Isaiah 61:3

Isaiah 61:3

I. God's people are called "trees of righteousness" because they are "the planting of the Lord." Godliness is not a thing which any craft of man can fashion. A man can no more make Himself godly than he can make a tree, or so much as the seed of a tree. If he becomes so, it must be the work of God. When God gave His word to man, He gave it to be full of seeds. If this seed be duly sown in the heart (it matters not by what means let it only be sown), and if it neither be choked by thorns, nor burnt up by the heat, nor killed by the frost, the plant thus sown, if God watches over it and prospers it, will grow up to be a tree of righteousness.

II. Growth is a second point of likeness between trees and godliness, which makes it proper to call the righteous "trees of righteousness." Without the sun and air and rain, where would be the growth of the tree? Without the light and the purifying breath and dew of God's Spirit, where would be the growth of the Christian? It is God, and God alone, who giveth the growth and increase. What then is left for man to do toward working out his salvation? It is left for man (1) to pray; (2) to seek manure for the spiritual orchard in the constant study of God's word, and in diligent attendance on the ordinances of his Church.

III. A third likeness between the spiritual and the natural tree is that their growth is by degrees. A forest tree does not spring up in a day or a month or a year. Nor do the trees of righteousness; they too want time to grow. Plant your tree in good time, that you may be trees and not gourds.

IV. The next and perhaps the most remarkable point of likeness between the spiritual and vegetable life is the sap which flows through a healthy tree and makes it thrive and grow. "The trees of the Lord are full of sap." In other words, they are full of Christian feeling, which is the food and nourishment of Christian practice. You can no more have the fruits of holiness, without the life-blood of Christian love, than you can have a tree thriving and growing without sap.

V. The finest trees are rooted deep in earth, and point in their uprightness to heaven. So too must we have our root of faith strong in Christ; so our hearts must look, our minds must turn, our souls must rise, toward heaven.

A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 258.

References: Isaiah 61:3 Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 1016; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 463; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 20, and vol. xiv., p. 15; W. H. Jackson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 346; Forsyth and Hamilton, Pulpit Parables,p. 1.