Jesus Lord Of All #6: Lord of Prophecy Isaiah 9v6

 

Jesus Lord Of All #6: Lord of Prophecy Isaiah 9v6

Well, the Christmas season is upon us aka the cold, flu and Covid season. Isn’t it the most wonderful time of the year? I’ve had my second bout if illness this winter with something. I don’t even care what it was. I didn’t take a test. I didn’t get a shot and according to Leviticus it wasn’t leprosy so I’m moving forward.

It’s a little like one of those "walked into a bar" jokes. So in this joke the flu, a cold and Covid all walk into a bar. The bartender sees them enter and says, “Wait, is this some kind of sick joke?”

Lets forget about the flu and colds for a moment and concentrate on the season of Christmas itself. We approach this time of the year with anticipation, excitement and hopefully joy. As a child it is the biggest holiday of the year, you look forward to presents, as an adult the presents are still nice but it really family and friends that make you joyful. If you can capture those emotions and multiply them by a million, you have a small understanding of how much the Jewish people anticipated, were excited and looked forward with joy to the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed Champion of Jehovah.

Long before the first Christmas, long before even the nation of Israel, before Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God was already making promises and prophecies about the coming Messiah. With each prophecies the excitement of the people of God was whetted and they more keenly looked for their King of Kings.

Our series has been in Colossians, Jesus Lord of All and I’m going to shoe horn this one in that series as Jesus Lord of All: Lord of Prophecy. I haven’t systematically examined all the prophecies of the Old Testament (I’ve been way to sick for that) but I believe that the majority of prophecies in the Old Testament are about the Messiah, either directly or indirectly.

In fact the very first prophecy in the Bible is about Jesus. Way back in Genesis right after the sinful couple were cursed and driven from the Garden, in the midst of suffering the consequences of their sin, God gives a promise of hope.

I.    Prophecies of the Coming Savior

The First Prophecy of the Savior Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

From this prophecy forward through time and history God’s promises get more specific as to who will be the “seed of women.”

When Jacob blessed his sons, part of his blessing was a prophecy about the lineage of Judah. Genesis 49:8–10 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh (Messiah) come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 

This prophecy told us that the Messiah, the one who would rule with the sceptre would come from the tribe of Judah.

During the rule of David the King, there is a great reveal, to use a modern terminology, as to who that this coming one would be of the lineage and house of David. He would be the seed of woman and he would be a King of David’s bloodline.

2 Samuel 7:11-13 And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.  And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

But it is Isaiah who God used to fully show us this extraordinary, amazing, incredible King of Israel’s future. First in Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. What an incredible revelation, The messiah would be born of a virgin and be named, “Emmanuel” God with us.

Of course we could go to Isaiah 53 which detail so much of how the Messiah would die, but I want to concentrate on his birth for the next two Sundays. There are over 300 messianic prophecies in the old Testament and most of them were fulfilled in Jesus’ birth, life and death. That is a supernatural confirmation of the authenticity, the veracity, the validity of the Word of God. No other writing has such proof of power.

The passage I want to deal with today is Isaiah 9:6. Among the scribes and scholars of Jesus’ day it was one of the most well know passages in the sacred writings of the coming Messiah.

It is especially in this passage that you hear the promise of God for a coming Messiah, a savior, a King. A promise of One who would come into this world, into the nation of Israel and into the lives of those who believe and trust Him. It describes not just his coming but also his character, his compassion. And in that description it speaks to us today. So let’s look at Isaiah 9:6 and the promise and the person that Israel looked for.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Background:

The book of Isaiah was of course written by Isaiah the Prophet, who served God as a prophet to the southern kingdom for over 40 years. Isaiah seems to have belonged to a family of rank or nobility. Tradition says he was the cousin of King Uzziah. He was married and had two sons: Shear-jashub, his name signifying “a remnant shall return” (7:3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, “hasting to the spoil, hurrying to the prey,” symbolic of Assyria’s mad lust of conquest. - George L. Robinson, The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1915, 1–5, 1495.

Isaiah’s name means “salvation of Jehovah,” That is very appropriate because salvation and deliverance are the themes of the book he wrote. The book consists of several sermons detailing those acts of deliverance that God would do for His nation Israel.

Setting the Stage

Now in Isaiah’s time of moral, spiritual and political sin, Isaiah wrote the passage we are studying today. Isaiah 8:21-22 sets the stage showing the darkness of sin and then Isaiah 9 shows us the light of hope.

Isaiah 8:21-22 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead (greatly distressed) and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.  

Then in Chapter 9, God speaking through Isaiah gives His people hope in the midst of the darkness.

Isaiah 9:2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

In verse 6 Isaiah gives us the reason for this hope of the light that has shined in the midst of their darkness.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah is telling the people of Galilee, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, who were being invaded by the Assyrian army at this time, that one day out of the very land that is now so dark in despair, would come the promised child of light. About 750 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah in God’s power told us that the Messiah would be a Galilean.

I have a translation of the Bible written with emphasis on the Hebrew and especially the names of the Old Testament, in the Jerusalem Publication Society Translation this verse reads like this, Isaiah 9:6 JPS - “For a child is born unto us, a son is given unto us; and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name is called Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom; {That is, Wonderful in counsel is God the Mighty, the everlasting Father, the Ruler of peace.} It is actually just one title.

Now that is a very important name and title so let’s take the titles of Jesus the Messiah, given in this powerful verse of hope and really think about them and what them meant then and what they mean today.

Wonderful Counselor - Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor.

Jesus The Wonderful Counselor

There is a minor debate about whether or not this first name of Jesus the Christ is one title, his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor or if it is two, his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor. The ancient languages did not use commas and there is nothing in the word itself that definitely tells us that wonderful is an adjective that is describing counselor, but if your read the other titles, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace then Wonderful Counselor would seem to fit the pattern. It doesn’t change the meaning of the message of hope that Isaiah was giving which ever way you read it. The coming Messiah would be a wonder of a Counselor. A supernatural, miraculous counselor to His People.
 

Isaiah was describing the Messiah who would be to the people, a counselor like no other, a miraculous counselor, who would be able to understand them no other could.

In the New Testament, we can see why this was true, because Jesus would come into this world and take on human flesh and become man. He could understand us, he could comfort, console and counsel us because He was now both creator and creature. He not only knew us from above but become one of us here below. He was born of the virgin Mary, as Isaiah 7:14 had prophesied, the first promised seed of woman as Genesis 3 had foretold and He grew, lived, suffered, even died as a man.

Galatians 4:4-5  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Hebrews 4:15-16 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

This is the miracle, the wonder of their Messiah as their counselor.

Jesus, My Wonderful Counselor

What is so amazing about this first title is that Jesus my wonderful counselor personally. The only one who can or ever will ever completely understood you and I is Jesus. Jesus understands me as no other person possibly can.  He knows me as my Creator but also as the creature that I am. He sees me in my fear and doubts, he sees me in my sin and shame, He sees not only what I am but also what I can be in Him. 

Jesus gave one universal invitation, in Matthew 11:28-30 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

That is the invitation of a wonder of a counselor, someone who truly knows what I am struggling with, how dark my world may be and how much I need someone to bear the burdens I can’t carry. Jesus is that someone, my wonderful counselor.  
 

Writing of the Song, - No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.

1.    Charles Weigel was an itinerant evangelist, drumming up meetings, preaching one week at this church and another week at a church a hundred or a thousand miles away. He often traveled by himself, leaving his wife and son at home.  One day after finishing a gospel crusade, he came back home to find it dark and empty, there was a note from his wife that said she was taking their son and leaving him, being a lonely evangelists wife was not the life she wanted. 

The next few years were a time of terrible despair and sorrow for Weigel. He questioned his calling; he questioned the purpose of his life and wondered there was any who cared what he was going through. After a time, his faith was again restored, and he wrote a song about how Jesus had always been with him. He wrote the words and the tune for the hymn that he is famous for, "No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus."

I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus
Since I found in Him a friend so strong and true;
I would tell you how He changed my life completely -
He did something that no other friend could do.

No one ever cared for me like Jesus;
There's no other friend so kind as He;
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me -
O how much He cared for me!
 

Brother Weigel understood that truly Jesus was a wonderful Counselor and yet He is more. He is also one who will not just listen and care but will act on our behalf. Isaiah says He is, “The Mighty God.”

Mighty God – Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,

Jesus Is The Mighty God

Next Isaiah says that the Messiah would be called, “The Mighty God.” There have always been some, in Jesus’ time and especially in our day, who try and deny the godhood, the deity of Jesus Christ. The Jewish leaders during his first advent accused him of blasphemy when he flatly said, “I and my father are one.” And yet that truth was written, over 750 years before the Messiah would come, Isaiah plainly says that the Messiah would be called “The Mighty God.” 

There is no doubt as to what the prophet is saying in Deuteronomy 10:17, Moses called God mighty, because He would fight for His people. For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

The Messiah in His rightful title as the Mighty God would lead Israel to victory in battle over her enemies. Indeed, this picture of the great champion, was the Messiah expected by the Jewish Pharisees and scribes, but they wanted Him to fight against Rome and the heathen nations and so they missed their true mighty God. Missed Him because before He could win the battle against the oppressing nations, he had to win the battle against their possessing sin. They wanted Him to defeat the invading enemy but not the interior enemy. 

Only Jesus, as the Mighty God, only Jesus as both God of this world and Champion in every battle, could be the Messiah Israel needed and only Jesus as Mighty God and victor over sin can be the Savior we needed.

Jesus, My Mighty God and Champion

As we face the darkness and difficulties of our present days. These days, weeks months and even now years of uncertainty, struggle, sickness and political turmoil, you know what we need? We need a Mighty God. Just like Israel, we need Jesus to be our champion. And if we trust and believe then He will be our Mighty God. This is what scripture promises us over and over again. 

In John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Or in John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. (Claiming the personal name of God as it was given to Moses at the burning bush)

 In John 10:30 I and my Father are one.

In Titus 2:13 Paul tells his son in the faith that we are, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

In 1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

He is God but if I am to know him in my life as mighty, as champion in the battles I face then I must not make mistake the Jewish leaders made when Jesus first came. Jesus fights for me when I am following Him and serving in His cause. Jesus is not my servant, He is not in my army, but I am his servant, his soldier and I fight in His cause. I will win victory in my struggles and find hope in my darkness if I have my eyes on the Captain of the Lord’s host and I march to battle behind Him.  

Too many times I feel defeated because am looking for Jesus to fight my own personal, petty battles, instead of understanding I am to fight in the battles where He leads. Jesus looks for soldiers in the battle for the souls of men, but some look for Jesus to put dollars in bank accounts. Jesus looks for warriors to carry the Gospel as a banner into the battlefields where sin is powerful, but I think He should fight for me to have a better job, a nicer car, or a bigger house. Too many so called Christians today aren’t looking to Jesus as the mighty God, they are look to Jesus as the Genie with three wishes to grant. Its no wonder we are losing the battles of our life. 

If you need to see Jesus as Mighty God, then join Him on the battlefronts He has called us to as the Church of God and then you will see a true champion.

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty god and then Isaiah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, He is the Everlasting Father.

Everlasting Father - Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,

Jesus, The Everlasting Father

The Messiah is titled as the everlasting Father. In Hebrew this title is literally, the Father of Eternity. In the Jewish language the term the “father of” means the creator of or the possessor of. Isaiah was saying that eternity belongs to the Messiah. 

In Isaiah 57:15 the prophet said it like this, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

To Isaiah, the Messiah made his home in eternity. It is where He lives,  because he is the cause of eternity. He is the sustainer of eternity and for those who believe and trust Him, He is the also the giver of eternity.

Jesus, My Eternity

Certainly, Jesus in the role and title of Everlasting Father is seen as equal with God the Father, given the same honor and the same title, only a blatant fool would deny the deity of Jesus. 

But let’s go a little deeper and think about this title in its sense of the One who owns eternity and is the cause of eternity. Eternity, the Bible tells us, is where the father and the son dwell, it is Their home and as Their home then those who answer His call and accept His invitation can come and dwell with them in eternity.

John 3:14-17 Jesus, the everlasting Father, the cause and sustainer of eternity tells Nicodemus the seeker, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-7 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

"Sitting together in heavenly places in Christ for the ages to come.” That is what knowing Jesus as the Everlasting Father means to us personally. It is eternal life, for only the One whose home is eternity, can open the gates of heaven and let me come into His home and live with Him forever.

Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and then Isaiah gives us the final description, the final title, He is the Prince of Peace.

The Prince of Peace -  Isaiah 9:6

6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Jesus, Prince of Peace

Isaiah tells the Jewish people that their coming Messiah would be The Prince of Peace.  He is promised here as though He had already come, because God’s promise was eternal and the hope that the promise gave was actually and truly theirs, right now if they would believe in Him and take their eyes off the  surrounding darkness.
 

Their Messiah would be the ruler who was peaceful, but He would also be the ruler who would bring peace. To the Jews of Isaiah time it was the assurance that their enemies would not overwhelm them, but it superseded just the promise of a short term peace for them as a nation. Just as the Messiah was mighty God and everlasting Father this peace meant much more than relief from the threat of an invading army.
 

3.    The nation of Israel that had been taken from the slavery of Egypt, at this present time, was in so many ways at war with their God. They still worshipped idols, they had wicked kings, they allayed themselves with idolatrous, pagan nations, but when Messiah would come both the external wars and their internal war with God would cease. They would have an eternal lasting peace with the One who had called them and blessed them and would lead them as a nation.
 

4.    In Jeremiah 31:31-34, the Lord speaking through his prophet promised a new covenant, a covenant of peace. 31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
5.    Jesus, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace would rule the nations and rule the hearts of mankind in peace.

B.    Jesus, My Prince of Peace

1.    That new covenant promised in the book of Jeremiah was established not between Israel and God but between God the Father and God the Son. Israel would enter into the blessings but its keeping was not up to them. As New Testament, New Covenant believers, we also enter into that covenant, in the same way by trusting in the one who is the Prince of Peace.

Hebrews 7:22  … Jesus made a surety of a better testament (covenant).
Hebrews 8:6 …he (Jesus) is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Hebrews 13:20  Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
 

Jesus is the Prince of Peace because He shed his blood to pay the price of peace, to cover our sin and to reconcile us with God. Israel could not do it, no matter how many laws they were given or how many they made up themselves. Nor can we do it, we can’t find peace in ourselves, in our families, in our nation or in this world unless it comes through Jesus the Prince of Peace. It is not in us, it is in Him. It is impossible to us, but it is promised through Him.

United Nations Peace

1.    At the United Nations in New York City you will find an impressive statue with this scripture from Isaiah 2:4 and Mica 4:3. Isa 2:4  … they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
 

2.    That is a great verse and it give hope and yet we don’t have world peace. Do you know what is missing from the scripture in New York? The first part of the verse. They leave out, “An He shall judge the nations and rebuke many people.” The United Nations, like all the nations that meet there, have left out God, they leave out the Messiah and therefore they also leave out peace, because without Jesus as Lord and Ruler, without the true Prince of Peace, there can be no peace. No peace between nations is possible until the Messiah comes to rule and reign,  but also no peace in my life and no peace with God until He rules and reigns in me.

D.    Conclusion

The Promise of Isaiah 9:6 began to be fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was that great light seen by those who walked in darkness, but the full promise won’t be completely fulfilled until Jesus comes back leading that host of heaven, returning through the heavens and ruling and reigning for a thousand years as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And though it is still future, Isaiah 9:6 is spoken in the present tense. It is not unto us a child will be given, but unto us a child is given. Do you see why? The reason the language was in the present was because the promise could begin in the heart of anyone who would believe. If the Jewish people heard Isaiah’s message and believed in the Word of God that came from him, then the Messiah in the moment would come, into their heart and be their wonderful counselor, their mighty God, their everlasting Father and their prince of Peace.
 

The people of Jerusalem needed that promise and hope of Isaiah 9:6. And we need that some promise and hope today. Listen and hear the words of Isaiah as true and meaningful to us as it was to them, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.”
 

This is the promise of God’s gift, the promise of the Messiah, the promise of eternal life and the promise of Peace. Are you listening this morning? Believe the promise and you will find the Messiah coming into your heart today.