The Promise of Peace

Transcript

JRS 21
12/11/2022
The Promise of Peace
Isaiah 9:6-7
Jesse Randolph


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most widely known American poets of the 19th century. He was a professor at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a brilliant student of many world languages in addition to the normal Latin, Spanish and French of the day. He also studied Italian, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic. He also had a prolific literary impact on our nation through the various lyrical poems he wrote which often were in lengthy ballad form, poems like “The Song of Hiawatha,” or “Paul Revere's Ride,” or “The Courtship of Miles Standish.” Well, as much as it was marked by his great brilliance, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's life was also marked by great tragedy. He lost his first wife, Mary, after just four years of marriage, soon after she suffered a miscarriage. He lost his second wife, Frances, who he called Fanny, in a tragic accident caused by an out-of-control house fire.

Well, a few years after he lost Fanny, tragedy struck Longfellow again. This time it was December 1, 1863. On that day Longfellow received news that his oldest son, Charles, whom he called Charley, who had been serving in the Union army in the Civil War, had been shot. And apparently paralysis, even death was a possibility. The bullet went through the back of his shoulder blade, nicked his spine, and it was at minimum going to be a long and difficult road to recovery. So Longfellow, still grieving the loss of his dear wife, was now in further despair as he was thinking about what had happened to dear Charley, his first and his oldest son.

Well, after a few weeks (remember that shooting happened on December 1, 1863) Christmas came, December 25, 1863. And now we have Longfellow 57 years old, twice widowed, with his beloved, oldest son now facing paralysis. And he stepped outside his home, Longfellow did there in Cambridge, with a heart full of sorrow and anguish and grief; a heart he would later recall had grown cold and embittered. And it was then as he stood outside his home there in Cambridge that Longfellow heard the unmistakable sound of Christmas bells ringing out from a nearby church. And soon after he heard the sound of those bells, Longfellow heard the sound of the choir inside that same church singing the words to Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” And after hearing those beautiful sounds and words, Longfellow retreated back into his woodstove-burning, warm home there in Cambridge and sat down at his writer's desk and he spent the rest of his Christmas Day, Christmas Day of 1863, penning the words to a poem he titled “Christmas Bells.” You've heard it as a song but it was a poem in the Civil War era many years prior.

Here is what Longfellow wrote that day. He said,
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South, (Civil War era poetry)
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said;
‘For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’”
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South, (Civil War era poetry)
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said;
‘For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’ ”

Longfellow was on to something with that last stanza I just read for you, especially those word, “There is no peace on earth,” because that's a realistic outlook. There is no peace on earth for the godless and increasingly godless times in which we live. And these are godless days, if you haven't noticed. I mean, I might remind you with the year 2023 now on the horizon that these are the days in which God's design for marriage is constantly under attack with bills like the laughably titled “Respect for Marriage Act” just being passed last week. These are the days in which God's design for the family is being undermined by the screen-time saturated, porn-addicted spouses who always have the “out” of no-fault divorce. These are the days in which God's design for manhood and womanhood is being undermined by the modern gods of gender fluidity and gender expression. These are the days in which God's design for the church is being undermined by unfit men who deliver saccharine social-justice-themed pep talks on Sunday mornings instead of thundering the truth of the Word of God. These are the days in which God's design for Christmas, the very season that we are in now, has been undermined by greed and gluttony and dissatisfaction and discontentment, and of course the ubiquitous, and I guess omnipotent, fat man in a red suit. Ho, ho, ho and Merry Christmas, I mean Happy Holidays to you.

The reality is we live in a godless society and there is no peace in the wicked hearts who make up the majority today. But here's the thing. If we polled the average man or woman out there on the street -- men and women who otherwise would want nothing to do with our church, with Christ, with Christianity or with Christmas -- if we were to poll them about what they most desire in this life, I guarantee you their answer would have something to do with peace. They may not use the word peace, they may not say, what I crave most in this life is peace, but peace is what they seek. And peace is what they most seek and desire because peace is that which most eludes them.

Seriously, think about it. Is our world a world that is marked by physical peace? I don't think so—the locks on our doors, the alarms on our cars, the tracking devices we attach to our kids, the increased sale of pepper spray, the self-defense classes we take, the news stories we all read, they tell a much different story. Is our world a world that is marked by economic peace? I don't think so. Think about the recessions, the embargoes, the trade stalemates, the trade sanctions, the fluctuating gas prices, the economic recovery programs. Is ours a world that is marked by national peace? Again, no. According to what I read this week there have been less than 300 years of known world history in which there was peace in the world. That's just known world history, it doesn't account for the various regional dust-ups and flare-ups and skirmishes that went unrecorded on the pages of history. But still it is less than 300 years in all of the years of human history that there has been peace. Is our world marked by familial or relational peace? Not at all. Think of the disobedient children, the divorce filings, the deadbeat dads, the domestic abuse reports.

Is our world a world that is marked by spiritual peace? No. No. For all of mankind, no matter how much they might try to make like everything is okay, like they don't need to believe there is a God or believe in God or have a relationship with that God, no matter how much they may try to dress up their sins or cover up their sins or suppress their sinful desires and passions, no matter how much they may try to dress up the outside while ignoring the cesspool of sin that contaminates the inside, there is an ultimate sense of dissatisfaction and hopelessness and despair that every human being who is relationally separated from the God of the universe will experience. That's the sense of meaninglessness, purposelessness, vanity (hevel) that Solomon expressed in Ecclesiastes. Its that sense of weight and heaviness that David expressed in Psalm 32 when he said, “My body wasted away through my groaning all day long, my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” And that's exactly what Longfellow was tapping into, that sense of malaise that the godless feel when he said in “Christmas Bells,” the poem I read at the beginning: “And in despair I bowed my head;
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said;
‘For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men’!”

Mankind wants peace, we prize peace, we rally for peace, in fact, entire movements and parties and organizations have the concept of peace right there in their titles or their mission statement. There is a thing called the Peace and Freedom Party, there is a thing called Greenpeace. The U.S. Government funds an organization called the Institution of Peace, I have no idea what they do. But that is all well and good to desire peace, but note carefully what I am about to say. Fallen man does not in his own right have peace and fallen man in his own right cannot attain peace, which is why war happens and prisons are full and conflicts within families arise and financial institutions crumble and economies buckle and road rage happens and natural resources dwindle and societies disintegrate. And that's why there have been countless billions of people over the centuries who have stared at the ceiling of their house or igloo or hut or tent at night, or stared out into the open sky into the stars at night, and have had that feeling that something is not quite right, that queasy feeling of being unsettled, that uneasy feeling that something is very wrong with the world, that hopeless feeling that there is a brokenness on this planet that will never be resolved or solved by kings or presidents or police or armies or social mobility or economic prosperity.

Again, Longfellow was on to something when he said, “There is no peace on earth.” Longfellow, though, was not only being poetic, he was almost being prophetic because what Longfellow was recognizing in that poem is that from Genesis 3 on, mankind has always had a problem. The Bible teaches quite clearly that we are all conceived in sin, Psalm 51:5, “In sin did my mother conceive me.” The Bible says that we all “fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23. The Bible says that the wages of our sin is death, Romans 6:23, physical death and spiritual death and eternal death. The Bible says that we are all without exception wicked, Jeremiah 17:9. And the Bible says “there is no peace for the wicked,” Isaiah 48:22. There has been no peace for anyone on this planet, there is no peace for anyone on this planet, there will be no peace for anyone on this planet unless… Unless what? Unless God makes a way of peace for us.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was not actually a prophet, of course. Don't misquote me on that, but Isaiah the son of Amoz was. In fact go ahead, if you would, and turn with me in your Bibles (following the world's longest introduction) to Isaiah 9. And while you are turning there I want to remind you that we are starting this new series today, a mini-series, a Christmas-oriented series titled “Peace on Earth.” And this morning through the words of Isaiah we're going to look at the “Promise of Peace.” Next Sunday we'll get into the “Proclamation of Peace.” On Christmas Eve we'll look at the “Provision of Peace.” Christmas Day (which I'm sure will be packed to the gills, 10 a.m. on Christmas morning, I can't wait) it will be the “Purpose of Peace” and then finally on New Year's Day, the “Priority of Peace.”

Now to our text, a familiar one, Isaiah 9, we're going to start with verse 6. It says, “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 Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

Now there is so much going on in this passage. In it we see the incarnation of Christ, in it we see the deity of Christ, in it we see the eternality of Christ, in it we learn of the peace and the righteousness and the justice that will be ushered in in Christ's future millennial kingdom reign here on earth. And we're going to hit each of those topics in various parts today. But I'm not here to teach a course on Christology or futuristic millennial eschatology this morning. Rather, this is a Christmas message so what I would like to do this morning, two weeks out from Christmas, is to set up the Christmas story, considering a part of the series that we are going through through this text. Next Sunday we'll get into the classic Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the Highest account. But for today's purposes I want to keep our feet primarily in the Old Testament and set the stage for the why of the annunciation, the why of the incarnation, the why of the virgin birth, the why of the shepherds, the why of the manger and the why of everything else surrounding the Christmas narrative.

With that we go back in time to the days of Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah the prophet, a prophet to the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, starting around 739 B.C., the year that King Uzziah died. Now as Isaiah wrote these words that I just read for you in Isaiah 9:6-7, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was still 750, actually more than that, years away, meaning that's the length of our current American republic times three and then some. And up to this point in biblical history, that is at the time Isaiah wrote these words, much had taken place already. In fact, to give us some of the context we want to start at the beginning to see how the people of Judah, the people that Isaiah was sent to minister to, had gotten to the place they were at the time that this prophet was now prophesying to them. But that's going to give us an understanding of the context into which Isaiah was writing. But it's also going to give us some context to inform and sharpen our understanding of the Christmas narrative as a whole.

So we're going to start at the very beginning, and when I say at the very beginning I mean like the beginning beginning, Genesis 1:1. You don't need to turn there, I'm going to do a jet tour of biblical history up 'til the point of Isaiah. Okay? Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Several thousand, you can quote me on that one, several thousand, not billions or trillions, of years ago God made the world and everything in it. He created the world perfectly, He did so in six literal 24-hour periods. He created the sun, the moon and the stars; He created the earth and the seas; He created the plants and the vegetation; He created the animals on land, in the sea and in the sky. And then as the crown of His creation He created man, Genesis 1:27, “in His own image.” And in doing so, He created man, mankind, not 25 genders, not 57 genders, he gave two of them, “male and female He created them,” Genesis 1:27. And then Genesis 1:31 tells us that “God saw all that He had made and behold, it was very good.”

God did His part, man did not. Man disobeyed. Man did the one thing God had commanded him not to do and man sinned. We see that account in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And as a result of that sin, sin entered into the world. Romans 5:12 says, “through one man sin entered into the world.” That brought about a curse on the world, with mankind (humanity) coming under God's judgment. The sin of man culminated in a flood during Noah's day, which we see in Genesis 6-9. But once the waters from that flood receded and the ground dried, the world began to repopulate and the world began to gather in one place and there we see the Tower of Babel incident, Genesis 11, where God scatters the people.

Then we get to Genesis 12 (we're going to be here a long time this morning), we get to Genesis 12 and God calls Abram who later became Abraham to be the father of many nations. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob, later called Israel, had 12 sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Following the lead of their brother Joseph, Israel ends up in Egypt for 400 years. And in Egypt they go from being favored to eventually being oppressed as Pharaoh of Egypt turns on them, enslaves them. But then Moses eventually leads them out of their Egyptian captivity. They are now wandering, they are on the Sinai Peninsula. And then Moses' successor (not Moses) Joshua, under Joshua's leadership the people eventually enter the promised land, the land of Canaan. When they get to Canaan they are first ruled by judges. But they wanted to be the cool kids like everybody else who had a king, so they clamored for a king. And they got their king. They had Saul, then they later had David, and David we would say is the greatest of all the Israelite kings because despite his obvious flaws he was yet a man after God's own heart. David's son Solomon then succeeded him and though Solomon was the wisest man outside of Christ to have ever lived, he was still deeply human and still deeply flawed. And his wisdom was eventually overridden by his love for women, his love for wealth, and his love for the world's philosophy. Solomon started off strong but eventually we see the cracks of compromise poking through and that's why we see Solomon later in the book of Ecclesiastes as an old man now, lamenting all of his foolish ways. Solomon was eventually succeeded by Rehoboam. But Rehoboam was opposed by Jeroboam and then the twelve tribes, previously unified, split. The once unified kingdom was now a divided kingdom with ten tribes in the north and two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, in the south. And much of history (this is what we get in places like 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles), much of the history of this divided kingdom, the northern and southern tribes, was marked by bloodshed. One king after another murdering other kings in order to get power, to take the throne. And all the while the people in both kingdoms are engrossed in the false, pagan worship of idols.

That catches us up, that brings us to Isaiah's day, the mid-8th century B.C. is when he wrote, when he was a prophet. The kingdom was divided. Militarily and economically the southern tribes were strong, but religiously and spiritually their leaders and their people were compromised. They were going after a variety of false gods. As it is so often and so colorfully described, they were worshiping these false gods on every high hill and under every green tree. The economic prosperity of the land, by the way, coupled with the people's religious complacency and spiritual apostasy was a deadly mix because what was happening was they were comfortable and they were prosperous but they were spiritually wayward, spiritually adulterous. I wonder if that sounds like any nations on the planet today. But Israel, Judah, they faced this looming judgment of God through a foreign invader, Babylon. And that foreign invader Babylon, we see this happens in 586 B.C., would eventually conquer them and eventually take them into captivity. Much like we see in our day, the people of Judah, the people Isaiah is writing to had tuned God out. They weren't listening to Him anymore, they had since long gone their own way and they were about to pay the price. And this is the context into which God appoints His prophet, Isaiah, to address this apostate people of Judah.

Now there is something else I want you to note, because we are about to go on a bumpy jet tour through Isaiah to get back to our passage this morning. There is something else I want to note. As God gave revelation to the prophet Isaiah to record, which Isaiah was faithful to take down, we have to remember that Isaiah was human. Yes, he was moved by the Holy Spirit to write what he wrote. 2 Peter 1:19 and 21 confirm that. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 confirm that. But he was human. And I mention that because it means that as he was taking down all that the Lord was revealing to him, Isaiah as a man was yet limited and finite in his own understanding of how everything he was taking down and writing down might play out in the future and in the centuries ahead. Isaiah was a human prophet, a mere mortal man and he could not have and did not have exhaustive insight into every single detail of every event that God had him take down. That means that as he was taking down the revelation that the Lord was giving him, that he couldn't have known exactly when all these events would unfold. You're going to see what I mean in a second by that.

Now don't take what I am saying to mean what I am not saying. I'm not saying that in Isaiah we don't have perfectly and divinely inspired Scripture. We do. What I am saying is that what we have in Isaiah as we read it verse by verse by verse by verse is not always perfectly chronological. Sometimes it goes backwards, sometimes it's in the present day, sometimes it goes forward, sometimes it goes way forward. And my point is, Isaiah, as he is taking this all down from God, didn't always understand was this about the First Coming, is this about the Second Coming, and so on. You'll see what I mean.

All that to say that in Isaiah we have this prophetic work that is fascinating, it is majestic, it is amazing, but it is also a work that now 3000 years after this was written, it requires us to roll up our sleeves, to do the hard work of figuring out how all the events in this book fit together with subsequent biblical revelation and with history. Of figuring out which events Isaiah wrote of that were related to the now of his day, that boots-on-the-ground situation that he was reporting on and speaking into as he saw all the spiritual adultery and apostasy surrounding him. And we also need to be able to figure out which events Isaiah is reporting on in this book that were about things that had not yet taken place, and events and circumstances and people that were still to come. And in that category, that futuristic category, there are three sub-categories. See, Isaiah recorded events that would happen in the 750 years up to Christ's birth. Isaiah recorded events that would happen surrounding Christ's birth. And Isaiah recorded events that were not only future to him but future to us, related to the Second Coming of that same Christ, the One who was to come in Bethlehem.

In fact, I think to show you what I mean about all I just said leading up to this point, to show you how it is vital to work hard to put these pieces together to rightly understand this great book, now I want to take this jet tour through Isaiah to get back to Isaiah 9. So turn with me, if you would, back to Isaiah 1. In Isaiah 1, recorded here is this vision that Isaiah received from the Lord in which the Lord is issuing His words of condemnation against His sinful people there in Judah and His words are strong. Look at Isaiah 1:3, it says, “An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand. Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him.” And then look over at verse Isaiah 1:21, he says, “How the faithful city has become a harlot, she who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, but now murderers.” See, the people of Judah, the people of Isaiah's day, his neighbors, people he would see at the market as he is wandering around, had become as dumb as an ox, as foolish as a donkey, and as immoral as a prostitute. That's what he is saying here. These are strong words of condemnation. And here in the context of Isaiah 1 he is delivering these words of condemnation directly to them. He is saying these words about them right in front of them. They would have seen the spittle flying from his mouth as he declared these proclamations of judgment upon them.

But then we get to Isaiah 2. And here is what I mean by going back and forth. When we get to Isaiah 2 the focus moves to the future and it moves to a specific time in the future. Look at Isaiah 2:2, it says, “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the Law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples. And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” Now those words, by the way which are repeated almost verbatim in Micah 4:1-3, are not speaking of the conditions in Judah in Isaiah's day. These are not even speaking of the conditions in Judea during Jesus' day. Rather these verses are speaking of Christ's future 1000-year reign on the earth, what we know as the millennium. It is referenced several places in Scripture. It is mentioned many times in the Old Testament. It is placed in even sharper focus in the New Testament in Revelation 20 and from our vantage point sitting here today in almost the year 2023 the millennium is still a future event and a future set of circumstances on the calendar.

But then we turn to Isaiah 3, and now as we go to Isaiah 3 we're taking the time machine back to the Judah of Isaiah's day. Look at Isaiah 3:1, “For behold,” it says, “the Lord God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water.” And if you look at the last couple of verses, Isaiah 3:25-26, it says, “Your men will fall by the sword and your mighty ones in battle. And her gates will lament and mourn, and deserted she will sit on the ground.” Those words, which describe current events in Isaiah's day, those are prophesying the coming conquest of Judah by the Babylonians and the exile that would follow.

But then we turn to chapter 4 and whiplash, the scene shifts again back to Christ's future millennial reign on earth. And a clue for that is what it says in verse 2 with the appearance of this language, “in that day.” That's future messianic kingdom language. “In that day,” it says, “the Branch of the Lord,” that's also messianic language, Jeremiah 23, “will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.” So now we are in the millennium.

But then if we go to Isaiah 5 we're back to present-day Judah where we see various woes or judgments pronounced on this apostate people for their various sins. Which included greed, Isaiah 5:8, “Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, until there is no more room.” It included drunkenness, Isaiah 5:11, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them.” That included lying, verse 18, “Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood, and sin as if with cart ropes.” And that included general evil and immorality and wickedness, verse 20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!” And because of all this evil and because of all this wickedness God says in Isaiah 5:13, “Therefore My people go into exile,” 586 B.C. is the reference there.

Now moving ahead to Isaiah 6 we're still in Isaiah's present-day Judah where we encounter this vision Isaiah received of the three times holy Lord—“Holy, holy, holy,” it says, Isaiah 6:3, “is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” We see later in John 12:41 that was actually a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ. John 12:41 records, “These things Isaiah said because he saw His,” meaning Christ's, “glory, and he spoke of Him,” meaning Christ.

Isaiah 7 records even more real-time history as it is taking place in Isaiah's day. There is this account of Rezin going to war in the first part of the chapter. And then there is this messianic prophecy, one we are all familiar with I am sure, in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” That's not the messianic prophecy we'll be covering today so I'll have to cover who Maher-shalal-hash-baz was some other time, not today.
But we get into chapter 8 and it is more of the same, more real-time boots-on-the-ground Judean history recorded by Isaiah, including the fall of Damascus and Samaria.

And that brings us all the way back to Isaiah 9. And to give us more of the context for our passage I want to actually start there in verse 1 of Isaiah 9. “But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.” Then verse 2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” Isaiah here is shifting context yet again as he moves from the immediate historical context of Judah in the 8th century B.C., now to prophesying here in Isaiah 9 of future events. And as he does so when he speaks of this great light coming into the darkness and into the gloom of these northern lands—Zebulun, Naphtali, Galilee of the Gentiles—he is prophesying specifically of the first coming of Israel's Messiah, the “Meshiach,” the Christ.

And as of Isaiah's writing, as we know from just general social awareness and being in the Christian church, there were already many prophecies that had been made by other biblical authors about the coming Messiah. Prophecies many of which Isaiah would have already been familiar with because they came before him about this future One. Or prophecies that Isaiah would have been familiar with would have been the fact that the coming Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham, Genesis 22:18; that He would be a descendant of Jacob, Numbers 24:17; that He would be from the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49:10; that He would be in the line of both Jesse and his son David, as we see in Jeremiah 23; that He would be a prophet, Deuteronomy 18:18, a priest, Psalm 110:4 and a king, Psalm 2:6. He would have known that the Messiah would have a prophetic forerunner, which we see in Malachi 3:1; that He would be pierced, Zechariah 12:10; that accusers would divide up His garments, Psalm 22:18; and even that He would be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5:2. And now we have Isaiah here, adding to those messianic prophecies, stating as the Lord had revealed it to him that the Messiah would reveal Himself at some point in the future in the region of Galilee.

In fact, if you would, go and turn with your Bibles over to the gospel of Matthew where we are going to see how this part of Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 9 came to fruition. Look at Matthew 4, and we'll pick it up in verse 12, Matthew 4:12, bringing us closer and closer to the Christmas narrative. Matthew 4:12 says, “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody,” John the Baptist, of course, “He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people that were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a Light dawned.’ ” So as Matthew records here these events, the connection in Nazareth to Capernaum to Galilee, a light dawning in these northern territories were all in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, and you can turn back there in Isaiah 9.

Now an immediate question the readers of this prophecy would have asked when they first encountered Isaiah 9, verses 1-2 specifically, would have been this: Why Galilee? Of all the places that Israel's Messiah would show up, why Galilee? See, no one would have ever predicted that Messiah would arrive in Galilee, and for a few reasons. First of all, God had recently wiped out and flattened, as an aspect of His judgment, parts of that land. That's what Isaiah means in Isaiah 9:1 where he says, “In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt.” See, at this time this was not a desirable place at all, this place was desolate and relatively underpopulated, it was a burnt over district, it was an eyesore, it stood as a picture of God's wrath and judgment. The thought of Messiah of Israel arriving in Galilee as opposed to say Jerusalem, would have raised some major eyebrows.

But second, another reason why this would have been confusing to people is Galilee, as it says, sat in Gentile territory. It is called there in verse 2 Galilee of the Gentiles. Galilee, see, was a border province right next to Gentile territory, and it was populated by many different Gentile groups. And because of that the Jewish people of this day despised Galilee. Remember that line from John 1:46, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Well, Nazareth was in the region of Galilee and the idea of Israel's Messiah making His appearance in such a Gentile stronghold would have offended Jewish sensibilities.

The third reason for potential confusion about Galilee is that as we just saw, another prophet, Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Which is not in Galilee but instead was in Judea and closer to Jerusalem, many, many miles away from Galilee. So what gives? How could it be said that Galilee of the Gentiles would see this great Light? Wasn't it Bethlehem that would be seeing this great Light?

Well, what the people of Isaiah's day would not have realized or recognized is that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of Micah 5:2. But then He with His family would move to Galilee and fulfill His ministry there. Which is exactly what we see recorded of Jesus and His family in the gospel accounts, meaning He would fulfill both the prophecies of Micah and Isaiah. And not only that. Isaiah's prophecy here in verses 1-2 that the Messiah would step out onto the scene of world history among Galilee of the Gentiles -- that's foreshadowing the reality that the Messiah, who would later be revealed to be Jesus of Nazareth -- while His earthly ministry no doubt was directed toward His own people, the Jews -- the salvation that His death would bring would eventually extend to Jews and Gentiles alike. That's why we are here this morning. The Messiah, in other words, would bring about ultimately a new era in which He would not function merely as the long anticipated political Messiah of Israel, but instead would arrive as the Savior of the world, the Messiah prophesied of Isaiah here in Isaiah 9:1-2, who turned out to be Jesus of Nazareth who ministered in Galilee, a dark place, in direct fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. The people who walk in darkness, it says, would indeed see a great light. That's what we see in the gospel of John 1:9 where it says the true light, speaking of Christ, came into the world just as Isaiah said He would.

Back to our text, picking up in Isaiah 9:3 we're going to see these additional prophetic words. He says, “You shall multiply the nation, you shall increase their gladness; they will be glad in Your presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, and cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.” Now as he has done many times already in the account that we walked through from Isaiah 1 all the way here to this part of Isaiah 9, he is again abruptly taking us in a new direction, from the first coming of Messiah now to His eventual Second Coming. What we have here in verses 3-5 are events surrounding the one day return of Christ, His Second Coming, the judgment that He will bring to this earth at the conclusion of the future seven-year period of tribulation that is going to come on this world after the Lord raptures His church out of the world and before He ushers in His 1000-year millennial reign on this earth. What you could even say in verses 3-5 here is a second Christmas, a second advent, a second coming. We're here to celebrate the first Christmas this morning. I'm going to reserve further comment on verses 3-5 and get to the heart of our passage here in verses 6-7.

Look at verse 6 again. Isaiah, as he is moved by the Holy Spirit, says these familiar words, “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 Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” The One we see being described here, the One who was predicted, the One who was foretold, the One who would bring light into the darkness, the One who would bring peace on earth not only in the individual hearts of men but to the entire world one day, would first be born into this world as a child, as a son. Now there are many important details that Isaiah gives us here about this coming Messiah, we're going to work through each one of them. I know it is a familiar passage but going through this I think, I trust, will prepare our hearts not only for next week's message of which this is all part of a series, but really for the entire Christmas season. I hope and pray it is going to equip us to share the Savior, the Light who has come into the darkness, whose excellencies we're all called to proclaim.

Well, first verse 6, the text says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us.” This refers to the humanity of the coming Messiah, later to be revealed as Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was fully human. He had real flesh, real bones. In the incarnation He took on real humanity. Philippians 2:7 says He was in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:8 says He was found in appearance as a man. He ate and He drank, He slept and He wept, He was tempted, He was tried, He sweat, He suffered, He bled and He died. That's why the author of Hebrews for many reasons could say in Hebrews 4:15, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.” At the same time Jesus never gave up or forfeited any aspect of His deity. He always was and always will be fully God. So that during His first visitation here to earth, what we are celebrating right now at Christmas, it could truly be said of Him as it is said of Him in Isaiah 7:14 that He was Immanuel, God with us, that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” as John says of the incarnation in John 1:14. Jesus the Messiah was and is both fully man and fully God. Fully man because He came to bear man's sin and in doing so bore the full measure of the wrath of God on our behalf. And He did so as an act of incomparable and nearly inexpressible love. But fully God so that the sacrifice that He made, the sacrifice of Himself, would be perfect and spotless, sufficient to atone for man's problem with sin and sufficient to derail man's sure destiny with death. In other words, the Messiah who is predicted here in Isaiah 9:6 was no ordinary child, no ordinary son. Rather He would be the virgin-born, Holy Spirit-conceived Son of God. He would be the Light in the darkness when He was born in Bethlehem and when He later showed up in Galilee. He is the only source of light and hope in this dark and ever darkening world.

Next, verse 6 says, “and the government will rest on His shoulders.” That's referring there to Messiah's sovereign rule over all. And there is of course a sense in which as God He has always ruled over everything, including governments. Hebrews 1:3 says, “He… upholds all things by the word of His power,” including governments. He does so today, He has done so in the past, He will do so in the future. But in this part of verse 6 in the context in which Isaiah is writing, Isaiah again is looking ahead, past Christ's first appearance, now into His second appearance. So again this is an instance of Isaiah toggling back and forth between different eras and stages of the coming Messiah's rule.

Luke does something similar. We don't have time to turn there right now but in the gospel of Luke the annunciation, the angel's visitation in Luke 1:31, the angel says this to Mary, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.” We all know -- we could bring a 7-year-old up here and they would understand that that is referring to the birth of Christ 2000 years ago, the first advent of our Lord. But in the very next verse, Luke 1:32, the angel goes on to say, “He will be great and He will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” That's referring to the Second Coming of the Messiah, again, when He ushers in His future millennial reign here on earth. Two-thousand-and-counting years separate Luke 1:31 and Luke 1:32.

In Isaiah, back to verse 6, we see these four familiar titles given for the Messiah—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Now again to be clear, in the original context of what Isaiah is saying here, each of the titles that we see listed here relates back to the time that he references in verse 6 where the government will rest on His shoulders, which I just said is the time of His future reign on earth during the millennium. That hasn't arrived yet. But these nevertheless, every one of these titles, are titles and promises that we can cling to today as we walk as children of light, as children of God, right now.

In fact, let's take these one by one. Wonderful Counselor. Of course men seek counsel, men seek wisdom from all types of sources—philosophy, psychology, science, technology, the study of other world religions and religious systems. Well, the one Isaiah prophesied of here, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, is Himself, 1 Corinthians 1:24, “the wisdom of God.” And Colossians 2:3 says, “in whom,” meaning in Christ, “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” And as Christians living here today between the two advents we have the ability to approach this Wonderful Counselor boldly through prayer, through His Word, knowing we'll never be turned away, knowing that He will never lie to us or deceive us, knowing that we'll never be misled or misdirected or that the truth will be somehow watered down. Rather the wisdom He supplies us is always right, it's always good. He truly is the Wonderful Counselor.

Next He is called the Mighty God. He is not merely a child, not merely a son, not merely a counselor, Wonderful Counselor as He is. No, this means Mighty God, exactly what it says. The one who would come, the Messiah who would come, the one we know as Jesus, the one we are celebrating this Christmas was and is God of very God, God in human form, the Word who became flesh, the God/Man. And He possesses not only the wisdom of God, as the Wonderful Counselor. He possesses all the power of God as Mighty God. And He possesses every single other attribute that exists in God because He Himself is God.

Next He is called Eternal Father. Now that's not confusing God the Son with God the Father here. God the Father and God the Son share in the same divine essence but they are unique and distinct persons of the trinity. So what is being described here, Eternal Father, if we're talking about God the Son? If this is not saying God the Son is God the Father, what is being said here? Well, all that is being said here with these words “Eternal Father” is that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ will function as a father to His people. He will function not only as a king and a sovereign. He will function not only as a wonderful counselor. He will function as a father functions, always acting in the interest and the good of the people in His household like any good father would, always acting toward them with care and compassion and understanding like any good father would. What a joy to know, not only theologically speaking, is Jesus, God the Son, but practically speaking day in and day out He functions as a father to each and everyone of us.

And last, there at the end of verse 6 and bringing everything to a head here this morning, the Messiah of Israel is called the Prince of Peace. Now I know we're just jumping back and forth, timeline is all over the place this morning. But in its original context the immediate reference here is to the future millennial kingdom, which will be a kingdom marked by peace in which the Messiah reigns perfectly and peacefully as Prince and King. In fact, we can see that in verse 7 where it says, “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of. . .” What? “Peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.” Those are going to be glorious days, the days in which, as Isaiah 11 says, swords are hammered into plowshares, the days in which the wolf lies down with the lamb, the days in which the desert becomes as a fertile field, the days in which justice and righteousness will reign on the earth.

And then looking further forward into the one day eternal state, beyond the millennium, to think of the days in which all pain and suffering will be taken away, where there are going to be no more hospitals and no more nursing homes and no more pharmacies and no more pharmacists and no more pills and no more medical insurance and no more doctors and no more dentists. Those are going to be the days in which every sorrow will be taken away. Those final days will be the days in which every tear is wiped from our eyes and those are the days in which sin will ultimately be done with. What glorious days those are going to be. But those days aren't here yet. Those times have not yet come. We still live in this tumultuous and sin-cursed world, we still live on this restless and devolving planet. And we're all in this room still wading into the craziness of the Christmas holiday.

And with that I have some good news for you. Though Christ will reveal Himself ultimately as the Prince of Peace in the future, in His future millennial reign, you can still have His peace today. There is no doubt that He has brought peace to this earth in the-here-and-the-now for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. Not in their good deeds, not in their good works, not in Allah or Mary or the pope or Joseph Smith, not in their own spirituality or religiosity, but by trusting in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross alone. He really is the Prince who has brought us peace. Every one of our sins has been forgiven, washed as white as snow, declared as far as the east is from the west, removed from our record, canceled and nailed to the cross of the one who was born in Bethlehem. That's the good news of Christmas.

The bad news of Christmas is where it starts, with sin and wickedness and rebellion, all the things I mentioned at the beginning of the message. But the good news is that God made a way. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.” John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all who would believe in Him would not perish but would have everlasting life.” And then Ephesians 2:14 says, “He Himself,” meaning Jesus Christ, “is our peace.” His peace-making mission started in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, just as Isaiah prophesied. But Bethlehem was always aimed at Calvary. See, true peace in the human heart, a true peace concerning our status before God, true peace concerning the status of our soul, is not found in politics, it's not found in economics, it's not found even in relationships.

Rather the only true peace that can ever be achieved in the human heart is a person coming to realize that their soul is no longer at war with God, they have waved the white flag, they have laid down their sword and they have surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. For those of you have done so, you can have peace this Christmas, knowing that the eternal life you have in Christ far eclipses, far outweighs, any unrest this world might throw your way. God has made a provision of peace for you through the Prince of Peace. And you can remember the words of Jesus in John 14:27 where He says, “My peace I leave with you.” You can rest in the truths of Philippians 4:6-7 where Paul says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,” he says, “which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” You can remember the words of Isaiah later in this prophecy, Isaiah 26:3 where he says, “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.”

Creditors may still call, children may still depart, nations may still invade, but if you have trusted in Christ to save your soul you have the only peace that matters—peace with God through His Christ, Israel's Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Do you have peace this morning? A peace that is continual, a peace that is sure, a peace that is lasting, a peace that comes only through trusting in the Prince of Peace, the promised Messiah of Israel, the Almighty Savior of the world. I pray you do because then and only then can you understand and experience the true meaning of Christmas and the true joy of Christmas.

At the beginning of the message this morning I kind of pulled a fast one on you if I'm being honest. I read the first six stanzas of Longfellow's poem. There is actually a seventh and I close with it. He said,
“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail
With peace on earth, good-will to men!’ ”

Let's pray. Lord God, we thank You so much for the promise of peace. We thank You that though we are wicked and vile and corrupt, that we are undeserving of Your grace or Your mercy, that what we truly deserve is Your wrath -- but because You are good and loving and merciful and gracious, that You have provided a path of peace through the Prince of Peace, the Lord of glory, Jesus of Nazareth. God, I pray that this season we would all revel, rejoice, in the reality for us who have trusted in Christ, that we have peace. Peace with our God and Father, peace that will last eternally and a peace that cannot be taken away. We give you thanks for this day. In Christ's name, amen.