far better to embrace both truths and live accordingly.)
The best way I can explain it is to think about birthdays. My son’s birthday is next week. He usually asks for various things for his birthday, which is great, and Alise and I will love to buy those things for him (mostly!). But since he’s our beloved son, we would have bought him gifts anyway. He doesn’t only get presents because he asked! He is guaranteed to receive gifts – it’s just also nice for him to ask, so we know what to get.
Our Heavenly Father, God, looks at his children in much the same way. Note that this teaching on the Holy Spirit is set in the context of the Lord’s Prayer. We pray to a loving heavenly parent who is delighted to give good gifts to his children. So we ask for the Spirit (v13) as one of the good gifts, knowing that God loves to answer that prayer. He’s given us the Spirit anyway, but there’s no harm asking, is there?
And because, as we observed yesterday, the Spirit is a person, with a personality, we can also afford to be specific. Yes, we can pray for more of ‘the Spirit’ in general, just as my son might say ‘just buy me stuff, dad’. Or we can pray that the Spirit fills us with peace, or joy, or gives us the gift of teaching, or discernment into a situation – the equivalent of a more specific birthday gift, like, say an Xbox game or a pair of Nike shorts.
So let’s rejoice that God gives the Spirit unconditionally to all who follow Jesus. And let’s also rejoice that we can keep asking, confident in the words of our master, Jesus: ‘How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.’
What good gifts will you ask for today?
Friday 3rd July – John 4:19-24 ‘Spirit and truth’
‘May the force be with you.’ One of the most famous lines of cinematic dialogue, and one which certainly as a young lad in the playground I would happily shout at my mates as we ran around, pretending we were flying the Millennium Falcon or fighting Darth Vader.
Looking back now as an adult, I feel somewhat more ambivalent towards this phrase. Strange as it is to admit, it’s been hugely influential in shaping not just our media but also our religious culture. The tendency of the last 50 years or so has been towards seeing spirituality in terms of vague forces of good and evil which are unpredictable but can be harnessed by those ‘in the know’. The divine spirit is seen as a force, and naturally we want this ‘force’ (whatever you call it) to be with us.
Unfortunately, even Christians can be swayed by this way of seeing things – misunderstanding biblical images of wind or fire to give the impression that the Holy Spirit is really another force as well. In worship we have become increasingly prone to mistaking emotional highs for the true work of the Spirit, simply because we ‘feel it’. It’s the Star Wars Heresy (my name for it!) by another name.
Thankfully, Jesus sets us straight in this lovely story of his meeting with the Samaritan woman. There’s so much we could say about it, but today I just want to observe that the Spirit is not a force, it’s a person. And the great thing about that is that we don’t have to try and create situations where we can somehow feel a ‘force’ – if we want to know what the Spirit is like, we can look at the visible manifestation of this person (Jesus) and see. That’s so much better, isn’t it!
Since Jesus loves the truth, it follows that one of the most important qualities of the Holy Spirit is truth. And, as Jesus says in our passage today, real worship involves us worshipping ‘in Spirit and in truth’. The two work together – the Word of God and the Spirit of God. They both have the same goal in mind – to glorify Jesus in the world and in our lives.
They also work together in particular ways: Jesus tells us that the truth sets us free (John 8:32); St Paul tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). Both the Spirit and the truth lead us to freedom. Elsewhere, Paul also says that as our mind is renewed (truth) so we are able to offer our lives to God, which is our ‘spiritual act of worship’ (Romans 12:1-2). Spirit and truth working together to help us lead worshipful lives.
Spirit and truth, truth and Spirit. Two sides of the same coin (and who ever heard of a one-sided coin?). It’s what a real relationship with God looks like. Jesus the living word, dwelling in us by his Spirit.
What truth is the Spirit speaking to you today? May it lead you into freedom!
Thursday 2nd July – John 3:1-8 ‘Born of the Spirit’
What do you think about when you hear the phrase ‘born again’? Sadly many of us tend to associate the phrase with one particular expression of the Christian faith, with (what might seem to us) the ill-fitting cultural clothing that comes with it. We may think of a fiery preacher in an expensive white suit yelling ‘you must be booooorn again’, or something equally memorable and unhelpful.
It is a great shame that the phrase has come into disrepute in recent years, because it’s one of the most important, dare I say it fundamental, phrases of the bible. And it wasn’t invented by Christians, not even folksy tabernacle evangelists. It was Jesus himself who said it. More than that, it wasn’t just something he recommended as a good way to look at the journey of faith: a nice idea we could use to illustrate a spiritual truth. He was far more insistent: ‘You must be born again.’
What’s the big deal? In the end it comes down to one of the great questions of life: how do we live the life that God wants us to? In the bible, the complexities of this question are neatly boiled down into one condensed but highly meaningful contrast: the flesh versus the Spirit. The ‘flesh’ is all about human effort: we live the life God wants by trying really hard – knowing all the rules and rituals, and then doing our best to follow them. This is how most religious worldviews operate, but there’s just one small problem – it doesn’t work. Our flesh is too easily corrupted, and even when we do the right things, we often do them for the wrong reasons.
The in-breaking kingdom of Jesus is totally different. When we follow him, his Spirit dwells in us and transforms us from the inside out. We begin a new life, indwelt by God. As our heart is changed and we develop Christlike virtues – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness – so we naturally ‘do’ the right things.
How can we describe this new life? Well, Jesus thought of one very good way: we are – you guessed it – ‘born again’ (v3, v6). Born of the Spirit (v5) i.e. to a new spiritual life, a God-infused heart which slowly learns to live as God wants. This is the Spiritual life, in the truest, most literal sense of the word. And, Jesus says, there is no other way: ‘no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless…’ (v5).
How can we tell where we are? Like the wind, we can’t ‘see’ God’s Spirit, but we can see its effects (v8). Take a few moments today to think about the ways you’ve changed and grown as a person as you’ve walked with God – that’s the effect of the divine Wind. And give thanks! Be encouraged that God continues to be at work in you.
And if you’re not yet sure about following Jesus, but would like to change, Jesus gives us the blueprint today. The great news is that it’s not about you, or your effort. It’s about having a heart which is open to Jesus, which lets him in to do what you can’t. Why not let God begin his new life in you today?
Wednesday 1st July – Luke 4:1-14 ‘Streams in the desert’
All of us, at one time or another, experience the wilderness. I remember just such a season back in 2002. I called it a season for ‘burying my face in the dust’. As I tried to articulate my thoughts, I wrote at the time that I was ‘easily broken, like a twig in a gale…. The world sits heavy on my shoulders; even gifts are burdens that weigh like boulders.’
Eventually I pulled through. My spirits lifted, not least with the arrival of a beautiful daughter, and a new calling as a father. Years later I was drawn back to today’s passage, and spotted something I hadn’t before. Jesus was ‘led by the Spirit’ into the desert (v1). In other words, his wilderness season was not a defeat or a mistake, it was part of his spiritual journey, one which God used to equip him for what lay ahead.
I too came to realise that what God had done in me was also significant in that season. It was undeniably painful, but also purifying. I learned my limits, but also my strengths. I had a greater capacity to empathise with others’ troubles. I was truly grateful at how strong and patient my wonderful wife was. And through it all, God had fathered me, and led me out the other side. Although, unlike Jesus, some of my wilderness season had been of my own making, nevertheless I could affirm that I too had been ‘led by the Spirit’ through the desert.
Desert seasons are horrible. Nobody asks for them. Few of us see the point of them until much later. And yet, God is in them. As Elijah found out all those years ago, God does some of his best work in remote places. He is found not just in the wind and fire but in the gentle whisper, the sound of drawn-out silence.
And after Jesus had undergone his own testing, he returned ‘in the power of the Spirit’ (v14). Note the change of language – before he was led by the Spirit; now he was empowered. That is often the outcome of a fruitful desert time. We may carry wounds: but these very wounds become our source of authority and gifting. The pain of loss turns into a capacity to counsel others. Our new-found humility enables us to carry responsibility better. Our learning of spiritual disciplines to counteract the desert experience become the practices which fuel our lives from now on. In other words: our weakness, surrendered to God, becomes our strength. We no longer live on bread alone – our physical capacities – but on God’s sustaining word.
Maybe this is a desert time for you. Take heart – God is in it. It may not feel like that now: but you will bounce back, in the power of the Spirit. ‘For when I am weak, then I am strong.’
Tuesday 30th June – Luke 2:25-32 ‘Moved by the Spirit’
I love this story. I make no apologies for including it in these daily inspirations. Simeon has got to be one of my favourite characters in the Bible. He only appears in this one episode, but what a cameo! A lifetime of faithfully walking in God’s ways crystallised in this one moment.
I don’t know if you’ve ever got up one morning with an idea that there was something you absolutely had to do. Or perhaps you pass someone in the street and know you need to talk to them. Or maybe it’s a phone call you’ve got to make. And you discover to your surprise and delight that you called at just the right time, or the person you approached needed help, or that thing you ‘had’ to do was something you would have missed if you’d left it till tomorrow.
If you’ve had that experience, you may well have been ‘moved’ by the Spirit. Our God is a God who speaks. And still speaks today. So we shouldn’t be too surprised to get these ‘urges’ every so often.
But let’s notice that Simeon’s crowning moment is not the first mention of the Spirit in this passage. Simeon’s whole life was infused by the Spirit – the text says simply that the Spirit was ‘on him’ (v25). God can speak to anyone: but it happens a lot more often to those with whom He dwells all the time. The more we allow God to soak our lives, the more these ‘divine promptings’ are likely to happen. Like picking out your family in a crowd, it’s much easier to spot things you’re totally familiar with.
Simeon’s moment was also preceded by a prior revelation. He already knew that he would see the Messiah one day. One of the gifts of the Spirit is the gift of prophecy – the capacity to see what God is up to. And Simeon clearly had this gift: and he believed what God had told him.
So, when he got the ‘nudge’ one day that he had to go to the temple, his lifetime of spiritual soaking and seeing led him to one simple act of obedience which changed the world.
You’re never too old to be used by God. That would be a fine summary of Simeon’s story. Or to put it another way: if you’re used to walking with God – such that the Spirit is ‘on you’ too – some days you get to notice a significant step that you’re being asked to take. What might that be at the moment? We might feel like the most unlikely people to be ‘moved’ by God – so it’s just as well that it’s not up to us! Perhaps our great and gracious God still has work for you to do?
Monday 29th June – Luke 1:11-17 ‘Filled for fruitfulness’
‘Behold, I am doing a new thing! …Do you not perceive it?’ (Isaiah 43:19)
We use the word revolution a lot nowadays. But in truth, genuine revolutions are very rare. Arguably, the Covid-19 pandemic witnessed (at least temporarily) a revolution in church life greater than anything since the Reformation, as large sections of the global church moved online, and formed their community and mission in a completely new way. Whilst the change for some churches proved temporary, we may still look back in decades to come and understand that something fundamental truly shifted in that season. Forced by circumstances beyond our control, nevertheless God birthed a great and unforeseen “new thing”. ‘Do we not perceive it?’
The prophet Isaiah also foresaw a ‘new thing’ – only this time its effects would only come to pass almost six centuries later. Many times over the vast intervening period, God’s people must have wondered, ‘is this the new thing?’ …only to witness so many false dawns. And then, suddenly, a faithful old priest wanders into the temple one evening and…. everything changes. A new prophet is coming, miraculously conceived, and uniquely ‘filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born’ (v15).
I do feel some sympathy for Zechariah’s incredulity. But, at long last, what Isaiah saw all those years ago was finally coming to pass. The Spirit was once again on the move, and the world would never be the same.
It is interesting to reflect on the significance of John’s early spiritual anointing. We might rightly draw the conclusion that, in the age of the Spirit, children are now included in the outworking of God’s purposes as never before. And many of us can testify that this is true. We might also see John’s unique anointing as a prophetic staging post to another child – John’s cousin – who is not just filled with the Spirit, but conceived by God the Holy Spirit six months later.
But today, let’s notice that John’s spiritual anointing was for a purpose. He was filled for fruitfulness. His task would be to ‘go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah… to make ready a people prepared for the Lord’ (v17).
We can sometimes caricature seeking the Spirit as some sort of sanctified ego trip, to feel something like a great big cuddle from God. And, occasionally, that is what we need. But most of the time, God draws near to us and fills us with His Spirit for a reason. We are filled for fruitfulness. God has plans for each of us, which He empowers us to fulfil by His Spirit.
As w3e discovered, even lockdowns and viruses did not frustrate God’s purposes. Nothing does. We all still have a part to play. How is God filling you for fruitfulness? For what is the Spirit empowering you in this season?
Saturday 27th June – Zechariah 4:1-9 ‘Not by might nor power’
The wind and the sun once had an argument as to who was the most powerful. The sun smiled: ‘See how I can dry up the desert.’ ‘Pah!’ scoffed the wind. ‘That’s not power! Look at what I can do to the trees, even entire oceans. See how they tremble when I blow.’ As they were arguing, a man walked below them, dressed in an overcoat. ‘Tell you what,’ said the sun. ‘The one who can get the overcoat off the man wins.’
The wind agreed straightaway: ‘That’s easy – I’ll go first.’ And the wind blew. And blew. And blew some more. The man was nearly blown off his feet, but every time the wind blew, he wrapped his coat more tightly round his body than before.
After an hour, the wind was exhausted. ‘My turn, I think,’ said the sun, who appeared beyond a cloud and shone bright and beautiful in the sky. Within minutes the man mopped his brow and immediately took off his coat.
We humans love to exercise power. ‘Might is right’ is an old saying, and tragically common in its application. We battle in relationships, in committees, in government, against nations. We lift weights for our muscles, and play Sudoku for our brain power. We talk about willpower, horsepower, firepower, superpower… even flower-power! You want to get things done? You need power.
Or maybe not. Maybe in the crazy, upside-down, topsy-turvy kingdom of God, different rules apply. The prophet Zechariah was worried: how on earth was the temple going to be rebuilt? The Jewish exiles had returned to Israel, but they lacked the means to do what they believed God was calling them to do. They needed a plan, a strategy, they needed money and people, talents and resources… or did they?
God’s plan was different: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.’ Every true work of God is birthed in the realm of the Spirit. Sure, God often needs our efforts at some level. But if we make the mistake of thinking that it’s all about us, we’re in trouble. Psalm 127 provides a healthy corrective: ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain.’ Or as a wise teacher once said to a young preacher: ‘Never forget that it’s what God does between your lips and their ears that really matters.’
You may be facing a huge task or challenge, and you know your own resources aren’t up to it. Let this word be an encouragement to you today. There is another way. And our confidence is found in the last word of v6. Whose Spirit is it? The Lord Almighty’s. No human power even comes close.
Friday 26th June – Joel 2:23-32 ‘The Spirit poured out’
Have you ever been caught in a summer storm? The sensation of being drenched by warm rain is something extraordinary to experience. Over the years I’ve been caught in a few such deluges, and if you’re lucky or unlucky (take your pick) to be caught in one, you’ll have some measure of the true sense of the word ‘downpour’.
What does it look like when the Spirit is poured out? How are we ‘drenched’? The prophecy given to the prophet Joel suggests that the most obvious mark will be an increase in direct communication from God himself. The sort of encounters usually reserved for ‘holy people’ like prophets – prophecies and visions – will now be commonplace for young and old, male and female: in other words, all of God’s people.
The church has largely had an uneasy relationship with this idea. Whether through fear of losing control or risk of this gift being abused, generally we have been more comfortable restricting the outpouring of this kind of spiritual anointing to certain ‘leaders’.
But this was not God’s intention. The kingdom is for the lost, the last and the least, and often it is those we least expect who become agents of God’s will. And not just in the pages of the bible. For example, some years ago one of our best friends ended up leaving London and becoming a missionary through a word spoken to her by one of the children she taught at Sunday school. The child, I suspect, was unaware of how God had used her, but the word transformed our friend’s life!
It is important, though, to set this wonderful prophecy of Joel in its proper context. The verses before and after vv28-31 describe what the true salvation of God looks like – both at a corporate and individual level. God’s favour is restored to his people, and ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ This is vital when talking of things like prophecy and visions, because it reminds us that God’s ultimate purpose is our salvation, in the broadest sense of the word: not just forgiveness of sins, but renewal and wholeness at every level – becoming the people God made us to be.
And as God draws us into this wholeness, as we truly recognise that He is our God and we are his children, so the Spirit is poured out into our hearts. The Spirit is not an impersonal force but a healing relationship of love. This guards against the sort of ‘prophecies’ that give such revelations a bad name. It also encourages us to trust that as we grow in our relationship with God, He really can, and does, speak to us with words, dreams and visions.
You may or may not have received something like this. But why not seize faith to believe that one day – maybe even soon – you just might?
Thursday 25th June – Daniel 5:8-12 ‘Infectious integrity’
Every year or two I go on a pilgrimage. Not the usual kind of pilgrimage, I must confess. Mine is to the Rembrandt rooms at the National Gallery in London. Mostly I go to gaze at the two self-portraits: one painted when Rembrandt was 34 and at the peak of his powers; the other a few months before his death aged 63, penniless and broken. The old Rembrandt almost fades into the canvas, and yet carries a new humility and compassion which touches me profoundly.
In the room you can also see one of Rembrandt’s most famous and greatest paintings, which depicts the scene described in our story today from Daniel 5. (You can take a look on their website here.) Like the story, it’s called Belshazzar’s feast, and perfectly captures the dramatic moment when the King sees the ethereal divine hand appear and is seized by terror (vv5-6). Here is a fantastic image of human pride and power laid low, humbled by the greater power of the Almighty. The most powerful man in the world at the time (not for much longer!) is revealed for the fragile human being he was.
King Belshazzar was a pagan, but what is remarkable about this story is how the terrified court quickly turns to an elderly Jew for help. Daniel had faithfully served Belshazzar’s father for decades, and had helped out King Nebuchadnezzar in a similar way in ch2. Although their worldviews were very different, Daniel’s Spirit-filled wisdom was plain for all to see, and held in high honour even by a pagan court. By bravely living his faith out in the public square, Daniel’s infectious integrity had quietly exercised profound influence at the heart of power, and continued to do so. Through Daniel and others like him, God revealed his glory, such that even Nebuchadnezzar met with God in a deep and life-changing way (ch4).
The whole book of Daniel – including this story in ch5 – is a healthy reminder that when the Spirit of God is at work, the effects can be seen, even among those who would not profess the same faith. They may describe it in different ways – ‘the spirit of the holy gods’ (sic, v11) – but they knew divinely inspired wisdom when they saw it.
Many of us today are very conscious that followers of Jesus are very much in the minority, that most of our colleagues, friends and maybe even family do not share our beliefs. But we can take heart from the example of Daniel that a deep spiritual life always speaks to those around us, perhaps in very unexpected ways.
And who knows, we too may be given opportunities to speak and to bring the presence of the true and living God, just as Daniel was. Thanks to the indwelling Spirit of God, we may be far more influential than we realise….
Wednesday 24th June – Ezekiel 36:24-28 ‘A heart of flesh’
How does a person become good? This fundamental question has been exercising humanity since time began. We are moral beings; we understand concepts of goodness and badness, we know that some lives are better than others, and some actions are better than others. But knowing something is one thing: doing it is a different matter!
Many huge brains have thought long and hard about this, and many societies have orchestrated elaborate schemes to engineer it. But it basically comes down to one of two options: either you try really hard to be good yourself, or someone else forces you instead (usually through a system of compliance and punishment). It helps if you have a clear and detailed understanding of what it means to be good – and this is actually harder than it sounds, it’s a massive problem at the moment in our post-truth culture. But assuming you know roughly what you should be doing, the usual ‘answer’ to being good is all about human effort: either self-motivated, or enforced by others.
But what if that doesn’t actually work? What if this whole endeavour is ultimately bound to fail? What if even the most perfect law can’t make people good? What then?
This was God’s dilemma with Israel. 700 years of trying, and the basic problem was the same. God’s people either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do the right things consistently. And the bible insists that this is not the fault of a particular nation: it is the human condition. Hard as we try, no-one can be good all the time. And even those we call ‘good people’ are often driven by decidedly mixed motives.
A totally new solution is needed. The problem is not the law or our capacity to act – it is what’s inside us. If this isn’t right, then our actions (even our ‘good’ ones) won’t be either.
There’s much more to say about this in future daily inspirations. But for now, let’s be encouraged by this beautiful promise given to Ezekiel: ‘I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.’ In other words, God says, you’ll start to feel what I feel, to be ‘soft’ to my love and my ways. But you can’t do it yourself. This is a work of the Spirit: ‘I will put my Spirit in you, and move you to follow my decrees.’
Today, let God fill your heart again. Ask Him for that new heart, even if you haven’t ever done that before. And ask Him to move you, to show you where your heart needs to soften, to be moved to follow Him. And give thanks that it’s not how hard you try, but how much God’s goodness can transform yours.
Tuesday 23rd June – Isaiah 61:1-3 ‘The year of the Lord’s favour’
A 30-year-old man arrives for weekly worship in his home town. He’s lived there since he was a child, worked in the town with his father, and no doubt most of his family are sat with him that morning. It’s his turn to read from the scriptures, and when the time comes he gets up and walks to the front. The eyes of everyone are fastened on him, and he begins to read….
It could have been any ordinary Saturday 2,000 years ago. A traditional community, a traditional synagogue, the familiar rhythms, the same faces, a particular quirk of the Nazareth reading rota (nothing changes – every worshipping community needs a rota!). True enough, the passage was especially stirring – Isaiah 61, one of the great prophecies about the liberation of Israel, the new and radical in-breaking of the kingdom of God: ‘The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me…’
But no-one could have foreseen what happened next…. ‘Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ Those words did not just shatter the peace of a quiet, conservative, rural community – they changed the world. The reader had just claimed that the anointed Servant of God promised 600 years ago by the kingdom of Israel’s greatest prophet was here – and not just here, was him!
And so an uneventful Saturday in Nazareth finds its way into the pages of Scripture – Luke ch4 – and heralds the start of Jesus’ public, Messianic ministry. Jesus claimed to be the fulfilment of Isaiah 61: soaked in the Spirit, he was the One who would bring about God’s true purposes for humanity.
What is the kingdom of God about? Isaiah 61 is a pretty good summary. Ultimately it is about God’s favour freely given to flawed human beings. What does that favour look like? Just as the passage describes it: it looks like good news, healing, freedom, joy and praise. Those who were once beaten up and bowed down can now become a ‘planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.’
And this is what the Spirit of the Lord comes to bring – for us and for our world. It is good news! Our past does not have to define our future. What has bound us, or blinded us, or led us into mourning and despair can be put right. We can enjoy ‘the year of the Lord’s favour’ – not just this calendar year, but every year.
Today, take a few moments to remind yourself of all the things that make what we believe good news. It could be the wonderful promises of this passage, the assurance of God’s unconditional love, or anything else besides. Jot them down if it helps. And let that turn our despair into praise.
Monday 22nd June – Isaiah 11:1-9 ‘New shoots’
The opening chapters of Isaiah make for fairly sobering reading. Whilst there are the great prophecies we treasure and read at Christmas – the virgin birth of ch7, the ‘Wonderful Counsellor’ of ch9 – Israel is largely challenged by God for its lack of attention to Him and His ways.
Isaiah prophecies that other nations will overpower them as a result: and yet, studded amidst the calamitous prophecies of judgement, there is always hope. The nations surrounding Israel will likewise too be brought low eventually, their leadership judged for its pride and self-reliance: ‘See, the Lord Almighty will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled….’ So ends ch10: what comes next? How will God’s people recover? These timeless words are what follows:
‘A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit.’ (v1)
Renewal is coming! And note, it is not a brand new plan, rather the restoration and true recovery of an old one. A righteous ruler filled with the Spirit of God (v2-5), who will lead the people into the glorious future that God plans for His people (v6-9).
As we have seen over the last couple of weeks, the Old Testament had its fair share of Spirit-anointed leaders. The Spirit was apt to empower particular people for particular things, and, looking at v2, these famous characters all manifested some of the attributes of true spiritual maturity: Solomon had the Spirit of wisdom and understanding; Samson had the Spirit of might (though definitely not of counsel), David excelled in the knowledge and fear of the Lord. But none of them had the lot.
Until now. Someone new was coming. Someone who possessed all of these qualities, and more. Whose judgements would protect the poor and needy, and judge the wicked; who would be known for faithfulness; and ultimately who would usher in an era of peace and harmony.
God’s people had to wait 700 years for this person: Jesus, the true and righteous king. And whilst his gentle rule continues to extend into human hearts across the world, we too ache with longing for the final reign of peace promised in this remarkable chapter. It will come, as surely as the waters cover the sea. But, for now, we wait, and pray, and try to copy our boss as best we can. To grow in wisdom and understanding. To delight in God. To seek the peace and justice of this world.
The shoot of Isaiah has become a great tree, and we are branches grafted in. Today, let’s pray that our branch bears fruit, filled with the same Spirit that rests on him.
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