The King Shall Come

In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah predicted a Messiah who would come, a king who would rule his people. What Isaiah is saying here about this king who is to come is that he will be a counselor par excellence. He will be a counselor whose wisdom will amaze and astonish. Welcome to Renewing Your Mind on this Thursday.

I'm Lee Webb. This week we're featuring R.C. Sproul's series, Coming of the Messiah. It's an amazing journey through a number of Old Testament prophecies regarding our Savior, the promised Messiah. And today we'll learn that the success of our King isn't based on a piece of land or anything else in creation, but on the King Himself. We continue now preparing for the coming of Christ and the celebration of Advent by looking once more at another Old Testament prophecy that centuries before the birth of Christ looked down the corridors of time and announced His future advent. This passage that we're going to look at today is one that is frequently found on Christmas cards and as the subject of many Christmas sermons. It's found in the book of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9, beginning in verse 6. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 reads as follows, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. And upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Now this text that is so rich and familiar to us because of its frequent reference in the Christmas season announces the birth of a baby. And this baby is identified in the context of the prophecy of Isaiah as the birth of a king. I mean that's what we have to see first of all, that the basic identity of the person who is being prophesized and described in this text is one who is born to be a king. And not just any kind of king, but a king who will follow in the line of King David.

We remember that in ancient Israel, the golden age of Israel was ushered in through the monarchy of her second king, King David. And sometimes we forget what a tiny little country about the state of Rhode Island, Palestine was and is in the ancient world. I'm going to draw a picture of a sort of semicircle here on my blackboard that you can't see, but you can hear as I scratch on it, and you can try to imagine it in your eyes, sort of a horseshoe-looking figure. And this represents what is called the boundaries of the fertile crescent. And you recall that on the upper side of this or the north portion of it lie two continents, the continent of Europe and the continent of Asia. And inside my little horseshoe is the Mediterranean Sea. And then to the south side of the horseshoe is the continent of Africa. Now if we go to the right end portion, the closed portion of our horseshoe, or to the eastern edge of it, we see a little ribbon of real estate.

Further to the east of that is arid desert. Now this tiny little ribbon of real estate formed a land bridge that connected three continents. And in the ancient world, whoever controlled this little land bridge controlled the commerce of the time because the caravans that did the business transactions in antiquity would travel from Asia and Europe down into Africa and back again. And so the geopolitical significance of this tiny ribbon of real estate called Palestine, or in biblical terms Israel, was a piece of real estate that was enormously coveted by the world powers. Now during the reign of David, as I said, the golden age of Israel was ushered in because under his reign this tiny little nation became the mouse that roared. It became a leading world power as David extended the boundaries of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and David established a military power that terrified all of the surrounding nations. And David distinguished himself as a great statesman and political administrator.

He introduced one of the most prosperous periods of economy in the nation's history. He also, as we know, was a poet, a musician, and a man after God's own heart. Then on the death of David, much of his gains were consolidated by his son Solomon, but under Solomon's rule this goal began to tarnish a little bit when Solomon committed the atrocious sin of introducing the corvée, which was a slave labor force taken from his own people. And so the statesmanship of his father began to crumble under this oppressive dimension of his regime, and upon his death the gold turned to rust, and the kingdom was divided with the sons Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and the future history of the divided kingdom reads in part like a rogue's gallery of wicked monarchs. And so the people longed for a return to the golden age when somehow the glory that was Israel would be revived when one would come like David. The prophet Amos made the prophecy that in the work of the Messiah the fallen booth of David would be established again or would be set right. If you can see this little booth or throne tilted over on its side with the wild vegetation covering it over as it was decaying and rotting and mildewing and so on, the kingdom was in shambles, and yet God promised that a day would come when a king like David would reign once more.

Now much of the messianic prophecy of the Old Testament focused on this king who would come, the shepherd king who would come and rule like David. And here in the passage of Isaiah, we hear the announcement of the birth of that promised king. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Notice that this is not simply the joyful announcement of a particular set of parents where the husband and the wife or the father and the mother are celebrating the announcement of the impending birth of their baby. But this is a child that is to be born for the nation.

Unto us a son is born, unto us a child is to be given. And then we read the government will be upon his shoulder. This immediately identifies in the text that this is prophetic with respect to the birth of a king, one upon whose shoulders will be born the government of the nation.

Can't help but think of the ancient image in mythology in the non-Hebrew world of the portrait of Atlas hunched over bearing the world on his shoulders. Because to be a king, to reign over any nation, not to mention to reign over all nations, is to assume an enormous burden upon one's back or upon one's shoulder. But the image here is of the king who will be born to the people who will carry the nation on his shoulders. Now then the writer turns his attention to describe some of the qualifications and the character of this king. And his name will be called, now in my translation it reads like this, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now one of the difficulties we have in translation is the problem of affixing punctuation because the original text didn't have punctuation.

And so these commas that we find in the various printed texts of the Bible represent usually an editorial decision among translators on how to break up the structure of the sentences that are there. I personally think there's a misplaced comma here, and by saying this I run the risk of exciting everybody's wrath who loves the song, His Name is Wonderful, because that song is based on this comma where we take one of the aspects of the Messiah who is to come and we celebrate His glory by saying, His name is wonderful. Well, His name is of course wonderful, and we have no quarrel with that. But I think that what Isaiah is talking about here is not simply that His name will be called Wonderful, but it will be Wonderful, Counselor.

And that which is wonderful is not just something that is nice or something that is pleasant or desirable, but in the original meaning of the term wonderful, the word meant full of wonder, astonishing, amazing, something that evokes awe in those who watch the performance. And what Isaiah is saying here about this King who is to come is that He will be a counselor par excellence. He will be a counselor whose wisdom will amaze and astonish. And it's also interesting here that this one who is coming to fulfill the function as King is described as this awe-inspiring, filled with wonder, purposeful counselor, because the term that is used for counselor is the term that was usually used in Old Testament times to describe not the King, but the person who held the highest position of counsel to the King, that is the King's most trusted advisor. But in this sense, we have the King Himself not needing the trusted advisor to teach Him how to rule in justice and in wisdom because wisdom is in Himself in full measure. Now, very indirectly, this suggestion of the coming Messianic King to be one who is a wonderful counselor suggests, as I said, in a very distant way, a fulfillment of another strand of Messianic expectancy in the Old Testament wherein the Messiah will ultimately be called the wisdom of God. We remember in the eighth chapter of Proverbs the celebration of the wisdom of God that is with God from the beginning and comes from His presence, and wisdom is personified as if He were a real person. And in the New Testament, that personification of wisdom goes beyond the boundaries of normal Hebrew poetry to speak about a real, concrete, incontrovertible concrete incarnation of divine wisdom when the Word is made flesh. And so this King is going to be a King who incorporates the fullness of wisdom. Now, if you lived in Israel for very long after the kingdom was divided, you began to hunger and thirst for a King who showed even a modicum of wisdom. The history of the monarchy in a divided kingdom may be described as the history of foolishness, but this King who will come after the likeness of David will be a wonderful counselor. Well, what else is said about the Messianic Shepherd King who is to come? He will be called mighty God.

Now, there is an allusion here in the language that is used with respect to the mightiness, not simply to God's omnipotence in general or in the abstract. But here we have another image that is frequently used with respect to God in the Old Testament, and this image is now transferred to the Messiah, that the mighty God relates to one who is invincible in warfare. Now, keep in mind that David distinguished himself as a warrior of the highest degree before he ascended to the throne of Israel. He was Israel's mighty warrior. Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands. And so this King who will be like David will be a mighty warrior God, a God who will fight triumphantly for His people. He will be a conquering King. Now you begin to see why so many of the people in the time of Jesus had their eyes focused exclusively on a Messiah who would be a political revolutionary, who would drive the hated the land because of this fierce sense of expectation among the people of the political Deliverer who would come.

But the battle that Christ wins in His reign transcends the struggles that take place on this planet in ordinary combat or warfare because His victory is a victory over the cosmic forces. This mighty God King is the one who leads captivity captive and conquers the most fierce enemies of the people, the enemies of Satan, of hell, and of death itself. Well, it goes on to say that He will be called the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. The Everlasting Father is a strange title to give to a king. We don't think of a king as a father, and yet the character of God in His reign over His people is expressed in this image, particularly in the New Testament of fatherhood, that the king is not to rule over his subjects in order to oppress them, to tyrannize them, or to exploit them for his own purposes. But the king in Israel, when the monarchy was first established, was supposed to be God's substitute for the nation. He was to rule over the nation as a father rules over the house, displaying the love of God as well as the administration of God, the care and nurture of God for his family.

And as a father pitieth his children, so God pities those who are humble before Him. And so this king will not be a king who is a politician concerned only about his own prosperity, but he's a king who will be a father to the people. And of course, the adjectival descriptive term here of the father is everlasting. The new David, the new king, will have a kingdom that will not rust, will not decay, will not fall away, but will reign forever and ever. And isn't it strange that we have the connection here in this description of this king who will be born is one who not only is a mighty warrior of God, but he is the prince of peace.

Because the purpose of his warfare is to end warfare, to end conflict, and to bring the peace of the nations, the healing of the nations, and above all, peace with God. All of these things are wrapped up in one who is to come, and his reign shall be forever. In this Christmas season, take some time to think about politics. It's hard not to think about politics since it's in the news every day, but where do you put your hope with respect to presidents and kings? What the New Testament tells us is that right now the person who is the chief executive officer in the cosmos, in the cosmos, the person who is ascended to the highest political position in the universe is this child who was born, this son who was given to us, that right now we live in a government ruled by Christ. I'm not talking about our national government or our local government, but all local governments in an ultimate sense are still under the dominion of Christ, but our supreme ruler right now is the one who has come and fulfilled in every aspect and every detail this description that was penned centuries ago by Isaiah. The picture of the coming Messiah as a king gave the people an understanding of his rule and reign, but even in that description, they failed to truly understand Jesus' glory, his holiness. That's why we're featuring Dr. Sproul's series, Coming of the Messiah, this week here on Renewing Your Mind, we also need to be reminded that Christ reigns as King. In this series, R.C.

looks back at Old Testament prophecies to see God's plan for our salvation. I hope you'll contact us today and request this series. We'll provide a digital download of all five messages. Plus, we'd like to send you a copy of Dr. Stephen Nichols' book, Classic Readings for Christmas. You can request both resources with a donation of any amount when you go to renewingyourmind.org or when you call us.

Our number is 800-435-4343. While it probably won't arrive in time for this year's celebration, Dr. Nichols' book will be a treasured keepsake for Christmases to come. He describes the story of Jesus in three acts. Yesterday, he told us about the promise of Christ's coming, and I asked him to describe the second act. Yes, so the first act was promised. Now we move to the second act, fulfillment. In one sense, promise is really the whole Old Testament, everything leading up to Christ. And fulfillment, well, that's the Gospels. This is the birth of Christ. And found this great quote from Augustine, and he just helps us see so well all that was fulfilled in that in that fulfillment. Here's what Augustine says. Awake, mankind, for your sake God has become man.

Awake, you who sleep. Rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again, for your sake God became man. You would have suffered eternal death had he not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh had he not taken on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. You would have suffered everlasting unhappiness had it not been for his mercy. You would have never returned to life had he not shared your death. You would have been lost if he had not hastened to your aid.

You would have perished had he not come. Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from that great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time. That is what was fulfilled on Christmas Day. God became man, and that's what we celebrate.

That brings so much to our celebration of Christmas. Again, you can request Dr. Nichols' book, Peace, along with Dr. Sproul's teaching series, Coming of the Messiah, when you give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries. Let me give you our contact information one more time.

Our web address is renewingyourmind.org, or if you prefer, you can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343. And I hope you'll join us again tomorrow as we continue Dr. Sproul's series. Here's a preview. You would think that the Messiah would have been destined to be born in Jerusalem, at Mount Zion, in the Holy City, the place that David had established as the central sanctuary and the capital of the whole nation. Instead, it's Bethlehem. I hope you'll join us for a message titled, A Small Town, A Great King, Friday on Renewing Your Mind. .