“And His Name Shall be Called: Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6)" | 12/4/22
Isaiah 9:6 | 12/4/22 | Thad Yessa
One of my favorite Christmas movies is the How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I’m sure that you are familiar with the plot of this classic Dr. Seuss film, but permit me to review the basics for you:
The Grinch, a bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling creature with a heart "two sizes too small", lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep, 3,000-foot high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is his faithful dog, Max. From his perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. Annoyed and unable to understand the Whos' happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and deprive them of their Christmas presents, Roast Beast, Who-hash and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming." However, he learns in the end that despite his success in taking away all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. Touched by this, his heart grows three sizes larger; he returns all the presents and trimmings and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos.
The turning point of the storyline comes when the Grinch has a perspective change. He suddenly realizes there something more to Christmas than what he realized. Here’s how Dr. Seuss (as only he can write) makes the point:
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?
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Christmas movies are usually about a perspective change. These secular books and films have picked up on an important theme in the narratives surrounding the Christmas story. Whether it’s Charlie Brown, Ebenezer Scrooge, or George Bailey, there is something about Christmas that demands a reorientation – even a renewal – of hope. Unfortunately, these Christmas movies messages for the most part miss the essence of that hope through the birth of Jesus Christ.
Advent is a season of looking back to the birth of Christ with the hopeful anticipation of His second coming. It is meant to be a season where our spiritual perspective is reoriented, a time for us to remember that the future will be as bright as the past has been dark. The advent of Jesus Christ is a signature moment in biblical history where we see God fulfill His promise and bring hope to people who are in darkness.
One of the clearest examples of this perspective change is found in Isaiah 9. Last week we began looking at this passage and Pastor Will walked us through Jesus as our Wonderful Counselor, and this week we will continue with looking at Jesus as our Mighty God. So if last week we look at Jesus and considered His Wisdom and Wonder, this week we will consider His Stregnth and Sovereignty.
Isaiah 9:1-7
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. 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.
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
6 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.
1) The Old Testament PERSPECTIVE.
In order to appreciate the beauty of what is found in Isaiah 9, you have to understand what is happening in biblical history. It is a dark and scary time for the people of God. There are threats and challenges from multiple angles.
We get a sense of this in the first verse: “But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali… (Isaiah 9:1a).
If you look back to Chapter 8 you will see that it is even worse. The picture is bleak.
21They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness (Isaiah 8:21–22).
What is going on here? You need to know that the book of Isaiah records God’s words to His people who had become rebellious against the one true God. They had forsaken the Lord, despised the Holy One of Israel, and were utterly estranged from Him (Isa. 1:4). The result was a season of discipline from the Lord: “I will turn my hand against you (Isa. 1:25). God was weary of the waywardness of His people, and He intended to awaken them from their spiritual slumber by means of suffering. This discipline will come at the hands of other nations, specifically the Assyrians.
So Judah is in a very dark spot, and it is going to get worse. Isaiah 9 is written in the middle of this devastating season where the King of Judah refuses to trust in God. That is why there is “gloom of anguish” and “thick darkness.” There are looming and scary threats. Spiritually, things do not look good, and the more that Isaiah calls people to repentance, the harder they become (Isa. 6:9-10). The political and spiritual leaders are selling out, and Assyria’s power is only growing. If feels like the waters of trouble are rising.
This setting is really important because Isaiah attempts to persuade the people of Judah that God is worthy of their trust. They shouldn’t fear or make proud, self-dependent decisions which factor God out of the equation.
And to convince them to trust God now, Isaiah tells them about what God is going to do in the future. Don’t miss this because this is where we see the perspective change opportunity that I talked about earlier. Isaiah desires to convince them that the future is going to be as bright as the past has been dark.
You see amidst the dark time Judah is facing comes, what was seemingly most unspectacular, but was the what was needed. While Isaiah is telling of incoming judgment, gives the hope of a…birth announcement. That reality should have sent an earthquake through everything Isaiah and his hearers had known about God and the world. The God who made, rules, and upholds the world would now come down into the world. And not as the highest, strongest, and most powerful, but as the smallest, weakest, and most obscure. God was coming not on the clouds, but in a swaddle — fullness of divinity in a diaper.
Pastor Ray Ortlund puts it this way, “God’s answer to everything that has ever terrorized us is a child. The power of God is so far superior to the Assyrians and all the big shots of this world that he can defeart them by coming as a mere child. His answer to the bullies swaggering through history is not to become an even bigger bully. His answer is Jesus.”
The reason this was such good news is not because God was sending any child, but He was going to sending Himself. What Isaiah is relaying to Judah is that God isn’t just sending some who is merely strong, but God himself. The Hebrew word gibbor, meaning “strong, mighty,” describes heroes like Nimrod, “a mighty warrior … a mighty hunter before the LORD” (Genesis 10:8-9), and the “mighty warriors” of King David of Israel (2 Samuel 23:8). It’s a word depicting bravery, courage, and action. All these are qualities of gibbor in the compound name El Gibbor, “the Mighty God.”
Those who are listening to Isaiah their minds would immediately bring back stories of old:
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a MIGHTY hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Deut. 5:15
Israel had done the mighty thing before, they trusted in Samson, Saul, David, ruler after ruler after ruler who let them down. They didn’t someone who wasn’t merely just powerful, they needed someone who was all powerful, and good. This son will have God's true might about him, power so great that it can absorb all the evil which can be hurled at Him until none is left to hurl.
7 I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely.”
And he became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Isaiah 63:7 -9
The Mighty One, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting. Psalm 50:1
Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
in your splendor and majesty! Psalm 45:3
Isaiah does not say that the child will be like God. He doesn’t say that He will speak and act like God…He writes that He IS God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
Clearly given the context we are to see that this child will be a warrior. That’s the behind the scene picture of Almighty. He is powerful and none can stop Him.
3 The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. Exodus 15:3
13 The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. Isaiah 42:13
This is what Judah needed to hear. So those in Isaiah are left will hopeful anticipation that this birth announcement would come, and this child who is also God would be the great hero that they had been waiting for!
2) The New Testament REVELATION.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be bornwill be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:26-38
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luke 2:4-7; 19
As the hymnwriter put it, "fullness of God in helpless babe.”
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Colossians 2:9
“The most astounding miracle claim, really in all the Bible, is that Jesus is God. That the child born, that we celebrate at Christmas, is God in the flesh who has come to us. And when you realize the wonder, the beauty of this … and I say realize, like the more you think about it, the more baffling it is. God in the flesh. But it’s the beauty of the Bible, of the gospel, because this is the only way we can be saved from our sins. By one who can fully identify with us, fully tempted by sin, yet POWERFUL over sin. And one who can fully identify with God, who can bear the divine justice and judgment due you and me and our sin.” - David Platt
but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Hebrews 1:2-3
Mighty Acts of Jesus
The story that came to mind here is where Jesus calms the storm, which, I maintain, has to be one of the most underrated miracles of Jesus’ ministry. It was right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry... Mark 4... Jesus and his disciples are on one of their first boat trips together and there is a terrible storm... they’re all fighting for their lives and Jesus is in the back of the boat... asleep. Got a pillow over his head so they won’t wake Him up... They are all fighting and spinning and reeling... Peter yells out, “Jesus, don’t you care?”
Jesus stands up... yawns... He’s all groggy... looks out at the storm and the text says, literally, “He rebuked the wind and the waves.” He looks at wind and waves and says, “Knock it off.”
Rebuked. Rebuke is what you do to someone underneath you.
You rebuke your kids. “You will not hit your brother.”
You rebuke an employee. “You will not show up an hour late to work.”
Jesus rebukes the weather. He owns the weather. He just stands up and turns it off. You know how like somebody’s car alarm starts going off in the parking lot and some guy comes out real embarrassed and is like, “Oh, excuse me... that’s my car.” Jesus stands up and says, “Sorry, sorry, that’s my storm.” Click click.
The disciples said, “What kind of man is this, that even the weather obeys Him.” The point was that He is the MIGHTY GOD.
You see this play out time and time again of Jesus showing that He is the MIGHTY GOD:
Turning water into wine
Walking on Water
Healing the
Blind
Deaf
Lame
Lepers
Feeding the Multides
Casting out demons
Raising people from the dead
Then you see, at the end of His life, this scene that doesn’t sound like the Mighty God long foretold.
This is at the end of the Gospel of Mark... Mark tells us
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14:32-36
What was it that caused the Mighty God to deeply distressed and troubled? The price of our sin. The Mighty glorious, wonderful God submitted Himself to the weakness and humiliation of death so that He could purchase our forgiveness and give us an eternal home in heaven with Him forever.
And this shines a new light on His mightiness; His mightiness is not just power over the wind and waves, but the mightiness of His love to rescue us. God’s glory was not most shown by the majesty of His creation, but by becoming a man and dying to save us. You want to know who Jesus is? He’s not just the God who controls the waves; He’s the God who was powerful enough to wrestle death and hell on your behalf and emerge victorious.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:8
3) Our current REALITY.
The people of Judah were told to look forward to the advent of this future king and hope. We know the story of what God did through Jesus. We know about the fulfillment of the plan of God. We know that a virgin did conceive, that God did send a son. We know about the angels who said, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. . . you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manager (Lk. 2:12). When we read Isaiah 9, we know how God kept His word. The Old Testament is a beautiful tapestry of God’s promises which are fulfilled in Christ. Looking back you can see the amazing plan of God.
We know what God accomplished through Jesus. We know the story of cross – how the Son of God willingly suffered a death He didn’t deserve in order to bring forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation. The Mighty God died for our sins in order to make peace with God possible.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him… (Colossians 1:19–22).
For those of you who have repented of your sins and received Christ, you have “tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord” (Ps. 34:8). You know that joy that comes from placing your trust in God. You know the beauty of believing the promises of God. You know that even though your past was filled with all manner of evil and wickedness, Jesus saved you, forgave you, and cleansed you.
What’s more, you know what the Bible says about the future. The Bible promises that one day Jesus is going to return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, defeat the devil once and for all, and bring all His redeemed people into the new heaven and new earth. One day in the future God will say “I make all things new” (Rev. 21:6), and He will reign forever and ever. The Second Advent.
The people of God in the Old Testament were challenged to trust in God and to believe in Him since one day He was going to change everything through a son who would be given. Their perspective needed to change about the present circumstances in light of their bright future.
We have the benefit of knowing what the fulfillment of that promise looked like. We have the experience of seeing how God kept His word, and we know what the ultimate fulfillment looks like. We know that no matter how dark life and circumstances look, our future in Christ is bright beyond belief.
So if you are here today and life has become incredibly hard, or if there are circumstances which are causing you to be afraid, just listen to the promises of God rooted in Christ the Mighty God:
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:6–7).
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37).
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:3).
The promises are given to us who know about the advent of Jesus and who know how the story of redemption is completed.
Isaiah 9:6 shows us, yet again, that God keeps His promises. It comforts us in that we see God’s gracious deliverance of His people even when things look very dark. It gives us hope because we see that God is worthy of our trust.
It doesn’t matter what the darkness is around you. Your future in Christ is brighter than the darkness of your past. The advent of Jesus Christ, promised in Isaiah 9, is a perspective changer. It calls us to remember that Jesus is the MIGHTY GOD who meets us in our greatest need.