"The Prince of Peace"

The book of Isaiah in the Old Testament Canon of Scripture is often considered to be the greatest book of the Old Testament and Isaiah to have been the greatest of the Old Testament Prophets. This is contested, of course, but it is true that the Prophet Isaiah was quoted ninety separate times by the New Testament writers, which is more than any other Old Testament Prophet. Isaiah was active seven centuries before Christ and was able to look beyond the bleak existence of his people to a future time of hope when he wrote about the glory of God, and regarding that glory Isaiah prophesied about the virgin birth of Christ, Christ’s suffering, and the eventual death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Messiah. In synopsis it can be said that the content or message of the book of Isaiah is about three things principally = judgment, hope, and redemption; all three are for the people of God and all three come exclusively from God.

Context.

In what was once a glorious nation is now a blighted nation where the glory of the Lord was once so profoundly seen, particularly in the days of the Tabernacle, it would be more than appropriate to call the pitiful condition of the nation a term used to describe the desecration of the Holy Temple under the leadership of the priest Eli’s sons in 1 Samuel saying, “Ichabod” meaning, ‘the glory has departed.’ And since the glory had departed from Israel spiritually speaking, it makes sense the nation was in darkness. The dark cloud of unbelief and overcast was the spiritual infidelity of the nation who had forsaken their once proud and exalted status as ‘God’s chosen people.’

The Text – Telling the Story.

v. 6; “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.”

This statement by the inspired prophet, Isaiah, is not the beginning of something as much as it is the announcement of eternal God’s response to the human condition. This statement is God’s conclusion to the matter of inherent sin which separates a people from their God. This word of grace is the announcement of the greatest coming event in the history of humankind. This is for sure an announcement about God the Father who is doing something in time that was predetermined in eternity past, if we can speak of eternity as having a past or future for that matter.

This statement is prophetic or futuristic because what Isaiah declares has not yet taken place.

Isaiah tells his audience that God Himself, Yahweh, will come to us first as a child. God will choose to come to us as a human being, a person like all of us, and in His coming as a child it tells us God wants to relate to us and that is through another human being. There is nothing intimidating or ominous about a child being born. Children were being born all the time among the Israelites, so this is not going to be anything unusual. ‘A child is born.’

“A Son is given.” Here we see God’s intent, God’s heart, as this is the gift of God’s Son. Here is God’s answer or response to the suffering human condition, particularly of Israel, God’s people, and among the other nations. God’s answer to rebellion toward Him is the gift of a Son, a person who will remedy the sickness of the human heart. So, God’s answer to sin and rebellion is love. God gave.

The gift of a male child, a Son, is not coincidental but intentional because only by the gift of a Son, can this child be an acceptable sacrifice to God bearing the sins of the people. This is consistent with the Old Testament sacrificial system where a male animal was required to be the sacrifice for sin. Of course, we know that this requirement of a specific gender of the sacrifices was necessary for those ancient sacrifices to accurately point all of us to the ultimate sin-bearer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“...is given.” That this Son is ‘given’ to us says there is no contribution needed or accepted from us! This is God at work, and it is free! This also tells us God has not done this exercise in generosity while under constraint or obligation, but this Son who is going to come is coming free of charge as God’s personal contribution toward a remedy for the sins of the world.

“And the government shall be upon His shoulder,” or “He shoulders responsibility” (NET Bible).

Isaiah says God will take responsibility for His rule over His world. This prophesy of a child born, and Son given is God’s plan for human redemption and God is accepting responsibility to carry it out. The fact that this Son will have such power and authority tells us He is more than a child and a Son, but He is a uniquely complex child who is a child in every way, and a Son which tells me this ‘Son’ received something from His Father as a gifted for the world. It is no wonder “the government will be upon His shoulders” because the New Testament book of Colossians says of Him – “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1.16,17). The entire universe was created through Him, meaning this Son spoke the world into existence all the world’s nations, people regardless of nationality, race or languages are under the rule of the eternal Son of God. This Son is the plan God the Father designed from eternity, in that any authority Satan usurped in the Garden of Eden was taken back by the work of this gift of God’s Son. The plan of Satan cannot stand, and Isaiah is telling his audience God is doing something about what Satan did when he deceived Eve and Eve coerced her husband, Adam into disobeying God. God has final authority and this child who is also Son will prove the authority of God the Father as the only authentic authority in the spirit realm. God is above all and greater than all, and God will prove it! God the Father is sending His one and only Son to undo what Satan did in the Garden. It is through God’s plan of redemption for humankind God put the plan in motion to fix the mess that was made in the Garden! All the children of Abraham, not just Israel, are still the people of promise according to Isaiah and that includes you and me and everyone who by faith believes, because everyone who are children or offspring of the true faith are children of Abraham and are also people of the promise!

“And his name ...,”

What is significant about this name which was revealed in Isaiah 7.14? In earlier human history a name was given to a child sometime after its birth which was descriptive of the child’s character.

We now have four descriptive names given to this Son that tell us who and what He is and what His mission will mean to the nations who will put their trust in Him.

These descriptive names remind us that God will be with us and at work among us! These names not only tell us exactly who the Savior is, but how God expects to carry out His plan for hope and God’s work of redemption while also expressing to us the uniqueness of His Son’s name.

It has been noted that in history ancient kings would adopt a “throne” name that in some way described who the new king was. And here we have “throne” names given to the child who was also a Son given to reign.

“And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,”

His name, the name of Jesus, who is the eternal Son of God, will be called Wonderful Counselor.” In being called a Wonderful Counselor tells us that this child, this Son will have unusual, other-worldly wisdom, a wisdom that far exceeds the wisdom of David’s son, Solomon, who the Bible once called the wisest man to have ever lived. However, this ‘Wonderful’ Counselor is a wonder. He is the One from whom all wisdom and knowledge comes from! Solomon drank from the fountain of this counselor. Whatever wisdom Solomon had was borrowed from the eternal and inexhaustible bank of wisdom that the Mighty Counselor owned. And now, since this child was born and this Son was given to us, when we are troubled, or discouraged, or confused, or lack confidence in the direction of our lives, we can now go directly to Him, Jesus, our Mighty Counselor, to receive help when we need it.

“His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, ...” Of course, the name “Mighty God” is another of the ‘throne’ names given to the Son who will eventually ascend to the throne, but this is an unusual name to say the least because this name does not describe the attributes of a person who would eventually sit on King David’s throne, but this name describes this person as God Himself! Does this text tell us the person referred to as a child and a Son will be an expression of the might or power of God? For certain. This person will figure into God’s plan of redemption for Israel from all their earthly troubles and represents hope for the Gentile nations as well. He will be God’s representative on earth who because of His might will never be deposed of His throne! ‘Mighty God’ to rescue Israel from their enemies. ‘Mighty God’ to restore the broken Covenant between God and people of the earth. ‘Mighty God’ whose arm of mercy is long enough to reach people of the Gentile nations; whose table of fellowship is broad enough to accommodate the disenfranchised and the wayward and bring them into relationship with Himself. ‘Mighty God’ and save God’s kingdom on earth. ‘Mighty God’ who will one day restore heaven and earth and whose kingdom will know no end!

His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, …”

The name ‘Everlasting Father’ is another attribute of God the Father and that is the given Son’s eternal or everlasting nature. Let there be no controversy here, Isaiah’s prophesy is clearly giving the Son the name of God. This is another proof-text for the doctrine of the Son of God who is co-equal with the Father and in His equality shares all the attributes of the Father yet has a differing role in the story of redemption, particularly. Someone said by calling Jesus, ‘Father’ this name reflects of the fatherly characteristics of the Son because He as a Shepherd, watches over us and never leaves us, constantly caring and protecting us from Satan’s attacks. Jesus is the Son, yet He is fatherly in His characteristics! Jesus can be called the Father not only because they share the common traits of a father in that they are self-sustained, or independent of any other deity, and they share the name Father because they are essentially one in nature! Jesus testifies of this in St. John 17.11, 22 – “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. The glory that you have given me I have given to then, that they may be one even as we are one.” Here is the doctrine of the Unity of God.

“His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The mission of God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, is a mission of peace. Even immediately after the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, God made a provision for Adam and Eve to cover themselves when God slew an innocent animal and clothed them with its skin, covering their shame. The act of sacrificing continued throughout the Old Testament where God consistently desired to reconcile Himself with a sin-prone humanity by accepting the sacrifice of animals instead of human beings because of their sin. God’s intentions were consistently good! What God could have required of us humans, God instead required of an animal in our place! A covering from the great flood in Noah’s time was God’s gesture toward peace. The substitutionary acceptance of a ram stuck in a bush instead of the requirement of Abraham’s son, Isaac was another one of God the Father’s merciful acts to redeem His people and relieve them of sin’s oppression.

Then in the fulness of time, when the time was right, “God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4.4-5).

The offering of Jesus goes down in the annals of history as the single most peaceful act of selfless love the world has ever seen. He was ‘bent over’ under the weight of being ‘beaten up’ as He marched up the road to Calvary, and then He was hoisted up while He was stretched out on a cross. Then Jesus was ‘taken down’ only to be ‘raised up’ three days later! Only God in Christ could bring peace out of a Roman cross, the instrument of crucifixion! And now because of His suffering we are proclaimed forgiven and innocent, and because of his death we have life!! “Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14.27).

The Big Question: So, What?

The Proposition.

Our text for today is telling us when Jesus has come you have all the virtues His name describes. In Christ, or the anointed Son of God, the Lord Jesus, we have the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace! SMO Lockridge said Jesus’ name is a synonym for free healing, friendly help, and full salvation! I say, Jesus has been called a Son, the Father and a Prince, all pointing toward relationship. And as Jesus enjoyed the relationship of unity with His Father as Jesus prayed in John 17, Jesus desires we also have unity of relationship with Him also. God’s presence assures us of God’s peace! He is the Prince of Peace.

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