The King of Christmas Part 2
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Names in Jewish culture were very important. Parents did not choose names lightly, as names always carried meaning. Abraham means “father of a multitude,” a reflection of the promise God made to him concerning the number of offspring he would have. Isaac means “he laughs.” Malachi means “messenger.” We have been looking at many names for Christ and what they mean. Today we will be looking at a few more. All of them will tell us more about who he is.
Isaiah 9 comes after the virgin birth prophecy of chapter 7 and the crumbling of the alliance that threatened Jerusalem. The end of chapter 8 speaks of a believing remnant, and chapter 9 speaks of the one who will rule them.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
The prophecy concerning the child starts with stating the government will rest on his shoulders. This means that it will be the child’s right as a descendant of David and his responsibility as he exercises that right. The imagery here is like an athlete supporting a weight bar across his shoulders. The weight falls on the one who carries the load. Like we talked last week, if the child born to us was anyone but God himself, we are set up for disappointment. No human being in history has ever met the standard of righteousness God demands. No one can bear the burden but God himself. What follows in verse six are four names that describe who the child will be.
The Wonderful Counselor
The Wonderful Counselor
The word wonderful always brings pleasant thoughts. For something to be wonderful, it is extraordinary. It is outside the norm. It is pleasing to the senses. When I think of something wonderful, I think of the aroma of coffee in a coffee shop or the feeling of putting on a brand new pair of socks for the first time. Opening up a fresh carton of Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream is wonderful. There is nothing like it. Jesus is not just a counselor, but he is wonderful in the way he counsels. He is unlike any other, always exercising perfect wisdom and guidance. He is wonderful.
Let’s talk about the term counselor for a minute. A counselor is one who advises another concerning the overcoming of obstacles in various aspects of life. That is my definition. My mom is a licensed professional counselor, so I thought I would ask her to define counseling and what a counselor is in a single sentence. This is what she wrote:
“Counseling is the process whereby a person in need connects with another to search for solutions to difficult situations in life.”
That’s a better definition. She goes on to say:
“Counsel is compassionate guidance to seek solutions to difficulties in life.”
Does that not sound like our Savior? Was Jesus not compassionate toward those who needed him? He healed countess sick, lame, and blind people. He had compassion on a crowd because they were life sheep without a shepherd. Finally, my mom said:
“A counselor is one who genuinely cares for those facing difficulties and compassionately walks alongside them seeking solutions.”
There are few things that jumped out at me here. The first is genuinely cares. Anyone giving counsel that does not genuinely care can be detected. In fact, we can look over Israel’s history for a myriad of examples of people who did not truly care for the people they were in charge of. This is part of why God was so upset. But a wonderful counselor is one who genuinely cares and there is no other that cares more for you than God himself.
The other part that stood out to me is that a counselor is one who compassionately walks alongside the one who is facing difficulty. One of the illusions that people live under is that faith in Jesus eliminates all their problems, but that is not true. We still struggle. We still face difficulties. The difference is we now have one who can sympathize with us during the journey. We don’t have to go to Jesus’ office and schedule a meeting with him to discuss our struggles. He is with us every part of every day. And when we have consulted him about our struggles, he does not send us away to heed his advice alone until our next appointment. He is there walking through the fire with us. He is a wonderful counselor indeed.
Isn’t it funny how we turn to other things for guidance before we turn to him? Who or what are you turning to for the guidance only God can provide?
Mighty God
Mighty God
There is no god like our God. Biblical prophecy makes it abundantly clear that the baby born in Bethlehem is God himself. And God has demonstrated that there is none above him. He has spoken the universe into existence from nothing. He holds all things together by the power of his word. He brought the greatest country on earth to its knees through a series of plagues when it would not give up his people. He guided Israel on the exodus journey as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He is the one who revealed himself to Moses in a burning bush. Made the donkey speak, and made the ax head float. This same God put on human flesh and calmed the stormy sea, gave sight to the blind, healed the sick, and made the lame walk.
There was a period in which John the Baptist seemed to doubt Jesus was the real deal. In Matthew 11, John sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus if he really is the one who they have waited for.
When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.
Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples
and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see:
the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
“And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
The response Jesus gives to John’s disciples is meant to assure John of his faith in him. The miracles Jesus performs are evidence of who he says he is, for no one can do the things he can do. There is no greater god than our God, for there is no other. We who have placed our trust in him have him as an ally for the difficulties we face in life. So we should draw near to the one who has the power to deliver us from trouble. The mighty God is the wonderful counselor who has both the wisdom and power to aid you.
Eternal Father
Eternal Father
We have spoken at great length that the Messiah, the anointed one, the Savior who will redeem humanity and pay the penalty of our sins must be God himself. God is eternal, existing outside of time as we know it. The Savior must also be eternal if he is going to cover the sins of all humanity. Though he is born, and there is a beginning to his humanity, his origin is from eternity.
Last week we looked at the book of John and saw that the Word, who is a personal being, is eternally existent with the Father and became flesh. When we talked about the Bethlehem prophecy in Micah 5:2, it said that “his goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” Eternity means days of immeasurable time. The child to be born has origins that precede his physical birth, which is only possible if he is God.
Now some have seen a difficulty here in that the child is called eternal Father, but he is also the Son of God. How can the Father and the Son be the same person? Our doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons, but of the same essence. How can the Father be the Son? We need to keep in mind that Jesus, as the Son, is God in every way. He shares in all of the attributes of God. This title of eternal Father is not an attempt to explain God the Son’s relation to God the Father within the Trinity, but rather, explain God the Son’s relation to time, which is the same as God the Father’s relation to time. It is another way of describing the child’s divine origin.
Prince of Peace
Prince of Peace
A prince is a representative of the king. He is royalty. But we ought not take the name too literally, or we have to try and reconcile how a king is also a prince at the same time. But if we consider that Jesus is prince in that he is the representative of the Father, we begin to understand that he, as the second person of the Trinity, fully submissive to the will of the Father, accurately represents the Father to us because He is the Father.
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, is the exact representation of God.
Now let’s talk about the word peace. The fundamental problem for humanity is that all are born into sin as a result of the rebellion of Adam, who sinned against God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was Adam’s duty to accurately represent God to the rest of creation as His image bearer. By rejecting God and choosing his own way, he failed in that task. From then on, God has been providing a way for mankind to restore the broken relationship and live in peace with God. From Genesis 3:15 on, God has promised that there would come one from the seed of the woman who would triumph over sin and death. We know this to be Jesus Christ. Paul describes Jesus as the last Adam in Romans 5:12-21. There is a contrast that Paul draws between the two. Where Adam sinned and brought death to all men, Christ was obedient and brought life to all who believe. When we are born again, we are born into a new family. Punishment for sin was carried out on the cross and so now we can live in peace with God for eternity.
Verse 6 helps us understand who the child born in Bethlehem is and verse 7 helps us understand the hope we have in that this new government, this new kingdom, will never crumble.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
When the angels appear to the shepherds in the field and announce that “today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” they are announcing that the child of Isaiah 9:6-7 has come. After 400 years of prophetic silence and even longer since the words of Isaiah 9:6-7 were written, God broke that silence by coming himself.