Sixteen years ago, my husband and I were eagerly awaiting the birth of our firstborn, a son. He was due to arrive on Christmas Eve. What an exciting, once-in-our-lifetime experience! A healthy baby boy arrived safely on Christmas Eve Eve, and a blur of happy, crazy, messy months followed. Somewhere in that first year, we realized the weight of responsibility we had for that baby included one of those awkward “what if something happens to us” conversations. As we made plans and discussed the best options for our infant son living in some imaginary future world in which we were no longer present, we discovered a phrase never before considered by our young adult selves: “You cannot rule from the grave.” This is true across the millennia of human history. How many powerful kings or wealthy tycoons have tried to plot the course of future generations? But though they may have been the source of power or prestige for their family, their descendants’ choices were outside of their control. It is humanity itself to be limited by space and time. We are not God!

It is enlightening to study all the names and titles given to Jesus in the Bible. For example, He is our Immanuel, the Lamb of God, and our Redeemer. One of those titles given to our Lord Jesus caught my attention a few weeks ago. When I saw Christ referenced as the “Root of David,” I was reminded of several Scripture passages I’ve studied this year that relate to planting, growing, cultivating, etc. What do I remember from those “lessons of the field”? Well, a root is the part of a plant which attaches it to the ground or to a support, conveying nourishment to the rest of the plant. A root is also the basic cause, source, or origin of something.

While He walked this earth, Jesus was often called “the son of David.” This was a fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies regarding the lineage of the Messiah. In fact, if you are familiar with the language of the New Testament, you can probably hear the cries of the blind men calling out, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on us!”

However, His name as the “Root of David” is a direct claim to divinity. He is not only descended from David and Jesse, but He is the origin and source- God Himself. “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” Rev. 22:16. Jesus is the “Alpha and Omega,” the “First and Last,” the “source” and the “Savior”!

How amazing is the eternal plan of God for man, that Jesus, first as the Root of David, in His divine foreknowledge, made a way to come and bring deliverance to those who sat in the darkness of sin. And later, in the fullness of time, as the offspring of David, Jesus came to earth as a tiny baby, born of a virgin, God in the flesh.

And the “Root of David” is not finished yet, because we read in the Revelation, that the apostle John prophesies of a time to come, and he looks upon the throne of God and sees a book which no man is worthy to open. And the apostle weeps because there is none to open the book. But the answer is given in Revelation 5:5, “And one of the elders saith unto me (John), Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49), the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” Who is worthy? The Root of David!

This tender plant that came forth out of the dry ground some two thousand years ago, unto a people living in the desert and wilderness of their own rebellious choices, is like no earthly root. It is eternal and evergreen! And He who is, and was, is still to come! And in that day, the “Root of David” will take the book, and the twenty-four elders will fall down before the Lamb, and they will sing a new song, saying, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”