And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
All Commentaries on Isaiah 11:1 Go To Isaiah 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
David was the king of Israel and the son of Jesse at a certain time in the Old Testament, when the New Testament was still hidden there in the Old, like a fruit in its root. For if you seek the fruit in its root, you will not find it. But neither would you find the fruit in the branch, unless it had first come from the root.
At that time, then, the first people had come from the seed of Abraham carnally. The second people, those who belong to the New Testament, also belong to the seed of Abraham, but spiritually. Those first people who were still carnal, therefore, among whom very few prophets understood both what was to be desired from God and when to announce it publicly, foretold this future time and the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Insofar as Christ himself was born according to the flesh, he was hidden in the root, in the seed of the patriarchs, and was to be revealed at a certain time, like fruit appearing on the branch, as it is written: “A rod will bloom from the root of Jesse.” The same is true of the New Testament, which was hidden in Christ throughout those earlier times and was known only to the prophets and to a very small group of godly persons, not as the manifestation of present realities but as a revelation of future events. For what does it mean, brothers, if I can remind you of one specific event, that Abraham, sending his faithful servant to betroth a wife to his only son, makes him swear to him and in the oath says to him, “Put your hand under my thigh and swear”? What was in the thigh of Abraham upon which the man put his hand and swore? What was there, except what was then promised to him: “in your seed, all the peoples will be blessed”? The thigh signifies the flesh. From the flesh of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob and, without naming everyone, through Mary, came our Lord Jesus Christ.
