Branch of Yahweh – Isaiah 4

Facebook.com/treesglorioustrees is a Facebook page devoted to the glory of trees and contains a number of short video montages of spectacular tree photos. My favorite is this one. Trees have captured the imagination of many and been lauded in poems (“I think I’ll never see a poem lovely as a tree…” Kilmer) as well as song, movie and novel. Yahweh uses the image of the tree to describe His beloved Israel.

In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain. (Isaiah 4 ESV)

Isaiah is already setting a rhythm of message of judgment followed by message of future glory. God shows Israel how devastating His justice will be, then shows her how glorious His restoration will be. It is as if Yahweh cannot stay His attention on what Isaiah will later call God’s “strange” and “alien” work (28:21), the work of judgment.  The Day of Yahweh will include terrible judgment, but it will also include gracious restoration upon Israel’s repentance.

The ugliness of Jerusalem’s sin will be replaced with the beauty of her holiness.  Jerusalem will be purged by judgment and fire and then, as in the exodus from Egypt, Yahweh will be a cloud by day and a fire by night to protect and lead Israel to her glorious promise.  She will be protected from all harm. Is this intended to speak of a near future protection of God. It is, in that prophecies like this have many partial fulfillments leading up to the ultimate fulfillment. This promise is ultimately fulfilled in the kingdom come to earth.

We may anticipate the same process in God’s disciplinary work in our lives, not a work of judgment but of instruction, which starts with pain and a mess, but ends in something more beautiful than we could have imagined, like a tree that grows out of the ashes.

Discussion Questions

1. What are the most beautiful trees to you?
2. Why do you think God chooses the metaphor of a tree to illustrate Israel in her future days of glory?
3. Though the “branch” Israel is created and fed by God, her fruit, He says, will be her pride and honor. How do you see this balance between God producing our fruit and us producing our fruit?
4. How is God’s judgment both like a washing and a fire?
5. God’s canopy over Israel/Jerusalem will be what Exodus described as Yahweh going before Israel in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21), only stationary over Jerusalem. God is in the cloud and fire. What excites you about God being our protection?
6. What does it mean to you to trust in God’s protection?