In that day the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. Isaiah 4:2
There are some trees that have beautiful branches. They grow out and blossom with leaves, flowers and fruit that look great revealing their beauty and are great to see. Not every tree grows a beautiful looking branch. Often the trees do not have great looking branches because of the lack of water, nutrients, too much sun or the weather is just not the right type needed.
Isaiah talks about the Branch of the Lord being beautiful and glorious, while the earth produces fruit that is excellent for the remnant of Israel who have escaped captivity.
Looking at a family tree of a person, each person listed on it is a branch from that line of family. Every person who has lived on this planet is a part of some branch. How each person looks and what fruit one has produced is often determined by which family line they are connected to.
As a whole, people in this world are dead branches, because the tree that they are connected to is dead. Living in sin, one does not produce any good fruit, but only fruit that is deadly and deceiving.
In every nation there are a few people who have escaped the captivity of sin through belief in the blood of Jesus, repentance and forgiveness. These people, believers, have been grafted into the vine of Jesus, becoming a branch of the Lord, so that they can produce fruit that is beautiful and glorious, that brings life, not death and destruction.
Apart from Jesus one is in captivity to sin and cannot produce good fruit that will last.
You are a branch in this life and everything that you say and do produces something. What you have attached your life to will determine whether what you produce brings about life or death, whether it is beautiful and destructive.
Make the choice to be grafted into the vine of Jesus. Allow God to produce in and through you fruit that will be beautiful, glorious and life giving. Turn from the wicked and sinful ways of this world and do not allow your life to be attached to the death of this world. Be a beautiful and glorious branch of the Lord.
Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will be attached to Jesus; that God will produce beautiful fruit in your life; that your life will produce the life God has for every person; and that you will have escaped the snares of sin by belief in Jesus.
Picture by Niklas Hamann on Unsplash
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