07. The Promise of the Coming King

 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, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  (Isa 9:5–6 ASV)

These expositions of verses are tending to be longer than I had expected so you may need to divide this into two sections. This is our second visit to the prophecies of Isaiah. He has been called ‘the Evangelical Prophet’. Most who are familiar with the book count it as a mountain peak of revelation. Perhaps, here, more than anywhere else in the Old Covenant scriptures the light shines the brightest. Much of the first half of the book is a series predictions of disaster to the nation of Judah and to the nations round about. But even here we find precious stones sparkling in the sand. We have seen the flash of light in our previous blog where we read of a virgin mother’s child who will be called Immanuel. God with us. We might be tempted to think of that as a simple statement that God was ‘with’ his people and not ‘with’ the Gentiles, those outside the covenant. But when we read these verses in chapter 9 we are breathless with wonder at the audacity of the prophet. There were hints of incarnation in chapter seven but in chapter nine the hints have become bold proclamations.

The background

Historically this borderland of the promised land was open to incursions and full-scale invasions from the Gentile nations. The lands of Zebulun, Naphtali and Transjordan were the traditional route of armies intent on conquest. They felt the first blows of each wave. Less than 20 years after Isaiah had delivered this prophecy these lands were overrun by the armies of the Assyrians. These lands were blood-soaked. In ca. 734–733 b.c. Tiglath-pileser III annexed much of Israel’s territory and reduced Samaria to a puppet state. (See yesterday’s timeline chart.) Perhaps this history furnished Isaiah with his imagery.

For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, And garments rolled in blood,
Will be used for burning and fuel of fire. (Isa 9:5 NKJV)

‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ – goiim

Remembering that the prophet’s visions share something of God’s view of history as being like  a time-lapse and slow motion all at the same time, we read, apparently, of incursions into the territory from the North, at first ‘lightly afflicting’ and later ‘more grievously’; the territorial descriptions also become more precise. The land was emptied of its citizens and repopulated by exiles from other nations that Assyria had conquered. In later centuries some of these territories became known as the Decapolis; they were within the borders of the nation but they governed themselves according to the Greek patterns of administration. The land became thoroughly infiltrated with foreign immigrants; ‘Gentiles’ so thoroughly that it became known as ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’. 

but in the latter time hath he made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.  (Isa 9:1 ASV)

And then, suddenly, without warning… light and joy.

 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.  (Isa 9:1–3 ASV)

The scene changes and in the territory where the prophet’s vision had showed him the coming tribulations Isaiah sees a scene of victory. His language reaches back into the nation’s history and finds ‘the day of Midian’. A time when the nation’s population had cowered from the Midianite-Amalekite alliance until the Spirit of Jehovah/Yahweh came suddenly and powerfully on Gideon and empowered him as a military leader to break the yoke of oppression, the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor. (Judges 6-8)

And Jehovah raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those that despoiled them.  (Judg 2:16 ASV)

Judges: shaphat — men (and women) who were God’s special provision as leaders and counsellors in times of crisis. When their work was accomplished they generally returned to civilian life. One of the most famous ‘judges’ Gideon rejected the people’s clamour for him to become a dynastic ruler. (Judges 8:22ff)

For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of Midian. For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire.  (Isa 9:4–5 ASV)

The Vision: In the time of their great need God would intervene.

For unto us a Child is born, And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Unto us a Son is given; And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice rom that time forward, even forever. (Isa 9:6–7 NKJV)

Verse by verse

Let us take each of these ‘names’ and let our souls soak in the wonder of God’s provision. Shall we take each ‘name’ in turn? There are some amazing precisions and, in the scriptures, ‘names’ are much more significant that labels. In his great prayer of John 17 Christ declared that he had declared his Father’s name. That doesn’t mean that he shouted it from the rooftops. It means he ‘declared’ it; he revealed the significance of the names, each name unfolding an aspect of his character. There is no superfluousness here.

For unto us a Child is born

So he enters our world. In the matchless language of Charles Wesley:

God, contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made man.

He was born as a child, but he is given to us as a Son. He comes in all the frailty of a newborn babe but he is God’s gift of love to a world under the dominion of evil forces: Sin, Satan, Self.

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

They can be very shaky things, governments. They rise and then like a morning mist they are gone. There is no long-term security in any human government but if the Son of God takes the responsibility, if the government rests on his shoulder, all is well. Did you notice that the word ‘shoulder’ is singular? One of the old preachers used to say ‘He has room for the lambs on the other.’

And his name shall be called Wonderful

The God that the Son came to reveal is full of wonders. So often our perception and expectation of God is so meagre. He is wonderful. We use that word so easily but here it means what it says; He is full of wonder. When the Queen of Sheba saw the magnificence of Solomon and his reign it is said that ‘there was no more breath in her’. Christ, in himself, reveals a God who takes our breath away.

Counsellor

Those who have experienced him know him to be Counsellor. To become his disciple is to sit at his feet and know that he knows you. His words of comfort and wisdom are not ‘off the peg’ but hand-crafted with you in mind. Don’t be too quick to seek counsel from others. Give him the opportunity to speak into your life. In the epistle to the Ephesians Paul challenges our rule-based lives with an implied question. He writes…

  But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: (Eph 4:20–21 NKJV)

Have you? I mean have you heard him speaking into your life? Will you give him the chance?

Mighty God

I’m not sure what Unitarians do with this verse. This child who is born, this Son who is given is none other than the Mighty God.

Everlasting Father

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.  (John 17:6 NKJV)
And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26 NKJV)

The Prince of Peace

Isaiah, by the Spirit, is witnessing the arrival of Shiloh, the Peace-Maker. We have touched on this several times so I won’t repeat myself other than to say he has made peace between God and man, and he has made peace between man and man. He has made Jew and Gentile, one body by the cross. And this is only the beginning…

Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isa 9:7 NKJV)

Of the ‘increase’ of His government and peace there will be no end. Not only will the rule not end but its ‘increase’, its continuous expansion, has no limits. This will be fulfilled not by our efforts or strong will, but by his own zeal.  What a vision! The King is Coming!