Jesus was a root out of dry ground

JESUS WAS A ROOT OUT OF DRY GROUND
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Isaiah53:2 2 He grew up before him like a tender
shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearancethat we shoulddesire
him.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The DepravedEye
Isaiah53:2
W.M. Statham
No beauty that we should desire him. In this prophetic picture of the Christ
the question arises, "Who hath believed our report?" What wonderful
attestationhistory gives to this! - "He came unto his own, and his own
receivedhim not." Whether the words, "he hath no form nor comeliness,"
apply to the physical features of Christ, we cannot say;for the Jews hadno
"art." They interpreted the words, "Thoushalt not make to thyself... the

likeness ofanything that is in heavenabove, or in the earth beneath," not as
an injunction against"idols" alone, but againstall statuary and all art. So,
though we have the likenesses ofthe emperors on the Roman coins, and the
Greek statues ofSocrates andtheir wise men, we have no likeness ofChrist or
his apostles.But we do know the meaning of this, "There is no beauty that we
should desire him."
I. THE EYE ADMIRES ONLY WHAT THE HEART LOVES. The beauty
that eye desired was quite different. It was superficial and carnal, not inward
and spiritual.
II. THE WORLD DOES NOT ALTER ITS TASTE. The classic virtues of
paganism- pride, self-reliance, honour - are more prized by men of the world
than patience, gentleness,pity, forbearance, and charity. Christ is not
beautiful to the proud, nor to the selfish, nor to the ambitions and the vain.
Only the pure in heart admire and love him! - W.M.S.
Biblical Illustrator

For He shall grow up before wire as a tender plant.
Isaiah53:2
God accomplishes greatthings by unlikely means
1. God prosecutethand accomplishethHis greatestdesigns by the most
unlikely and despisedmeans. Jesus Christ, the greatSaviour of the world, was
but a tender plant, which a man would be more apt to tread upon and crush,
than to cherish.
2. God comethin for the deliverance of His people in times of greatestdespair
and unlikelihood. Forwhen the branches of Jessewere dried up, and had no
verdure, even then sprung up the greatestornament of that stock, althougha
root out of a dry ground.
3. Meanbeginnings may grow up to greatmatters and glorious successes.
Christ, the tender plant, was to be a tall tree.
( T. Manton, D. D.)
God to be trusted
You have no cause to distrust God; though He doth not find means, He can
create them. The root of Jesse,though there be no branches, it can bear a
sprig. God, that could make the world out of nothing, can preserve the
Church by nothing.
( T. Manton, D. D.)
Christ a tender plant
1. Christ in His humiliation appearedin greatfeebleness;born a helpless
babe, He was in His infancy in greatdanger from the hand of Herod, and

though preserved, it was not by a powerful army, but by flight into another
land. His early days were not spent amid the martial music of camps, or in the
grandeur of courts, but in the retirement of a carpenter's shop — fit place for
"a tender plant." His life was gentleness, He was harmless as a lamb. At any
time it seemedeasyto destroy both Him and His system. When He was nailed
to the Cross to die, did it not appear as if His whole work had utterly
collapsedand His religion would be for ever stamped out? The Cross
threatened to be the death of Christianity as well as of Christ; but it was not
so, for in a few days the powerof the Divine Spirit came upon the Church.
2. At its first setting up, how feeble was the kingdom of our Lord! When
Herod stretched out His hand to vex certain of the Church, unbelief might
have said, "There will he an utter end ere long." When, in after years, the
Roman emperors turned the whole imperial poweragainstthe Gospel,
stretching forth an arm long enough to encompass the entire globe, and
uplifting a hand more heavy than an iron hammer, how could it be supposed
that the Christian Church would still live on? It bowed before the storm like a
tender shoot, but it was not uprooted by the tempest; it survives to this day;
and although we do not rejoice at this moment in all the successwhichwe
could desire, yet still that tender shootis full of vitality, we perceive the
blossoms of hope upon it, and expect soonto gather goodlyclusters of success.
3. Christianity in our own hearts — the Christ within us — is also a "tender
plant." In its upspringing it is as the greenblade of corn, which any beastthat
goethby may tread upon or devour. Oftentimes, to our apprehension, it has
seemedthat our spiritual life would soondie: it was no better than a lily, with
a stalk bruised and all but snapped in twain. The mower a scythe of
temptation has cut down the outgrowth of our spiritual life, but He who
cometh down like rain upon the mown grass has restoredour verdure and
maintained our vigour to this day. Tenderas our religion is, it is beyond the
powerof Satanto destroy it.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)

Growth before God
P. J. Rollo.
There is one word which marks the difference betweenthe work of God and
the work of man. It is the word "growth." No human work can grow. For
though we speak of a picture growing under the brush of the painter, or of a
statue growing under the chisel of the sculptor, this is only a figure of speech.
1. But there is no work of God that cannot grow. This world itself grew into
being. It grew up before God as the wild flowerdoes — grew out of chaos, into
order and beauty, and we canread on the rocks the story of its growth. There
is a greaterworld than this — the world of Divine truth. And this also has
been a growth from the beginning.
2. No wonder, then, that the Sonof God grew up before the Lord — that the
Lord of nature conformed to the law of nature. The sacredhistorian is not to
be found tripping here, like the medieval romancist. He does not outrage the
order of nature by a single story of monstrous precocity. There is not a part of
the being of Jesus which he excludes from the order of growth. In body, mind
and spirit he declares the child grew up before the Lord.
3. What hope is there here for man! The Sonof God had to grow, and the
meanestchild of man can grow. If we had no powerof growth but that which
we possess incommon with the animal and the tree, then were we of all
creatures the most miserable. Becausewe have in us the powerof an endless
growth in all that is greatand good, we are creatures of the MostBlessed. And
we must grow. Thatis our destiny. Our Christianity is not a piece of
mechanism that was finished off at the date of conversion. It is a life that has
been born within the soul. We are growing, either upwards or downwards,
either better or worse, eitherto honour or to shame.

4. But how may a noble and Divine growth be ensured? It is a question that is
not left unansweredin my text. Forwe are told that the plant of which it
speaks grew up before the Lord. It was the fondest desire of the Hebrew
mother's heart that her son should grow up before the Lord. She would rather
have him grow up before the Lord in the temple than before the king in the
palace. There canbe no higher positionor nobler prospectfor a man than to
grow up before his God. The child Samuel and the child Jesus grew up before
the same God, but how differently. The former under the very shadow of the
altar, under the wing of the old, blind priest, utterly secludedfrom the
common ways of men; but Jesus, atHis mother s knee in the village home, in
the midst of His little relatives and playmates, among the workmenat the
bench, and the old familiar faces in street and synagogue. And so it has
become a Christian commonplace that you can grow up before the Lord
anywhere.
5. But we are further informed of the specialfashion in which Jesus grew up
before the Lord. "As a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground," we
read. But the Hebrew contains a more explicit meaning. It is this: "He grew
up before God like a fresh suckerfrom a root springing out of a dry ground"
The old plant is the house of David, once so glorious in flower and fruitage, at
last cut down and withered. The dry soilis the barren religious life of Israel.
The fresh young suckeris the Sonof Man. That it did grow to what we see is
the supreme miracle of Christianity. Its principal evidence is in its own
marvellous growth. This is the dilemma in which Christianity still keeps its
foes, and to which all additional thought and investigationcan only add
strength. From such a root, in such a soil, how did Jesus grow to be the Christ
of history? It must either be acknowledgedto be the supreme miracle or the
supreme mystery of time. And this is the one Christian miracle which keeps
repeating itself century after century. From the withered plant, and out of the
desertsoft, God is evermore producing His plants of renown. How was it, for
example, that Luther grew to be the man he was, and to wield the powerhe
did? Was it from the withered root of the mediaeval Church or the desertsoil
of the monasterythat he derived his power? Or was he right when he declared
the convictionof his heart that it was all by the grace of Godthrough faith?

History disclosesto us nothing so glorious as these Divine developments of the
soul of man. The grace that has achievedthese things is in the world as much
as ever.
6. Why is it, then, that so many young men are excluding from their ambition
in life that of growth in Christ? Why is it that so many of them murmur that
the old creeds are dry, and the old Bible and the old familiar Church service,
and that even the fountain of private devotion has ceasedto waterthe
wilderness? It is because they are not rooted in God and His truth, but are,
many of them, like plants thrown out of a country nursery, which lie
bleaching in the sun or are blown about by the wind. No wonder that religion
seems dry to those who are not rooted in it. Young men! see to it that you go
down into the truth which you profess to stand by, whether of creed, of
catechism, orBible, and you will find as much goodin it as your fathers did.
Thus settled and grounded, seek to grow in everything; put on nothing. All
pretence is worse than waste oftime and strength. And abjure all forced and
unnatural growth, all ambition to fill rapidly a large space. Be contentto
occupy the ground that God has allotted to you, according to the nature that
God has given.
(P. J. Rollo.)
As a root out of a dry ground
The root out of a dry ground
H. Macmillan, LL. D.
Owing to their geographicalposition, the central and westernregions of South
Africa are almost constantlydeprived of rain. They contain no flowing
streams, and very little water in the wells. The soil is a softand light-coloured
sand, which reflects the sunlight with a glaring intensity. No fresh breeze cools
the air; no passing cloud veils the scorching sky. We should naturally have

supposedthat regions so scantily supplied with one of the first necessaries of
life, could be nothing else than waste and lifeless deserts:and yet, strange to
say, they are distinguished for their comparatively abundant vegetation, and
their immense development of animal life. The evil produced by want of rain
has been counteractedby the admirable foresightof the Creator, in providing
these arid lands with plants suited to their trying circumstances.The
vegetationis eminently localand special. Nothing like it is seenelsewhere on
the face of the earth. Nearly all the plants have tuberous roots, buried far
beneath the ground, beyond the scorching effects ofthe sun, and are
composedof succulenttissue, filled with a deliciously cooland refreshing
fluid. They have also thick, fleshy leaves, with pores capable of imbibing and
retaining moisture from a very dry atmosphere and soil; so that if a leaf be
broken during the greatestdrought, it shows abundant circulating sap.
Nothing can look more unlike the situations in which they are found than
these succulentroots, full of fluid when the surrounding soil is dry as dust,
and the enveloping air seems utterly destitute of moisture; replete with
nourishment and life when all within the horizon is desolationand death.
They seemto have a specialvitality in themselves;and, unlike all other plants,
to be independent of circumstances. Suchroots are also found in the deserts of
Arabia; and it was doubtless one of them that suggestedto the prophet the
beautiful and expressive emblem of the text, "He shall grow up before him as
a root out of a dry ground."
(H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
Christ's growth before God
Commentators usually connectthese words with the next clause ofthe verse,
and regardthem as implying that the promised Messiahwouldhave no form
or comeliness in the estimationof men, no outward beauty, that they should
desire Him. This, I think, is a wrong interpretation. The words of the text are
complete and separate. Theyspeak not of the appearance ofChrist to men,
but of His growthin the sight of God. They refer not to His attractiveness,but

to His functions; and the point that seems to be most insisted upon is, that His
relation to the circumstances in which He should be placedwould be one of
perfect independence and self-sufficiency.
The root out of a dry ground
In the light of this explanation let us look at the three ideas which the subject
suggeststo us —
1. The living root.
2. The dry ground.
3. The effect of the living root upon the dry ground.
Christ the living root
1. This emblem is peculiarly appropriate when applied to Christ. He is called
the "Branch," to show that He is a member of the great organismof human
life, in all things made like unto His brethren, yet without sin. He is a branch
of the tree of humanity, nourished by its sap, pervaded by its life, blossoming
with its affections, and yielding its fruits of usefulness. But He is more than
the Branch. "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, anda
branch shall grow out of his roots," is the spiritual language of prophecy

relative to the coming of the Messiah;but the figure is speedily changed, and
the Branchis also called"the Rootof Jesse."This language is most strange
and paradoxical. It reveals the mystery of godliness, Godmanifest in the flesh.
Jesus is at one and the same time the Branch and the Root, the root of Jesse
and the offspring of Jesse, David's Lord and David's son, because He is
Emmanuel, God with us, God and man in two distinct natures and one person
for ever; deriving His human life by natural descentfrom man, and possessing
Divine life in Himself, and the author of spiritual life to others. The root of
plants growing in a dry ground is the most important part of their structure.
It lies at the basis of, and involves the whole plant. The whole growth of a lily,
for instance, lies folded up within its bulb. And so Christ lies at the basis of,
and involves the whole spiritual life.
2. It is assuredlythe most precious, as it is the most distinguishing, feature of
the Christian religion, that it places the foundation of eternallife in living
relations with a living Person, rather than in the professionof a creedor the
practice of a duty.(1) One of the principal functions which the root performs
in the economyof vegetationis to attach the plant to the soil, and prevent it
from moving hither and thither at the mercy of the elements. So Christ is the
living root of our spiritual life, connecting it with the whole system of grace,
the whole economyof redemption. It is only when united to Christ by a living
faith that the soul can lay hold on heaven and immortality.(2) Another
purpose which the root serves in the economyof vegetationis to feed the
plant. Through the spongioles ofthe root, the plant imbibes from the soil in
which it is placedthe needful sapby which it is sustained; and in this simple
way the whole important and complicatedprocessesare carriedon, by which
crude soil is converted into the needful constituents of vegetable matter. For
this purpose the root possessescertainstructural peculiarities adapting it to
its specialfunctions. Just as there is provision made for the growth of the
germ in the starchy contents of the seed, until it has attained an independent
existence;so there is provision made in the nutritive tissue of the bulb or
tuber for the support of the plant which it produces. This function also the
Rootof Jesse performs in the case ofthose who are rooted in Him. He is the
mediator of the New Covenant; the only channel by which spiritual blessings
can be communicated to us.

The unfoldings of the Rootof Jesse
All the individual life of the Christian, with its blossoms of holiness and its
fruits of righteousness;all the Christian life of society, with its things that are
pure, and honest, and lovely, and of good report, is but a development and a
manifestation of the life of Christ in the heart and in the world; a growth and
unfolding of the power, the beauty, and the sweetnessthat are hid in the Root
of Jesse.
The dry ground
There is usually a very intimate connectionbetweena plant and the
circumstances in which it grows. Modifications ofspecific characterare
produced by varieties of soil; and the wide difference betweena wild floweror
fruit, and a garden flower or fruit, is entirely owing to the difference between
rich cultivated soil and the poor untilled soil of nature. The plants of a dry
ground, however, are less dependent upon the nature of their soilthan others;
they receive from it, in most cases, mere mechanical support and room to
expand in, while their means of growthare derived entirely from the
atmosphere. Looking at the emblem of the text in this light, we may suppose
the "dry ground" here to mean —
I. THAT HUMANITY OUT OF WHICH CHRIST SPRANG. There are many
who regardJesus as the natural product of humanity — the highest
development of human nature, the blossom, so to speak, of mankind. But we
look upon Him as a Divine germ planted in this wilderness, a Divine Being

attaching Himself to men, wearing their nature, dwelling in their world, but
still not of them — as distinct from humanity as the living root is distinct from
the dry ground in which it grows. The soilof humanity is indeed dry ground.
Sin has dried up its life, its fertility, turned its moisture into summer's
drought, and reduced it to perpetual barrenness. By the law of natural
development, mankind could never have given birth to a characterin every
way so exceptionalas that of Christ. It is true indeed that a few individuals
have ever and anon emergedfrom the dark chaos offallen humanity, and
exhibited a high type of intellectual and moral worth; but such individuals
have been completely identified with the human race, and have sharedin its
sins and infirmities. In Jesus, onthe contrary, there was a remarkable
remoteness and separatenessfrom men. his life ran parallel with man's, but it
was never on the same low level. He was independent of worldly
circumstances, andsuperior to worldly conventionalities. He had no joys on
earth save those He brought with Him from heaven. He was alone, without
sympathy, for no one could understand Him; without help, for no mortal aid
could reach the necessitiesofHis case.Like a desert well, He was for ever
imparting what no one could give Him back.
II. THE EXPECTATIONSOF THE JEWS REGARDINGTHE MESSIAH.
There are scientific men who believe in the doctrine of spontaneous or
equivocalgeneration. And so there are theologians who assertthat Christ was
merely the natural product of the age and the circumstances in which He
lived; the mere incarnation, so to speak, ofthe popular expectationof the
time. In all their attempts to accountfor His life, without admitting Him to be
a Divine person, they bring prominently into view whateverthere was in
Jewishhistory, belief, and literature, to prepare for and produce such a
personality and characteras those of Jesus;they endeavour to show that the
condition of the Jewishworld, when Christ appeared, was exactlythat into
which His appearing would fit; and that all these preparatory and formative
conditions did of themselves, by a kind of natural spontaneous generation,
produce Christ. In reply to these views, it may be admitted as an
unquestionable historicalfact, that the expectationof a Messiahran like a
golden thread throughout the whole complicatedweb of the Hebrew religion

and polity. The expectations ofthe Jews did no more of themselves produce
the Saviour, than the soiland climate produce, of their own accord, any
particular plant. There was nothing in the age, nothing in the people, nothing
in the influences by which he was surrounded, which could by any possibility
have produced or developedsuch a remarkable characteras He exhibited.
There was no more relation betweenHim and His moral surroundings, than
there is betweena succulent life-full root and the arid sandy waste in which it
grows. The counterfeit Messiahswere not roots out of a dry ground, but, on
the contrary, mushrooms developed from the decaying life of the nation.
There was a complete harmony betweenthem and their moral surroundings.
They were really and truly the products of the popular longing of the time;
they agreedin every respectwith their circumstances.The prevailing notions
concerning the Messiahwere worldly and carnal.
III. THE CHARACTER OF THE JEWISHPEOPLE. Nothing can be more
marked and striking than the contrastbetweenthe characterofChrist and
the generalcharacterofthe Jewishnation — betweenthe excellences which
He displayed and those which they held in most esteem. It is said that a man
represents the spirit and characterof the age and the race to which he
belongs. He seldom rises above their generallevel. But here we have a man
who not only rose high above the level of his age and nation, but stands out, in
all that constitutes true moral manhood, in markedand decided contrastto
them. He was descendedfrom the Jewishpeople, but He was not of them. He
was rootedin Jewishsoil, but His life was a self-derived and heavenly life.
This is a greatand precious truth. Something has come into this world which
is not of it. A supernatural power has descendedinto nature. A man has lived
on our earth who cannot be ranked with mankind. A Divine Being has come
from God, to be incarnate with us, and to lift us up to God.

Christ binds humanity into a brotherhood
The roots of the desert, by their extensive ramifications, fix the constantly
shifting sands, and prevent them from being drifted about in blinding clouds
by every wind that blows. So the Rootof Jessebinds the dry ground of
humanity by its endless fibres of benevolence and love. The despisedand
apparently feeble Jesus of Nazarethwas lifted up on the Cross, and then
followed— according to His own prophecy — the drawing of all men to Him
and to one another. Sin is selfishness andisolation; the love of Christ is
benevolence and attraction. Jesus unites us to the Father, and therefore to one
another. The love of Christians is not to be confined to their own societyand
fraternity. In Christ they have receivedexpansion, not limitation — universal
benevolence, notmere party spirit.
A root out of a dry ground
I. THE HISTORICAL MEANING OF THIS METAPHOR. It applies to the
person of the Lord, and also to His cause and Kingdom: to Himself personally
and to Himself mystically. A root which springs up in a fat and fertile field
owes very much to the soil in which it grows. Our Saviour is a root that
derives nothing from the soil in which it grows, but puts everything into the
soil.
1. It is quite certain that our Lord derived nothing whateverfrom His natural
descent. He was the Son of David, the lawful heir to the royal dignities of the
tribe of Judah; but His family had fallen into obscurity, had lost position,
wealth, and repute.
2. Nordid our Lord derive assistancefrom His nationality; it was no general
recommendation to His teaching that He was of the seedof Abraham. To this
day, to many minds, it is almost shameful to mention that our Saviour was a

Jew. The Romans were peculiarly tolerant of religions and customs;by
conquesttheir empire had absorbedmen of all languagesand creeds, and they
usually left them undisturbed; but the Jewishfaith was too peculiar and
intolerant to escape derisionand hatred. After the siege ofJerusalemby Titus,
the Jews were hunted down, and the connectionof Christianity with Judaism
so far from being an advantage to it became a serious hindrance to its growth.
3. Nordid the Saviour owe anything to His followers. Shall a world-subduing
religion be disseminated by peasants and mariners? So did He ordain it.
4. Our Saviouris "a root out of a dry ground" as to the means He chose for
the propagationof His faith.
5. Neitherdid the Saviour owe anything to times in which He lived.
Christianity was born at a period of history when the world by wisdom knew
not God, and men were most effectually alienatedfrom Him. The more
thinking part of the world's inhabitants were atheistic, and made ridicule of
the gods, while the masses blindly worshipped whatever was setbefore them.
The whole set and current of thought was in direct oppositionto such a
religion as He came to inculcate. It was an age of luxury.
6. Neitherdid the religion of Jesus owe anything to human nature. It is
sometimes saidthat it commends itself to human nature. It is false:the
religion of Jesus opposes unrenewedhuman nature.
II. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF ITS TRUTH EXPERIMENTALLY. You
remember your own conversion. WhenJesus Christ came to you to save you,
did He find any fertile soil in your heart for the growth of His grace?

III. This whole subject affords much ENCOURAGEMENT to many.
1. Let me speak a word to those who are seeking the Saviour, but are very
conscious ofyour own sinfulness. Christ is all — does that not cheer you?
2. The same thought ought also to encourage anyChristian who has been
making discoveries ofhis own barrenness. When at any time you are cast
down by a sense ofyour nothingness, remember that your Lord is "a root out
of a dry ground."
3. The same comfort avails for every Christian worker. When you feelyou are
barren, do not fret or despair about it, but rather say, "Lord, here is a dry
tree, come and make it bear fruit, and then I shall joyfully confess, fromThee
is my fruit found."
4. Ought not this to comfort us with regard to the times in which we live? Bad
times are famous times for Christ.
5. And thus we may be encouragedconcerning any particularly wickedplace.
Do not say, "It is useless to preach down there, or to send missionaries to that
uncivilized country." How do you know? Is it very dry ground? Well, that is
hopeful soil; Christ is a "root out a dry ground," and the more there is to
discourage the more you should be encouraged.
6. The same is true of individual men; you should never say, "Well, such a
man as that will never be converted.

IV. THE GLORY WHICH ALL THIS DISPLAYS. Christ's laurels at this day
are none of them borrowed. When He shall come in His glory there will be
none among its friends who will say, "O King, Thou owestthat jewelin Thy
crownto me." Every one will own that He was the author and the finisher of
the whole work, and therefore He must have all the glory of it, since we who
were with Him were dry ground, and He gave life to us but borrowed nothing
from us.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ not the product of Palestine
C. Clemance, D.D.
According to Renan, the excellence ofJesus was due to the climate and soil of
Palestine!But he forgets to ask how it is that the climate and soil of Palestine
have never produced such another!
(C. Clemance, D.D.)
He hath no form nor comeliness
Christ's humble appearance
R. Bogg, D.D.
While we see no necessityforthe Saviour of the world appearing in pomp and
splendour, we canpoint out many important ends that may be answeredby
His having been made humble and of no reputation.
1. In this state His all-perfect example was of the most extensive benefit. He
could exhibit virtues more in number, more difficult to practise, and more
generallynecessary, than there could have been room for in a higher rank and
in less trying circumstances. And the virtues which such a state required from
Him, as they are the most difficult to practise, so are they those which are

universally useful. The virtues which belong to sovereignpower and regal
dignity a few only have occasionto exercise. The virtues of that stationwhich
He assumed are useful for all to acquire.
2. By His appearing in the humble, suffering state He teaches us how very
insignificant in the sight of God, and in the eyes of true wisdom, are all the
possessionsofthis world and all the flattering distinctions of a presentstate.
3. By appearing in a humble, suffering state He shows us that earthly distress
is no proof of a bad character;that suffering is no sure intimation of God s
displeasure at the sufferer.
4. By appearing in this state He shows us that it was only the force of truth
that engagedand influenced His followers. So stronglyare men impressedby
the circumstances ofhigh birth, of eminent rank, of great power, the splendid
acts of a monarch or a conqueror, that whereverthese are found they are
eagerto show deference and respect. But Jesus had none of these worldly
attractions.
(R. Bogg, D.D.)
The real characterofthe Messiah
C. Moore, M. A.
I. AS TO THE OBJECTION, thatJesus was not the true Messiah, becauseHe
did not answerthe universal expectationwhich the Jews had of His being a
mighty temporal prince. Considering the natural temper of mankind, and
how strongly addicted they are to their worldly interests, and how jealous of
everything that thwarts and opposes them, we must allow it to be a prejudice

not easyto overcome. It requires a greaterzeal for the honour of God and
religion than most men are possessedof, to adhere to truth when we are likely
to be losers by it. Few there are that have resolution enough to abide by a
religion in which they have been educated, when once it comes to be opposed
by the secularpowers, and the professionof it to be attended with nothing but
poverty and affliction: how much more courage then, and firmness of mind, is
necessaryto make men enter into a religion newly setup, and that is attended
with the like disadvantages? Butcan any one seriouslythink this excuse of any
force? Let him urge it in its true light, and thus must he plead when arraigned
at the tribunal of God for unbelief: "I would willingly have embracedthe
religion of Jesus Christ had it been made more suitable to my carnal
inclinations and interests;had the rewards it promises been temporal instead
of eternal, none should have more industriously and cheerfully sought after
them; but when He told me that His 'kingdom was not of this world,' and that
I could not follow Him without 'taking up the cross;'without losing, or being
in danger of losing, everything that was valuable in life, nay, life itself, for His
sake — my flesh trembled at the thought, and human nature, directed me to
take care of myself, and to run no hazards for the sake of religion." What
sentence cansuch an one expectbut this: "Thou hastpreferred thy temporal
to thy eternal interest, thou hast had thy reward on earth, and cansttherefore
expectno other in heaven"? But the Jew perhaps thinks he has somewhat
further to say in behalf of his unbelief — that he was persuaded, from the
predictions of the prophets, that the Messiahwouldreally be, what the
Gentiles might only wish Him to be, a temporal prince; and, finding Jesus not
to be so, they thought it a good reasonfor rejecting Him. But was this
(supposing it true) the only mark by which the Messiahwas to be known?
How often do we read of His sufferings and ill-usage in the world? Did
anybody appear that answeredthe characterofthe Messiah, in any one
instance, so exactly as Jesus did? The Jews made another objectionagainst
Him of much the same kind: that He was brought up, and, as they supposed,
born at Nazareth, in Galilee;a country much despisedby the Jews, as if there
was anything in the nature of the soil or air of the country that rendered the
inhabitants of it less acceptable to God than they might otherwise be, and He
could not, if He would, produce eminent and bright spirits out of the most
obscure parts of the world. The Chaldees were anidolatrous people, and yet

God made choice of Abraham, a man of that country, with whom to establish
an everlasting covenant, and in whose seedto bless all the nations of the earth.
The prophet Jonah, a type of Christ, was born at a place called Gath-hepher,
a town of the tribe of Zebulon, in Galilee itself, though no prophet is said by
the Jews to come from thence: and Isaiahmoreoverplainly declares to us, in
the descriptionhe is giving of the universal joy and comfort that will be
occasionedby the birth and kingdom of Christ, that "in Galilee of the
nations" this shall be seen. "The people (says he) that walkedin darkness,
have seena greatlight; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined." So that this objection is as groundless as it
is weak and foolish.
II. APPLICATION to ourselves.
1. It greatly behoves us to take care that worldly interestand advantage be not
the principal motive that engages us to perform our duty; lest, after the
example of the Jews, we fall awayfrom it, when that motive fails; lest, being
disappointed of the hopes we had conceivedfrom our attachment to religion
and religious men, we become enemies insteadof friends.
2. How hard it is for truth to prevail overthe prejudices and settled notions of
men.
(C. Moore, M. A.)
Religiona weariness to the natural man
J.H. Newman, B.D.
Putting aside for an instant the thought of the ingratitude and the sin which
indifference to Christianity implies, let us, as far as we dare, view it merely as

a matter of fact, after the manner of the text, and form a judgment on the
probable consequencesofit.
1. "Religionis a weariness;" alas!so feeleven children before they canwell
express their meaning. Exceptions, ofcourse, now and then occur. I am not
forgetful of the peculiar characterof children's minds: sensible objects first
meet their observation;it is not wonderful that they should at first be inclined
to limit their thoughts to things of sense. A distinct professionof faith, and a
conscious maintenance ofprinciple, may imply a strength and consistencyof
thought to which they are as yet unequal. Again, childhood is capricious,
ardent, light-hearted; it cannot think deeply or long on any subject. Yet all
this is not enough to accountfor the fact in question — why they should feel
this distaste for the very subjectof religion.
2. "Religionis a weariness"I will next take the case ofyoung persons when
they first enter into life. Is not religion associatedin their minds with gloom
and weariness?This is the point that the feelings of our hearts on the subject
of religion are different from the declared judgment of God; that we have a
natural distaste for that which He has saidis our chief good.
3. Let us pass to the more active occupations oflife. The transactions of
worldly business, speculations in trade, ambitious hopes, the pursuit of
knowledge, the public occurrences ofthe day, these find a way directly to the
heart; they rouse, they influence. The name of religion, on the other hand, is
weak and impotent.
4. But this natural contrariety betweenman and his Makeris still more
strikingly shown by the confessionsofmen of the world who have given some
thought to the subject, and have viewed societywith somewhatof a
philosophical spirit. Such men treat the demands of religionwith disrespect
and negligence,onthe ground of their being unnatural. The same remark
may be made upon the notions which secretlyprevail in certain quarters at

the presentday, concerning the unsuitableness of Christianity to an
enlightened age. The literature of the day is weary of revealedreligion.
5. That religion is in itself a weariness is seeneven in the conduct of the better
sort of persons, who really on the whole are under the influence of its spirit.
So dull and uninviting is calm and practicalreligion, that religious persons are
ever exposedto the temptation of looking out for excitements of one sortor
other, to make it pleasurable to them.
6. Even the confirmed servants of Christ witness to the opposition which exists
betweentheir own nature and the demands of religion. Can we doubt that
man's will runs contrary to God's will — that the view which the inspired
Word takes of our present life, and of our destiny, does not satisfy us, as it
rightly ought to do? That Christ hath no form nor comeliness in our eyes;and
though we see Him, we see no desirable beauty in Him? "Light is come into
the world, and men love darkness rather than light." If our hearts are by
nature seton the world for its own sake, andthe world is one day to pass
away, what are they to be seton, what to delight in then? What are to be the
pleasures of the soul in another life? Can they be the same as they are here?
They cannot; Scripture tells us they cannot; the world passethaway — now
what is there left to love and enjoy through a long eternity? It is then plain
enough, though Scripture saidnot a word on the subject, that if we would be
happy in the world to come, we must make us new hearts, and begin to love
the things we naturally do not love. "He hath no form nor comeliness,"etc. It
is not His loss that we love Him not, it is our loss.
(J.H. Newman, B.D.)
The love of beauty (in art
J. H. Newman, B. D.

Let us fix our thoughts on one example of that contrastwhich inspired
prophecy and the life of Christ have agreedto reconcile. It is decisively
expressedin the contradictory words of Zechariahand Isaiah: the former
heralding the King of Sion as one whose beauty should surpass the utmost
praise of human words or thoughts (Zechariah 9:7); the latter declaring that
those who should see that self-same Christ should find in Him no beauty that
they should desire Him. I would try to suggestsomething in regard to the
actualfulfilment of both prophecies in the claims addressedto our sense of
beauty, by the revelation of Christianity; believing that there is a deep
meaning in that strange and blended force of stern restraint and irresistible
charm which this sense has so often ownedin the presence of the Crucified;
and hoping to show that this too is an instinct of our human nature, which, if
we suffer it to act in sincerity and truth, will find its restfor ever in the Person
of its Redeemer. Letus, then, notice first that the prophecy of Isaiah is, if we
take it alone and superficially, in accordwith much that has been written or
implied about the influence of Christianity upon the genius of Art. For we are
sometimes told, and more often made to feel, that there is something irksome
and hindering to the free appreciationand enjoyment of beauty, in those
dogmas about the conditions and issues of human life, which are inseparable
from the work of our Lord. In various ways it is suggestedor proclaimed that
Christianity has unduly and too long presumed to thrust its doctrines between
the human soul and the beauty which is about it, and disturbed that free
entrance into the pleasures ofsight and sound, through which every energy
might go out to find its satisfactionandits rapture. And so some have already
returned feed and fostertheir sense of beauty by the works and thoughts of
those who lived before this tyrannous restraint was preached;others are
looking forward to a time when Art may avail itself of the triumph of
scepticism, and renounce all hindering allegiance and regardto the
discredited formulae of religion; while many more are consciousofa vague
expectationthat the life of passionhenceforwardwill and should be fleer and
fuller than it has been: that hitherto we have been unnecessarilycautious and
soberin our pleasures, and timidly patient of undue restrictions;but that now
all is going to be much more passionate andunfettered and absorbing, and
that, by the pursuit of Art for Art's sake, we enterinto an earthly paradise,
which has at length been relieved from certaingloomy and old-fashioned

regulations, and in which it may now be hoped that our sense of beauty will be
a law unto itself. And in this temper very many who little know the consistent
significance oftheir choice are falling in with a course of life and thought
which has, as a whole, turned awayfrom the Cross of Jesus Christ: turned
awayto seek elsewhere the full desire of their eyes, becauseHe hath, as He
dies for us, no form nor comeliness, and when we see Him, there is no beauty
that we should desire Him. For in truth there is a challenge and a law with
which Christianity must ever meet the lover of beauty as he goes outto seek
by whatever way the gratificationof this sense. The Church of Christ cannot,
while she remembers His message,her Master, and her trust, consentto be
dismissedfrom the sphere of taste, or let it be thought that she has no counsel
for her sons, as they turn to those high and thrilling pleasures, no means or
right of judging the tone and the ideals of contemporaryArt.
(J. H. Newman, B. D.)
Christianity and the sensuous
J. H. Newman, B. D.
We were going to throw ourselves without reserve into this or that enthusiasm
of beauty, to steepour souls in the excitement of music, or poetry, or art, to
forgetall else in the engrossing delight of their eagersympathy, to lay aside
every hindering thought, to trust the strong desire of our heart, and measure
our interests by their intensity: and Christianity recalls us to ourselves. It sets
before us, in the compass of a single life, the full expressionof that deep and
marring discord which has broken up the harmony of this world, and it urges
us to seek within ourselves for the secretof the disturbance and misery. It
shows us the PerfectLove rejected, PerfectPurity reviled, PerfectHoliness
blasphemed, PerfectMercyscorned;God coming to His own and His own
receiving Him not; the righteous Judge condemned; the Lord of Life obedient
unto death; and it says that the cause ofthis anomaly, the condition which
made this the earthly life of the Incarnate Son of God, is to be found within
our own souls;and we know that them is something them which seems at
times as though it would crucify the Son of God afresh: something which

would distort our choice from the high and spiritual to the bestial and mean:
something which has often made us cruel and unjust to other men, and
contemptible to ourselves. And as before the Cross which mankind awarded
to its Redeemerwe feelthe havoc and tumult which sin has brought upon the
order and truthfulness of our inner life, we must surely hesitate before we say
that no restraint shall rest upon our sense ofbeauty, that there is no need,
whateveradversaries may be moving about us, to be sober and vigilant in the
world of Art. But for those who humbly take the yoke upon them, who, as
they turn to the manifold wealthof beauty, do not thrust away the knowledge
of their own hearts and the thought of Him whose death alone has savedthem,
and whose strong grace alone sustains and shelters them — for those the best
delights of Art and Nature appear in a new radiance of light and hope, and
speak of such things as pass man's understanding. The moments of quickened
and exaltedlife which music and painting stir within them, the controlling
splendour of the sunset, the tender glory of the distant hills, the wonder of a
pure and noble face — these no longercome as passing pleasures, flashing out
of a dark background, which is only the gloomierwhen they are gone, half
realized and little understood: for now all are linked and held togetheras
consistenttokens ofthe same redeeming, sanctifying Love; they see the Hand,
the piercedHand, which holds the gift; they know the Love which fashioned
and adorned it; they have read elsewhere the thought which is embodied in
the outward beauty; for it is He who sparednot His own Son who with Him
freely gives them all things. And all that He gives them prophesy of Him.
(J. H. Newman, B. D.)
Christ's beauty
J. Parker, D. D.
It was not a beauty of form, it was the beauty of expression. It was not the
beauty of statuary, it was the beauty of life. It is the purpose of God to
disappoint the senses. He has victimized the eyes, and the ears, and the hands
of men.

(J. Parker, D. D.)
No beauty in Christ
J. Trapp.
Look not on the pitcher, but on the liquor that is contained within.
(J. Trapp.)
Christ's meanness on earth no objection against
R. Fiddes
I. Show againstunbelievers, that THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE
PROPHECIESWHICH CONCERNED THE MESSIAHARE A
CONVINCING ARGUMENT OF THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION. It is agreedon all hands that there can be no human or natural
reasonassignedforsuch future and remote events as have no visible or
natural cause to produce them; but are of a contingent nature, and many
times depend on the free choice and will of man; and therefore the prediction
of such events must be supposed to proceedfrom some supernatural
revelation. It is the argument whereby God proves Himself to be the Lord,
and that there is no other Saviour beside (Isaiah 43:11, 12). By the same
reason, he proves the gods of the nations to be idols, and no gods (Isaiah
41:21, 22, 29). The prophecies of Scripture, which referred to the Messiah,
were of things at such a distance, and of such a nature, that there could not be
any probable reasonassigned, ortolerable conjecture made of them. And yet
there was not one tittle of all the prophecies which relate to the manner or
design of Christ's appearance in the world that fell to the ground.
II. Show againstthe Jews, that THE MEAN APPEARANCE OF CHRIST IN
THE WORLD IS NO GOOD ARGUMENT AGAINST THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION, OR OF ANY FORCE TO PROVE THAT JESUS OF

NAZARETH WAS NOT THE CHRIST;and that upon the two following
accounts —
1. As the grounds upon which the Jews expecteda temporal Messiah, were
false and impracticable; false with respectto the spirituality of His kingdom;
impracticable with respectto the extent and universality of its blessings and
privileges.
2. As the state and condition of life which our Saviour chose in the world was
most agreeable to the greatends and design of His coming into it.(1) It gave a
strong confirmation to the truth of that holy religion which He came to plant
in the world. Had our Saviour been a victorious prince, that had given laws to
the world, and backedthe authority of them with the sword, the atheistmight
then have pretended, that the Christian, as well as other religions in the
world, was the daughter of force, and a mere politic invention, contrived by its
Author the better to settle and confirm His government to Him, if He should
find a favourable juncture to possessHimself of it. But now the effects ofthe
Christian religion on the minds of men, and the methods of propagating it,
cannot be ascribedto any human poweror authority. Insteadof employing
the seculararm to compel men to come into the Church, God put a sceptre of
righteousness into the hands of Christ: He authorized Him to give such a body
of holy and righteous laws to His Church as might be proper to work upon
their minds by the gentle methods of reasonand persuasion. He made choice
of such for His companions and disciples as were men of mean occupations
and law fortunes; men as to their natural capacities no ways qualified for so
difficult and high an undertaking as the establishing a new religion againstthe
settled laws and powers, the prejudices and passions, the vanities and vices of
a corrupt world. The designof the holy Jesus in all this was to show that the
excellencyof the power which attended Himself and His apostles, in preaching
the doctrine of salvation, might not be ascribedunto men, but unto God. He
would make way for the receptionand establishmentof the Gospelin the
world by no other means but by the evidence of its truth, the excellencyofits

morals, the number of the miracles wrought to confirm it, and the simplicity
of those who were the first preachers and promoters of it. And, indeed, that
the Christian religion, by such mean and unlikely instruments, should in so
short a time extend itself so wide, and that they should reap such a harvest of
triumphs over so many enemies, seems to have been the greatestmiracle of
all.(2) The state and condition of life which our Saviour chose in the world was
also a wise and excellent method to recommend the practice of religionto it.
The holy Jesus did not think it enough to revealthe will of God to mankind;
this He might have done, as God delivered the law in the Mount, by speaking
to some extraordinary prophet, and committing what He spoke to a standing
writing, without rendering Himself visible. But God gave Him a body, that
men might from His own mouth hear the words of eternallife.(3) The
circumstances whereinour Saviour made His appearance in the world were
most agreeable to His design of becoming a sacrifice andpropitiation for the
sins of the world: for though our redemption is attributed more especiallyto
His sufferings and death upon the Cross, as His sacrifice was there finished,
yet we ought to look upon it as begun as soonas he was born into the world.
III. PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT.
1. If the accomplishment of the prophecies concerning our Saviour be an
evident proof of His being the greatProphet that was to come into the world,
then whateverdoctrines He taught are, certainly true and Divinely revealed.
2. From the circumstances ofour Saviour s appearance in the world let us
learn the duties of patience, charity and humility.
3. In order to humble the pride of our hearts, when we are tempted to bear
ourselves high upon any worldly advantages, whichgive us a superiority

above our brethren, let us considerhow Jesus Christ, the bestand wisest,
judged of these things.
(R. Fiddes)
Christ uncomely and yet beautiful
How can it be said of Christ that He had neither comeliness norbeauty, since
it is said (Psalm 45:2), that "He is fairer than the children of men," or "than
the sons of Adam"? And in Song of Solomon 5:10-16 He is describedby the
spouse to be well-coloured, and likewise well-featured, and she goethon from
part to part, from head to feet; and then concludeth, "He is altogetherlovely."
To this I answer—
1. It is one thing what, Christ is to the spouse, anotherwhat He is to the
unbelieving Jews Christ's beauties are reward, seenof none but those that are
inwardly acquainted with Him. The spouse speakethof Him in a spiritual
sense.
2. We must distinguish betweenChrist's humiliation and exaltation, His
Godheadand His manhood. In His GodheadHe is "the brightness of His
Father's glory, and the express image of His person," and consequentlyfull of
beauty. In His humiliation He is not only a man, but a mean man (Philippians
2:9).
3. In Christ's humiliation we must distinguish as to what He is in Himself and
as to what He is in the eye of the world.
( T. Manton, D.D.)

The mean not necessarilydespicable
Do not despise things, for their meanness, forso thou mayest condemn the
ways of God.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
God's use of the mean
As there was meanness in the outward habitude of Christ's person, so there is
now in the administration of His kingdom; as appears by considering —
1. That the ordinances are weak to appearance;there is nothing but plain
words, plain bread and wine, in one ordinance, and only waterin another.
The simple plainness of the ordinances is an obstacle to men's believing; they
would fain bring in pomp, but that will mar all.
2. These ordinances are administered by weak men. Our Saviour sent
fishermen to conquer the world, and made use of a goose-quillto wound
Antichrist. Moses, the stammering shepherd, was commissionedto deliver
Israel; Godmakes use of Amos, who was a herdsman, to declare His will. So
Elisha the greatprophet was takenfrom the plough. And many times God
made use of young men, such as Paul, whose very person causethprejudice;
young Samuel, young Timothy, men of mean descent, low parentage, and of
no great appearance in the world.
3. The manner how it is by them managed, which is not in such a politic,
insinuating way as to beguile and deceive, and as if they were to serve their
own ends (2 Corinthians 1:12).,
4. The persons by whom it is entertained, the poor (James 2:5). Usually God s
true people are the meanest, not being so noted for outward excellencyas

others. This has been always a great prejudice againstChrist's doctrine (John
7:48).
5. The generaldrift of it is to make men deny their pleasures, to overlook their
concernments, to despise the world, to hinder unjust gain, to walk contrary to
the ordinary customs and fashions of the world.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Christ assumedan appearance ofmeanness
This meanness of Christ was willingly takenup by Him.
1. In His birth.(1) For the time of it. It was when the royal stock of David was
come so low that Josephwas but a carpenterby profession. Therefore is the
genealogyofJosephand Mary so carefully sought out by the evangelist,
because it was not commonly and publicly knownthat they were of that
lineage. The throne of David was occupiedby Herod, who was an
Ascalonite.(2)The place, Bethlehem, a small place. Then He was not born in
any statelyroom, but in a manger in the stable.(3)Considerhow in everything
He was found in shape like another child, being circumcisedthe eighth day.(4)
Considerthe oblation that was made for Him, such as was made for poor
people. Yet we may observe there was something Divine still mingled with
Christ's outward, meanness, as the appearing of the star, the trouble of the
Jews, the wise men's report and offerings. By these things God would leave
them without excuse, and under this poverty discoversome glimpses of the
Deity.
2. In His life and manner of appearance in the world. He was altogetherfound
in fashion as a man; to outward appearance just as other men, for His growth
was as other, men's, by degrees:"And Jesus increasedin wisdomand stature,

and in favor with God and man." His life was spent in much toil and labour,
etc.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Poverty
1. Poverty and meanness are not disgraceful. Christ Himself was a carpenter,
Paul a tent-maker, and the apostles fishermen. Christ, you see, scornedthat
glory, pomp and greatness whichthe world doteth upon.
2. Poverty should not he irksome to us. Christ underwent it before you; His
apostles were base in the world's eye (1 Corinthians 4:13). Poverty is a great
burden, and layeth a man open to many a disadvantage — scorn, contempt
and refusal. But consider, Christ hath honoured it in His ownperson, and He
honoureth it to this very day.
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Missing Christ's beauty
CecilH. Wright.
There have been two traditions respecting Christ's person. Some of the
Fathers of the Church have declaredthat He was, Divinely beautiful, "the
fairestamong ten thousand and the altogetherlovely." Others have spokenof
Him in the words of Isaiah, "He hath no form nor comeliness." Formy own
part I like to think of Him as Divinely beautiful. If in all things He is to have
the pre-eminence, why not here as well as there? Certain it is that there must
have shone through Him some transfiguring splendour, that awedand
fascinated. Menwere conquered as much by His look as by His word. If,
however, these descriptions of Isaiah refer to His person, and are to be taken

literally, then they are very far from being attractive. "As a rootout of a dry
ground." "He hath no form nor comeliness.""There is no beauty that we
should desire Him." "We esteemedHim not," or, as Luther translates, "We
thought Him nothing." The picture seems to be that of a mean and miserable
life, tragic, unsettled, menaced, lined with grief, disfigured with wounds. I say
"seems."For, afterall, the fault may not be so much in Him as in us. Beauty
may be all about men, yet they may never perceive it, because their foolish
hearts are darkened; because they are short-sighted, blind, impure. Ruskin's
dictum is that joy, affection, venerationare necessaryto the beholding of
beauty. If that be so, and men know nothing of "the joy that rises in one like a
summer s morn;" if they have never experiencedthe "love that greatens and
glorifies all things;" if they know nothing of that reverence whichrecognizes
and bows before the highest, it is no wonder that they miss the spirit of the
beautiful. Men may have missedChrist's beauty from many causes, as men
are missing it to-day. Let us seek to discoverwhat these things are that blind
us to the holiest, the highest, the loveliest.
I. THE SPIRIT OF CONTEMPTBLINDS TO BEAUTY. Jesus came into this
world a Galileanpeasant, poor, obscure, straitenedin every way. And judging
Him by the measure of the scale onwhich He appeared, men treated Him with
disdain, contempt, scorn, remarking, "Is not this the carpenter.?" How many
there are who live continually in the spirit of contempt. They continually look
down. They seemto forget that some,ofthe choicestspirits of earth have dined
on "homely fare" and worn "hodden grey," and that the millionaires of ideas
have frequently been bankrupts in pocket. How contemptuously the great
spirits of the world have been treatedby those who were not worthy to
unloose their shoe-latchets!Think of Mozart being sent by an archbishop in
whose retinue he was to dine with the servants in the kitchen. Think of that
same Mozart occupying a nameless grave, for"no man knowethof his
sepulchre unto this day." "Odd world, is it not, that will send its Bunyans to
prison and give its jockeys ten thousand a year?" paints his magnanimous
man as "not apt to admire, for to him there is nothing great." What number
of these magnanimous men there must be; men so held in the grip of contempt
that, standing in a world crammed full of the rich glories of creation, they see
nothing to admire. Now contempt springs from two things: lack of

understanding and lack of love. The wise man never despises. "Godis great,
yet He despisethnot any," and those who are greatafter the greatness ofGod
have ever felt their smallness beside the humblest and poorestof men. They
see that behind the dullest life there may be angelic light. Where true wisdom
is there contempt is not. Charles V was truly greatwhen, picking up the brush
of Titian which the painter had dropped, he remarked that he was "proud to
wait on so supreme a genius." Mensee no beauty in Christ because theyhave
been too ready to despise Him. Contempt springs from lack of love. "They
thought Him nothing" because they never lookedat Him with the heart. If
you want to discoverall that is brightest and best in men you must look at
them with the look of love; then will God become "aglow to the loving heart in
what was mere earth before." Love is wonderful always. There is a magic
powerabout it which can make plain faces shine as the faces of angels. It can
fill with light and radiance a cottage home as no gold can do. It canconvert
worthless trifles into precious heirlooms. So if men would only look at Christ
with the supreme look of the soul they would discoverthat He who seems to
have no form nor comeliness will then be crownedwith glory and honour.
II. MEN MISS THE BEAUTY, TOO, BY THE CRITICAL TEMPER. Some
men there are who start out always with a disposition to criticize rather than
to admire. When a young lady once expressedthe wish to Hogarth that she
might be able to draw caricature, the greatsatirist replied, "It is not a faculty
to be envied; take my advice and never draw caricature. By the long practice
of it I have lost the enjoyment of beauty. I never see a face but distorted, and
have never the satisfactionto behold the human face divine." The great
caricaturisthad so accustomedhimself to look for faults that he could see
nothing else. Criticism blinds to beauty. Was not that true with regardto
Christ? Look for the beauty in Him and you will discovera loveliness that
cannot be chiselledin marble or expressedin colour, but a beauty which,
when the soul sees itis ravished for ever, and rapt into an ecstasyof
admiration and love.

III. WE MAY MISS THE BEAUTY THROUGH ENVY. Did not men miss
His beauty in that way in the days of His flesh? Pilate was keenenoughto
perceive that behind the seeming air of justice assumed by His traducers the
fires of envy burned. "He knew that for envy they had delivered Him." The
artist who portrayed Envy as a man of mean and misshapen figure, with
crouching shoulder, craning neck, distended ears, and serpent tongue, was
endowedwith a more than ordinary gift of insight. Where envy exists there
can be no vision of the beautiful. Forit blinds the mind and poisons the heart,
and lifts not to a throne, but to a cross. How it blinded the eyes of those
Scribes and Pharisees!They saw the beautiful deeds of the Man, how He
succouredthe weak, the suffering, the sad; they heard His words, flagrant,
uplifting, strengthening; they beheld a life spent in doing good;yet so blinded
were they by the spirit of envy that this supreme vision of loveliness did not
dawn upon them. The penalty of envy is blindness, and until those scales fall
from the eyes, all things true and beautiful and of goodreport, everything of
worth in the characterand conduct of our fellow-men, all the charm and
sweetness ofthe Son of Man, will remain undiscovered by us.
IV. PREOCCUPATIONMAY BLIND TO BEAUTY. Men are so feverishly
busy in these days, they live at such express speed, that they often miss the
angelat the door. When men are busy here and there they miss the charms of
the Eternal. A little more quiet, a little abiding in one's own room, and it
would be discoveredthat Christ is lovelier than painter's sublimest dream,
and that finding Him one finds a joy for ever.
(CecilH. Wright.)
COMMENTARIES

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(2) For he shall grow up . . .—The Hebrew tenses are in the perfect, the future
being contemplated as already accomplished. The words present at once a
parallel and a contrastto those of Isaiah 11:1. There the picture was that of a
strong vigorous shootcoming out of the root of the house of David. Here the
sapling is weak and frail, struggling out of the dry ground. For“before Him”
(i.e., Jehovah) some critics have read “before us,” as agreeing betterwith the
secondclause;while others have referred the pronoun “him” to the Jewish
people. Taking the receivedtext and interpretation, the thought expressedis
that Jehovahwas watching this humble and lowly growth, as a mother
watches overher weakestandmost sickly child.
He hath no form nor comeliness.—SeeNote onIsaiah 3:14. The thought which
has been constantlytrue of the followers ofthe Christ was to be true of the
Christ Himself.
“Hid are the saints of God,
Uncertified by high angelic sign;
Nor raiment soft, nor empire’s golden rod,
Marks them divine. “
J. H. NEWMAN (Lyra Apostolica.)
MacLaren's Expositions
Isaiah

THE SUFFERING SERVANT-I
Isaiah53:2 - Isaiah 53:3.
To hold fast the fulfilment of this prophecy of the Suffering Servant in Jesus it
is not necessaryto deny its reference to Israel. Just as offices, institutions, and
persons in it were prophetic, and by their failures to realise to the full their
own role, no less than by their partial presentation of it, pointed onwards to
Him, in whom their idea would finally take form and substance, so this great
picture of God’s Servant, which was but imperfectly reproduced even by the
Israelwithin Israel, stoodon the prophet’s page a fair though sad dream, with
nothing corresponding to it in the regionof reality and history, till He came
and lived and suffered.
If we venture to make it the theme of a short series of sermons, our object is
simply to endeavour to bring out clearlythe features of the wonderful
portrait. If they are fully apprehended, it seems to us that the question of who
is the original of the picture answers itself. We must note that the whole is
introduced by a ‘For,’ that is to say, that it is all explanatory of the unbelief
and blindness to the revealedarm of the Lord, which the prophet has just
been lamenting. This close connectionwith the preceding words accounts for
the striking way in which the descriptionof the person of the Servant is here
blended with, or interrupted by, that of the manner in which he was treated.
I. The Servant’s lowly origin and growth.
‘He grew,’-not‘shall grow.’The whole is castinto the form of history, and to
begin the description with a future tense is not only an error in grammar but

gratuitously introduces an incongruity. The word rendered ‘tender plant’
means a sucker, and ‘root’ probably would more properly be taken as a shoot
from a root, the tree having been felled, and nothing left but the stump. There
is here, then, at the outset, an unmistakable reference to the prophecy in
Isaiah11:1, which is Messianicprophecy, and therefore there is a
presumption that this too has a Messianic reference. In the originalpassage
the stump or ‘stock’is explained as being the humiliated house of David, and
it is only following the indications supplied by the fact of the secondIsaiah’s
quotation of the first, if we take the implication in his words to be the same.
Royaldescent, but from a royal house fallen on evil days, is the plain meaning
here.
And the eclipse of its glory is further brought out in that not only does the
shootspring from a tree, all whose leafyhonours have long been lopped away,
but which is ‘in a dry ground.’ Surely we do not force a profounder meaning
than is legitimate into this feature of the picture when we think of the
Carpenter’s Son ‘of the house and lineage of David,’ of the Son of God ‘who
was found in fashion as a man,’ of Him who was born in a stable, and grew up
in a tiny village hidden awayamong the hills of Galilee, who, as it were, stole
into the world ‘not with observation,’and opened out, as He grew, the
wondrous blossomof a perfecthumanity such as had never before been
evolved from any root, nor grownon the most sedulously cultured plant. Is
this part of the prophet’s ideal realisedin any of the other suggested
realisations ofit?
But there is still another point in regard to the origin and growthof the lowly
shootfrom the felled stump-it is ‘before Him.’ Then the unnoticed growth is
noticed by Jehovah, and, though caredfor by no others, is caredfor, tended,
and guarded, by Him.
II. The Servant’s unattractive form.

Naturally a shoot springing in a dry ground would show but little beauty of
foliage or flower. It would be starved and colourlessbeside the gaudy growths
in fertile, well-wateredgardens. But that unattractiveness is not absolute or
real; it is only ‘that we should desire Him.’ We are but poor judges of true
‘form or comeliness,’and what is lustrous with perfect beauty in God’s eyes
may be, and generallyis, plain and dowdy in men’s. Our tastes are debased.
Flaunting vulgarities and self-assertive ugliness captivate vulgar eyes, to
which the serene beauties of mere goodnessseeminsipid. Cockatooscharm
savagesto whom the iridescent neck of a dove has no charms. Surely this part
of the description fits Jesus as it does no other. The entire absence ofoutward
show, or of all that pleases the spoiled tastes ofsinful men, need not be dwelt
on. No doubt the world has slowlycome to recognise in Him the moral ideal, a
perfect man, but He has been educating it for nineteen hundred years to getit
up to that point, and the educationalprocess is very far from complete. The
real desire of most men is for something much more pungent and dashing
than Jesus’meek wisdom and stainless purity, which breed in them ennui
rather than longing. ‘Not this man but Barabbas,’was the approximate
realisationof the Jewishideal then; not this man but-some type or other of a
less oppressive perfection, and that calls for less effort to imitate it, is the
world’s real cry still. Pilate’s scornfully wondering question: Art Thou-such a
poor-looking creature-the King of the Jews? is very much of a piece with the
world’s question still: Art Thou the perfect instance of manhood? Art Thou
the highestrevelation of God?
III. The Servant’s reception by men.
The two preceding characteristicsnaturally result in this third. For lowliness
of condition and lack of qualities appealing to men’s false ideals will certainly
lead to being ‘despised and rejected.’The latter expressionis probably better
taken, as in the margin of the Rev. Ver. as ‘forsaken.’But whichevermeaning
is adopted, what an Iliad of woes is condensedinto these two words! ‘The

spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes,’the loneliness of one who, in
all the crowddescries none to trust-these are the wagesthat the world ever
gives to its noblest, who live but to help it and be misunderstood by it, and as
these are the wages ofall who with self-devotionwould serve God by serving
the world for its good, they were paid in largestmeasure to ‘the Servant of the
Lord.’ His claims were ridiculed, His words of wisdom thrown back on
Himself; none were so poor but could afford to despise Him as lowerthan
they, His love was repulsed, surely He drank the bitterest cup of contempt. All
His life He walkedin the solitude of uncomprehended aims, and at His hour of
extremestneed appealed in vain for a little solace ofcompanionship, and was
desertedby those whom He trusted most. His was a lifelong martyrdom
inflicted by men. His was a lifelong solitude which was mostutter at the last.
And He brought it all on Himself because He would be God’s Servant in being
men’s Saviour.
IV. The Servant’s sorrow of heart.
The remarkable expression‘acquainted with grief’ seems to carry an allusion
to the previous clause, in which men are spokenof as despising and rejecting
the Servant. They left Him alone, and His only companion was ‘grief’-a grim
associate to walk at a man’s side all his days! It is to be noted that the word
rendered ‘grief’ is literally sickness. Thatdescriptionof mental or spiritual
sorrows under the imagery of bodily sicknesses is intensified in the subsequent
terrible picture of Him as one from whom men hide their faces with disgust at
His hideous appearance, causedby disease. Possiblythe meaning may rather
be that He hides His face, as lepers had to do.
Now probably the ‘sorrows’touchedon at this point are to be distinguished
from those which subsequently are spokenof in terms of such poignancy as
laid on the Servant by God. Here the prophet is thinking rather of those which
fell on Him by reasonof men’s rejection and desertion. We shall not rightly

estimate the sorrowfulness ofChrist’s sorrows,unless we bring to our
meditations on them the other thought of His joys. How greatthese were we
can judge, when we remember that He told the disciples that by His joy
remaining in them their joy would be full. As much joy then as human nature
was capable of from perfect purity, filial obedience, trust, and unbroken
communion with God, so much was Jesus’permanent experience. The golden
cup of His pure nature was ever full to the brim with the richestwine of joy.
And that constantexperience of gladness in the Fatherand in Himself made
more painful the sorrows which He encountered, like a biting wind shrieking
round Him, wheneverHe passedout from fellowship with God in the stillness
of His soul into the contemptuous and hostile world. His spirit carrying with it
the still atmosphere of the Holy Place, wouldfeel more keenly than any other
would have done the jarring tumult of the crowds, and would know a sharper
pain when met with greetings in which was no kindness. Jesus was sinless,His
sympathy with all sorrow was thereby rendered abnormally keen, and He
made others’ griefs His own with an identification born of a sympathy which
the most compassionate cannotattain. The greaterthe love, the greaterthe
sorrow of the loving heart when its love is spurned. The intenser the yearning
for companionship, the sharper the pang when it is repulsed. The more one
longs to bless, the more one suffers when his blessings are flung off. Jesus was
the most sensitive, the most sympathetic, the most loving soul that everdwelt
in flesh. He saw, as none other has ever seen, man’s miseries. He experienced,
as none else has ever experienced, man’s ingratitude, and, therefore, though
God, even His God, ‘anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows,’
He was ‘a Man of Sorrows,’andgrief was His companion during all His life’s
course.
BensonCommentary
Isaiah53:2-3. Forhe shall grow up, &c. — And the reasonwhy the Jews will
generallyreject their Messiahis, because he shall not come into the world
with secularpomp, but he shall grow up, (or, spring up, out of the ground,)
before him, (before the unbelieving Jews, ofwhom he spake, Isaiah53:1, and
that in the singular number, as here, who were witnesses ofhis mean original;
and therefore despisedhim,) as a tender plant, (small and inconsiderable,)
and as a root, or branch, grows out of a dry, barren ground, whose

productions are generallypoor and contemptible. He hath no form, &c. — His
bodily presence and condition in the world shall be mean and despicable. And
when we see him, there is no beauty, &c. — When we, that is, our people, the
Jewishnation, shall look upon him, expecting to find incomparable beauty
and majesty in his countenance and demeanour, we shall be altogether
disappointed, and shall meet with nothing desirable in him. This the prophet
speaks in the persons of the carnal and unbelieving Jews. There was a great
deal of true beauty in him, the beauty of holiness, and the beauty of goodness,
enough to render him the desire of all nations; but the far greaterpart of
those among whom he lived and conversedsaw none of this beauty; for it was
spiritually discerned. Observe, reader, carnalminds see no excellencein the
Lord Jesus;nothing that should induce them to desire an acquaintance with,
or interest in him. Nay, he is not only not desired, but he is despisedand
rejected— As one unworthy of the company and conversationofall men;
despisedas a mean man, rejectedas a bad man, a deceiverof the people, an
impostor, a blasphemer, an associate ofSatan. He was the stone which the
builders refused; they would not have him to reign over them. A man of
sorrows — Whose whole life was filled with, and, in a manner, made up of, a
successionofsorrows and sufferings;and acquainted with grief — Who had
constantexperience of, and familiar converse with, grievous afflictions. And
we hid, &c. — We scornedto look upon him; or we lookedanotherway, and
his sufferings were nothing to us; though never sorrow was like unto his
sorrows.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
53:1-3 No where in all the Old Testamentis it so plainly and fully prophesied,
that Christ ought to suffer, and then to enter into his glory, as in this chapter.
But to this day few discern, or will acknowledge, thatDivine powerwhich goes
with the word. The authentic and most important report of salvationfor
sinners, through the Son of God, is disregarded. The low condition he
submitted to, and his appearance in the world, were not agreeable to the ideas
the Jews hadformed of the Messiah. It was expectedthat he should come in
pomp; insteadof that, he grew up as a plant, silently, and insensibly. He had
nothing of the glory which one might have thought to meet with him. His
whole life was not only humble as to outward condition, but also sorrowful.

Being made sin for us, he underwent the sentence sin had exposedus to.
Carnal hearts see nothing in the Lord Jesus to desire an interest in him. Alas!
by how many is he still despisedin his people, and rejected as to his doctrine
and authority!
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
For he shall grow up before him - In this verse, the prophet describes the
humble appearance ofthe Messiah, andthe factthat there was nothing in his
personalaspectthat correspondedto the expectations that bad been formed of
him; nothing that should lead them to desire him as their expecteddeliverer,
but everything that could induce them to reject him. He would be of so
humble an origin, and with so little that was magnificent in his external
appear ance, that the nation would despise him. The word rendered 'he shall
grow up' (‫לעיו‬ vaya‛al, from ‫יוע‬ ‛âlâh), means properly, "to go up, to ascend."
Here it evidently applies to the Redeemeras growing up in the manner of a
shootor suckerthat springs out of the earth. It means that he would start, as
it were, from a decayedstock orstump, as a shootsprings up from a root that
is apparently dead. It does not refer to his manner of life before his entrance
on the public work of the ministry; not to the mode and style of his education;
but to his starting as it were out of a dry and sterile soil where any growth
could not be expected, or from a stump or stock that was apparently dead (see
the notes at Isaiah11:1). The phrase 'before him' (‫לענפו‬ lepânâyv), refers to
Yahweh. He would be seenand observedby him, although unknown to the
world. The eyes of people would not regardhim as the Messiahwhile he was
growing up, but Yahweh would, and his eye would be continually upon him.
As a tender plant - The word used here (‫עלני‬ yônēq, from ‫עני‬ yânaq, to suck,
Job 3:12; Sol8:1; Joel2:16), may be applied either to a suckling, a sucking
child Deuteronomy 32:25;Psalm 8:3, or to a sucker, a sprout, a shootof a tree
Job 8:16; Job 14:7; Job15:30; Ezekiel17:22;Hosea 14:7. Jerome here
renders it, Virgultum. The Septuagint renders it, Ἀνηγγείλαμεν ὡς παιδίον
ἐναντίον αὐτοῦ anēngeilamenhōs paidion enantion autou - 'We have made
proclamation as a child before him.' But what idea they attachedto it, it is
impossible now to say; and equally so to determine how they came to make
such a translation. The Chaldee also, leaving the idea that it refers to the

Messiah, renders it, 'And the righteous shall be magnified before him as
branches which flourish, and as the tree which sends its roots by the fountains
of water; thus shall the holy nation be increasedin the land.' The Syriac
translates it, 'He shall grow up before him as an infant.' The idea in the
passageis plain. It is, that the Messiahwould spring up as from an ancient
and decayedstock, like a tender shootor sucker. He would be humble and
unpretending in his origin, and would be such that they who had expected a
splendid prince would be led to overlook and despise him.
And as a root - (‫לרוכו‬ vekashoresh). The word 'root' here is evidently used by
synecdoche forthe sprout that starts up from a root (see the notes at Isaiah
11:10, where the word is used in the same sense).
Out of a dry ground - In a barren waste, or where there is no moisture. Such a
sprout or shrub is small, puny, and withered up. Such shrubs spring up in
deserts, where they are stinted for want of moisture, and they are most
striking objects to representthat which is humble and unattractive in its
personalappearance. The idea here is, that the Messiahwouldspring from an
ancient family decayed, but in whose root, so to speak, there would be life, as
there is remaining life in the stump of a tree that is fallen down; but that there
would be nothing in his external appearance that would attractattention, or
meet the expectations ofthe nation. Even then he would not be like a plant of
vigorous growth supplied with abundant rains, and growing in a rich and
fertile soil, but he would be like the stinted growth of the sands of the desert.
Can anything be more strikingly expressive of the actual appearance ofthe
Redeemer, as comparedwith the expectationof the Jews? Canthere be found
anywhere a more striking fulfillment of a prophecy than this? And how will
the infidel answerthe argument thus furnished for the fact that Isaiahwas
inspired, and that his recordwas true?

He hath no form - That is, no beauty. He has not the beautiful form which was
anticipated; the external glory which it was supposedhe would assume. On
the meaning of the word 'form,' see the notes at Isaiah 52:14. It is several
times used in the sense ofbeautiful form or figure (Genesis 29:17;Genesis
39:6; Genesis 41:18;Deuteronomy 21:11; Esther2:17; compare 1 Samuel
16:18). Here it means the same as beautiful form or appearance, and refers to
his state of abasementrather than to his own personalbeauty. There is no
evidence that in person he was in any way deformed, or otherwise than
beautiful, exceptas excessive griefmay have changedhis natural aspect(see
the note at Isaiah52:14).
Nor comeliness -(‫עדכ‬ hâdâr). This word is translatedhonor, glory, majesty
Deuteronomy 33:17;Psalm29:4; Psalm149:9;Daniel 11:20;excellencyIsaiah
35:2; beauty Proverbs 20:29;Psalm 110:3;2 Chronicles 20:21. It may be
applied to the countenance, to the generalaspect, or to the ornaments or
apparel of the person. Here it refers to the appearance ofthe Messiah, as
having nothing that was answerable to their expectations. He had no robes of
royalty; no diadem sparkling on his brow; no splendid retinue; no gorgeous
array.
And when we shall see him - This should be connectedwith the previous
words, and should be translated, 'that we should regard him, or attentively
look upon him.' The idea is, that there was in his external appearance no such
beauty as to lead them to look with interest and attention upon him; nothing
that should attract them, as people are attractedby the dazzling and splendid
objects of this world. If they saw him, they immediately lookedawayfrom him
as if he were unworthy of their regard.
There is no beauty that we should desire him - He does not appearin the form
which we had anticipated. He does not come with the regalpomp and
splendor which it was supposedhe would assmne. He is apparently of humble

rank; has few attendants, and has disappointed wholly the expectationof the
nation. In regardto the personalappearance ofthe Redeemer, it is
remarkable that the New Testamenthas given us no information. Not a hint is
dropped in reference to his height of stature, or his form; respecting the color
of his hair, his eyes, or his complexion. In all this, on which biographers are
usually so full and particular, the evangelists are wholly silent. There was
evidently design in this; and the purpose was probably to prevent any
painting, statuary, or figure of the Redeemer, that would have any claim to
being regarded as corrector true. As it stands in the New Testament, there is
lust the veil of obscurity thrown over this whole subject which is most
favorable for the contemplation of the incarnate Deity. We are told flint he
was a man; we are told also that he was God. The image to the mind's eye is as
obscure in the one case as the other; and in both, we are directed to his moral
beauty, his holiness, and benevolence, as objects ofcontemplation, rather than
to his external appearance orform.
It may be added that there is no authentic information in regard to his
appearance that has come down to us by tradition. All the works ofsculptors
and painters in attempting to depict his form are the mere works of fancy, and
are undoubtedly as unlike the glorious reality as they are contrary to the spirit
and intention of the Bible. There is, indeed, a letter extant which is claimed by
some to have been written by Publius Lentulus, to the Emperor Tiberius, in
the time when the Saviour lived, and which gives a description of his personal
appearance. As this is the only legend of antiquity which even claims to be a
description of his person, and as it is often printed, and is regardedas a
curiosity, it may not be improper here to present it in a note. This letter is
pronounced by Calmerto be spurious, and it has been abundantly proved to
be so by Prof. Robinson(see Bib. Rep. vol. ii. pp. 367-393). The main
arguments againstits anthenticity, and which entirely settle the question, are:
1. The discrepancies and contradictions which exist in the various copies.

2. The fact that in the time of the Saviour, when the epistle purports to have
been written, it canbe demonstratedthat no such man as Publius Lentulus
was governorof Judea, or had any such office there, as is claimedfor him in
the inscriptions to the epistle.
3. That for fifteen hundred years no such epistle is quoted or referred to by
any writer - a fact which could not have occurredif any such epistle had been
in existence.
4. That the style of the epistle is not such as an enlightened Roman would have
used, but is such as an ecclesiasticwouldhave employed.
5. That the contents of the epistle are such as a Romanwould not have used of
one who was a Jew.
continued...
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
2. tender plant—Messiahgrew silently and insensibly, as a suckerfrom an
ancient stock, seeminglydead (namely, the house of David, then in a decayed
state)(see on [850]Isa 11:1).
shall grow … hath—rather, "grew up … had."
before him—before Jehovah. Thoughunknown to the world (Joh 1:11),
Messiahwas observedby God, who ordered the most minute circumstances
attending His growth.

root—that is, sprout from a root.
form—beautiful form: sorrow had marred His once beautiful form.
and when we shall see—rather, joined with the previous words, "Nor
comeliness (attractiveness)that we should look (with delight) on Him."
there is—rather, "was." The studied reticence of the New Testamentas to His
form, stature, color, &c., was designedto prevent our dwelling on the bodily,
rather than on His moral beauty, holiness, love, &c., also a providential
protest againstthe making and venerationof images ofHim. The letter of P.
Lentulus to the emperor Tiberius, describing His person, is spurious; so also
the story of His sending His portrait to Abgar, king of Edessa;and the alleged
impression of His countenance onthe handkerchiefof Veronica. The former
part of this verse refers to His birth and childhood; the latter to His first
public appearance [Vitringa].
Matthew Poole's Commentary
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground; and the reasonor occasionwhy the Jews will so generallyrejecttheir
Messiah, is because he shall not come into the world with secularpomp and
power, like an earthly monarch, as they carnally and groundlesslyimagined;
but
he shall grow up (or, spring up, Heb. ascend, to wit, out of the ground, as it
follows, brought forth, and brought up)

before him (before the unbelieving Jews, ofwhom he spake Isaiah53:1, and
that in the singular number, as here, who were witnesses ofhis mean original;
and therefore despisedhim, according to Christ’s observation, John 4:44; or,
as others, according to his face, oroutward appearance, as he was man;
whereby he sufficiently implies that he had another, a far higher, and a Divine
nature in him)
as a tender plant, ( or, as this very word is translated, Ezekiel17:4, a young
twig, which is a small and inconsiderable thing,)
and as a root (as Christ is called, Romans 15:12, and elsewhere;or, as a
branch; the rootbeing put metonymically for the branch growing out of the
root, as it is apparently used, where Christ is calledthe root of Jesse, andof
David, Isaiah 11:10 Revelation5:5, and in other places, as 2 Chronicles 22:10)
out of a dry ground; out of a mean and barren soil, whose productions are
generallypoor and contemptible: either,
1. Out of the womb of a virgin; but that was no ground of contempt; or,
2. Of the Jewishnation, which was then poor, and despised, and enslaved;or,
3. Out of the poor, and decayed, and contemptible family, such as the royal
family of David was at that time.
He hath no form nor comeliness;his bodily presence and condition in the
world shall be mean and contemptible.

When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him; when we
shall look upon him, expecting to find incomparable beauty and majesty in his
countenance, and carriage, andcondition, we shall be altogetherdisappointed,
and shall meet with nothing amiable or desirable in him. This the prophet
speakethin the person of the carnal and unbelieving Jews, we, i.e. our people,
the Jewishnation.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant,.... Which springs out of the
earth without notice; low in its beginning, slow in its growth, liable to be
crushed with the foot, or destroyed with the frost, and no greatprobability of
its coming to any perfection; or rather as a little "sucker",as the word (b)
signifies, which grows out of the root of a tree, at some little distance from it,
of which no notice or care is taken, nor anything hoped for from it; and the
figure denotes the mean and unpromising appearance ofChrist at his
incarnation; which is the reasongiven why the Jews in general disbelieved,
rejected, and despised him; for this phrase of "growing up" does not design
his exaltation, or rising up from a low to a high estate;but his mean entrance
into the world, like that of the springing up of a low and insignificant plant or
shrub out of the earth: and the phrase "before him" is to be understood either
of God the Father, by whom he was takennotice of, though not by men; and
in whose sight he was precious, though despisedby men; or his growing up,
and the manner of it, or his mean appearance, were allbefore the Lord, and
according to his will: or else it may be understoodof Christ himself, and be
rendered "before himself", who was meek and lowly, and was mean and low
in his own eyes;or rather it may be interpreted of the unbelieving Jew, ofany
or everyone of them that did not believe the report concerning him: because
before him, in the sight of everyone of them, he sprung up in the manner
described; unless it can be thought that it would be better rendered "to his
face" (c); or "to his appearance";that is, as to his outward appearance, inthe
external view of him, so he grew up:

and as a root out of a dry ground; or rather, "as a branch from a root out of a
dry ground"; agreeablyto Isaiah11:1, meaning not so much the land of
Judea, where he was born; or the country of Galilee, where he was brought
up; as the family of David, from whence he sprung, which was reduced to a
very low condition when he was born of it; his supposed father being a
carpenter, and his real mother a poor virgin in Nazareth, though both of the
lineage and house of David; from this passage the ancient Jews (d) are said to
conclude that the Messiahwouldbe born without a father, or the seedof man:
he hath no form nor comeliness;like a poor plant or shrub just crept out of
the ground, in a dry and barren soil, ready to wither awayas soonas up; has
no strength nor straightness, ofbody; without verdure, leaves, blossom, and
fruit things which make plants comelyand beautiful. This regards not the
countenance ofChrist, which probably was comely, as were his types Moses
and David; since he is said to be "fairer than the children of men"; and since
his human nature was the immediate produce of the Holy Ghost, and without
sin: but his outward circumstances;there was no majesty in him, or signs of
it; it did not look probable that he would be a tall cedar, or a prince in Israel,
much less the Prince Messiah;he was born of mean parents; brought up in a
contemptible part of the country; lived in a town out of which no goodis said
to come; dwelt in a mean cottage, andworkedat a trade:
and when we shall see him: as he grows up, and comes into public life and
service, declaring himself, or declared by others, to be the Messiah:here the
prophet represents the Jews that would live in Christ's time, who would see
his person, hear his doctrines, and be witnesses ofhis miracles, and yet say,
there is no beauty, that we should desire him; or "sightliness"(e)in him;
nothing that looks grandand majestic, or like a king; they not beholding with
an eye of faith his glory, as the glory of the only begottenof the Father; only
viewing him in his outward circumstances,and so made their estimate of him;

they expectedthe Messiahas a temporal prince, appearing in greatpomp and
state, to deliver them from the Roman yoke, and restore their nation to its
former splendour and glory; and being disappointed herein was the true
reasonof their unbelief, before complained of, and why they did not desire
him, who is the desire of all nations.
(b) , Sept.; , Theodotion, vox a "lac sugere, proprie lactantem significat",
Rivet. Sanctius, "surculus tener, veluti laetens", Forerius. (c)"ad faciem
suam, vel in facie, sua", Rivet.;"quoad conspectum, vel quoad faciemsuam,
seu faciemejus", Sanctius. (d) R. Hadarson apud Galatia, de Arcan. Cathol.
Ver. l. 8. c. 2. p. 549. (e)"non aspectus", Munster:Vatablus, Pagninus,
Montanus; "nulla spectabilis forma", Vitringa.
Geneva Study Bible
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a {c} root out of a
dry {d} ground: he hath no form nor comeliness;and when we shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him.
(c) The beginning of Christ's kingdom will be small and contemptible in the
sight of man, but it will grow wonderfully and flourish before God.
(d) Read Isa 11:1.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
2. The verse seems to take us back to the origin of the Servant’s career, in
order to accountfor the powerful prejudices with which his contemporaries
regardedhim. From the first he had been mean and unprepossessing in
appearance, like a stunted shrub struggling for existence in an arid soil. To

this correspondedthe first impressions of the people, which were mainly of a
negative kind; they found in him nothing that was attractive or desirable.
Beyond this the verse does not go.
For he shall grow up] Lit. And he grew up. It is not easyto make out such a
connexion betweenthis sentence and the lastas would naturally be expressed
by “and.” If what is here statedwere the explanation of the unbelief confessed
in Isaiah 53:1, the proper conjunction would be “for,” and so the word is by
many rendered. Others take it as the “and” of consequence (= and so), but the
clause is not a statement of what the people thought of the Servant in
consequence oftheir unbelief, but of what he actuallywas. The phrase “before
him” seems decisive on that point, unless with Ewaldand others we change
the reading to “before us.” With that alterationthe whole verse speaks ofthe
impressions men formed of the Servant, and these impressions might readily
be regarded as the result of their want of spiritual insight. But if the received
text be retained (and there is no sufficient reasonfor departing from it) the
description begins with a statement of fact and then proceeds to the effecton
the mind of the people. It is probable that no logicalconnexionwith the
preceding is intended. The conjunction may mark the commencementof the
narrative, in accordancewith a tendency to begin a speechwith “and”
(Joshua 22:28;Jeremiah 9:11; cf. ch. Isaiah2:2).
as a tender plant] a sapling. Cf. Ezekiel17:22;Job 14:7.
a root (cf. ch. Isaiah11:10) out of a dry ground] The “dry ground” might, on
some theories of what is meant by the Servant, symbolise the Exile with its
political hardships and lack of religious advantages,but it is doubtful if the
figure should be pressedso far. The Servant is compared to a plant springing
up in such a soil, but whether the prophet thought of his lowly growth as due
in any degree to unfavourable circumstances is uncertain.

In what follows hath should be had, and comeliness, majesty. The words for
form and beauty are the same as those rendered “form” and “aspect”in
Isaiah52:14. Both are here used in the sense of“pleasing form” &c.;comp. “a
man of form “in 1 Samuel 16:18, and the Latin formosus from forma, or
“shapely” from “shape.”
and when we shall see him] Rather, when we saw him. The clause, however,
might (disregarding the accents)be read with what precedes:“… and no
majesty, that we should look upon him—and no aspectthat we should desire
him” (see R.V. marg.). This at leastyields a more perfect parallelism in the
last two lines.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 2. - For he shall grow up; rather, now he grew up. The verbs are, all of
them, in the past, or completed tense, until ver. 7, and are to be regardedas
"perfects of prophetic certitude." As Mr. Cheyne remarks, "All has been
finished before the foundations of the world in the Divine counsels."Before
him; i.e. "before Jehovah" - under the fostering care of Jehovah(comp. Luke
2:40, 52). God the Father had his eye ever fixed upon the Son with
watchfulness and tenderness and love. As a tender plant; literally, as a
sapling, or as a sucker(comp. Job8:16; Job14:7; Job 15:30; Psalm80:12;
Ezekiel17:4, 22; Hosea 14:6). The "branch" of Isaiah11:1, 10 - a different
word - has nearly the same meaning. The Messiahwillbe a fresh sprout from
the stump of a tree that has been felled; i.e. from the destroyed Davidic
monarchy. As a root (so Isaiah11:10; Revelation5:5). The "sapling" from the
house of David shall become the "root" out of which his Church will grow
(comp. John 15:1-6). Out of a dry ground. Either out of the "dry ground" of a
corrupt age and nation, or out of the arid soil of humanity. In the Eastit is not
unusual to see a tall succulent plant growing from a soft which seems utterly
devoid of moisture. Such plants have roots that strike deep, and draw their
nourishment from a hidden source. He hath no form nor comeliness;rather,
he had no form nor majesty. It is scarcelythe prophet's intention to describe
the personalappearance ofour Lord. What he means is that "the Servant"

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