The Names of God - The Branch – Jesus

The Branch – Jesus

Zechariah 3:8 (ESV)

Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.

When thinking from a New Testament perspective, the word “branch” normally brings to mind the teachings of Christ where He described Himself as The Vine and The Church as a branch. However, before Bethlehem and the virgin birth there were those waiting for THE Branch, the Messiah. This is to whom Zechariah made reference.

The prophetic words being spoken in Zechariah 3 were addressed to the priesthood. God, through His prophet, referred to them as “a sign.” God then made reference, again, to the coming of One called The Branch.

The Hebrew word used here, semaḥ, which means, “a sprout, literal or figurative; branch, bud, that which (where) grew (upon), spring (-ing),” is interesting. If you recall, when God first gave the Law to Moses, He also chose one of twelve tribes to be His own. The means by which the choice was made was to bring all the staffs of the leaders of the tribes together. You can read the account in Numbers 17.

Moses was instructed to place the twelve staves before the “testimony”, or the Ark of the Covenant, and leave them until morning. Here is what happened.

Numbers 17:8 (ESV)

On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds.

A dry, dead piece of wood budded, and even produced fruit – ripe fruit – in one night! Through Zechariah, God spoke to very ones whom He chose by a sign of a “sprout” and told them a “sprout”, or Branch, is coming. Jesus Christ became the fulfillment of the original priesthood, whose sole purpose was to bridge the gap between God and man. Jesus would, once for all, offer the sacrifice of His own blood to redeem mankind back into right relationship with the Father.

This puts a whole new perspective on what Jesus then said about the Church. As He was preparing to give His life as the supreme sacrifice on the cross, Jesus His disciples some very encouraging words, though they did not fully understand them at the time.

John 15:5 (ESV)

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Just as Jesus had become the fulfillment of the “sign” of Aaron’s rod that budded, now we, the Church, have become The Branch from THE Vine! Now, we are to bear much fruit as we remain connected to Him. This is why THE Branch came: to graft us into God. It was the plan all along since the Garden.

The Church is the representation of Christ on the earth. Christians are the ambassadors that bring the message of Heaven to the people of this world. We are to show others the Kingdom of Heaven so they, too, can be grafted into Christ through the new birth.

Through this picture given to us by Zechariah we see that God always works by a process. He started redemption in the Garden after the fall, which separated man from fellowship with the Creator, so that we could once again “walk with Him.” Because of sin, we are all dry, dead wood like those staves of Israel. But if we will place ourselves before the Mercy Seat (which was atop the Ark of the Covenant) we can bud with new life, and bear fruit.

Another Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, gives another perspective on this Branch.

Jeremiah 23:5-6 (ESV)

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’…”

Jesus, from the lineage of King David, would rule and reign as a Righteous Branch. Jeremiah then gives one of the Seven Hebrew Names of God: Jehovah-Tsidkenu. It means, “The Lord Our Righteousness.” (I dealt with this name in the first book of The Names of God.)

Through the process of redemption, completed by the Holy Spirit, we are then grafted into eternal life in Christ. We are also made the Righteousness of God. We no longer have a sin nature, but now we live with the mind of Christ as He is formed in us.