For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
It’s amazing to me how God can so clearly state something, yet we still don’t seem to get it. Here, in the book of Isaiah, it just cannot be made much plainer than this. A child will be born who will reign – okay, so far we could be talking about almost anyone that became a great king of Israel. But the next sentence blows that out of the water. It starts with “He will be called…” and then goes on to list some fairly impressive titles, don’t you think?
“Wonderful Counselor” –the Holy Spirit is typically called the Counselor (some translations will say “Advocate” or “Helper”).
“Mighty God” – this term is a bit more ‘generic’ in nature – referring to our One Holy God.
“Everlasting Father” – pretty clear we are talking about the Father here!
“Prince of Peace” – and who but Jesus can you possibly think of!
In one verse, Isaiah is told that this Child that is born will reign, and be called names that we associate with all three Members of the Trinity. How awesome is that? And how much more clear of an example do you need that our one Holy God is the Counselor, the Father, and the Son?
But Isaiah isn’t done yet, he goes on further in the next verse (v7):
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
“No end” – is this referring to ‘eternity’?
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
David’s throne – reference to Jerusalem and Jesus’ earthly genealogy.
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
Yep, that does mean eternity!
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
I love this phrase about “The zeal of the Lord Almighty…”
‘Zeal’ means eager desire, or passion. The Lord is passionate about establishing justice and righteousness, and nobody can stop what He is determined to accomplish!
How much more depth and meaning can possibly be packed into just a couple of verses? And some people believe that just regular humans wrote these words without God's help - Seriously??