Isaiah is one of the prophets Matthew
is referring to [in Matt 1-2]. Isaiah 11:1 employs the Hebrew term netser,
rendered by the ESV as the word branch: “There shall come forth a shoot
from the stump of Jesse, and a branch [netser] from his roots
shall bear fruit” (emphasis added). Netser is a wordplay on Nazareth.
Nathanael echoes the sentiments of many people of his day regarding this little
out-of-the-way village: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Jn 1:46).
Connect Nathanael’s disdain together with these words: “For He grew up before Him
like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or
majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He
was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not”
(Is 53:2-3). How do these verses relate to Nazareth? Nazareth was despised and
rejected by people. So was the Messiah—and then some, ultimately, at the cross
of Calvary. He would be called a Nazarene. (R. Reed Lessing and Andrew
E. Steinmann, The Messianic Message: Predictions, Patterns, and the Presence
of Jesus in the Old Testament [St. Louis, Miss.: Concordia Publishing
House, 2023], 163-64, emphasis in original)
