Growth Has a Name

So lately since I'm studying counseling, I'm asking the simultaneous question, "What does the Bible teach about how people grow and change?" It's a question that is key to counseling too, as how you answer it reflects on your philosophy of counseling.

Anyhow, I was studying a word this week. I can be geeky like that. It's the word "tsemach", Hebrew verb for "grow," literally sprout up or spring forth. It's used in a lot of planting metaphors. Here's an example:

Isa 44:3-4
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
like poplar trees by flowing streams.

Is that how you would describe your spiritual growth experience? (Me neither.)

But here's the nugget that encouraged me, the "bring me to Jesus" thought for today.

The noun form of this word is "branch."

Isa 4:2 In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious,

Jer 23:5-6
"The days are coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.
This is the name by which he will be called:
The LORD Our Righteousness.

The "Branch" is a messianic name that speaks of Jesus.

So in the Bible, the concept of growth, tied to this "springing forth" image, we see that growth is not just a nebulous concept.

Growth has a name. Growth is a person. It's Jesus.