The Branch
Bible Study Time 2-26-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 2-26-06
Last week we looked at Psalms, Chapter 1, and saw among other things that God has seen to it that the nation of Israel has stood through the centuries as a nation planted by the rivers of water. Israel has survived even through the most difficult of times and has prospered in spite of persecution and serious threats of annihilation.
The primary reason for Israel’s survival is God’s promise of the Savior who He said would come through the nation of Israel to establish a glorious earthly kingdom. In Genesis 3, we read about the Seed of the woman who will defeat Satan. In Genesis 22 we see that this Savior will be the Seed of Abraham. In 2 Samuel 7, God told David, “I will set up your seed after you, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
Therefore, it was preordained by God’s plan and purpose that this little nation of Israel would survive through the centuries to allow for the Savior who would become the King. The devil has often tried to destroy this nation, but try as he may, he will never succeed. The nation of Israel will survive as a tree planted by the waters.
It is interesting that Zechariah called this promised Seed of Abraham and David the Branch. He said:
Zechariah 6:12
12 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the LORD;
Zechariah said that the coming Savior would branch out of His place. This prophesy was fulfilled when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. He is called the Branch for two reasons. He is the Branch from heaven, and He is the promised Branch of Israel. He was and is fully God and fully man. Jesus said:
John 6:51 (NKJ)
51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
But then Zechariah said that the Branch would not only come out of His place but that the Branch would also build the temple. The prophets of the Old Testament did not see a long period of time between the first and second coming of Christ. Daniel knew that the Messiah would be killed, and He also knew that the Son of Man would return with the clouds of heaven to set up the kingdom. But Daniel did not see 2000 years between the two events.
We live in a mystery age which the prophets did not foresee. Therefore, Zechariah, like Daniel, went straight from Christ’s birth to the kingdom in which Christ will rebuild the temple. Then Zechariah said:
Zechariah 6:13 (NKJ)
13 Yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."
The Messiah will not only serve as the King, but He will serve as the High Priest. This is certainly something that the nation of Israel has yet to experience, and this is probably something that very few people in the Old Testament picked up on. However, it was revealed at least to King David. In Psalms, Chapter 2, verse 6, David prophesies that the Lord will speak out of heaven, saying, “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” Then in Psalms, Chapter 110, verse 4, he speaks of the Messiah and says:
Psalms 110:4 (NKJ)
4 The LORD has sworn and will not relent, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."
The Law of Moses required the High Priest to come not only from the tribe of Levi, but he had to be a direct descendant of Aaron as well. At the same time, God had promised David that the Messiah would come from his lineage as a member of the tribe of Judah. The writer of the book of Hebrews pointed out that a New Covenant would be required for the Messiah to the King and the High Priest at the same time.
Of coarse, Jesus said that He had come to shed the blood of the New Covenant, and therefore, after His death, the stage was set for the kingdom. Jesus Christ is that Branch of Israel who came out of heaven to rebuild the temple and establish the kingdom. When Jesus was on the earth, He told his disciples:
John 15:5-6
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire to be burned.
Jesus Christ was the promised Branch of Israel, and here He plainly states that any branch of Israel which grows outside of Himself will wither and die and will ultimately be cast into the fire.
John the Baptist had a similar message for Israel. Matthew, Chapter 3, says that:
Matthew 3:7-10,12
7 . . . when (John) saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
9 "and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
10 "And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
12 "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
John’s message was a message of repentance and reformation as a means of preparing for the coming kingdom. He knew about the day of wrath which would certainly come before the kingdom. Jesus, on the other hand, taught faith in the Son of Man as the means of preparing for the kingdom. He said:
John 3:36 (NKJ)
36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
God had protected the nation of Israel as a tree planted by the water all through the years, but both John and the Lord Jesus taught that unfaithful Israel is headed for a judgment of fire. Many of the Jews were not true believers. When the kingdom comes, it will not be the 12 sons of Jacob who sit upon twelve thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. These positions will belong to the believing apostles.
All through the years there were many Jews who lived by the Jewish laws as much as they could, and they were probably looked up to and well respected in the Jewish community, but they will not inherit the kingdom because only those Jews who are found in Jesus Christ, the Branch of Israel, will escape the fires of judgment.
The Apostle Paul addressed the unbelief of the nation of Israel in the book of Romans, saying in Chapter 9, verse 6:
Romans 9:6-8
6 . . . they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called."
8 Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
Romans 9:22-24
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 . . . that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Paul says that not all Jews are saved, and God has put up with the unbelieving Jews through the centuries so that He can reveal His glory to those who do believe, of the Jews and also of the Gentiles.
Then in Romans 11, Paul says:
Romans 11:1-4 (NKJ)
1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
3 "Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"?
4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
The Paul concludes in verse 5:
Romans 11:5 (NKJ)
5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Paul says, there has never been a time when all the Jews were saved, but there has always been a small remnant of faithful Jews. He says that it is this small remnant of Jews who will see the salvation of the Lord. Romans 11:7 says:
Romans 11:7 (NKJ)
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
Paul rejoiced, not in Israel’s unbelief, but in the fact that Israel’s unbelief had opened to door of salvation to the Gentiles. Paul could see that all things were working together for good for those who are called according to God’s purpose. In Romans 11, Paul speaks to the Gentiles, saying that if the root of the Jewish tree is holy, then so are the branches. And if some of the Jewish branches were broken off, and you as Gentiles were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the Jewish tree, do not boast against the branches. Remember, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Here again we see the Jewish tree which God planted by the river 2000 years before Christ at the time of Abraham’s calling. Paul says that this tree has required a lot of pruning through the years because many of the branches were dead, but the primary purpose of this tree was to bring forth the true vine, the true Branch, who is Jesus Christ.
Paul says that by God grace, God has allowed even believing Gentiles to be grafted into this Jewish tree so that they can be partakers in the promises which were made to Abraham. Now, does Paul go from here to say that the Gentiles are actually going to take over the whole tree, so that the Jewish tree will become a Gentile tree? No, just the opposite. Paul says that this tree will survive like a tree planted by the water for someday:
Romans 11:26 (NKJ)
26 . . . all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
Some theologians today say that believers of our present age are the nation of Israel in a spiritual sense. They say that the Jews have been cast off forever because of their unbelief and that we have received their promised kingdom. Let us heed the words of Paul who asked, “Has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” Someday the Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Well, are Gentiles today still being grafted into the tree of Israel? No. Those of us who are believers today live in an age in which God has cut off the tree of Israel. He has not cast off the tree of Israel, but He has cut off the tree of Israel. All that remains is the stump which is not dead. It’s just in a dormant stage, waiting for the day when Jesus Christ will bring new growth to the nation of Israel.
Today God is not growing a tree, He’s building a house, a house which He calls the Church, the Body of Christ. Ephesians 2:19 says:
Ephesians 2:19 (NKJ)
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Gentiles today are no longer grafted into the tree of Israel. Gentiles today are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Ephesians 2:20-22 (NKJ)
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
We have seen that someday Jesus Christ will revive that stump of the tree of Israel, and He will rebuild the temple when He establishes the kingdom. But in our present age, we who are members of Christ’s Body are the holy temple of the Lord. We are the dwelling place of the Spirit of God.
If you don’t know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, He is knocking on the door of your heart today. Won’t you open your heart to Him by believing that Christ died for your sins. If you trust Him, He will build a beautiful temple for His Spirit in your heart, and your heart will become the dwelling place of God.
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
The primary reason for Israel’s survival is God’s promise of the Savior who He said would come through the nation of Israel to establish a glorious earthly kingdom. In Genesis 3, we read about the Seed of the woman who will defeat Satan. In Genesis 22 we see that this Savior will be the Seed of Abraham. In 2 Samuel 7, God told David, “I will set up your seed after you, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
Therefore, it was preordained by God’s plan and purpose that this little nation of Israel would survive through the centuries to allow for the Savior who would become the King. The devil has often tried to destroy this nation, but try as he may, he will never succeed. The nation of Israel will survive as a tree planted by the waters.
It is interesting that Zechariah called this promised Seed of Abraham and David the Branch. He said:
Zechariah 6:12
12 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the LORD;
Zechariah said that the coming Savior would branch out of His place. This prophesy was fulfilled when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. He is called the Branch for two reasons. He is the Branch from heaven, and He is the promised Branch of Israel. He was and is fully God and fully man. Jesus said:
John 6:51 (NKJ)
51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
But then Zechariah said that the Branch would not only come out of His place but that the Branch would also build the temple. The prophets of the Old Testament did not see a long period of time between the first and second coming of Christ. Daniel knew that the Messiah would be killed, and He also knew that the Son of Man would return with the clouds of heaven to set up the kingdom. But Daniel did not see 2000 years between the two events.
We live in a mystery age which the prophets did not foresee. Therefore, Zechariah, like Daniel, went straight from Christ’s birth to the kingdom in which Christ will rebuild the temple. Then Zechariah said:
Zechariah 6:13 (NKJ)
13 Yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."
The Messiah will not only serve as the King, but He will serve as the High Priest. This is certainly something that the nation of Israel has yet to experience, and this is probably something that very few people in the Old Testament picked up on. However, it was revealed at least to King David. In Psalms, Chapter 2, verse 6, David prophesies that the Lord will speak out of heaven, saying, “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” Then in Psalms, Chapter 110, verse 4, he speaks of the Messiah and says:
Psalms 110:4 (NKJ)
4 The LORD has sworn and will not relent, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."
The Law of Moses required the High Priest to come not only from the tribe of Levi, but he had to be a direct descendant of Aaron as well. At the same time, God had promised David that the Messiah would come from his lineage as a member of the tribe of Judah. The writer of the book of Hebrews pointed out that a New Covenant would be required for the Messiah to the King and the High Priest at the same time.
Of coarse, Jesus said that He had come to shed the blood of the New Covenant, and therefore, after His death, the stage was set for the kingdom. Jesus Christ is that Branch of Israel who came out of heaven to rebuild the temple and establish the kingdom. When Jesus was on the earth, He told his disciples:
John 15:5-6
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire to be burned.
Jesus Christ was the promised Branch of Israel, and here He plainly states that any branch of Israel which grows outside of Himself will wither and die and will ultimately be cast into the fire.
John the Baptist had a similar message for Israel. Matthew, Chapter 3, says that:
Matthew 3:7-10,12
7 . . . when (John) saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
9 "and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
10 "And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
12 "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
John’s message was a message of repentance and reformation as a means of preparing for the coming kingdom. He knew about the day of wrath which would certainly come before the kingdom. Jesus, on the other hand, taught faith in the Son of Man as the means of preparing for the kingdom. He said:
John 3:36 (NKJ)
36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
God had protected the nation of Israel as a tree planted by the water all through the years, but both John and the Lord Jesus taught that unfaithful Israel is headed for a judgment of fire. Many of the Jews were not true believers. When the kingdom comes, it will not be the 12 sons of Jacob who sit upon twelve thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. These positions will belong to the believing apostles.
All through the years there were many Jews who lived by the Jewish laws as much as they could, and they were probably looked up to and well respected in the Jewish community, but they will not inherit the kingdom because only those Jews who are found in Jesus Christ, the Branch of Israel, will escape the fires of judgment.
The Apostle Paul addressed the unbelief of the nation of Israel in the book of Romans, saying in Chapter 9, verse 6:
Romans 9:6-8
6 . . . they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called."
8 Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
Romans 9:22-24
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 . . . that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Paul says that not all Jews are saved, and God has put up with the unbelieving Jews through the centuries so that He can reveal His glory to those who do believe, of the Jews and also of the Gentiles.
Then in Romans 11, Paul says:
Romans 11:1-4 (NKJ)
1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
3 "Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"?
4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
The Paul concludes in verse 5:
Romans 11:5 (NKJ)
5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Paul says, there has never been a time when all the Jews were saved, but there has always been a small remnant of faithful Jews. He says that it is this small remnant of Jews who will see the salvation of the Lord. Romans 11:7 says:
Romans 11:7 (NKJ)
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
Paul rejoiced, not in Israel’s unbelief, but in the fact that Israel’s unbelief had opened to door of salvation to the Gentiles. Paul could see that all things were working together for good for those who are called according to God’s purpose. In Romans 11, Paul speaks to the Gentiles, saying that if the root of the Jewish tree is holy, then so are the branches. And if some of the Jewish branches were broken off, and you as Gentiles were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the Jewish tree, do not boast against the branches. Remember, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Here again we see the Jewish tree which God planted by the river 2000 years before Christ at the time of Abraham’s calling. Paul says that this tree has required a lot of pruning through the years because many of the branches were dead, but the primary purpose of this tree was to bring forth the true vine, the true Branch, who is Jesus Christ.
Paul says that by God grace, God has allowed even believing Gentiles to be grafted into this Jewish tree so that they can be partakers in the promises which were made to Abraham. Now, does Paul go from here to say that the Gentiles are actually going to take over the whole tree, so that the Jewish tree will become a Gentile tree? No, just the opposite. Paul says that this tree will survive like a tree planted by the water for someday:
Romans 11:26 (NKJ)
26 . . . all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
Some theologians today say that believers of our present age are the nation of Israel in a spiritual sense. They say that the Jews have been cast off forever because of their unbelief and that we have received their promised kingdom. Let us heed the words of Paul who asked, “Has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” Someday the Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Well, are Gentiles today still being grafted into the tree of Israel? No. Those of us who are believers today live in an age in which God has cut off the tree of Israel. He has not cast off the tree of Israel, but He has cut off the tree of Israel. All that remains is the stump which is not dead. It’s just in a dormant stage, waiting for the day when Jesus Christ will bring new growth to the nation of Israel.
Today God is not growing a tree, He’s building a house, a house which He calls the Church, the Body of Christ. Ephesians 2:19 says:
Ephesians 2:19 (NKJ)
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Gentiles today are no longer grafted into the tree of Israel. Gentiles today are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Ephesians 2:20-22 (NKJ)
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
We have seen that someday Jesus Christ will revive that stump of the tree of Israel, and He will rebuild the temple when He establishes the kingdom. But in our present age, we who are members of Christ’s Body are the holy temple of the Lord. We are the dwelling place of the Spirit of God.
If you don’t know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, He is knocking on the door of your heart today. Won’t you open your heart to Him by believing that Christ died for your sins. If you trust Him, He will build a beautiful temple for His Spirit in your heart, and your heart will become the dwelling place of God.
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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