(All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
Let’s continue to explore Isaiah 9:6 and 7:
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given;
and the government will be upon His shoulder. And
His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the
increase of His government and peace there will be
no end, upon the throne of David and over His king-
dom, to order it and establish it with judgment and
justice from this time forward, even forever. The
zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
“…and His name will be called…” (verse 6)
- “…Wonderful Counselor…”
Among the 17 Bible translations on e-Sword program, seven translations, including the King James Version and six others, place a comma between Wonderful and Counselor. Six other translations leave out the comma, making Wonderful Counselor a single name of the Messiah! I vote for the six, for indeed, He is a Wonderful Counselor!
This name in Hebrew is יעץ פּלא (reading right to left). According to Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, the words, pronounced “pel’-leh yah-ats’ ” and mean:
✡ (pel’-leh) – “...a miracle...marvelous thing,
wonder....”
✡ (yah-ats’) – “...to advise...to deliberate or
resolve....”
So the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ governs mankind and the whole world with counsel that is so correct, true, and applicable that it is miraculous! Compare that to the best counsel we might receive here and now!
- “…Mighty God…”
In His glorified humanity, Jesus will rule world-wide from Jerusalem! He will not just represent the Mighty God! He is the Mighty God! He is as much God as is the Father. And God is Mighty! He destroyed the Egyptians and their gods with ten devas-tating plagues (see Exodus chapters 7-12), and He drowned their entire army in the Red Sea (see Exodus 14:21-31). Remember, Egypt was the most powerful nation in the world at that time! But the LORD is more powerful! He is Mighty! And He, with His power and might, is on the side of His children (Chrisitians) today!
- “…Everlasting Father…”
Is this name, Father, applied to Jesus, the Son of God? Yes! Consider these New Testament Scriptures:
✞ John 8:24 (Literal Translation of the Holy Bible) –
“Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your
sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will
die in your sins.” I AM is the name of the great
Jehovah God as He revealed Himself to Moses at the
burning bush in Exodus 3:13 through 15 (see also
John 8:28).
✞ John 10:30 – “I and the Father are one.”
✞ John 14:9 – Jesus stated to Philip, “He who has
seen Me has seen the Father.”
✞ John 17:21 – The Lord was praying in the Garden
of Gethsemane “...for those who...believe in Me
...that they may all be one, as You, Father, are
in Me, and I in You....”
✞ Colossians 2:9 – “For in Him [Jesus] dwells all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
✞ Hebrews 1:1-3 – “God...has in these last days spo-
ken to us by His Son...who [is]...the brightness
of His [the Father’s] glory and the express image
of His person....”
So close are the Persons and ministry of the Holy Trinity, that the titles of Father and Son are here in Isaiah 9:6 transferable. And Jesus’ care for us is often parental, sometimes as a mother, sometimes as a father!
- “…Prince of Peace.”
Jesus Christ brings peace!
✞ Peace within – “You will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in
You.” (Isaiah 26:3).
✞ Peace from the indwelling Holy Spirit – “...the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-
control....” (Galatians 5:22, 23 – English Standard
Version).
✞ Peaceful sleep – “I will both lie down in peace,
and sleep; for You, O LORD, make me dwell in safe-
ty.” (Psalm 4:8).
✞ Peace in the midst of turmoil – “Peace I leave
with you, My peace I give to you; not as the
world gives do I give to you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
(John 14:27).
✞ Peace between people – “When a man’s ways please
the LORD, He makes even his enemies shall be at
peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7). However, if we
substitute nation in place of man, God will make
even that nation’s enemies be at peace with it!
✞ Peace within the land –
➔ “The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear
Him, in those who hope in His mercy....He
makes peace in your borders, and fills you
with the finest wheat.” (Psalm 147:11, 14).
➔ “If you walk in My statutes and keep My com-
mandments...I will give peace in the land....”
(Leviticus 26:3, 6)
Although God’s promise was originally given to Israel,
the principle can be applied to any Godly people!
“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end…” (verse 7).
Wherever Christ governs, there will be peace! And His kingdom will extend to the ends of the earth and beyond, lasting forever!
✞ Isaiah 2:4 (see also Micah 4:3) – “He shall judge
between the nations, And rebuke many people; they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift
up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war anymore.”
✞ Psalm 72:8 (see also Zechariah 9:10) – “He shall
have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the
River to the ends of the earth.”
✞ Luke 1:33 – “And He shall reign over the house of
Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be
no end.”
✞ Revelation 11:15 – “The kingdoms of this world are
become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ;
and He shall reign forever and ever.”
“…upon the throne of David and over His kingdom…” (verse 7).
David’s kingdom was decimated by the Babylonians when the last king, Zachariah, was taken as a prisoner to Babylon. This happened seventeen generations removed from David. Thus “…the times of the gentiles…” (Luke 21:24) began, when non-Jews ruled over Israel for 2,600 years!
✞ God had told King David in II Samuel 7:16, “...and
your house and your kingdom shall be established for-
ever before you. Your throne shall be established
forever.”
✞ The apostle James quoted Amos 9:11 in Acts 15:15-18:
...as it is written: “After this I will
return and will rebuild the tabernacle
of David, which has fallen down; I will
rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up;
so that the rest of mankind may seek the
Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called
by My name, says Lord who does all these
things.”
✞ The angel Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:31 through 33:
...you will conceive in your womb and bring
forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son
of the Highest; and the Lord God will give
Him the throne of His father David. And He
will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of His kingdom there will be no end.
✞ As David ruled over Israel from Jerusalem, so Jesus
Christ will also govern His world-wide millennial
rule from Jerusalem! For it is written in Jeremiah
3:17, “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The
Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be
gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusa-
lem....”
“…to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from this time forward, even forever.” (verse 7).
Oh, how we long for just and righteous leadership over the nations of the world! However, we will not see such leadership until the Lord Jesus reigns! The first five verses of Isaiah 11 give this prophesy of the coming Messiah:
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and
a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and under-
standing, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in
the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight
of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but
with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide
with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike
the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath
of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall
be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His
waist.
“The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (verse 7).
This is how The 1965 Bible in Basic English translates this phrase: “By the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.” All that is prophesied of the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6 and 7 will come to pass! And nothing can hinder the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies!