Take Root Downward

Isaiah 37:31 - "The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward."

In Isaiah 37 and the surrounding chapters the army of the king of Assyria has come up against the city of Jerusalem. Rabshekah, the spokesman for the king of Assyria came up to Jerusalem with a message for the people to surrender. He spoke falsely against the Lord and through intimidation tried to persuade the people to give up without a fight. However, when the message came to king Hezekiah he went up to the house of the Lord and spread out the matter before Him. In response to Hezekiah's prayer the Lord sent Isaiah the prophet with the message that the Lord had heard his prayer and would deliver Jerusalem from the hand of the king of Assyria. That very night the angel of the Lord went down to the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 before dawn, causing the rest of the army to retreat to their own land.

The Lords answer to Hezekiah's prayer through Isaiah the prophet is 15 verses long. In it He speaks of what He will do to the king of Assyria and his army, but He also speaks of how He will cause His people and His holy city to survive. As I was reading through this verse 31 caught my attention. There the Lord says - "The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward." The Lord says that the remnant of His people will be established and they will also be fruitful. In its immediate context we see that He is speaking about the remnant of Judah, but this also gives us a picture of the life of the righteous. Several times in the Word of God the righteous are pictured as a tree whose roots grow downward and who produce fruit with their branches stretching upward. For instance in Psalm chapter 1 the psalmist is talking about the righteous man who does not keep company with the wicked, but meditates on the Word of God day and night. And we read in verse 3 - "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers." In Jeremiah 16 we're given a contrast of the righteous and the wicked. There we read - "Thus says the Lord, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit."" Whereas the wicked are pictured by a dry bush in the desert, the righteous are as a fruitful tree which extends it's roots downward and produces it's fruit upward. 

This idea of taking root downward and bearing fruit upward is given to us in several New Testament passages as well. It's important for us to recognize that our Christian growth is not just an upward, outward thing. There is a growth upwards and a visible fruit, but more importantly, there is a downward growth which is not seen. Think about it, a plant that doesn't have a good root structure can be uprooted very easily, even by a strong wind.

Throughout the gospels when the Lord Jesus addresses an issue, whether it's a demonic influence or the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, He always goes to the heart of the issue. He always addresses the root of the problem. For instance, in Matthew chapter 12 the Lord Jesus casts a demon out of a man and the crowds begin to marvel and question whether He might be the Messiah. However, when the scribes and pharisees heard this they said that the Lord Jesus only casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. They attributed the work of God to Satan. And the Lord Jesus goes right to the heart of the issue saying "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." It didn't matter what the Lord Jesus said or did or how many Old Testament prophecies He fulfilled, the hearts of the scribes and pharisees were dead set on rejecting Him. The root of the problem was the condition of their heart. And they could not produce good fruit because their roots were bad. In Hebrews chapter 6 a similar analogy is used of those who were in the same condition as the pharisees in Matthew chapter 12. In Hebrews 6:7-8 the writer says - "For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned." Bad roots produce bad fruit. It doesn't matter how much sun and rain a thorn bush gets, it still produces thorns. Both the thorn bush and the fruit tree receive the same rain and the same sun and yet one produces good fruit while the other produces bad fruit. The difference is not in the input, the difference is in the roots.

In Matthew chapter 13 the Lord Jesus tells the parable of the sower. In this parable we're told that the seed is the Word of God, and the different types of ground into which the seed is sown are representative of the hearts of men. In verses 5-6 the Lord Jesus says - "Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away." In explaining the parable in verses 20-21 the Lord Jesus says - "The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but is temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away." It is clear that the people being spoken about here were never really saved. They looked good and they seemed to be very fruitful for a time, but when a moment of testing came upon them they immediately withered because they had no root. The time of testing revealed their true condition.

Good fruit is a part of the Christian life, but it must grow up from the roots. A faith which looks good but has no root is not genuine saving faith. The apostle Paul says in Colossians 2:7 - "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude." The roots of our faith are not visible. In fact God may be the only one who sees them, but they are essential. A common theme throughout Scripture is the overwhelming importance of the unseen over the seen. You may look like you're bearing fruit outwardly, but the Lord looks at the heart of the matter, and that is your relationship with Him. The apostle Paul goes to the roots again in Ephesians 3:17-19 praying - "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." Knowing Him is an unseen relationship, but that is at the very root of our spiritual life. If we are going to bear fruit we must abide in Christ. Just as the branch cannot produce fruit unless it abides in the vine, so to we cannot bear fruit unless we abide in Christ. As He said in John chapter 15 - "Apart from Me you can do nothing." You must take root downward before you can bear fruit upward.

Isaiah 37:31 - "The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward."