When Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith on September 21, 1823, “he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled” (Joseph Smith—History 1:40). Who is the stem of Jesse and who is the rod to come forth out of that stem? The Lord answered these questions in Doctrine and Covenants 113:1–4. Still, careful reading and pondering are needed to decide who is meant by each symbolic term.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie identified Christ as the Branch during the Millennium: “‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper.’ … (Jer. 23:3–6.) That is to say, the King who shall reign personally upon the earth during the Millennium shall be the Branch who grew out of the house of David. … He is the Lord Jehovah, even him whom we call Christ” (The Promised Messiah: The First Coming of Christ [1978], 193).
An additional insight regarding the Lord’s kingdom in the latter days is interwoven with the messianic prediction in 2 Nephi 21:1: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse.” Latter-day revelation identifies this rod as “a servant in the hands of Christ” (D&C 113:4). The idea of a latter-day servant is repeated poetically in 2 Nephi 21:10, this time referred to as “a root of Jesse.” This root is identified as an individual who will hold the priesthood “and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days” (D&C 113:6). The Prophet Joseph Smith was such an individual. So also is each succeeding prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie expressed this same feeling: “Are we amiss in saying that the prophet here mentioned is Joseph Smith, to whom the priesthood came, who received the keys of the kingdom, and who raised the ensign for the gathering of the Lord’s people in our dispensation? And is he not also the ‘servant in the hands of Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or of the house of Joseph, on whom there is laid much power’? (D&C 113:4–6.) Those whose ears are attuned to the whisperings of the Infinite will know the meaning of these things” (Millennial Messiah, 339–40).