As the Christmas season is upon us, our minds turn toward the first arrival of our Lord Jesus.
Many Old Testament prophets spoke about the Messiah to come, but few encapsulated the entirety of the message and meaning in such a brief statement as did the prophet Isaiah in the familiar verses of Isaiah 9:6-7.
To better understand the significance of Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 9, a bit of historical context is needed.
The first chapter of the book of Isaiah explains that the things Isaiah saw concerned “… Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (Isaiah 1:1).
Chapter 9 is situated in the midst of the reign of King Ahaz.
Israel was divided at this time between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, with Ahaz ruling over Judah, the Southern Kingdom.
Ahaz had been informed of a confederacy between the Northern Kingdom and Syria, and greatly feared they would conquer his land (Isaiah 7).
Through Isaiah, God offered comfort to Ahaz, informing him the confederacy’s plans “… shall not stand, neither shall they come to pass” (Isaiah 7:7).
Rather than trusting the Lord, however, Ahaz devised his own plan. He appealed to the Assyrian Empire for help to defeat Syria and Israel. Ahaz sweetened the deal by offering silver and gold from the house of the Lord, and the king of Assyria obliged his request.
The problem was that Assyria swept through Syria and Israel, and like all nations hungry for more power, they would eventually keep moving south into the territory of the Southern Kingdom.
We know from Scripture that Assyria did invade and utterly destroy the Northern Kingdom, and just as Isaiah foretold, they also attempted to take Judah, and though they couldn’t defeat them, Assyria left great destruction in their path.
Nevertheless, those future invasions are the subject of Isaiah’s prophecies early in chapter 8.
Such future calamity would cause any man fear. But fear of men or other nation’s armies is exactly what Isaiah warned against in the latter part of chapter 8. He told them to “Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and [let] him [be] your fear, and [let] him [be] your dread” (Isaiah 8:13).
He also warned against turning to “… familiar spirits, and unto wizards …” (Isaiah 8:19), as many would do, but instead to seek the Lord for comfort and help.
Isaiah 8 ends with a gloomy outlook for those who don’t heed his words. “And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and [they shall be] driven to darkness” (Isaiah 8:22).
That is the backdrop to Isaiah’s prophecy of a coming Savior in Isaiah 9, a backdrop that makes the wonderful promise of a Prince of Peace who will carry the government on His shoulders all the more wonderful and encouraging.
With that context in mind, here are five things the Lord spoke of through the prophet Isaiah in 9:6-7. (I’ll cover the first three in this blog, and the final two in a subsequent blog).
- HE SPOKE OF SOMETHING PERSONAL
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given …” (Isaiah 9:6).
I don’t think Isaiah could have understood how all-encompassing that little two-letter word “us,” was when he uttered it. I feel confident he would have considered it a promise to the Jews only.
The Jewish people had been called out and set apart by God, a people to enjoy his choice blessings and great privileges (Deuteronomy 7:6-7).
The saints of the Old Testament could have never imagined a time when both the Jews and Gentiles would come together to form one body.
Yet early in the movement of the church after Pentecost, the Gentiles were brought in.
In his letter to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul wrote about the mysterious nature of the unified body, stating
… in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel (Ephesians 3:5-6).
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [between us]; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace” (Ephesians 2:14-15).
True enough, salvation came “to the Jew first,” but then “also to the Greek,” and indeed “to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16).
Jesus came to be a personal Savior, not limited to one ethnos, nor limited by the constraints of any man. He is a Savior to any and all who will believe.
- HE SPOKE OF SOMETHING PROVISIONAL
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given …” (Isaiah 9:6)
The season we are in is marked by gift-giving. Those gifts, as wonderful as they may be, are rarely given in order to provide for a need that could not be met otherwise.
But so it is with the gift of Jesus. The great chasm between man and God could be reconciled by no other means than through the sacrificial death of His only begotten Son.
So commonplace is the birth of babies today that it’s easy for us to lose sight of all that was involved for Jesus to be born “a child,” “a son,” and to be “given.”
Jesus, as the Second Person of the Trinity, exists eternally. But in order for Him to become man, His humanity required a starting point.
And at the perfect moment in history, Jesus added humanity to His deity.
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 (Galatians 4:4-5).
The Omnipotent One, born as a helpless baby. The Creator, born of a woman.
But why would He give up so much to get so little in return?
Paul said it best:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:7-8).
Matthew Henry said,
“The same that is the mighty God is a child born; the ancient of days becomes an infant of a span long; the everlasting Father is a Son given. Such was his condescension in taking our nature upon him; thus did he humble and empty himself, to exalt and fill us.”
Henry continued, “Christ's being born and given to us is the great foundation of our hopes, and fountain of our joys, in times of greatest grief and fear.”
For all the gifts you may give or receive this Christmas season, none compare to the gift God provided through His Son Jesus.
III. HE SPOKE OF SOMETHING PROPHETIC
… the government shall be upon his shoulder … Of the increase of [his] government and peace [there shall be] no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever … (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Many good and trusted men of God have varying interpretations of what this passage, and others like it, mean, for the present and the future.
Some believe that upon the completion of Christ’s earthly ministry, Christ ascended to take His place on David’s throne, bringing in the kingdom of God that now resides in a spiritual sense in the hearts of all believers.
I certainly don’t want to disparage that viewpoint, but I take a bit more literal interpretation of Scripture.
Isaiah’s prophecy will find its ultimate fulfillment during the Millennium, when Jesus Christ will physically sit on the throne of David, in Jerusalem, and will rule with a rod of iron.
From studying history and observing the world in my own lifetime, I’ve yet to see a time like Isaiah describes here, a time where peace reigns with no end and where judgment and justice are executed perfectly and eternally.
Instead, “… the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19), and is controlled by “… the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), and the “… god of this world” that “has blinded the minds of them which believe not (2 Corinthians 4:4).
But what a joy it is to know that a day like unlike anything we have ever seen is coming. A day of peace as Isaiah described when people will “… 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” (Isaiah 2:4).
What a peaceful habitation it will be when even predatory and poisonous animals will be no threat to each other or to us. Isaiah said of that time:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den (Isaiah 11:6-8).
And during that glorious reign, when over time some do eventually arise who rebel and sin against the Lord, it will be Jesus who executes perfect justice and judgment (Isaiah 2:4; Zechariah 14:17).
There will be no two-tiered system of justice. No longer will we depend on judges or a corrupt government to set things right. Jesus will do so, and it will be swift, righteous, and perfect.
Theologian Robert Anderson once wrote:
“There is not a single prophecy, of which the fulfilment is recorded in Scripture, that was not realized with absolute accuracy, and in every detail; and it is wholly unjustifiable to assume that a new system of fulfilment was inaugurated after the sacred canon closed.”
John MacArthur said,
“Fulfillment of his prophecies of Christ’s first coming have given Isaiah further vindication. The pattern of literal fulfillment of his already-fulfilled prophecies gives assurance that prophecies of Christ’s second coming will also see literal fulfillment.”
If everything that has been fulfilled has been fulfilled literally, I have no reason to doubt that the events left on the horizon will be fulfilled literally as well.
Matthew Henry, captured the essence of Isaiah’s words by saying the things Isaiah spoke
“… all point ultimately at the grace of the gospel, which the saints then were to comfort themselves with the hopes of in every cloudy and dark day, as we now are to comfort ourselves in time of trouble with the hopes of Christ's second coming, though that be now, as his first coming then was, a thing at a great distance. The mercy likewise which God has in store for his church in the latter days may be a support to those that are mourning with her for her present calamities.”
All the wonderful things prepared for believers in the future have been made possible because of what Christ did in the past. And what He did in the past, He was able to do precisely because He became a man.
That is the true gift of Christmas.
(Part 2 will be posted soon).
