Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7: And His Name Shall Be Called . . .
Year after year, I find myself returning to the
marvelous prophecy of Isaiah at during the Christmas season. Isaiah, who,
writing in the 7th century B.C., provided the ancient Israelites
very important prophetic insight about the Messiah Whom God the Father would
send to His people.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the
virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Isaiah
7:14
6 For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is
given;
And the
government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name
will be called
Wonderful,
Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.
7 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. Isaiah
9:6-7
Like other peoples of the Middle East in
early history, the Israelites very carefully picked names for their children.
The names tended to be descriptive of the child’s heritage or the parents’ (in
some cases, God’s) hopes for him or her.
Some examples:
Abigail (first wife of David) in Hebrew means
“Father’s Joy” (lit., “my father has made himself joyful”)
Elisha—“God Is Salvation”
Elijah—“Jehovah is God”
Gideon—“Great Warrior” (lit. “One Who Cuts
Down”)
Daniel—“God Is My Judge”
Abram—“Exalted Father”
Abraham—“Father of a Multitude”
Isaac—“Laughter”
Joshua—“Jehovah Saves” (pronounced
“Yeshuah”); this is the Hebrew form of the name “Jesus”: Matthew
1:21: “and you shall call His name Jesus
(Yeshuah), for He will save His people from their sins.”).
Most
of Isaiah’s prophecy deals with a terrible calamity taking place in Israel, as
Israel is overrun and destroyed by the Babylonians. But Isaiah does not stop with the message of
calamity. He encourages his readers—and us—about God’s promises of a redeemer,
a future king from heaven who would rule the world . . . the Messiah or Savior.
Isaiah shows what we may call a “foreshortened” view of the prophetic
future—foretelling both the first advent of the Messiah and the second advent
without always clearly distinguishing between the two in the text. His message,
however, is that the calamity about the envelop Israel is not permanent. God
will send His Messiah. And eventually the Messiah will rule the earth.
The
Messiah’s Identity
He
would be humble leader who is “God with us” (Hebrew: Immanuel), and He would
come as a child—“For unto us a Child is born”—The future king would be the
child Isaiah first mentioned in 7:14 . . . a miraculous birth of a Son who
would be Immanuel (“God with Us”). The name “Immanuel” applied to the future
Messiah is a key theological statement in that Isaiah correctly identifies the
future Messiah and King as God Himself coming to be among mankind.
Isaiah’s
prophecies are the first to communicate the humble nature of the advent of God
on earth. He pictures the Messiah as a
both humble servant and everlasting king. Rather than dealing just with the
Messiah’s first advent, however, Isaiah also shows us the Messiah as the future
ruler who is the one having the birthright to assume the throne of David (9:7).
Isaiah tells us what the Messiah will be like:
"Wonderful" or "Wonderful Counselor"
The
Hebrew terms refers only to “the ability to accomplish something that cannot be
accomplished; to do or show marvelous works and miracles; to do the works only
God can do.” Thus, the ability to perform miracles was the commonly accepted
“sign” of God or God’s work and hence was referred to by the term used only for
God and His works: “wonderful.”
So when
Isaiah identifies the Messiah as “wonderful,” he is telling us that the Messiah
would be God Himself; that is, corresponding to the term “Immanuel” (God with
us) in 7:14. This theme is found throughout the Bible. For example, John the
Baptist sent some of his followers to Jesus to ask, “Are you the Coming One, or
do we look for another?” Jesus answer
was, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the
poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:20-22). In other words, the miracles He performed
proved He is God.
“Counselor”
The Hebrew terms means “a guide, teacher, or
intercessor.” It can be taken here to
mean all three—guide, teacher, and intercessor. “Counselor” is a term
associated with government. Every king had many counselors who were experts in
their fields to advise him. So when we see the Messiah as the “Wonderful
Counselor,” we know Him as a miracle worker, and miracle of God the Father
Himself, a counselor or teacher who does powerful works only God can do.
But,
we say, aren’t these roles of the Holy Spirit?
Isn’t it the Holy Spirit who is our Counselor and Guide? Yes, but as two
of the three persons of God, the Son and the Spirit are one.
Look
at John 14:15-17: “15 ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray
the Father, and He will give you another Helper (“Counselor”), that He may
abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with
you and will be in you.”
Jesus
is teaching the disciples that He will not always be with them, and when He is
gone, the Father would send them another Counselor (also translated
“Helper”). The word “another” here means
literally “another exactly like.” So
Jesus is indicating that at that time He was filling the role of Helper or Counselor,
and another exactly like Him—that is, a person of God—would follow and be
present with believers once Jesus was gone. This Helper—the Holy Spirit—would be
with us, live in us, and fill the purpose of being our guide and teacher, just
as Jesus had done when He was physically present with His people. And, in fact, Jesus works together with the
Holy Spirit to intercede for us with God the Father.
"Mighty
God"
Isaiah
is emphasizing that the Messiah would be God Himself—reiterating the identify
He gave Him in 7:14 (Immanuel— “God with us”).
In
Scripture, this truth is repeated in different ways. For instance, in
Colossians 2:9 we read “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
(lit., “in bodily form”).” In other words, the Messiah is God Himself, or as we
refer to Him, one of the three persons of God or the Godhead. In addition, we have Jesus’ own words: “If
you have seen Me you have seen the Father” and Paul’s description in Colossians
1:15-16: “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
The
Messiah is consistently identified at God Himself throughout Scripture—the
image of the invisible God, the creator, the one in whom all the fullness of
the Godhead dwells bodily; “Immanuel.”
Isaiah
does not describe the future Messiah only as God, but uses the adjective “mighty,”
the Hebrew term meaning giant, strong, valiant, chief; one who excels. Isaiah
wanted to stress the power and might of the Messiah as Immanuel, God of
infinite power dwelling among His people. He uses this phrase “Mighty God” to
refer both to the coming Messiah and to the Father. For example, we read in
Isaiah 10:21: “The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty
God.”
"Everlasting
Father"
The
Hebrew term here would be literally translated “Father of Eternity” and can
mean not only the eternally existing God, but also the One who gives His people
access to eternal life. The Septuagint translates the term “Father of the world
to come.”
“Father”
in the context of Isaiah’s time and culture included a whole bundle of
attributes inherent in the father role: protector, provider, the one whose name
the children bear. The term was used more widely than to refer only to the
father of a family unit. The king was regarded as the father of his subjects (protector
and provider). Also, various spiritual
leaders of the Israelites—Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, to name a few—were at
times referred to as “father.”
Describing
the Messiah as “Eternal Father” also emphasizes the Messiah’s identity with and
sameness with the Father—both always were and always will be. Jesus attested to
this also in John 14:8-11: “8 Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father,
and it is sufficient for us.’ 9 Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so
long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the
Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10 Do you not believe that I
am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not
speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for
the sake of the works themselves.”
"Prince
of Peace"
When
the Bible speaks of peace through Christ, it almost always refers to “peace
with God.” For instance, Romans 5:1 tells us “Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Peace”
is that familiar Hebrew term “shalom,” which literally means harmony,
wholeness, well-being. Jesus came to bring peace (peace with God,
reconciliation with God) to those who would trust in Him. There also may be a
dual emphasis in this name for the Messiah, also. The prophecies of the Messiah
in Isaiah do not clearly differentiate between the first and second advent of
the Messiah. Therefore, the Messiah is described both as a babe and a powerful
king. In his foreshortened view of the advent of the Messiah, Isaiah’s use of
the identify “Prince of Peace” can reasonably be understood in terms of the
first advent (Jesus enabled mankind to find peace with God) and the second
advent (when Jesus returns to bring peace, in a fundamentally changed physical
world where there will be no strife).
When
the heavenly host sang “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace,
goodwill toward men” (Luke 2:14)—they were singing of the Father’s goodwill and
peace toward mankind, made real by His sending the Son, the Messiah, as the
means of restoring peace with Him.
Comments