According to this morning’s New York Times, Israeli scientists have germinated a 2,000 year-old date seed, nicknamed “Methuselah.” As the article (astonishingly but rightly) points out, this is a reminder of the force of the Psalmist’s ancient song:
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him [Psalm 92:12-15, ESV].
And yet, the true force of the Psalmist’s wonder is found not in the genetic engineering of scientists, but in the cultivation of an even more ancient and more mysterious shoot. As Isaiah promises:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord [Isa 11:1-2, ESV].
On this Lord’s Day morning, let’s remember that, perhaps when this date seed was growing on a branch somewhere in Palestine, the Vine of Israel was taking root somewhere on the shores of Palestine. And let us pray for the day when his fruit-bearing branches shall cover the cosmos as the waters cover the sea.
