His Name Is: Mighty God
About this series:
The great announcement of Isaiah 9:1-5 - that light and joy would come to God's people who were in darkness and mourning - would inevitably raise questions in the minds of the hearers / readers: “But how? How will all this happen?” Isaiah's answer is, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And this child / son will be called, “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” God will send a male child who will be the perfect embodiment of these names, who will grow to reign for ever, who, “will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom” and who will do so, “with justice and righteousness.” All of which will happen because, “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (verse 7). So God will send one who will deliver his people and reign forever as Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
About this talk:
This is an extraordinary name to give to the child / son, however wonderful he may be. He will not only grow to be the Wonderful Counsellor, he is Mighty God! Equating a human with the Almighty must have sounded rather confusing, even blasphemous. Though there are hints in the Old Testament that God’s servant would be God-in-flesh - he will be anointed with the Spirit (Isaiah 42:1; 61:1), out of Bethlehem “will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times (Micah 5:2) and “he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour” (Jeremiah 23:6) - God-in-flesh was certainly not anticipated by the Jewish people.
And yet this is exactly what Isaiah prophesied here in 9:6 and what the New Testament then shows us: Jesus Christ, the Son of God is God, combining in himself full humanity and full divinity. He will, at one and the same time, be a human son of David and the divine Son of God. This explains much of the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke:
He will be Immanuel (God with us) (Matthew 1:23)
Only as God and man will he be able to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21)
Being God, “he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:33)
The Saviour “is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11)
The fact that Jesus’ disciples - strict monotheistic Jews - maintained that Jesus was God was perhaps the most extraordinary thing they claimed. It would have been one thing to speak of him as a prophet of God, a teacher about God, a miracle-worker anointed by the power of God; but he was and is - himself - Mighty God.
This then explains why Jesus could make the claims he did, including: using the title “I am” for himself so many times, claiming that, “I and the Father are one” and that he would be seen, “sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). It explains why he taught as he did, why he rose from death and why the New Testament presents him as our victorious Saviour who continues to reign with all authority.
Audio only
