Let's turn in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 9. We've stepped away from our study in Hebrews for a few weeks while we celebrate our Lord's birth this Christmas season. And in keeping with that, we looked at a prophecy last week. We considered Isaiah 7, 14, which says, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel and then more than 700 years later a virgin did conceive and she gave birth to a son who was Jesus and And in case we didn't make the connection, Matthew, in his gospel, made it clear to us. After describing how an angel revealed to Joseph that his betrothed, Mary, who was, in fact, still a virgin, was pregnant and would give birth to the Savior, Matthew wrote, all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. So last week we dug into that prophecy and the events that surrounded it back in Isaiah's day when he delivered that prophecy 700 years before Jesus was born. So this morning, I thought we'd consider another prophecy about Jesus' birth, just two chapters later in Isaiah. Isaiah 9, verse 6. And it says, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The child would be God himself in the person of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would inherit the throne of David and would reign eternally. So here's what I want to do this morning. During the first part of the message, I want to take us from where we were last week in Isaiah 7 and bring us to this point in Isaiah chapter 9. And then when we come to this verse, I want to break it down and understand what it is saying about the child who was born and how that should affect our celebration of his birth. So we begin back in chapter seven. Ahaz was king of Judah. Now, several generations before that, after King Solomon had died, Israel had split into two kingdoms. Two of the tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin, had remained loyal to the house of David. And they formed the southern kingdom, and they became known as Judah. The other ten tribes were in the north. They rebelled against the house of David and they formed the northern kingdom, which was called Israel and sometimes called Ephraim because their new king was from the tribe of Ephraim. At the beginning of Isaiah 7, Israel, the northern kingdom, and Syria, a Gentile nation, had allied together and they were getting ready to attack Judah, the southern kingdom. So God sent Isaiah, his prophet, to Ahaz, the king of Judah. And this is what God said to Ahaz through Isaiah. It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. That is the plans of Israel and Syria. They were going to fail. God promised to deliver Judah from these other two kings. And then in the following verses, God told Ahaz that not only would Israel and Syria's attack against Israel fail, but they themselves would be conquered. Shattered from being a people is what God said. And then God offered Ahaz a sign, any sign he chose, to assure him that his word would come true. God wanted Ahaz to trust him and God was going to make it as easy as possible for Ahaz to do so. The problem was Ahaz already had another plan for dealing with Israel and Syria. Ahaz was forming an alliance with Assyria. Assyria was an empire that had formed in the east, and it was the greatest military power that the world had ever known up to that point. And they were expanding rapidly in every direction. So Ahaz decided that he would rather put his trust in Assyria than in God. And so when God offered him a sign, he refused. Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. And he rejected God's offer, both as a sign and he rejected the deliverance. And this was when God gave him the virgin birth prophecy, the sign of Immanuel. Therefore, Isaiah said to Ahaz, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. This sign, unlike the sign that Ahaz had refused to ask for, was connected to a judgment against Judah. The earlier sign that God had offered was going to be a sign that God would deliver Judah from Israel and Syria. And God was still going to do that. But because of Ahaz's refusal, there would also be judgment for Judah after the deliverance. And in Isaiah 7, verse 17, it says, the Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria. And when things were desolate, and the people were afflicted, when the land was under foreign rule, and when God had been silent for centuries, that was the time that they were to look for this sign. When you heard that the Virgin had conceived, And when she had given birth to a son, Immanuel, God is with us. That was the sign that God had not abandoned His people. That God had not forgotten His covenant with David. God with us, in the person of the Son, God the Son, become a man, become the Messiah, finally come to reclaim the throne of David. But also, as the angel told Joseph, to save his people from their sin. And that's where we left off last week, with Judah's judgment. But it was a judgment with hope on the other end. A certain hope that Messiah would come and save His people. The prophecy continues through the rest of Isaiah 7. Here, the focus is on how God would judge Israel, the southern kingdom, how God was going to use Assyria against Israel along with Syria, their allied partner. We see in verse 20, for instance, God uses shaving with a razor as a metaphor for what He would do to Israel. He would raise the land like a razor shaves a beard. But I want you to notice, still in verse 20, that He, God, associates the king of Assyria with the river, because this comes up later in chapter eight. The river is the Euphrates River, and the Assyrians came from beyond the Euphrates. They will flood into the lands that they conquer. The chapter concludes with a description that describes the land as reverting to briars and thorns. Now this is both symbolic of the affliction of the Assyrians, and it is actually what happened to Israel. As the Assyrians took a majority of the people from the northern kingdom into captivity, There were few left there to maintain the land. And the neglected land became overgrown with briars and thorns. Now in chapter 8, the focus starts to return to Judah. In verses 3 and 4, Isaiah writes, And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, call his name, Meher-shal-hal-hashbaz. For before the boy knows how to cry, my father or my mother, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria." Now, you may notice some similarities between this and the Immanuel prophecy. So let's compare them briefly. Both of them have a woman conceiving and bearing a son. Both give the son a name. And both of them have this bit that begins, for before the boy knows how to do something. In the Immanuel prophecy, that last bit comes in verse 16, which is part of the sign. So some have suggested that this event in chapter eight is the fulfillment or at least a fulfillment of the prophecy in chapter seven. But is it really? Now, if you were here last week, then you know that I don't believe it was. And in fact, I think the text is pretty clear that the events of chapter eight do not fulfill what was prophesied in chapter seven. First of all, the prophetess of chapter eight was not a virgin, as was prophesied in chapter seven. For one thing, it says right in the text that Isaiah went to her. He expressly tells us that this was a natural, not a supernatural, conception. We also know from the previous chapter that she already had a son. Now, there are some who say that the Hebrew word translated virgin here, which is Alma, does not necessarily mean virgin. That it means maiden, a young girl of marrying age. And it is true that the word does not technically mean virgin. but it is the best Hebrew word to convey the idea of virginity. And Matthew tells us in his gospel, when he translates the word into Greek, that the correct translation is virgin. And the Greek word that Matthew uses does technically mean virgin. Even if, even if Isaiah didn't intend virgin in chapter 7, the prophetess isn't a maiden anyway. She still wouldn't fulfill this prophecy. Second, The name the virgin son was given was to be Immanuel, God with us. That is his identity. He is called God with us. The son of the prophetess, on the other hand, was called Meher Shalhal Hashbas. when Debbie was pregnant with Jillian. We didn't find out whether Jillian was going to be a boy or a girl until she was born. If she was going to be a girl, we were going to name her Jillian. And if she were a boy, I wanted to name her Mayher Shallhal Hashbath. That's a good biblical name. Now, it's certainly possible to have different names associated with the same person. In fact, it's not at all uncommon to do so. We've already read, and we'll get into it more in a bit, that the Messiah's name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. So that's four names right there. But in terms of the fulfillment of this prophecy, the names Immanuel and Meher Shalhal Hashbaz are distinctly different. One is a message of deliverance. The other is judgment. And then finally, the structure of this last part. For before the boy knows how to in both places. Again, choosing good over evil is a very different thing from crying for your mother and father. It doesn't even describe the same age. Although there's more than that, more than just the boy's age going on in the first passage. This is, if this were a fulfillment of that passage, then the prophecies are not very specific. But God is specific in prophecy. God is precise when he fulfills prophecy. So the event in chapter eight is not a fulfillment of the prophecy in chapter seven. But there is a parallel, and I believe that we are supposed to connect the two in some way, even if we don't see the latter as a fulfillment of the former. And I would suggest to you that at least one of the things that we're supposed to see here is that Immanuel is far greater than may or shall have hash pass. Born of a virgin is far more impressive than born of a prophetess or anyone else. And the hope, the blessing that we have in Emmanuel is far greater than the judgment that is reflected in may or shall have hash baths. This Meher Shel Hel Hashbaz sign begins with what will happen to Syria and Israel. The two kingdoms that threatened Judah in chapter three, Damascus and Syria, are the capitals of Syria and Israel. And their wealth is going to be carried away by the king of Assyria. But that's not the point of this prophecy. In verse 5 it says, The Lord spoke to me again, Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloh that flow gently, and rejoice over Razin and the son of Remeliah, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the river. Mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks. And it will sweep on into Judah. It will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck. And its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land. O Emmanuel. When he says this people at the beginning of verse five, it refers to the people of Judah under King Ahaz. Shiloh was a pool near the temple in Jerusalem. And it was apparently also, it was the same pool that was called Siloam. And this was where Jesus, 700 and some years later, healed the invalid on the Sabbath in John chapter 5. Now the Pool of Shiloh, it represents the blessings of God on Judah. And it's pleasant. It has a gentle flow. But Judah refused that. They rejected God's blessing. And because they rejected the blessings represented by the waters of Shiloh, God instead brought upon them the judgment. of the river. The river, again, refers to the Euphrates, as we saw in chapter 7. That represents Assyria. Assyria first destroyed Syria and Israel, where Razan and the son of Ramaliah were kings. But the river overflowed those banks, and it flooded Judah too. It swept into Judah, reaching even to the neck, it says. It reminds me of the Johnny Cash song, Five Feet High and Rising. The song begins with water two feet high and rising, and it continues up until the last verse, it's five feet high and rising. And that's where the song says, it's time to head for higher ground, because that's as high as it can get, and you can still survive it. That's the image here. It got to neck level. Five feet high, I suppose. Assyria was as bad as they could be for Judah without completely wiping them out or conquering them completely as they had with Syria and Israel. But it hadn't needed to be that way. God was prepared to bless Judah, to deliver them. And he did deliver them from Israel and Syria. but they refused him and he judged them for it. But notice how it ends in verse eight, O Emmanuel. Now he is apparently here calling the land Emmanuel this time, but the point is that he is reminding them and reminding us of the earlier prophecy, even in judgment. even when things are as bad as they can possibly be, short of actual destruction, God with us. It's not gonna be pleasant, not in the short term. In verse nine, it says, be broken, you peoples, and be shattered. Give ear, all you far countries. Strap on your armor and be shattered. Strap on your armor and be shattered. And the rest of the chapter describes Judah's rebellion against God, in contrast with the few who remained faithful to him, and then God's judgment against Judah. Their state is summed up in the last verse of chapter 8, in verse 22. He characterizes it. as darkness, and they will look to the earth and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into thick darkness. It's darkness because they pursued evil and not God. It's darkness because God has hidden his face from them. It's darkness because of the judgment that has befallen them. They are in darkness because they have rejected the Lord. But God would not abandon them to the darkness. He would not leave His people there flailing about in the dark. Chapter 9 opens with another time in view, a still distant time. It says in verse 1, In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. And where are those places? Where is Zebulun? Where is Naphtali and Galilee? These are the places where more than 700 years later, Jesus would conduct most of his ministry. This is where most of his miracles took place, the ones we read about in the Gospels. This is where most of his teaching occurred. If chapter 8 ended in darkness, chapter 9 opens with the prophecy that light would come into the darkness. And isn't this exactly what Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3? And this is the judgment he said to him, the light has come into the world. And people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true, comes into the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." Jesus was expounding on Isaiah when he spoke to Nicodemus. In Isaiah 9, verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has shone light. Some of them saw the light and stepped into it and believed in Jesus, and they were transformed by him. Many more walked in darkness, saw the light of Jesus when he was among them. They were impressed by what Jesus did, but they never left the darkness. But the light of the world had come. Messiah was here. Isaiah 9 verse 3 says, you have multiplied or enlarged the nation. The idea here is that those he came to redeem are greater than just the remnant of Israel who had been faithful. He would redeem a multitude and thus increase the joy of the nation. And while that may not have happened during his earthly ministry, it will be the result of it. And then over the next three verses, Isaiah gives us three reasons, three causes for it that lead up to our text, each one starting with the word for or because. In verse four, we see liberation. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, and the rod of his oppressors, have all been broken, as on the day of Midian." Now, these are all symbols of oppression, of bondage, and Messiah frees us from bondage. In verse 5, we see peace. For the warrior's boots and his garments are thrown into the fire. The peace that Messiah ultimately brings will not be held in tension. There will be no opposition. He will establish it, and it will stand unchallenged for eternity. And then finally, we've come to our text, Isaiah 9, verse 6. This is the third reason that Isaiah gives that light has invaded the darkness, that the nation is multiplied, that their joy is increased. For unto us a child is born, to us a child is given. and the government shall be on his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." In the time we've got left this morning, I want to break this verse down line by line. For to us, a child is born. And this demonstrates Messiah's humanity. Birth is how humans come into being. The Messiah didn't just appear on the scene. It wasn't a theophany like in the Old Testament when God would appear to men. He was born. He was human. And this was necessary on many levels. First, God had covenanted with man. And he covenanted with him that if man lived according to God's righteous standard, then God would bless him. And the reward for that righteous life would be immense. And God wanted to bless man. He wanted to bless him in this way. But first, someone, some man needed to earn that reward. Someone needed to live that perfect, righteous life. And it had to be a man, a human being who did it. None of us have done it. None of us have won the reward. Messiah would have to do it for us, and He would need to be human in order to do so. Second, the second reason, He had to be a man. He had to be a human to pay the penalty for human sin. This is the other side of reward. In addition to a reward for righteousness, there was a penalty for rebellion against God. and we were all subject to it. If Messiah was going to pay the penalty for us, he had to be human. Third, Messiah was going to be our high priest, representing us to God. Hebrews makes it clear that he had to be a man in order to do so. To represent us, He had to be representative of us, a human being. And Messiah qualified in every way. For unto us, a child was born. But also, to us, a son is given. For him to be given, it suggests that he preexisted. That he was God's to give. God gave his son. And that's exactly what it says in the most well-known verse in all the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The Son that is given is God, God the Son. That's at least implied here. And only God could do the things that Messiah would need to do in order to save his people. Next, it says that the government shall be upon his shoulder. The Messiah will reign. as king. Zechariah 14 verse 9 says, and the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day, the Lord will be one and his name one. And Daniel 2, verse 44 says, and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. But it didn't start out that way. Jesus was king when he was born. The wise men knew that. When they came to Charod, they asked, where is he who was born king of the Jews? Charles Spurgeon noted that this is unlike any other king. Other kings are, at best, born a prince. Others aren't even born that. They gain the throne in some other way. Only Jesus was born king. And Jesus, in Luke 17, verse 20 and 21, he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. They didn't realize it was already there. Jesus corrected them. Jesus answered them. The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, look, here it is, or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. It was there because the king was there. And he reigns today. In Ephesians 1, 20 and 21, it says that the Father has seated the Son at His right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. That reign continues today, but There is still coming a day when he will reign visibly over the earth in a way that is not the case today. He will reign over the earth and the last of his opposition will be crushed and there will be peace on earth. And this child who was born, this son who was given, this king who reigns, will be called by four names. And these names will define the character of his rule. Wonderful counselor. Now, in English, the word wonderful means delightful. Anything that causes you delight can be called wonderful. You can say, I had a wonderful time at the park. Or you can say that you have a wonderful friend and simply mean that you enjoy that friendship. But the word wonderful originally had a different meaning. It came from the word wonder, meaning miracle, or something supernatural, and the full suffix meant that it was filled with that. It was miraculous. The Hebrew word here is much closer to the original English meaning of wonderful than its current meaning. In fact, a more literal translation of this text would be wonder counselor. This doesn't mean that Jesus is simply a delightful counselor. It doesn't mean that we just enjoy his counsel. It means that what he does is supernatural. It's miraculous. And it's his wisdom that's in view here. He certainly counsels in the way that we normally think of a counselor, providing individual guidance through his word. But here, it's more speaking of performing his duties as king with perfect, miraculous wisdom. He will be the wisest king to ever sit on a throne. Wisdom alone, though, doesn't do much good if you don't have the might to back it up. And this King, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, who sits on this throne, he will have all the might in the universe and beyond the universe. The word bite speaks to his power, but it's not just any power. It specifically means military power, his ability to enforce his will. There are other kinds of power, and he certainly has those as well. Creative power, for instance, the ability to call things into existence. But what's in view here is his ability to conquer and then sustain his rule over everything and everyone. Now Everlasting Father, the third name, might seem like an odd name to call the Son. He is eternally God the Son, the second person of the Godhead. God the Father is eternally the Father within the Godhead. Why is the Son called Everlasting Father when he reigns on his throne? Well, first of all, this is not saying that he relates as a father to God the Father. This doesn't reflect any kind of change in that relationship. This is about his relationship to his subjects as he reigns over the earth. He is a fatherly king. And this is important. You could have a wise king. who wasn't particularly fatherly. You could have a mighty king who wasn't fatherly. But in Jesus, we have a king who is wise and mighty and fatherly. What that means is he will care for his subjects as a father cares for his children. He will nurture them and he will protect them. It means that he is ultimately good to them as a father would be. And finally, he's called Prince of Peace. Now, if each of his other names speaks to a specific aspect of his character, of the character of his reign, then Prince of Peace encompasses all of them. Peace, our shalom, is all-encompassing. It does not simply mean a sense of internal well-being or of comfort, although it produces that. It's not merely the absence of conflict or of chaos. It doesn't just mean rest. It's all of that and more. Shalom is when everything is as it should be. When the Jews greet each other with shalom. They're wishing each other that everything in their lives is as it should be. That is, as good as it can be. And that's gonna be the case when Jesus reigns. He will set all things right. Everything will be good as it should be according to His wisdom, according to His might, and according to His care. He will be Prince of Peace. We opened the service this morning by singing the song, Joy to the World. It's considered a Christmas song. We sing it every Christmas season. But I've wondered at times, why is this considered a Christmas song? There's nothing in it about Jesus' birth. There's no angels, no shepherds, no wise men. There's none of the things that we associate with Jesus' first coming. The entire song is about Jesus' millennial reign. He rules the world with truth and grace. He makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love. That's millennial reign. That didn't happen the first time He came. That happens when He returns. And when he rules with wisdom and might and care, and there will be peace. So why do we sing the song about Jesus' millennial reign at Christmas? Because of this. Because this is why he came. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. You cannot separate the two. God was born a man so that he could redeem mankind by his righteous life and his atoning death. But it doesn't end there. He returns and he reigns in wisdom and in might and in care and in peace. And that is the truth about Christmas. That is ultimately why He came. So remember that when you celebrate this week. He was born to live, and He was born to die and redeem. But ultimately and forever, He was born to reign. Let's pray.