What does it mean to be a root out of dry ground (Isaiah 53:2)?

Verse 2 presents Him to us in two ways. First, as He was in the eyes of God. Mankind in general, and Israel in particular, had proved themselves to be "dry ground," quite unproductive of anything that was good; yet out of this there sprang up this "tender plant," which drew its life and nourishment from elsewhere. The Lord Jesus truly sprang out of Israel, through the Virgin Mary His mother, but the excellence of His holy Manhood was due not to her but to the action of the Holy Spirit of God.

But second, He is presented as He was in the eyes of men. He had "no form nor lordliness," (New Trans.), nor the kind of beauty that men admire and desire. Some haughty, imperious man of imposing appearance would have caught the popular fancy; but instead of this He was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," as verse 3 says. Being who He was, such a One as He could not be otherwise, as He entered and walked through a ruined creation with all its degradation and woe. This men did not understand, since they were insensible to their own degradation, and consequently they despised and rejected Him, as the prophet here predicts.

Verses 2 and 3 — "He shall grow up before Him." This is the 'Arm of the LORD' growing up before Jehovah. To Him, Christ in the days of His flesh was a root out of a dry ground; life and fruitfulness in all their potentialities were there in Him. Israel was the dry ground. There was no sustenance for our Lord there. All His support was drawn from above. To Israel He was an object of derision and scorn — hence "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."

But there is special beauty in this when we look at the spiritual significance and remember that Christ is the key to all. Israel was, as we have said, a moral waste, and never more so than when, after their return from the captivity in Babylon, our Lord came to them. True, idolatry had outwardly ceased, and tombs of prophets were built to honor those slain in the evil days for their faithful testimony for God and against sin. But this could not deceive the eyes of the Holy One who searches the heart. Much outward religion there was, a diligent round of fasting, of tithing, and of holy days; but in all this there was nothing for God, no fruit of divine life. Not without cause were the Pharisees, the religious and orthodox leaders, called "whited sepulchres" (Matt. 23:27), and "graves which appear not" (Luke 11:44) — abodes of death, like the body when the spirit has departed. True, a little remnant was there, the seed by grace of the new nation, but these were marked by their confessions of sin and barrenness.

And so when our Lord came, He was to the nation "as a root out of a dry ground." They saw nothing in Him to desire. But how different to the eye of God! Here was a "tender plant" growing in the midst of abounding dearth and desolation; life and vigor manifesting themselves in Him in the scene of death.

“As a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground” (v. 2), He was to grow up before God. Isaiah speaks in a similar way in Isaiah 11. The royal tree of David had been brought low. All hope seemed to be gone, but “a tender plant,” a small shoot, shows itself. It is destined to bear all the royal glory. It grows up before God. He watches over it; protecting and caring for it. Before Him “it grows”; a prophecy fulfilled in Luke 2, where we read “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit … and the grace of God was upon Him … and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature.”

Not only had the royal family been brought low; but the nation was in a degraded condition; it had become like the “dry ground” spoken of when, to, “a root,” or rather a sprout—a root-sprout—appears in the midst of it. What a garden of glory the nation is consequently destined to become through our Lord Jesus Christ. The “dry ground” will become fruitful; it will blossom as the rose, for Israel will be the national head of all the nations of the earth, and no longer “the tail” as at present.

When they saw Him, however, He bore no royal appearance in their eyes there was “no beauty that we should desire Him”; there was “no form nor lordliness.” Had one come with the towering height of Saul, or the attractiveness of Absalom, Israel would have followed Him; so utterly unable is fallen man to learn. Physical and outward show he esteems: moral and inward perfection he despises.

The rest of this marvellous chapter predicts how it all was to work out. Israel was indeed like dry ground — nothing fertile, nothing fresh, nothing living — but out of it sprang this root of all blessing, this tender plant. In the eyes of men He had no form nor comeliness — or lordliness — and hence He had not the kind of beauty that captures unconverted men. Many years ago now, the German Kaiser rode into Jerusalem in pomp, mounted on a white charger. That was the way to do it, if it is desired to impress men, and not riding an insignificant young donkey, as did our Lord.

In the world despised and rejected, that was the necessary effect of what was His true glory. In His humiliation, carnal eyes discerned but weakness; to God, He was the "tender plant" of perfect dependent manhood; but therefore not formed by circumstances — not growing out of them, as far as they were concerned with His resources in Himself, a root out of a dry ground, life conquering death, but in strangership necessarily unknown and misconceived by those who, not being Wisdom's children, justified her not.

Ask any believer you meet with, — "To whom was it true, of Christ, that he was 'as a root out of a dry ground,' having 'no form nor comeliness,' whether to the believer or the unbeliever?" and I am sure the answer would be one, — at least from every unsophisticated soul, — "To the wicked ungodly world, and to it alone, is Christ 'as a root out of a dry ground.'" And if we come to facts — we see in such a one as the woman of Samaria, the double expression. First, while in nature and unbelief, she thought Him, in whose presence she found herself by the well of Sychar, to be a weary way-worn, inconsistent Jew, with whom she might have a little light and idle gossip; here he was as a root out of a dry ground: but secondly, when grace had touched her heart through faith, - "Come," said she to all her fellow citizens, "[and] see a man that told me all things that ever I did, Is not this the Christ?" Here He was as the fairest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely. The One, mark it, for whose fame's sake, she would risk her own name and honour among her people. Christ had laid her conscience with all its sins bare to her, she had no good name to vindicate; but could speak for Him and Him alone.

But though broken, this was neither in conscience nor in relationship. He could not have been humbled, or broken, or convicted in conscience (as we are to be), for He was stainless and spotless, with neither corruption within, nor blemish without. He could not have been broken in relationship, as the house of David was, because he was no more federally represented by that fallen house, than as Son of man He was federally represented or headed in Adam. But He was broken in circumstances — for the ends of the glory of God, and the blessing of His people, the Lord Jesus was, by His own will, broken in circumstances. The heir of the throne was a carpenter. The Lord of the earth and its fulness had not where to lay His head. He was "a tender twig," a "low tree," a "dry tree." This is the Jesus of Isaiah 53 of whom it is said, "He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him." But this "tender twig" shall, in due season, be planted, as this passage tells us, "upon an high mountain and eminent." It shall "bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar, and under it shall dwell all fowls of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell."

Now, the Lord Himself, took this same place — not by being broken in conscience, as we are to be, for He was spotless, without either corruption within, or blemish without. But He was broken in circumstances. The heir of the throne was a Carpenter — the Lord of the fulness of the earth had not where to lay His head. He was a root out of a dry ground — or, as Ezekiel here speaks, "a tender twig," a "low tree," a "dry tree." but planted in the last days, in millennial days, "upon a high mountain and eminent," becoming "a goodly cedar," under which shall dwell "all fowl of every wing." This is the Millennial Jesus, who once had been the Nazarene Jesus.

First, they own that in the day of His humiliation they had despised and rejected their Messiah. They see now that under the eye of God He was altogether lovely – a tender plant. At last, in this barren world there was a “root” that would bring forth fruit for God. But the remnant own that they form part of a nation of whom they have to say, “When we saw Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him”. Man may wonder at His words of wisdom, and His mighty works, but they despised and rejected Him because of His lowly grace. They esteemed Him of no importance for they say, “Is not this the carpenter's son?” Matt. 12:34-38.