The Messiah must come from one family line, the family of Jesse. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him (Isa. 11:1–2). The word “rod” appears in only one other Old Testament passage (Prov. 14:3) and means a twig, a shoot such as starts up from the roots of a cut-down tree stump. Isaiah 11:1–2 is a clear statement that God will take a man with no standing—a mere stump of a tree cut down—and