Hashkama: The Birth of Immanuel

“For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

In the first seven verses of Isaiah Ch.9 there is the Messiah, His name, His rule, and His Kingdom.  Matthew 4:12-25 quotes the opening verses of Isaiah Ch.9.  This applies to His double advent.  The first and second coming of the Lord are wonderfully blended together in Isaiah 9:6-7.  God had hidden within this text a double prediction.

In verse 3, God has honoured the nation of Israel by sending through them the light of the world – And, “You have increased their joy.”  Amen!  Today we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her king” (Matthew 1:18-25).  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy (Ps (96:1).  In holy joy “They rejoice before You”, as Christ did (Luke 10:21).  Our response to the Father’s wonderful gift to Israel and to the world, must be one of amazement, gratitude and praise.  We should recognise our need for God to give such a gift; and we should recognise that the Giver is as great as the Gift.

Messiah shall appear as a child, born of a woman, born as a Jew, under the law, but not in a way of ordinary generation.  He is the promised seed of the Woman (Genesis 3:15).  He is a Son…given—one in which the fullness of the Godhead was to dwell, produced by the creative energy of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin (Matthew 1:20-21, 23, 25; Luke 1:35; Isaiah 7:14). 

Governments are good at making promises, but not so good at fulfilling them.  God’s promise is trustworthy and true.  The people and governments walk in darkness today, but the darkness can end when God’s light shines in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6).  God’s Word: The people walking in darkness/have seen a great light.  Isaiah develops this contrast between light and darkness in a variety of ways.  Our focus is on a child born to us, a son has been given to us – God’s thoughts toward us are good and holy.  There is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5).  The Messianic age will be inaugurated by the birth of the wonder child.  The child born has wonderous qualities which express the unique Deity of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.  The government/leadership will rest on His shoulders (Matthew 28:18. See Matthew 11:27; Daniel 17:14, 18, 27; Ephesians 1:20-23; Philippians 2:9-11), reversing the rod of the oppressor on the shoulder, found in Isaiah 9:4.  The ensign of government; the sceptre, the sword, the key which was borne upon or hung from the shoulder (The key of the house of David – Isaiah 22:22).  He is a leader who will be a stay against all His enemies, and He will establish an enduring reign of peace.  Christians rightly acquaint the string of epithets here with Messiah Jesus – Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  For the Jew, the most challenging epithet of the sequence is ’el gibbor, warrior-God.  They understand it as Isaiah violating all biblical usage if he called the Davidic king “God”.  In their view this could not possibly be.  This is in the eyes of understanding for those who are not veiled (2 Corinthians 3:14-16).  Jewish commentators did not dispute the Messianic nature of this prophecy until modern times, only since the Christological controversy has it become a problem.  The ancient (first Century BCE) Aramaic Targum Jonathan[i] paraphrased it: “And there was called His name of old, Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, He who lives for ever, the Messiah in those days peace shall increase.”  However, contemporary Jewish and Christian scholars differ intensely on the interpretation of these names.

In Isaiah 7:14 the birth of Immanuel was previously announced – “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanu-el [God-With-Us].  Now, in Ch.9, the miracle child is introduced in greater detail.  His birth as a child indicates His humanity.  That He is given “unto us” (lanu) as a son, emphasises the fact that He is God’s gift to His people (and ultimately to the world as Saviour and Lord – John 3:16).  His supernatural character is further indicated by the fact that “the government shall be upon his shoulder.”  He shall rule over His people (For example: Jeremiah 30:22; 32:38; Revelation 11:15).

There are also some differences of opinion among Christian commentators concerning the epithets and their proper divisions.[ii]  The King James version divides the names into five members: Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  The Masoretic accentuation supports the divisions into four names, each consisting of two members:

Pele Yoetz, El Gibbor, Abhi Ad, Sar Shalom.

Pele Yoetz – Wonderful Counsellor.  Pele is a noun literally meaning Wonder Counsellor, or might be translated as a Wonder of a Counsellor.  As Counsellor He is endowed with infinite wisdom (Colossians 2:3).  He is counsellor because He is intimately acquainted with the counsels of God from eternity.  It is by Him that God has given us counsel (Psalm 16:7; Revelation 3:18); and He is the wisdom of the Father, and is made of God to us wisdom.  Wonderful, meaning extraordinary to the point of being miraculous.  He is wonderful in His Person; God manifest in the flesh.  Therefore, the first name of the child born and son given clearly indicates His divine character.  Peli is a word that occurs in Judges 13:17-18, 22: “Why do you ask my name seeing that it is secret Peli…”  Pele is found in Psalms 78:12 and 88:12. Pele indicates a mysterious act of God, beyond human understanding.  Pele – wonderful or mysterious is an attribute of God, like holiness.  Pele Yoetz therefore means a wonderful counsellor who partakes in the very nature of God (Isaiah 28:29).

El Gibbor – Mighty God.  As His wisdom so He has strength, and is able to save to the uttermost.  Isaiah calls God El Gibbor in Isaiah 10:21. Speaking of God Himself, Jeremiah says, “The God who is great and mighty [Ha-El Ha-gibbor] His name is the Lord of hosts” (Jeremiah 32:18).  The name Mighty God bears witness to the divinity of the Messiah.  ‘Mighty’ can refer to ‘valiant warrior’, ‘valiant military hero’ or ‘champion.’  He will accomplish the destruction of God’s enemies and govern with a rod of iron (Revelation 19:15).  The Mighty God is a child born.

Abhi ad – The Everlasting Father.  The Everlasting Father is ‘a Son given.’  Literally the Father of Eternity.  Emphasising the father relationship to His people are the words, “You O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name” (Isaiah 63:16b).   God acts with paternal compassion towards His People (Psalm 103:13; Matthew 9:36).  The name means that the Messiah is eternal and paternal in relation to His people.  The adjective ‘Eternal’ speaks to the idea of one who is forever or eternal.  He is the “Father of eternity,” indicating that He is the author or creator of time.  The child is not to be confused with the ‘Father’ in the triune Godhead.  It rather speaks of the Son of God who is the creator of time, the author of eternity.  He humbled and emptied Himself (Philippians 2:7), to exalt and fill us.

Sar Shalom – The Prince of Peace.  Isaiah, on another occasion, prophesied that the Messianic kingdom will be a kingdom of universal peace and harmony.  The prophet presents the Messiah as the Prince of Peace, the King of the Messianic Kingdom.  The Messiah is the King of Peace.  The Hebrew word shalom refers to prosperity, well-being, harmony within and without, peace in one’s heart and peace with God, it is the perfect state of man.  At the birth of Messiah, a multitude of the heavenly host praised God, and said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14).

Taken together the four names of the coming Messiah are an extension of the name Immanuel.  They are rather attributes of the one to whom they are given, not names in the modern sense.

Governed by the flesh – Do Whatever it Takes

In the book of Daniel, the monarchies of the earth began in gold and ended in iron and clay (Daniel 2:32-49).  The world is not “building back better.”

With the on-shore wind of change we are now in a post-moral age.  In the UK, Political lying as a systematic phenomenon began with the Major government; but what had been a bowl of soup under the Tories, Blair turned into a full-blown banquet under New Labour.  British politics took a turn for the worse under his Premiership.   Neither politics nor the nation have recovered from that disastrous period of history.  Blair continues to believe the government should be upon his shoulder, and he is still working to guide, govern, and influence the nation from his ‘Institute of Global Change.’  Some suggest the situation has grew even darker under Boris Johnson.

Truth in politics has become an unnecessary evil.  Why speak truth when it is easier to get what you want by lies and deception?  That is where we are today.  I am not expecting the situation to improve under the new prime minister – indeed, the knives are already out.  The culture of political lying and cheating continues and is becoming more pervasive.  Decency is ignored; integrity, and the rule of law are all under attack.  While citizens should make a stand for decency, tolerance, truth, justice and freedom, Christians should prepare for lawlessness to increase (Matthew 24:12).  It will increase because it is part of the world’s rebellion and ‘emancipation’ from God.  We are in a wicked, corrupt, and Godless era; particularly with ‘wannabe’ world dictator Klaus Schwab, who believes that the government of the world ‘is’ upon his shoulder.

“Do whatever it takes,” was the motto inside Boris Johnson’s Downing Street, and was used more recently by Liz Truss.  The motto sounds remarkably like the satanist law: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”  “Do whatever it takes” was used by Rishi Sunak while he was Chancellor, and again during the hustings (August 2022) for the new prime minister.  Lying and deceiving can be part of that package.  Truth can be reshaped, cancelled or deployed according to the needs of the moment.  Truth that has lain at the heart of public discourse in Britain and the United States over the last 250 years, is being redefined.  Truth is now a weapon that can become untruth to devastating effect.  The lie becomes the truth in the hands of those in authority, so that we now have the virtue of deceit in politics.  The father of lies is seated at the heart of this nation, and the world system.  Another Boris mantra, which derived from Klaus Schwab’s ‘World Economic Forum’ is, “build back better.”  God’s word says that heaven and earth will pass away (Matthew 24:35).  The world is passing away, along with its desires (1 John 2:17); it is actually growing darker, not getting better.  As the Hymn goes: “God is working His purpose out, as year succeeds to year; God is working His purpose out, and the time is drawing near.”[iii]  The King is coming to reign and to rule in justice and righteousness on earth.

God’s Gift

Returning to Isaiah, particularly at this season of the year, when many are remembering the first coming of our Lord in fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy – we too can rejoice (Matthew 1:23).  The joy of the people in Isaiah 9:3, is compared to that experienced at the time of a great harvest, or when soldiers bring back the spoils of war from a great victory.  The joy described has roots in that of the joy of the Lord (Nehemiah 8:10), and is grounded in the birth of a child within the Davidic line.  The child will fulfil the promise of the Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7:12-16).  The King shall be of divine origin as well as heir of the line of David.  He will establish the messianic kingdom through justice and righteousness.  Justice is righteousness applied in life.  Righteousness is the divinely revealed and implanted knowledge of right and wrong, which motivates the man (and woman) of God.

Blessings and shalom

Malcolm

[7.10.2022]

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[i] The Targum of Isaiah with English Translation, Oxford Press, 1945.

[ii] The name of the son is read as six names (Vulgate), five (AV), four (RSV, NEB, JB, etc.), or a single sentence (Amer. Tr.).  The consensus today is that four names are here given, one of which is Hebrew pele’ yô’ēṣ, “Wonderful Counsellor.”

[iii] God is working His purpose out (Arthur Campbell Ainger – 1894)