God's Word at Work

In the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian Friends. Think about the cedar tree. In some parts of Texas, the cedar tree is considered a noxious weed and a real nuisance. It seems to grow everywhere that it is NOT wanted. It ruins the grasses of a good pasture. It is usually small, knotty, and not really that pretty to look at. Most ranchers cut them down, pile them up, and burn them — unless of course they cut a few good fence posts out of them first.

But our text for today is obviously not talking about the squatty cedar trees of the Texas hill country. Because in our text, God himself says, “I will take a sprig from the LOFTY top of the cedar, and will set it out.” The kind of cedars in this Old Testament Promise of Things to come are the cedar trees of Lebanon. These were towering trees, which grew tall and straight. It was the Cedars of Lebanon that were designated by God to be the lumber that went into building the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. These were cedars that had solid, long lasting qualities in its wood. Anything built of the cedars from Lebanon was considered to be permanent and forever — for there was no better wood that could be used in building.

And God says that from that lofty, towering cedar, He is going to take a sprig and he is going to plant it. Just what is God talking about in this text?

It is all explained in the first part of chapter 17, the verses preceding today’s text. The Sprig that is removed by an Eagle in verses before today’s text refer to king Jehoiachin, who was taken to Babylon as a captive by Nebuchadnezzar.

But the Sprig which God himself removes from the giant cedar in today’s text, is the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ himself. Our text for today is one of those beautiful, Old Testament promises of God, about the coming Savior of the world, the Promised Messiah, Jesus Christ.

There are several important points to notice about this promise of God and how those promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

First of all, we note that it is God himself who chose the sprig and it was God himself who planted the sprig. God chose to send his own Son, born of the Virgin Mary.

Just as the Cedar Sprig comes from mighty and powerful stock — so Jesus Christ, God’s son, is born into the bloodline of King David himself — because Mary is a descendant of King David. Just as the wood from Cedar was considered everlasting — So also the Son of God, the Sprig from the Cedar, is everlasting — for He is “Very God of Very God, begotten, not made.”

And our text tells us, “I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain; on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit and become a noble cedar;” And indeed Jesus Christ was that Sprig which grew in wisdom and in favor with God and Man. He bore fruit as he kept the Law of God perfectly and completely for you and for me. He bore fruit as he healed the sick, gave hearing to the deaf, gave sight to the blind, and the lame could walk. And as Jesus Christ rode that donkey into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday — we could see the glorious Lord, the powerful King — the royal Cedar of Lebanon which had grown from the Sprig which God himself had planted. God “gave to him a name that was above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.”

Another important point for us to remember from this text is God’s promise, “Under this cedar will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.” How often have we sang that favorite of hymns, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let me hide, myself in thee.” God is here promising that this Messiah — this promised Savior — will be a refuge for all people, everywhere.

Jesus Christ will not just be a haven or a refuge for the good and the nice! But Jesus Christ is the refuge for all who come to him. Jesus Christ is the refuge for sinners — and there is no other Savior, no other refuge, from Sin. And so we poor sinners must seek refuge in Him — We seek out the forgiveness, which he won for us by His death on the cross. We seek out the victory that He won for us by his resurrection from the dead. We seek out the peace which passes all understanding which only he offers to us in the assurance that we are God’s children and heirs of God’s eternal kingdom in heaven, by grace, through faith, in him.

Just as a tree provides shelter for the beasts of the field and a home for the birds of the air, so Jesus Christ provides a haven for you and for me and for all sinners. Jesus Christ is the cedar Sprig planted by God under which all kinds of beasts dwell and in which every sort of bird will nest.

And lastly, in verse 24 of our text, we read, “And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish.” This is the Old Testament equivalent to what Jesus himself said in the New Testament, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” God exalts him of low degree, but brings down the proud and arrogant. This message is especially meaningful as we confess our sins before God. We do not approach God as a towering tree of Lebanon, but rather we approach God as the low tree, the squatty cedar of Texas. We are the sinner in need of forgiveness. We are the dry tree, which needs God’s own nourishment so that we can flourish.

And so, lowly sinners that we are, we come to God each and every day, to renew our baptism, to confess our sins and to receive the forgiveness which he gives to us, and the strength that he gives to us through the Means of Grace — through His Word and through the Sacraments. Through His love and forgiveness, God takes the low tree diseased by sin, and through the forgiveness earned by Jesus Christ, helps them to grow into great trees for his service and glory.

This chosen, cedar sprig — is another symbol of the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What a glorious promise from God — what a glorious gift to men. God’s cedar, is our refuge and our strength. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.