The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Day 52, The Mountain Tree (Part 2)

Ezekiel 17:22-24 This is what the Lord God says:

I will take a sprig
from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it.
I will pluck a tender sprig
from its topmost shoots,
and I will plant it
on a high towering mountain.
I will plant it on Israel’s high mountain
so that it may bear branches, produce fruit,
and become a majestic cedar.
Birds of every kind will nest under it,
taking shelter in the shade of its branches.
Then all the trees of the field will know
that I am Yahweh.
I bring down the tall tree,
and make the low tree tall.
I cause the green tree to wither
and make the withered tree thrive.
I, Yahweh, have spoken
and I will do it. (HCSB)

So yesterday’s post talked about taking this text as direct instruction for this physical world. Under the constraints that sin has placed on our globe, planting a cedar twig on top of a really high mountain wouldn’t work well. The soil’s too thin and there’s insufficient carbon dioxide.

But God wasn’t talking about an actual tree here. He was talking about his Son, the Savior of all mankind. And in that situation, everything He has said is perfect.

First off, you need to think of this tree as an inverted family tree. All the leaves and branches and twigs are people. Abraham and Sarah are at the base and their descendants spread out above them. When Jesus was born, he became an uppermost branch on that tree. He came from the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is a son of David.

But God, Christ’s true father, could not leave him attached to that tree. That tree brought with it the weight of sin. Even the most noble and faith-filled ancestor of Jesus died in his or her sins.

So God cut off that branch. He cut its growth short when Christ died on another tree.

However, the Creator never intended that as the end of the story. The high mountain where Christ suffered and died for our sins is also where God planted him anew. There recognition of who He truly is would grow and flourish as the resurrected Christ testified to God’s creative power to make all things, including sinful people, new.

Simeon saw some of this when he spoke to Mary. He knew that the truth of who Jesus was would separate people—some unto God’s kingdom and some to condemnation.

Jesus will grow so immense from that mountain that the entire world will be able to see him as Savior. And because of that, every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth will call him Lord. Yahweh. Immanuel. God with us.

And that’s what Christmas is all about.

A Sixty-Day Countdown to Christmas


More Days

Introduction to The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Holding Jesus

Day 3, A Sketch of Simeon

Simeon Was a Godly Man

Day 5, Simeon's Testimony

Day 6, Prophecies for the Gentiles

Day 7, Blessing to Nations

Day 8, A Holy People

Day 9, Welcoming God's Firstborn

Day 10, The Name of Simeon

Day 11, Staying Alive

Day 12, Following the Spirit

Day 13, Taking Up Jesus

Day 14, God's Slave

Day 15, True Peace

Day 16, Seeing Reality

Day 17, The Intent of the Law

Day 18, For All Peoples

Day 19, Making Mary and Joseph Marvel

Day 20, A Blessing

Day 21, Hinting at the Rest of the Story

Day 22, Mary Will Grieve

Day 23, Making Simeon into Simeon

Day 24, Prophet to the Prophets

Day 25, A Priest Like Melchizedek

Day 26, Destined for Sacrifice

Day 27, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 1

Day 28, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 2

Day 29, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, Part 3

Day 30, Jesus as the Lamb (con.)

Day 31, Simeon as a Man of Gratitude

Day 32, Sacrificing Lambs in the Old Testament

Day 33, The Silent Lamb

Day 34, The Messiah as Light

Day 35, Jesus the Stumbling Block

Day 36, Jesus as the Rock

Day 37, The Precious Cornerstone

Day 38, The Stone in Zion

Day 39, The Cornerstone and the Gate

Day 40, The Stone of Judgment

Day 41, Into Zion First

Day 42, Restoring the Booth of David

Day 43, Forgotten Stones

Day 44, Blessed to Receive

Day 45, Crown Him with Many Crowns

Day 46, Identifying the Son of God

Day 47, The Best Storyteller Ever

Day 48, In Bethlehem, the City of David

Day 49, Born a King

Day 50, The Living Jesus

Day 51, The Mountain Tree (Part 1)

Day 52, The Mountain Tree (Part 2)

Day 53, The Root of Jesse

Day 54, David's Branch

Day 55, The Cursed Tree

Day 56, Time Fulfilled

Day 58 through 60

Day 57, Born David's King