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When we talk about the Baby in the manger, there is often an aspect that we overlook, although it’s included in many of our Christmas carols—
born is the King of Israel
come and worship Christ, the newborn King
hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King
joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King
I think many of us bristle a bit at the idea of any king—especially someone claiming absolute authority as King of kings—because of our unpleasant experiences, or perhaps the stories we have heard from history. Lord Acton was right when he said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Every monarch throughout history has established their kingdom by the strength of their sword: “Do things my way, or else!” Lord Acton went on to correctly add, “Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.”
The kings of Isaiah’s day in Israel were nothing but evil, and the kings of Judah were becoming more and more ungodly with each successive generation. What about during the time Jesus was to be born? Luke 2:1 tells of Caesar Augustus. Augustus was born Octavian and he came to power after Julius Caesar was assassinated and after fighting against Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. Augustus claimed to restore the republic, but he really kept all the power to himself.
This is why we tend to distrust those who claim authority over us and demand from us our allegiance to them. So when Isaiah begins to tell of the coming Messiah (Isaiah 9:2-5) it sounds like a warlord wielding His powerful sword.
But recall that the first time time Isaiah uses the Hebrew word shalom (peace) is in the titles of this King. Isaiah calls Him a Child and then gives Him such unexpected titles (Isaiah 9:6)!
Isaiah says “the government will be on His shoulders.” The word misra (government) is only used twice in the Old Testament, here in vv. 6-7. The root word sara is also only used twice, and both times are related to Jacob the trickster being transformed into Israel, the one in whom there is no deception. This tells us that the Messiah is going to take the burden on Himself—He flips the Kingdom upside! Instead of all of us serving Him, He comes to serve us!
This is why it’s called His government and peace and establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness!
This King of absolute power—the One Who is also called Mighty God—could overwhelm us with His unquestioned, unrivaled, and unapproachable power, but He came to be our King who makes peace.
Our King is the most awesome power in the universe, but He is approachable because He is humble (Philippians 2:6-8; Isaiah 53:1-5; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 21:5).
This is exactly what the angel foretold to Mary (Luke 1:26-33), and this is what Mary grasped, as she relates it to us in her Magnificat. Listen as she expresses praise for both our King’s power and His gentleness (vv. 46-55).
Our King came to draw His sword not against us but against the enemy that kept us enslaved and separated from God (Isaiah 9:2-5; Colossians 2:13-15; Revelation 1:18).
In Isaiah 9:6 we read that the government will be on His shoulders. This is Jesus carrying the burden. This word for “shoulders” in the OT is almost always associated with the words “burden” or “yoke.”
We were born with the yoke of sin burdening us (Hebrews 2:15). Jesus took that on His shoulders when He took an old rugged Cross on His shoulders. Now He invites us to give our burden and our yoke to Him (Matthew 11:28-30).
Our King says, “Come to Me”—He is approachable because He was born as a Baby in Bethlehem. Our King says, “I will give you rest” because He is our conquering King who broke the yoke of sin for us. This is what Christmas should remind us!
If you’ve missed any of the previous messages in our series looking at the titles and roles of the Messiah, you can check them all out here.
“Joy doesn’t wait until everything is repaired and restored. It takes root in God’s presence and grows even in hard soil.
“Advent joy doesn’t mean everything is going well. It’s not shallow optimism or a quick distraction from pain. It’s the deep gladness of knowing God is near, faithful, and making all things new.…
“This joy doesn’t depend on circumstances. It flows from union with God. That means joy can live alongside sorrow. …
“The Advent season invites us to practice this kind of joy. As we remain in God’s love and join his Kingdom work of generosity and mercy, we let joy overflow through our lives like a song that begins quietly now but will one day fill all creation.” —Bible Project’s Anticipating Christmas reading plan
“No other story, no pagan legend or philosophical anecdote or historical event, does in fact affect any of us with that peculiar and even poignant impression produced on us by the word Bethlehem. No other birth of a god or childhood of a sage seems to us to be Christmas, or anything like Christmas.” —G.K. Chesterton
“One incident in angelic history, the angelic pronouncement to shepherds in their fields, is enough to weld our hearts to them forever. How free from envy the angels were! Christ did not come from heaven to save their peers when they fell. When satan, the mighty angel, dragged with him a third part of the stars of heaven, Christ did not stoop from His throne to die for them; but He left them to be reserved in chains and darkness until the last great day. Yet angels did not envy men. Though they remembered that He took not up angels, yet they did not murmur when He took up the seed of Abraham; and though the blessed Master had never condescended to take the angel’s form, they did not think it beneath them to express their joy when they found Him arrayed in the body of an infant.” —Charles Spurgeon
“Long had God promised the world’s redemption would come through the offspring who would sustain a bite to the heel yet, in the very act of battle, crush the serpent’s head. Even as kings and prophets pinned their hopes on the coming births of sons, God unfolds His master scheme of one Son to overshadow them all.
“A glimpse of this Son’s manifold greatness will be captured in His name (Isaiah 9:6), which turns out to be not singular but fourfold. He is Guide, Champion, Caretaker, and Peacemaker, and each of these paired with attendant glory.” —David Mathis
“The manger of Bethlehem was big with God’s glory; in the incarnation was wrapped up all the blessedness by which a soul, snatched from the depths of sin, is lifted up to the heights of glory.” —Charles Spurgeon
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I opened an email this week and clicked on the link to login in to my auto and homeowner’s insurance account, and I was greeted on their website with this message, “Peace of mind is the best gift you can give yourself this season.” And I said to myself, “How perfect, because we are looking at the next prophesied name for Jesus which was given before He was born in Bethlehem: Prince of Peace.”
Except there’s a huge problem here. Did you see it in that website message? “The best gift you can give yourself.” Quite frankly: I cannot give myself peace! Colossians 1:21 says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” All of us have sinned and are hopelessly destined for eternal punishment (Romans 3:23, 6:23a).
Thankfully, Romans 6:23 goes on to say “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is what the fourth prophesied title of Jesus foretells (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Prince means a Ruler or Overseer. Peace is the Hebrew word shalom which means completeness, soundness, and contentment. Some have described shalom as there being nothing missing for us to know this ultimate contentment. Many call this the assurance of our covenant relationship with God.
Isaiah uses the word shalom quite a bit, but he uses it here in chapter 9 for the first time in the Book of Isaiah.
Zechariah saw the covenant as being fulfilled before Jesus the Messiah was born. Noticed the past tense words that culminate in light and peace in Luke 1:67-79. Zechariah concludes his prophetic word by noticing two profound transitions:
The First Advent of Jesus made peace with God possible for us (Luke 2:8-14; Hebrews 2:14-15).
Now we can live in peace (Isaiah 26:3, 12; John 16:33) and we can announce “peace on earth” to others (John 20:21; Romans 10:15).
The Second Advent of Jesus will reveal His unending peace that gives us eternal life in Him (Isaiah 52:7-10; Genesis 3:22; Revelation 22:14).
We have the peace of God because of the Prince of Peace! And we have the message of peace to share with those who don’t know the Prince of Peace. I pray that this Advent season we will messengers of peace to all those who are living in darkness and hostility.
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Last week we talked about how the title “God” can mean different things to different people. When we are talking about the One True God as He is revealed to us in the Person of Jesus, there is no doubt of Whom we are speaking. The opponents of Christianity knew this too, which is why they tried to get the early saints to not use the name Jesus.
Isaiah 9:6 says that a Child is born and a Son is given, but this Son is given the unusual title of Everlasting Father. Jesus acknowledged this unusualness in this exchange with the Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-45.
“Everlasting” means continuous existence; existing in perpetuity; the Chief by which all other things are ordered and aligned. We see this in Genesis 1:1, where “In the beginning” signifies God started Time but He existed before that moment.
In John 1:1, similar words are used,but here “in the beginning” means if you stand at the moment Time began and were able to look back into the immeasurable eternity that existed before that, God was there. More specifically, the Word of God (Jesus) was there as God. Jesus Himself affirmed this in Revelation 1:8 and 3:14.
Then in 1 John 1:1, the phrase “from the beginning” means that after Time ends, you can look into the infinite eternity that still exists and God is there. Again, Jesus Himself affirms this in Revelation 22:13.
“Father” this is the first word in our biblical Hebrew dictionary. It means father, the head or founder of a family, the protector of the family. Paul says that Jesus fulfills all of these definitions (Colossians 2:9-10, 1:15-22), and the writer of Hebrew opens his epistle with the same thought (Hebrews 1:1-3).
No one on earth has seen God the Father. This makes it difficult to follow Him. Which is why Jesus made His appearing among us (John 1:1, 14, 18).
Paul wanted people to know“the mystery of God, namely, Christ” (Colossians 2:2), and he said that Jesus is the Key that unlocks the treasure-trove of God’s rich love for us. Notice Paul’s progression: teaching the Word (1:25-27) so that we mature (1:28), so that we have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ (2:2-4).
When Jesus was born, Simeon gave us the same assurance when he saw Jesus and announced that Jesus was the Christ that had been prophesied (Luke 2:25-32), and Jesus Himself told His disciples the exact same thing (John 14:8-9).
Let people see God’s love through your life, all year-round but especially at Christmas. As we said last week, when we talk about Jesus and live for Jesus, we invite others to God, through Jesus, by the Spirit’s illumination.
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Have you ever heard the phrase “in name only”? For instance, someone might say, “He’s the boss around here in name only, but the one who really calls the shots is someone else.” We might give the title “boss” to someone just for convenience because “The guy who thinks he’s in charge” is probably too awkward to keep saying! We know the true boss by what he or she says or does, and how people respond to him or her.
I think this is true when someone says, “God,” you might wonder just what they mean by that. Sennacherib’s field commander appeared to be confused by this, as he uses both “God” and “god” interchangeably in 2 Kings 18:19-22, 32-35. But the foretelling of the Advent of the Christ makes it perfectly clear to Whom the prophets were pointing (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Let’s consider the title Mighty God. The word God is the Hebrew word el. It is translated many ways, but let’s find out which definition is correct in this foretelling of Jesus.
A god-like person
A mighty hero
An angel
A manmade god
The One True God
We can eliminate “a god-like person” from Exodus 15:11.
We can eliminate “a mighty hero” from Psalm 82:1.
We can eliminate “an angel” from Psalm 29:1 and Isaiah 6:1-3.
We can eliminate “a manmade god” from Isaiah 14:12-15.
So it must mean He is The One True God! One of Isaiah’s favorite phrases is “the Lord Almighty” which he uses 61 times (e.g. Isaiah 47:4)!
Isaiah 40 is one of the most descriptive chapters of the Lord Almighty. In here we see that…
He forgives sin (vv. 1-2)
He is beyond description (v. 12)—holding the world’s 326 quintillion gallons of water in the hollow of His hand, fitting the 10 septillion stars of the cosmos across the breadth of His hand, and carrying the weight of the Earth (1.3 octillion pounds) easily in His basket!
He is distinguished from manmade gods (vv. 18-20, 25)
His strength is absolutely unrivaled (vv. 26, 28)
How do we know these descriptive words in Isaiah point to Jesus? Look at these First Testament Scriptures compared to Christ’s First Advent:
Isaiah 40:3-5 foretells the messenger who would herald Christ’s arrival. Zechariah is inspired by the Holy Spirit to make this connection to his son John (Luke 1:76-77), and then John lives this out (Mark 1:1-3).
Remember that 40:1-2 says that The One True God forgives sins, which is what John the Baptizer sees in Jesus (John 1:29).
In 41:10, 13-14 we read of God shining His light into darkness to set people free, which is another thing that Zechariah connects to Jesus (Luke 1:67-75).
Jesus wasn’t God in name only, but His words and action—and the response of those who saw and heard Him—affirmed that He is the Mighty God that was foretold (John 8:48-59; Mark 14:60-64).
Notice also how the early New Testament saints proclaimed Christ’s unique deity, stating clearly that He is the fulfillment of all of the prophetic words that point to Him as The One True God (Acts 4:8-10, 12, 18; 5:27-32).
Peter and John said, “We are witnesses of this.” We too are witnesses of this if we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We get to proclaim His Lordship by our verbal testimony and our lifestyle. As C.S. Lewis said, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great man or a moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool…or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.”
In Philippians 2:9-11, Paul points out that Jesus has the name above every name and that every knee must bow to Him and every tongue confess that He is Mighty God! Today, let us bow our knee to Him and lift our voices proclaiming that He is Lord and God until our One True God takes us home or returns at His Second Advent.
If you’ve missed any of the other message in our Advent series called Jesus Is…, you can find them all here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Jesus made His first appearance as a fully human Man in a stable in Bethlehem. But His Advent—or appearing—had been anticipated for a long time before that.
In fact, one of the darkest chapters in human history takes place shortly after human history began. Mankind sinned and was separated from God because of that sin. The initial separation foretold an eternal separation (Genesis 3:22), but God shines His light of hope in this darkest hour, foretelling the Advent of our rescue (3:15).
Seven hundred years before Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, the setting is still dark and getting darker. Sin is running rampant, God’s people are groping in darkness, and enemies are pressing in from every side.
Out of the darkness, God speaks (Isaiah 8:5-10), giving us a glimpse of the Messiah’s glory. Notice the hope-filled words Immanuel (v. 8) and God with us (v. 10). This darkness is the inevitable result of not gazing on God’s glory (vv. 21-22), and yet there appears another glorious promise in a single word: Nevertheless (9:1-7).
We get a glimpse of Immanuel’s glory in the titles that will describe our Messiah. Let’s look first at Wonderful Counselor.
Wonder can have two definitions:
Something so extraordinary that it is hard for our finite human minds to comprehend—Exodus 15:11; Isaiah 25:1 NLT.
God’s awesome deeds: His works that leave us in absolute awe of His greatness—Jeremiah 32:17 AMPC.
Counselor is someone who gives counsel; not just any counsel, but perfect counsel because He is omniscient (knows it all) and omnipotent (can do it all)—Isaiah 14:26-27; Psalm 139:1-6; Psalm 32:8.
Job got a glimpse of this Awesome Counselor too in Job 42:1-6.
Our First Testament friends only got a glimpse of the Messiah’s glory, but we have the glory revealed to us—Hebrews 1:1-3a; Matthew 1:22-23; John 1:5, 14, 18.
We have His wonderful counsel revealed to us too—Luke 5:20-26; John 7:37-46.
And we look forward to seeing His glory undimmed at His Second Advent—John 1:47-51; Mark 14:61-62.
As we live now between the Advents, we have the joyful privilege and responsibility to proclaim this glory to those still living in darkness—Matthew 28:18; Acts 4:30.
See how the saints proclaimed Christ’s glory, relying on His wonderful counsel in Acts 4:13, 20, 31; 5:12; 6:8, 10; 8:6-8. This is how we are to live too (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17).
As you live between the Advents, I pray that the glory of our Wonderful Counselor will become more real to you and that it will shine out of every word you speak and everything you do!
Check out the other posts in this series Jesus Is…here.
Over 700 years before He was born in Bethlehem, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to describe the Messiah that was coming. Peter said that until the advent of Jesus, the prophets continued to scour the evidence of who this Messiah was going to be.
When Jesus finally came to earth as a Man, young and old alike were thrilled to proclaim that the One they had been longing for had made His long-expected appearing! As Jesus lived on earth, died on Calvary, and was resurrected back to life, He continued to fulfill all that had been prophesied about Him.
Isaiah said of Jesus: “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This Advent season we will take some time to unpack what each of these majestic titles mean. We will explore how Jesus demonstrates that He is truly worthy of each of these titles, and we will see how that knowledge should thrill our hearts as we celebrate His first Advent and eagerly long for His Second Advent.
Join me at Calvary Assembly of God for this encouraging Advent series as we learn that Jesus is…
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We saw in part one of this two-part series that we quickly go into crisis mode when we forget that God is in control, so we need to remain full of thanks all the time (Ephesians 5:20 AMPC). We called gratitude our inoculation against the pull from contentment to crisis, but inoculation doesn’t mean that we never experience some pangs of anxiety when a moment of darkness hits. Maturing Christians are learning how to spot the beginning of anxiety and move back into the contentment zone earlier and earlier (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2, 12).
James says we “will receive the crown of life” from Jesus. There’s no doubt about that! In a trial, it’s important to be reassured that the trial can never cause us to lose out with our Heavenly Father (Romans 8:38-39).
Psalm 107 starts out with this same assurance—“those He redeemed” (v. 2) is in the perfect tense. It’s complete and irrevocable! We walk out our redemption in circumstance after circumstance in a way that bring glory to God and draws others to Him as well. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say” is in the imperfect tense, which means giving thanks is an ongoing practice (v. 1).
Redeemed once, but giving thanks always!
Romans 8 gives a little snapshot of some of the situations that could have sent us spiraling into crisis mode, but remember the conclusion: None of those things can separate from God’s love.
Last week we saw how the psalmist linked prayer and gratitude in a repeated theme. This practice is backward looking (vv. 7-8, 14-15, 20-22, 29-32). When we look back to see how God has moved and then we contemplate Who He is (Hebrews 13:8; Isaiah 59:1).
Look at the closing verse (v. 43):
heed = guard, watch over attentively; this is an imperfect verb—which means we keep on doing it
consider = discern: totake apart the evidence and harvest the lessons
great love = God’s limitless lovingkindness
I love this verse in the New Living Translation: Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.
That means we…
Review the history of God’s faithfulness
Rejoice over it
Apply it to your current circumstance
We can pray, “God, You have been faithful—You have rescued me. Now help me to see that You are still Sovereign over this current situation—You are doing something in the midst of this crisis.”
In Romans 8:28, Paul tells us that God is working together all of our circumstances for His glory and our our good. Oswald Chambers noted, “In the Christian life we have no aim of our own, and God’s aim looks like missing the mark because we are too shortsighted to see what He is aiming at.” Reviewing our history and then giving thanks helps assure our anxious heart that God is going to hit the mark (Philippians 1:6).
Praise the Lord! I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with His godly people.How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in Him should ponder them.Everything He does reveals His glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.He causes us to remember His wonderful works. How gracious and merciful is our Lord! (Psalm 111:1-4 NLT)
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I love the Fibber McGee and Molly radio broadcasts! One of the running gags on this show was Fibber’s closet: People who mistakenly opened the closet door got buried under a pile of stuff that Fibber had stashed away.
In one episode, Molly is determined to grow through all of the items that were strewn across the floor before they got shoved back into the closet. One by one Molly asked Fibber about all of the odd knick-knacks and he had a good explanation for every single one justifying why he couldn’t possibly part with it. One of my favorites was this—“What’s this bamboo pole,” Molly asked, and Fibber said, “Why, that pole is very important. If I was ever offered to be Joe Louis’ sparing partner, that’s the ten-foot pole I wouldn’t touch it with!”
I’m afraid that many of us have closets like this in our minds. We’ve accumulated a lot of just-in-case stuff for each and every scenario that may come upon us at some point in our lives.
All of our contingency plans implies that something is going to go wrong and that only the prepared and well-stocked will make it through.
Psalm 107 is the first psalm in Book 5 of the Psalter—the book that focuses mostly on praise. This author is recounting the history of Israel through the times of crisis:
lost and homeless (v. 4)
hungry and thirsty (vv. 5, 9)
trouble and distress (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28)
darkness and deepest gloom (vv. 10, 14)
prisoners in chains (v. 10)
knocking on death’s door (v. 18)
terrorized (v. 26)
at their wits’ end (v. 27)
We quickly go into crisis mode when we forget that God is in control!
In God’s Kingdom there is no emergency, no crisis, no Plan B. God is sovereignly in control—Isaiah 46:10.
God is in control of the macro—Genesis 1:1; Job 38:4-11
God is in control of the micro—Psalm 139:16; Jeremiah 29:11
God will use what we call a crisis to display His glory—Exodus 14:4 NLT
When you feel yourself spiraling into crisis mode—when you feel you’re at your wits’ end—you can get back into contentment mode.
“When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality.” —Oswald Chambers
That’s what Job finally did—Job 42:1-2.
And that’s also what the psalmist did—Psalm 107:6-8, 13-15, 19-21, 28-31.
Prayer is a great rescue in trouble, and ongoing thankfulness is a great inoculation against going into crisis mentality. Notice that those four repeated phrases have both cried out to the LordANDLet them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love.
Let’s strive to remain aware of His unfailing love by cultivating consistent gratitude. I like v. 2 from the NLT: “Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others He has redeemed you from your enemies”. When you are preoccupied with telling others and yourself how good God is, there isn’t room in your heart for the worry that leads toward crisis mode.
Remember: We can quickly go from contentment mode to crisis mode when we forget that God is in control, so remain full of thanks. “At all times and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Ephesians 5:20 AMPC).
Craig T. Owens 