A Tender Plant
A Tender Plant
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground.
Isaiah 53:2
Isaiah asked two rhetorical questions: “Who has believed our message?” and “To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
The questions anticipate a less-thanideal reception for God’s servant. Were someone to answer the questions in light of what follows, the answers would be something like this: (1) “Very few people” and (2) “The Lord’s arm (i.e., his work) was revealed widely through the servant, but few believed the Lord would work in that way.”
Now the report about the Servant begins by referring to his origins (2a) and his appearance (2b). He is compared to a young “shoot” (yônēq) and a “root” (šōreš) coming out of the ground, a metaphor that stands in sharp contrast to other metaphors that could be used (a stately grand oak).
It is dangerous to read too much into each aspect of the symbolism, but certainly dry soil is not fertile ground and a person usually does not find lush plants growing in places where there is no water (contrast Ps 1:3). Such imagery might refer to the lowly background of his parents or the lowly state of the nation when he was born. At minimum, this kind of symbolism suggests that this person was not born in a palace of a world empire with all the luxuries that are usually afforded to persons of royalty. In spite of these lowly images, the Servant grew up “before him” (before God, referring back to 53:1),356 which suggests a close relationship to God or at least God’s careful attention to what was happening in his life.
