"Unto Us a Child is Born" Isaiah 9:1-7 Sunday Morning Worship Service

I greet in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and wish you Merry Christmas.

Let me invite you now to take your Bibles and open them to the book of Isaiah and chapter 9.

Isaiah chapter 9 is our text for this morning.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

If you're using one of the Bibles in the seat back in front of you, this is page 573.

Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

This morning we'll be studying one of the famous prophecies of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, as we saw identified in our scripture reading from Matthew 4.

This text does indeed refer to Jesus.

It's also one of the texts sung in Handel's famous Messiah.

So as I've been studying this text this week, I've been joyfully singing in my office, but as I read it this morning, I will refrain for your benefit.

So if you found your place in Isaiah, please follow with me as I read from the Word of God, Isaiah chapter 9, beginning in verse 1.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.

In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shone.

You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they're glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken, as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

This is the word of the Lord.

You at this time of the year make your refrigerator or some conspicuous wall in your home into a museum of sorts of all of your friends and family who have sent you Christmas cards.

Their shining faces and their beautiful holiday matching ugly sweaters.

You know, as I was looking at my refrigerator recently, I had this revelation that what was really happening as I decorate my refrigerator with all of your beautiful Christmas cards is that Christmas cards are really Instagram for old people.

Because what I have is a whole bunch of aspirational photos.

Look at my beautiful life.

You know, every Christmas card I've ever sent out is always me at my best, which isn't great, but it's what's what I'm working with.

And my kids at their most spectacular best, they are pretty nice to look at.

And every photo of you is the same.

These glossy, beautiful, perfect families, everything is in place.

I think there's a reason that we send each other Christmas cards and not Christmas videos, right?

Holiday Christmas videos would look a little bit different because there's this reality that Christmas season is a season of tension, isn't it?

It's the season of the year in which we are most longing for, anticipating, eagerly expecting this kind of perfect harmony, peace, celebration, goodness, and joy in our hearts, in our families, in our nation, in our world.

That's what we long for.

And yet at the same time as we are anticipating, eagerly expecting this, we're looking around and realizing we're just really not there.

At the same time that it's the season of the greatest expectations, it's also the season in which we're kind of most acutely aware of loss and of tension and of disappointment.

In fact, the text that we just read is a Christmas prophecy, and it's a Christmas prophecy because it speaks into the tension of the real world.

The setting in which the people of Israel received this prophecy from the Lord through his prophet Isaiah was a season of crisis.

Let me actually have you turn in your Bible a page back to Isaiah chapter seven.

That's where this prophecy really begins, in a series, a season of crisis for the people of Jerusalem.

Isaiah chapter seven, verse one tells us the people of Jerusalem hear that the kingdom of Israel to their north and the kingdom of Syria north of them have joined in a coalition and are marching upon the city of Jerusalem to destroy it.

And Isaiah 7, 2 tells us that the people, when they heard this, their hearts shook as trees of the forest shake before the wind.

They were terrified.

It's into that crisis that God sends the prophet Isaiah with a message not to fear, but rather to hope in the Lord.

And he promises the people that their purposes won't be accomplished, and that God will thwart them, and he will make their land disinhabited.

And so the question then comes to the people in the midst of this crisis, will they believe the word of the Lord?

Notice really the question for the people is in Isaiah 7, verse 9.

Isaiah 7:9

This is a part of Isaiah 7 I want you to look at.

At the end of verse 9, the prophet says to the king Ahaz, If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

That is, will you believe the word of the Lord?

Now the answer for the king of Judah at this time, Ahaz, is no, he will not believe the word of the Lord.

This generation will not believe the word of the Lord.

And so the Lord speaks into their unbelief and says, Well, I'll going to deliver to you a sign.

And chapter 7 and verse 14, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and his name will be Emmanuel.

God is going to be with us.

And so the hopes of this nation are going to rest not in this king or this nation which are disbelieving, but in this son, Emmanuel, who is going to be born, and the hopes of this people will be found in him, who will grow up, and as we read through chapter seven and chapter eight, we reach another high point in this series of prophecies that Isaiah speaks to the people in crisis, and he tells them again, This child will be born, and he's going to grow up and reign over a kingdom, a kingdom which will have no end.

So let me sum up this little bit of background information for this Christmas prophecy by saying, This is a text that speaks to a people in crisis and tells them, God will deliver his people.

God will enter into human history and deliver his people.

Notice the end of the text we read in Isaiah 9.

At the end of verse 7, we read, The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

This word zeal usually is translated jealousy.

God is jealous for his people, he has a passion for his people, he wants their singular affections.

This generation is disbelieving.

This king is disbelieving, but that will not thwart his purposes for his people.

He will intervene in human history, he will deliver his people and bring them into a kingdom which will have no end.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

He's so zealous for his people and their affections that he will act to bring about their salvation.

So the text that we're going to read this morning answers the question how will God deliver his people?

And the way that this text answers that question is through two propositions.

So I'll use that as our outline this morning.

Two ways that God is going to deliver his people.

Number one, the zeal of the Lord will turn darkness into light.

Look at verse one in our text.

Isaiah 9, verse 1.

Isaiah 9:1

There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.

In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

So our first verse gives us something of a geography lesson.

Naphtali and Zebulun were two of the sons of Jacob, they're two of the tribes of Israel.

And when Israel takes possession of the promised land, they're given the land in the north, which we know as Galilee.

Now you'll see that even at the end of verse 1, Galilee of the Nations, and it's known as Galilee of the Nations, because we're told even in the time of Judges that the people of Zebulun and Naphtali didn't fully drive out the inhabitants of the land.

And Gentiles continued to be normal inhabitants, baked into the population, even unto the time of Jesus.

In particular, the people of Zebulun and Naphtali, because they're in the far reaches in the northern part of the people of Israel, whenever an invading army would come from the north, the first part of Israel they would encounter is Zebulun and Naphtali.

They would bear the brunt of the first waves of enemy aggression.

And that's exactly what did happen in this particular time into which Isaiah is speaking.

This prophecy is probably delivered around the 730s, and it's 732 that the army of Assyria enters the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, according to 2 Kings 15, and actually takes this people captive.

That's the gloom of which Isaiah is speaking in verse 1.

This is a people in gloom and anguish who have experienced the harshness of foreign oppression.

But what does God promise to them?

Look at verse 1 again.

In the former time he brought them to contempt, but in the latter time he has made glorious.

A reversal is what is promised here.

And in the Hebrew, this is even more clear.

These two words that are translated as contempt and make glorious are perfect antonyms.

This is the word I'm looking for.

The word in Hebrew that's translated as contempt is the word hikel, which means to make light of something, and to make glorious is ychbid, which means to make something heavier valuable.

So this is the way that you have experienced reality now, but God is going to reverse that perfectly and make your experience in the world glorious.

A reversal is what God has promised.

What will it look like when God enters into human history and reverses the fortunes of his people, when he rights every wrong?

Well, verse 2 says it will look like God bringing light out of darkness.

Look at verse 2.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shone.

Of course, light is a metaphor that's used frequently in Scripture, especially the prophet Isaiah uses this as a metaphor to just stand for all that is good.

It stands for life, it stands for goodness, it stands for joy, it stands for the presence of God.

For example, in Isaiah 60, a passage that kind of culminates the hopes of Israel, God promises to dwell with his people, and he says, Arise, shine, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

When God brings his presence to dwell with his people, it is said that his light is with them.

This is what's promised in Isaiah 9, verse 2.

Isaiah 9:2

God is going to enter into human history, he'll dwell with his people, he'll reverse every wrong and right every wrong.

He will be with them as light.

And if his light is with them, the other side of that coin is in verse 3.

Joy will be with them.

Look at verse 3.

You've multiplied the nation and increased its joy.

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.

They are glad when they divide the spoil.

Isaiah is reaching for language of the highest peaks of human experience.

When you bring in the harvest, that is, when you have the maximum amount of abundance and plenty.

When you divide the spoil, that's when you've experienced victory and freedom from oppression.

The maximum peaks of human experience.

That's what you should have in your mind.

And what God is going to bring when he intervenes to redeem his people will surpass anything that you could hope for or imagine.

Light and joy will be the experience of God's people when he comes to dwell among them.

Now, chapter 9, verses 1 through 3 is a text that is familiar to many of you precisely because Matthew picks it up and applies it to Jesus, as we saw in our scripture reading this morning.

Jesus takes up his ministry in Galilee, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali.

And Matthew identifies this in chapter 4, the text that we read earlier, by saying, Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

For those dwelling in a region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

What is the light?

It is the presence of God.

Matthew is identifying Jesus as the very presence of God.

Notice that Isaiah chapter 9, the text I read, the way that it ends in verse 7 is that there's going to be a kingdom established on earth, and this Messiah will reign over a land of peace and justice forever and ever and ever.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Matthew doesn't say that's happened yet, but he says, the one who will bring that kingdom is in your midst.

And if he's in your midst, then all of God's glory and all of God's light and all of God's joy and all of God's peace is among you, and it becomes incumbent upon you to receive him.

Which is why the very next verse Jesus turns and says, This is how you should respond.

From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The king whom God has appointed to rule over an everlasting kingdom of peace that will have no end is now among you, and the way you respond is by believing his word.

And by believing his word, you are reconciled to him, so that when he establishes this everlasting kingdom, you can dwell with him forever and ever.

God in his zeal will bring darkness to light.

The second thing that we see in our text in Isaiah chapter 9 is that God will bring oppression to peace.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

How will he do this?

Well, notice verse 4 and following, verse 4, 5, and 6 begin with the same particle.

4, 4, 4.

That's telling us how he is going to bring light to darkness, is he's going to act in human history specifically to break the yoke of oppressors.

Look at verse 4.

For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Every boot of the tramping warrior and battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

Notice the language that Isaiah is piling up to describe the terror of the experience of this people.

There's a yoke put on their neck.

A yoke, of course, is a plank that's put on the neck of an animal in order to force it to labor.

And this is what humans have done to one another throughout all of human history.

Yokes upon their neck are being forcing them to bear heavy burdens, and boots tramping from warriors into battle.

The language that's used here of the boots tramping is actually foreign loan words that are used to describe the footwear that Assyrian soldiers would wear as they tramped into battle.

And it would conjure up a sense of fear and dread in the people hearing this because they know what it's like for an army thousands and thousands and thousands of soldiers deep to trample into the land, for the mountains to quake, for the shelves in your house to begin to tremble, and for you to know what is coming is horror and disaster.

And this text says when God intervenes in human history, he will break the yoke of the oppressor.

He will take all of the weapons of warfare and bloodshed and burn them in a fire, and there will be no more, but an era of peace and joy will last forever in its wake.

That's what God's going to do.

How is God going to do that?

Well, verse 4 says that he's going to do it like he did it on the day of Midian.

What in the world is that talking about?

Midian is a story that conjures up memories of Judges chapter 6 through 8, where an individual named Gideon was raised up by God to face the Midianites.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

The Midianites were people who in this time period were oppressing the Israelites, stealing their food, forcing them to live in deprivation and starvation.

God raises up Gideon, who raises an army to fight against the Midianites.

But God tells Gideon, Your army is too big.

This isn't going to work the way I want it.

Get rid of some of the people by telling them, anyone who is afraid of going into battle, go ahead and go home with your family.

So Gideon gives the word, and the army is more than halved.

We just have a fraction of what he originally had raised.

And God tells Gideon, Your army is still too big.

This isn't what I want.

Here's what you shall do, Gideon.

Take your army down to the brook and have them drink water.

All of the soldiers who drink like, you know, normal dudes would drink, get rid of them.

And all the guys who drink lip, excuse me, lapping water like dogs is what the text said.

That's who I want you to keep and take into battle.

In other words, all the dumb guys, that's who I want you to keep.

All the dummies.

Get rid of the normal, intelligent, functional humans, and just keep the dogs.

And what's left are just three hundred dummies.

And God says to Gideon in Judges 7:7, with the 300 men who lapped water like dogs, I'll save you and give the Midianites into your hand.

Judges 7:7

In other words, when God speaks through Isaiah in Isaiah 9.4 and says, it's going to be like the day of Midian, that is, it's going to be a supernatural intervention into human history where God will do what you can't.

He will come and he will break the yoke of the oppressive invading armies.

He will cast into the flames all of the weapons of warfare, and he will bring about a kingdom that no human ruler could ever bring about.

A kingdom with peace that will have no end.

So now you're asking the question supernatural intervention that will bring about all that we anticipate, everything that we long for, everything that we hope for.

How is he going to do that?

And you look at verse 6 and you get the answer.

For to us a child is born.

And that is certainly divine intervention.

This is not what children do.

Children don't break the yoke of oppressors, children don't reign over a kingdom that has no end, but this child will.

Notice in verse 7, when he grows up, this is what he will do.

Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

This one is going to reign over the kingdom of David, which God promised to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7, that one from his line would reign over God's very kingdom on God's earth forever and ever and ever.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

And here is this child.

This is the one who's going to intervene in human history to reign over a kingdom with no end.

Now I mentioned at the beginning this morning that Isaiah 9 is part of a longer complex of prophecies that Isaiah gave to the people in a moment of crisis, beginning in chapter 7, but that really continues all the way till chapters 11 and 12.

In chapter 7, the people are promised Emmanuel, a son who is in himself God with us, and the hopes of the nation really ride on him.

And in chapter 9, we're told that this son is going to come and rule over a nation.

And the culminating prophecy is in chapter 11, where we get more details of what his reign will look like.

So I want you to flip in your Bibles over a page to Isaiah and chapter 11.

In Isaiah chapter 11, there is one individual who is described as a shoot from the stump of Jesse, who of course is David's father.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

So this is the descendant of David who will rule over God's kingdom.

Verse 2 says, The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

This is going to be an individual in whom is embodied all the wisdom, goodness, knowledge, and might of God.

And what will he use it for?

Verse 4.

With righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with equity the meek of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he will kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

He will exercise his power for goodness and righteousness and right every wrong, and the results of his intervention in human history, look at verse 6.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, the little child will lead them.

Look at verse 8.

The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra.

The wean child shall put his hand in the adder's den.

That's barely even a snake.

That's like a large worm.

Where we moved from, when we moved to Los Angeles, we lived in an apartment complex where it was very normal for there to be signs up everywhere saying rattlesnake was found in that part of the parking lot.

And people are always talking about where they see the rattlesnakes, because it's just it's the desert, Southern California.

That's normal.

Now in Virginia, I let my kid pick up the little snake, but I don't let him pick up the rattlesnake when we go visit family in California.

But this text is saying there's gonna come a time when this ruler is gonna exercise his righteous rule over God's earth.

And then you could.

You could let your son go play with the snake, because no harm will befall him.

What this text is describing is a return to the Garden of Eden.

This ruler is going to right every wrong, everything that has been lost by human sin, all as far as the curse is found in this world, this ruler will reverse it all.

No more death, no more destruction, no more d disease, no more famine, no more disappointment, no more tears at Christmas.

He will restore everything that was lost.

All of our hopes anticipated will be fulfilled in him.

So who is this ruler?

Who is this child who is going to be born to us?

Turn back to Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

I've lived in Washington, D.C.

for about 10 years now, and I have met many Washington Redskins fans.

And I say Redskins fans because they refuse to be known as anything else.

And they're a loyal bunch because Redskins haven't been good since I was two years old.

But they speak glowingly of this era of some coach named Joe Gibbs and how everything was perfect and life was wonderful.

If I told one of these loyal followers of this football team in Washington that you're gonna sign a player who's gonna restore the Joe Gibbs era, they would glow with wonder and anticipation and wonder who will this player be?

What we're promised in the birth of this child is that on a cosmic scale.

So the question is obviously who is this child who is going to restore all that was lost by humanity's plunge into sin?

And we are given the answer in verse six with four little names that I've saved to the end because I want to walk through them with you together.

Look at verse six.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Four names.

I'm going to take them in order, but I actually want to skip the first name and come back to it at the end.

And what you'll notice with the next two names, Mighty God and Everlasting Father, is that they go together.

They both speak of the deity and the power of this child.

And you'll notice that the names on the outside, the wonderful counselor and the prince of peace, they go together.

They speak of what is he going to use all of his divine power and exercise for?

So notice the two middle names, mighty God and everlasting Father.

First, Mighty God.

Wow, that's a title.

That's not the kind of typical name that you call someone.

This one is going to be born to you.

He's going to be God, God Almighty.

And so there's been a lot of debate over what exactly this name means.

Maybe it doesn't quite mean God.

Do you know what this means in the Hebrew?

Mighty God.

It's a startling claim.

There's going to be a son born who is in himself going to be the embodiment of the mighty God.

Which is shocking because Isaiah, over and over and over and over, perhaps no more emphatically than any other author of Scripture, claims there is one God, but this God is going to be born into human history.

So his second name goes with it here, Everlasting Father.

Now, sometimes when we read this and we know that this text applies to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of this name, we get a little bit confused because Jesus is the Son of God, right?

So how can he be everlasting Father?

Isn't that like a confusion of the Trinity?

But the best way to understand this is that everlasting Father is a title that's not referring to intra-Trinitarian relationships.

That is, it's not describing this child's relationship to God the Father.

It's describing this child's relationship to the people over whom he rules.

He's going to be born a king and rule over humanity.

In the ancient Near East, a king is described as the father of his people.

This child who is going to be born, he's going to reign, he'll be a king, he'll be the father of his people, but he's not an ordinary king ruling over his people for a transient period of time.

Rather, he's an everlasting king.

He is the king who reigns from everlasting to everlasting.

And in particular, the title of father for the king is, I said, common in the ancient Near East, but it really wasn't common in Israel.

It's not how the people referred to David or Solomon or any of the kings who reigned on the throne of Jerusalem.

Because in Israel, there is one father of the nation, God Himself.

For example, in Isaiah 63 in verse 16, we read, You are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, though Israel doesn't acknowledge us, that is, even if the patriarchs forget us, you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from old, is your name.

And that father is going to be born in human history, as the mighty God, the one who from everlasting to everlasting is self-existent, is going to bring himself into human history and make himself seven bounds.

The mighty God and everlasting father is who this child is.

Which leads to the final title here in the list, the Prince of Peace, which is describing what he will use all of his divine power for, to rule over a kingdom characterized by peace, as verse seven says, that will have no end.

Now I want to circle back to that first title that we skipped over.

And the reason I save it for last is because I think, in a sense, it's the most confusing title, particularly as we're reading this text from the perspective of 21st century North America, where counseling is something that you hear of everywhere.

It's become a very woven into the fabric of American experience kind of a thing.

We are blessed certainly at Emmanuel Bible Church with many gifted counselors, but when we think of counseling, what comes into your mind?

Probably sitting down with another individual, maybe a wise individual, someone who cares about you, who will listen to you, who will gather information, who will learn all about your past and your present and what's going on in your heart, and will come up with a plan to help you.

A biblical counselor would help you to mature in your faith and to become more like Christ, to deal with your circumstances in a way that honors the Lord.

But what the counselor is doing is they're gathering information and they're trying to help you with it.

And I want to say that's really not a good picture to have in your mind when you come to this text.

Because this counselor is entirely different from that.

Let's break down the terms here that are used in this name.

Wonderful counselor.

The word wonderful, what does it mean?

We use it in common vernacular just to say something's cool.

My child drew me a picture, and I say, wonderful stick figures.

But when we talk about God as wonderful, we're saying something very different.

This word wonderful is a Hebrew term that's used very specifically to refer to God.

Specifically to refer to God as the one who's transcendent above human experience or comprehension.

Something that just blows all of your categories away.

Something that you can't even imagine, that you couldn't have even dreamt of.

This is who God is, and it's what God does.

So, for example, in Exodus in chapter 15, this is just after God has redeemed the people of Israel out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea, and He's drowned the Egyptian army.

And as the people of Israel stand on the shore on the opposite bank of the Red Sea, Moses leads the people in a song singing, Who is like you, O Lord among the gods?

Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome and glorious deeds doing?

Wonders.

Who is God?

He's the one who can do what you can't do, or think, or even imagine.

He's the one who does divine spectacular wonders that reveal his transcendent being.

So, wonder, another way that we could translate or in our mind think of wonder as it relates to God is he's the transcendent one.

He does the stuff no one else could even imagine.

There's another story in which it's not just about what God does, this word wonderful is used, but also for who he is.

And it's the story of God revealing the birth of Samson to Samson's parents.

In Judges 13, God comes to Manoah, this is going to be Samson's father, and tells him that you're going to have a son, and that he's going to be a Nazarite, and he gives him details about his birth.

And in that story, Manoah says to the angel of the Lord, he thinks he's just talking to an angel, or maybe perhaps just a messenger, and says, What's your name so that when the words come true we may honor you?

And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name, seeing that it's wonderful?

And just after this, the angel of the Lord disappears, and Manoah recognizes, I've seen God, and he falls on the ground terrified, saying, I'm gonna die because I've seen God.

What is the name that God reveals to Manoah?

The name is wonderful.

That is, you shouldn't even bother asking my name because you couldn't understand it anyway, because who I am is transcendent in an entirely different category from anything that you can even get your mind around.

Who is God?

He is the wonderful one, the transcendent one, in the category unto himself, far beyond space, time, matter, or any of the categories that you use to think.

God doesn't think in successions.

God is absolute existence for all of eternity.

This is the wonderful one.

Now, to call the transcendent God a counselor, what does that mean?

And here we need to recognize that when we're dealing with a transcendent, self-existent being, we're not talking to a counselor who is like our counselors, he's just a little bit wiser.

Rather, to call him the wonderful counselor, the transcendent counselor is to say he's in a category unto himself, unlike any counselor you've ever encountered.

In what way?

Think about the way the Scripture uses the word counsel when it talks about God.

From whom does God receive his counsel?

Or how does he conceive of his counsel?

Here's one particular example from Isaiah himself, in Isaiah 46, verse 9.

Isaiah 46:9

I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

Eternity to eternity have been counseled by God before he even spoke the universe into existence, so that all things happen according to his counsel, his direction, his will.

The New Testament speaks of God like this: God is the one, the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Another way that sometimes, if you're studying the scriptures, you will encounter this word, the decrees of God.

This is a term that's been frequently used by Christians through the ages to speak of God's counsel.

How is it that God relates to human existence?

He relates to human existence through his decrees.

He decrees all things that are.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism has a short summary that says, What are the decrees of God?

And here's the answer: the decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to which, according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

That is, God's counsel is not like yours.

It is his eternal self-existent wisdom that has brought everything to pass that has happened and everything that will happen.

So when you think of counsel, you think of people like yourself, maybe just wiser.

But every single human being who can counsel you, their counsel is successive.

They're gaining information all the time.

So their counsel is growing, but it's always finite and incomplete.

But God's counsel is set apart in an entirely different category.

His counsel is singular, that is, without even an instant, by his very essence and nature, his counsel is comprehensive, expansive, covering all of eternity and all of human existence.

It's never increasing, it's never changing, it's eternal and perfect because of who God is as the transcendent wonderful one.

Now, what does this mean for you?

It means that this child who is going to be born, who is himself Jesus Christ, is the embodiment of all that is in God.

All of the mighty God's power, all of his everlasting essence, all of his princely royal power used to work peace in his creation, has been made available to you.

So that you can come to God through Jesus Christ, who has made himself your priest, your intercessor, who right now is at the right hand of the Father pleading for you.

And you can come to him as your counselor.

But when you come to him as your counselor, you don't come to one who is going to listen to your complaints or listen to your circumstances or hear about your crisis and figure out a plan to resolve the mess in your life.

Rather, you're coming to the one who has already decreed all things and is promised that he will work with all things together for good for those who love him who are called according to his counsel.

When you come to the wonderful counselor, you don't come for him to figure out what's wrong in your life, but you come to ask him to wrap you in his arms and save you and deliver you.

I know that you know every wrong in my life, and I know you will one day right every wrong, and I want to trust you.

That's a counselor who deserves your trust.

Now, what I would like to do here at the conclusion, as we've arrived at the end of our study of Isaiah 9, there was, I hope in your mind, a kind of rumble in the background as you were listening to the text of Isaiah 9.

So if you study the book of Isaiah, you see that there's a series of promises that there's going to be an individual who'll intervene in human history to right every wrong and bring God's kingdom to pass.

And those promises are kind of culminated in a very famous passage of the Messiah.

We just read a very famous Christmas passage.

But if you're listening closely to this text, there are so many echoes of a very famous Easter passage.

And I'm speaking, of course, of Isaiah chapter 53, the text that tells us that the Messiah who was born, who is the wonderful counselor of the mighty God, is going to die in order to remove his people's sins.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

And what I want to do just for a minute at the close here is go through just a quick little Bible study to help you see how Isaiah 9 is pointing us through the birth of the Messiah towards the death and the resurrection of the Messiah.

You'll notice that in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2, the prophecy begins by announcing that people in darkness are going to see a great light.

Isaiah 9:2

And the same thing is there at the beginning of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

Behold, my servant will act wisely.

He'll be high, lifted up, and be exalted.

That's kingly divine language to say that God is going to get thee lifted up.

This servant will be lifted up and reveal divine glory.

And those who haven't been told will see him.

They're going to see the light, the glory of God, the presence of God, they'll see him in the Messiah.

Then Jesus comes and says that he is that Messiah.

And he tells his disciples in John chapter 12 that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

John 12 · chapter mention

And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.

So I'm going to be lifted up in divine glory and reveal the glory of God, the presence of God, the light of God.

People will see me.

As Matthew said, I am that light.

I'm God incarnate.

But at the end of John's gospel, what you find is that for Jesus to be lifted up means for him to be lifted up on a cross.

The way that God is going to display his glory is in the suffering and death of his son.

God is going to reveal his self-giving sacrificial love.

That is his glory, his self-giving donation on the cross.

So when you read through the rest of Isaiah 9, I want to show you how Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 53 are really in conversation, revealing to you more of the glories of the Messiah, who is the very light of God.

You notice in, for example, in verse 4, we're told that the rod of an oppressor, this Messiah is going to break.

But in Isaiah 53, we're told that the Messiah, when he comes, isn't going to break the oppressor's rod, but he'll be oppressed himself, afflicted, yet open not his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter.

Or again in verse 4, we're told that there's a yoke that is being borne by God's people, and this great burden will be lifted.

But the reason that he can lift that burden is because Isaiah 53, 4 says, He's going to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows.

At the end of the prophecy in Isaiah 9, in verse 7, it's told to us that this Messiah will establish a kingdom characterized by justice.

But Isaiah 53 says that before that happens, by oppressive injustice, he'll be taken away.

Verse 7 again says in Isaiah 9 that there will be peace in this kingdom that will have no end, but that's because Isaiah 53 tells us that he's pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him is the chastisement that brings us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

And I think the real clincher in this text that really demonstrates the conversation happening between Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 53 is at the end of verse 3, where we're told that this climax of human joy, that they are as glad as when they divide the spoil, is what's going to happen when the Messiah reveals himself to his people.

But this expression, dividing the spoil, is used only one other time in the Hebrew Bible, and it's at the climax of Isaiah 53, where we are told that he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death.

Because he pours out his soul for death as a substitute for his people, bearing their iniquities, the chastisement for their peace, he is going to then divide the spoil with them and share the divine joy that he has won for them.

Which, by the way, the only way that one can pour out his soul for death, and then arise to divide the spoil and share the divine joy in an everlasting kingdom is if he rises from the dead.

What Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 53 are pointing us towards is that there are two advents to this Messiah.

He's going to be born, and the one who is born is God Himself.

But he's going to be born to suffer and die.

He'll ascend into heaven, but one day he will come again in a second Advent, where the earth will receive this king.

And the way to enter into that kingdom is right now to believe his word.

To believe the message of the gospel, as Jesus said, to repent of your sins, and put your trust in the Messiah Jesus, who was stricken for your transgressions, crushed for your iniquities, has been resurrected for your justification, and will come again to establish an everlasting kingdom of peace and justice where you will reign with him forever and ever.

In other words, the tension of Christmas is resolved in Christ.

You experience in Christmas a strong tug in your heart where though on the one hand, you are anticipating and longing for and eagerly expecting peace in your heart and your family and your world.

And at the same time, on the other hand, you're not experiencing that.

You're experiencing reminders of loss and disappointment and broken relationships.

This is the promise that God has given to you.

That glory is achieved through suffering.

It's through the cross that Christ brings us into glory.

And it's through the pain and the suffering of this world that Christ will bring you likewise through suffering into glory.

Isaiah 9 is a promise that God will deliver his people, he'll bring light from darkness, he'll bring peace from oppression, but he's going to do it through the cross.

And through the cross, he will bring you into a light that will never end, a kingdom of whose peace there will be no end.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Let's believe this word together.

Father in heaven, we thank you that Christmas reminds us that you have resolved that you will deliver your people.

And we pray as we consider your first advent and look forward to your second advent, that you would strengthen our faith and cause us to, with eager expectation, put all of our hope at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray that you would increase our faith, increase our satisfaction in you, cause us to put all of our hopes in you.

We thank you that our hopes are satisfied in you, for you are the mighty God.

You're the wonderful counselor, you're the Prince of Peace.

We bless you in the name of Christ.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to iBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with both us.