The Coming Messiah IV: God’s Description of Immanuel

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and we are looking at a few passages about the coming of our Lord during this Christmas season, incarnation passages from the book of Isaiah. But we're limiting ourselves of the many options to those passages that describe Emmanuel.

And that starts in chapter 7, unto you, unto you, unbelieving Ahaz, unbelieving Judah, and us too, unbelievers. Unto you a son is given, a child will be born. He will be called Emmanuel, or God with us.

And this isn't just in a general sense that because this promised king is godly, then God will be favorable to the nation. But this is unique, this is God himself coming, uniting himself to our humanity in the person of Jesus, the son of God, and also son of man.

So he comes, and when he comes, he brings hope. In Isaiah 9, the kind of impact that he brings on a country's life, on an individual's life, is presented there with these metaphors. These are wonderful pictures of spiritual realities, and we see that they have been accomplished.

We're going to talk about that today. So not only does he give great news, but we find that today in verse 4, 5, 6, and 7, God gives, through the prophet, seven centuries before the coming of Jesus, he gives reasons.

And I want us to just stop and think about that for a moment. Do you have a reasonable religion? One way we could describe this is to say it this way. We need to be careful that we are not spreading superstition instead of Christianity.

Our land, America, is a very religious land. I live in what they call the Bible Belt, so the southern part. I live in North Mississippi, and so we still have quite a few churches, and they're still fairly well attended.

But America as a whole is known as a very religious nation, and while we're losing that quickly, we still are a people that believe that there are spiritual realities for the most part. There's a supernatural realm that I can't touch and see, but it does exist.

But I'm afraid that a great deal of what we talk about, even when we use Bible phrases and we put it under the label of Christianity, it may be no better than superstition, and our land does not need more superstition.

What is superstition? A very simple definition could be superstition is a belief in the supernatural, and because of that belief, a belief in consequences of certain actions. So if I do this, bad things happen.

Curses come. If I do this, blessings come. In a very simple way, you could think of the person who, if a black cat crosses their path, they say, oh no, that was an omen of evil, and so curses will come to my life, and I don't actually know anybody that lives that way.

But you can transfer superstition into a Christian packaging, and you think it's Christianity, but it's not. What is the difference? It's not the book you're reading. It's not the words you're quoting.

It's not the hymns we're singing or the cliches that we repeat after a sermon. The difference between superstition and true Christianity is that true Christianity has facts and reasons, and religion without reason is superstition.

So we go to chapter 9, and all this hope is promised. It's like a spiritual dawn. God himself will be among these people, and they will be filled with joy. How do we know this is true? Well, we know this is true from hindsight.

We see that it has been actually accomplished in history, and they couldn't see that, but I want to point that out first, and then we'll see what they had to go on. In Matthew 4, in verse 12 through 16, there's a wonderful passage where Matthew is describing the ministry of Christ and the fact that Christ leaves Jerusalem and Judah to the south and goes north, and as he goes north, he goes into the area of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee in that region.

Listen to what Matthew says. Matthew 4, verse 12,. Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, 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.

You recognize that? That was the region in chapter 9, verse 1, that was noted by God's wrathful contempt, but was promised that one day through the Messiah coming through Emmanuel, it would be noted as a place of mercy.

It would be made glorious. What we find is Matthew goes back to that passage in Isaiah 9, and he says this, verse 14,. This, Jesus going into Galilee, going to Capernaum, 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 who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light has dawned.

From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now when you read the life of Christ without the help of Matthew, you might have found it difficult to see God keeping his word or keeping an appointment seven centuries later.

But Matthew makes that clear by quoting in chapter 4 what Isaiah said in chapter 9. But I want to point out that there were some things that were occurring that lead up to God keeping his word because I find it very encouraging.

When you look at the world, it is hard to see at times God at work, and all you have is the word of God to hope in, but that's enough. Now what was happening when Matthew talks about the events in chapter 4 and Jesus going to Galilee?

First of all, King Herod in the region, King Herod is rebuked. Herod is rebuked by John the Baptist for Herod's immoral lifestyle. He is so offended he imprisons John the Baptist. Now the leaders of Judaism in Jerusalem are not upset about this.

John has been a bit of a thorn in their side. He's called them serpents and snakes. He hasn't praised them. The people see John as a real man of God, and the Pharisees and the leaders of the temple worship, the blue-blood families who are controlling things, they see them as hirelings.

John is arrested, but the Pharisees are alarmed because the people that used to follow John are following Christ. Daily, more and more people are following this Jesus of Nazareth, and he is as offensive, if not worse, than John.

So there's a crisis that's coming between Jesus and the leaders, and it's not time for the crisis. So God the Father, orchestrating human events, even using the hatred of those who reject his son, causes a great mercy to be accomplished.

He's going to keep his word. So God uses the arrest of John the Baptist, the jealousy of the Jews. John 4 tells us about that. And Jesus goes to Nazareth, which is a little south of this region, and preaches a sermon there.

And when he preaches his sermon there, it's his first sermon in his public ministry in his hometown. They are so offended by what he says that they take him, and they lead him to the edge of the city, and there's a cliff, and they're going to throw him off the cliff and kill him.

But he turns and just walks right through the midst of the crowd and goes his way. So when you look at this situation, do you see God at work? It's not easy. There is an offended government. There is a jealous religious institution, and there are local inhabitants who are so offended at the message of Jesus that they want to kill him.

It looks like everywhere we turn in the life of Jesus, everything is against him, and he's not able to accomplish what God has sent him to accomplish. But on the contrary, God is working. That is why Jesus goes to Galilee, and Matthew makes it clear.

The Father sent the Son to Galilee. Using all these other events, he goes to Galilee, and it is exactly the place where Isaiah said 700 years later that the presence of God would bring them joy, and they would be distinguished by mercy.

And God kept his word. If you want to see what areas were treated most kindly by Jesus Christ, what places saw the most of his miracles, what places heard the most of his explanations of the kingdom, it's not Jerusalem.

It's Galilee, and it's Galilee of the Gentiles, which is even more amazing. In Isaiah 9 when he says, Naphtali and Zebulun, Galilee of the Gentiles, it is the first time that the Scripture ever refers to Galilee, that region, as Galilee of the Gentiles, but it is referred to in that way from that point forward.

It ought to strike us. This is 700 years before Jesus comes. This is a long time before the Holy Spirit is sent to the church and Christ's last command is first go to Jerusalem, and then Judea, and then all the world.

Long before the gospel command came to take the good news to the world, to the Gentiles, Isaiah says, Christ will come. The Emmanuel king will bring hope to Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles, which means every one of us who is not Jewish, read that promise, and we see a little glimmer of the wideness of God's mercy.

Emmanuel will not merely rescue Jews. He will also rescue Gentiles. Well, back to Isaiah 9, we see that there are three great reasons given for the hope, and these are reasons that we need. We don't have a right to go to God and say, I'm not going to believe you unless you give me signs.

I'm not going to believe you unless you explain yourself to me, but if God offers a sign and we reject it, if God offers us reasons for hope and we ignore them, then the problem lies with us and not with God.

Now the reasons show up in verse 4, 5, 6, and 7, and each of the verses that start a new reason, verse 4, verse 5, and verse 6, all start in the new American standard translation with the little word for, for, or because 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.

Verse 5, for every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult and cloak rolled in blood will be for burning fuel for the fire. Then verse 6, 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.

And then what follows is four wonderful royal titles or descriptions of the coming king. And then verse 7, a statement about his kingdom. There's so much there. We're only going to be able to hit the high points, and I would recommend that you just dive in.

Looking at cross-references, you can study the passage out further for yourself. Well, let's look at those three reasons. Verse 4, one reason there'll be so much joy is that the people will be freed.

God himself will break the yoke or the staff or the rod. So, you know, the yoke over their shoulders, a picture of slavery. You were slaves, spiritually slaves, and God will free you. And when you are freed, there will be joy.

It's not just Egypt. It's not just Assyria or later Babylon that brought God's people under enslavement, under their tyranny. It is sin. It's a wonderful picture of what sin does. Romans 6 tells us that we are slaves of the one that we obey spiritually.

And so the question is, as a general pattern, we're not talking about sinless perfection, and we're not talking about being as bad as we can be. But if you were to describe your life, would you say that you live for self or you live for Christ?

Do you wake up and say, what's in it for me today? Or do you wake up and say, how can I live for my king today? What's in it for him? Simple question. When Emmanuel comes, he will free you from a tyrant, from a slave owner that is worse than any tyrant or slave owner has ever been on planet earth.

Sin demands every minute of every day of your life. Sin demands unending labor. It doesn't matter how weary you are. It tells you, if you want to be happy, you have to go further. You have to try harder.

You have to keep going. And every day, it puts you under that heavy burden. If you want to feel better, you have to do more. And we believe it, and we live more and more and more for self. Sin requires that you sacrifice everything to it, and you willfully do it, unlike a slave where you're forced.

We willfully sacrifice everything to self. I sacrifice my family for my career. I sacrifice my marriage so that I can run off with someone younger. We sacrifice the spiritual well-being of our children so that we can live for ourselves.

Sin demands that you sacrifice everything to it, and sin pays you only in more beatings. Or we could say it this way. Every promise sin has ever made to you is empty. Tomorrow will not be better than any of your yesterdays if you are a person who fundamentally is enslaved to self.

Christ comes to free them from that, but verse 5 gives a second reason. There will be an end of the conflict or the war between these people and God, and ultimately, an end of all conflict. Sin has brought us war and strife.

It brings strife between individuals. It brings strife in our homes, strife in our churches, strife at the workplace, strife on the ball field. We're not a people marked by peacefulness. Sin brings strife between us and God.

God is not just offended at what I have done, which is wrong. It is what I am that is so offensive. I, by nature, am wrong. I need someone to save me so thoroughly that it doesn't just change my actions.

It changes my nature. It changes who I am at my deepest level, my identity, me. When Christ comes to save, He will save so thoroughly that there will be peace between everyone of His subjects and God.

How?

By removing the object of offense between us and God, our sin. Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 5, one of many places, that God does not count our trespasses against us, but counts the trespass of the Christian against his mediator, his representative, Christ.

Christ suffering the legal requirement of the wrath of God or the offense of the law, that is removed. Now we are free to turn our face toward our God through this mediator with whom we have been united by faith.

And we find God a father, kind, forgiving. He describes this in such a wonderful way in verse 5. He says, the boots and the clothes that you wore to battle, so the battle gear of the Israelite, you still have it in your back closet because a few years ago, maybe you fought against the Edomites or maybe when you were young, you fought against the Philistines, but now there's the Assyrians or the Arameans, whoever, but there's always another enemy.

So you don't throw that away and you get out the old soldier's garments and they're splattered in blood and you put them on and you march out to a battle that you're not sure you'll ever return from. But God says, never again.

Take the garments of the soldier and just use them to fuel the fire this winter. It'll heat your home better. When God comes to bring peace through the work of Emmanuel, there is no more war between us and God, or as Paul says in Romans 8, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, who belong to Christ, who have been represented by Christ, whose lives are treated as obedient as Christ.

Well, the final reason is in verse 6 and into verse 7, and that's the major reason. And we're going to have to just mention this, but this is really the climax. Verse 4, verse 5, these are wonderful statements.

No more enslavement, no more war. But really the great reason for the joy and for the lack of enslavement or the freedom and for the peace instead of war, the real reason is verse 6. A child will be born.

It doesn't even tell us yet what he does. Just the fact that he is born guarantees for everyone who is ruled by him, he is the prince of peace and you will be free. Well, verse 6 says this. A child will be born to you.

A son will be given to you. And then it gives us two great areas of description. The first one is this. The government will rest on his shoulders. So a very clear picture there that God will entrust the rule of everything to this person.

How can he do that? Well, later we hear that he's called the mighty God. He is God-man. He is God with us. He is not merely a representative of God. He is not an angel sent from God. He is not a great prophet who speaks on behalf of God.

He is God. He is God the Son, eternal, united to our humanity. He is not even one-third God. One author describes Christ's deity, his godness, in these words. He is not one-third God, but fully God.

Yet it is not the Son alone who is fully God, but he eternally exists along with Father and the Spirit, each of whom also possess fully and identically the same divine nature. He possesses with the Father and the Spirit equal glory, all the divine nature.

Not one-third. It's a mystery, but it's what this Bible teaches us. Our task is to take everything we are learning about God and to pack it into the God-man, Jesus Christ. Paul says in Colossians 1 that all the fullness dwells in him.

In Colossians 2, all the fullness dwells in him bodily. It's not merely a symbolic fullness like the presence of God in the temple or the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament. It is substantial. He really is God with us.

God the Son. When we look at the Scriptures, we see pictures of this rule. So many wonderful places. Daniel 7, one like the Son of Man coming to God the Father, meeting him in the sky and receiving a kingdom from him that has no end, no borders.

Revelation 5, when the God-man finishes his labor as our Redeemer and he is raised from the dead and he ascends to heaven to return to his glorious throne, not merely as God, but as God-man, as our representative.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father and all creation bows before him and proclaims his praises. If you think of Revelation 11, where it says, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever.

There's another picture or Philippians 2, where Paul says that the Father has given the Son a name above every name. He is Lord of all. He has placed on his shoulders the governing of all. He has taken the scroll from the hand of the Father in Revelation 5 and has been seated and now he will break that scroll and rule over all on behalf of the Father.

It's this who is Emmanuel. What kind of monarch will he be? Well, that's where we come to the four descriptions here, these royal titles. The Jews did not usually use royal titles. The pagans did. This is the one exception and it is God.

So when you bring a young prince to the throne and he is crowned as king, on that coronation day, he receives these royal titles. And the royal titles obviously represent the hopes of the people, the leaders of the nation, the other nobles.

He will be the wise king or he will be the strong king or he will be the warring king. They hope that he lives up to their titles, but there's no guarantee. But when we look at these titles, God is giving them.

And the eternal and all-knowing God is not giving us hopeful titles. He's telling us factual things. This is what Emmanuel will be like as a king, wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, and prince of peace.

Wonderful counselor. Don't put a comma between those. He's not wonderful, comma, counselor. He's the wonderful counselor or the wonder-filled counselor or the supernatural counselor. When a man is placed in a position of leadership, whether it's over a nation or a business or a family, if he is a fool, if he doesn't know how to make good decisions, then everybody under his leadership suffers to some degree.

And if a man is wise, if he knows how to take the knowledge that's in his head and to carefully, skillfully apply that, then everyone who is under his leadership is benefited to some degree. Emmanuel will rule over everything.

He will require supernatural wisdom. He has people who have so many problems. He requires supernatural counsel. And in this king, we have it. Do you remember that Paul talked about Christ in Colossians 2?

He said,.

Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the wisdom of God. Come in our humanity to save us. Second, he is the mighty God. He is fully divine. We've mentioned that, but he is also mighty.

Now, it's not the same word that is used other places to describe the degree of God's ability. When we speak of God's strength, we're talking about his ability. He is capable of doing all he desires to do.

When we speak of his sovereignty, we're talking about his rights. He has the right to do all he wishes to do. Well, here's the ability, the strength, but this word is different. It is a word that is always used of a warrior.

So, one way to translate it is, he will be the warrior God. He will be the militant God. Do you see this in Scripture? Psalm 110, at the end of that wonderful psalm that describes Jesus, the most quoted psalm in the New Testament, ends with a picture of him coming in judgment.

And the earth is just described as having corpses scattered everywhere. Great men and nobodies are dead before him. He has conquered every foe, everyone who has rejected him. Every idea, every philosophy, every religion, whether it bears his name or not, if it denies him his claims, he is coming as the warrior God.

He is the eternal father. Not he is God the father, but he will be called eternal father. That is, he will rule, and though he is a king, he will have the tenderness, the compassion, the love that we think of in the best of dads.

So, when you think of being kind to someone, I think of our church. We have men in our church, and they are kind because Christ's work in their heart. And if someone else's kids are running around and being crazy, and maybe they're being a little aggravating, the men who are Christians, obviously, are kind to these children.

They're not their children, but they love them, and they're kind to them. But when you are kind to someone else's child, when you think about their good, and how can I help them, and what do they need in the moment, that's one thing, but it's different when it's yours.

We are kind in an extraordinary way. We are aware of their needs constantly. Where are my kids? What are their needs? Are they safe? Are they happy? I don't think of that for other people's kids. I don't think, well, where are Teddy's kids right now?

Are they okay? Are they safe? Are they happy? Do they have what they need? But I think about that for my children, especially when they were young. When the Messiah comes, he will come as a warrior king with infinite wisdom and infinite tenderness.

And if you're afraid that this wonderful king will be a wonderful king for you, but for your kids or grandkids or great-grandkids, he'll not be there for them because kings pass away. No fear. He is the eternal, timeless king.

Time does not touch Emmanuel. He does not age, and yet he is the ancient of days. He is the hope of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the hope of Isaiah and every believer during the days of Isaiah. And he is our hope today.

Unchanging, timeless Emmanuel. Finally, the prince of peace. Where he rules, peace comes. Where he is refused, there's no peace. If you think of Jesus only as bringing peace to people, you misunderstand.

You remember when he said to the crowds, you say, you know, I'm coming to bring peace. I have not come merely to bring peace, but I come to bring division between a parent and a child, a mother and a daughter-in-law, between friends.

The gospel comes. It conquers our hearts. We surrender to a new king. We don't wake up and live for ourselves anymore. And suddenly, we are brought into the family of God, and we are alienated from our culture.

We belong to a new king. And those around us who are still rejecting that king's claims, they belong to a different king, the old king, self, sin. And so now, even though we are still kind toward them, and maybe they are still kind toward us, there's a chasm, there's a division.

They do not have that peace, and we do not have peace with them, in a sense. We love them. We want to see them rescued. But that sense of oneness is lost, because we've been brought to him. And as Christ brings us near to the Father, we have peace with him, the peace of Christ.

Isaiah 53 talks about this. He, Christ, was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging, we are healed.

Now, in the Hebrew, the phrase well-being is peace. The chastening for your peace falls upon Christ. And then chapter 7 says, he will sit on the throne of David as the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.

He is the son of David. On a throne that never ends, ruling over a kingdom that only expands forever. It has no edge. And the peace and the increase of that kingdom never end. So ask yourself, do you have a reasonable religion?

Do you go around saying, I have peace with God? I'm a child of God. God is my king through his son, Jesus Christ. I belong to a kingdom that has no borders and no end. And I will live eternally with this king.

Do you have any reasons for those claims? Surely you do understand that you sound like an insane person to the unbeliever. Do you have a reasonable religion? Can you say, this is why I know these things to be true.

The last part of verse 7 says, the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. What an amazing statement. The white hot intensity of our God, the integrity, the passion, the jealousy of his soul for his people and his son's unending glory.

That will see to it that every promise is kept. Well, we saw that he kept it 2000 years ago. And the people in Galilee were indifferent. So Matthew chapter 11, Jesus turns and says, woe to you, all you cities in the region of Naphtali and of Zebulun.

If Sodom had seen what you had seen, it would have repented long ago. It will be easier for the wicked nations of the Old Testament that we look down on. They will have an easy time in the judgment compared to the places where Christ was so kind.

He kept a seven and a half century old engagement and he went to Galilee with mercy. But for the most part, they rejected him. What will he do when we stand before him? And he says, I kept a 2700 year old promise.

I brought the gospel to the Gentiles. You heard the dawn was there. If only you would have embraced it, but you turned your back and you were indifferent toward all those Jesus statements that you heard around Christmas time and all those Jesus statements you hear in the sermons throughout the year and all those Jesus statements in your Bible and all the Jesus statements that other Christians gave to you.

And you treated them like they were empty cliches. Now, if I have kept my promise 2700 years and you are indifferent, do you not understand that God will look upon us with a greater wrath than he looked upon Capernaum who after God kept a 700 year old promise, they were indifferent.

It's a wonderful thing to live in a place where we can hear about Christ, but it is a terrifying thing to be indifferent to the accounts, to the descriptions and the claims of Emmanuel. So the question is, what are we doing with these words?

We'll come back next week and look at a further picture in chapter 11.