Isaiah
9:6 What
we will study this morning in Naming the Messiah part01…01. The Context; 02. The Humanity and
Deity of the Messiah; and 03.
The Messiah Will Rule.
01. The Context
Isaiah 9:6 contains more names of the coming
Messiah than any other verse in the Bible. To truly understand and value these
names, it is important to know the context leading up to this passage.
The Book of Isaiah
is often compared to the Bible…
-The Bible has 66 books; Isaiah has 66 chapters
-The Old Testament has 39 books; the first section of Isaiah has 39 chapters
-The New Testament has 27 books; the second section of Isaiah has 27 chapters
-The Old Testament covers the history and sin of Israel, as
does Isaiah
1:1-39:8.
-The New Testament describes the person and ministry of
Jesus the Messiah, as does Isaiah 40:1-66:26.
-The New Testament begins with the ministry of John the
Baptist; the second section of Isaiah
(Isaiah
40:1-66:26) begins by predicting this ministry.
-The New Testament ends by referring to the new heavens and
the new earth (Revelation
21:1-3); Isaiah ends his
book by describing the very same things (Isaiah 66:22).
A copy of this book was found among the famous Dead Sea
scrolls in 1947 in cave 1 at Qumran. It was made up of 17 sheets, and each
sheet was 24 feet long by 10 inches. It was copied in the Second Century and
was amazingly similar to what we have today.
Isaiah himself prophesied during the reigns of five kings of
Judah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh (Isaiah 1:1). Isaiah was married
and had two sons (Isaiah 7:3; Isaiah 8:3), and according to
Jewish Talmudic tradition it is believed that his father, Amoz, was the brother
of King Amaziah of Judah (Succah 52b, Megillah 10b) and the “man of God” in 2 Chronicles 25:7–9 (Seder
Olam Rabbah 20), who warned King Amaziah to send home the 100,000
mercenaries from the Northern Kingdom that he hired for 100 talents of silver,
and that YHWH can give him much more than the 100 talents that he just wasted. If
the Jewish tradition is true, it would mean that Isaiah was a descendant of
David.
Isaiah is quoted more times in the New Testament than any
other Old Testament prophet.
Isaiah bridges Moses and the Messiah, for he proclaimed and
preached repentance to the lost, to the godless he preached the coming wrath of
YHWH, and to the small group of believers he preached the comforting message of
the coming Messiah.
In Isaiah 6:1-13 we see the vision of Isaiah and
his commission to go and proclaim the message from YHWH even when the people
would not listen.
In Isaiah 7:1-2 we see that King Ahaz was in
great danger, for Rezin, the King of Syria and Pekah the king of Israel (the
Northern Kingdom) were united together to come against Jerusalem (2 Kings 15:37;
Isaiah 7:1-2).
In Isaiah 7:3-9 YHWH sent Isaiah to King Ahaz to
encourage him and let him know that YHWH would not allow the Syrian-Israel
alliance to succeed and that Jerusalem will be preserved. YHWH said that the
confirmation of His Word is that He would not allow the alliance of Syria and
Israel to succeed was going to be by a sign that YHWH would give to Ahaz, but
Ahaz refused to ask for one in Isaiah 7:10-13. So because of the refusal by
Ahaz, Isaiah responded under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with: “Then he said, “Hear now, O
house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you
weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold,
the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to
refuse the evil and choose the good.” (Isaiah 7:13-15).
Isaiah under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit tells us that the Godly sign to the house of David is going to
be a virgin giving birth to God who is coming in human flesh, thus fulfilling Genesis 3:15.
Isaiah then ends chapter 8 on a word of judgment (Isaiah 8:19–22). The
nation had rejected Isaiah’s message, but that didn’t mean that his ministry
was a failure. The true disciples of the Lord received God’s Word and treasured
it in their hearts. By faith, the prophet was willing to wait patiently for
God’s Word to be fulfilled.[1]
Not too long after these words were
uttered, Assyria came and took Israel into captivity, thus proving this
prophecy true about their upcoming judgment. Isaiah
continued the theme of light and darkness (Isaiah 8:20–22) by announcing, “Nevertheless the gloom will
not be upon her who is distressed” (Isaiah 9:1).[2]
The Redeemer will come and bring to the world the dawning of a new day (Isaiah 9:2;
Luke 1:78–79;
John 8:12).[3] We know that this prophecy (Isaiah 9:1-2)
refers to Christ because of the way it is quoted in Matthew 4:13–15.[4]
The geographical areas named in Isaiah 9:1 were especially devastated when the
Assyrian army moved in, but these areas would be especially honored by the
ministry of the Messiah. Jesus was identified with “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matthew 4:15),
and His loving ministry to the people brought light and joy.[5]
So what we see is that there was a lot of political and spiritual instability
in the nation of Israel, and then Isaiah tells us seven things about this
coming Immanuel (Isaiah 7:13-15) who was to be born of a virgin in Isaiah 9:6.
02. The
Humanity and Deity of the Messiah
Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born” The word
for “born”
is in the Perfect tense in the Hebrew, which is the Past tense in English. Many
theological exegetes call this a “prophetic perfect”, used often by the
prophets to anticipate a future event as a past action, much like the future
perfect tense in English. This should be written as “unto us a Child will have been born.” He was to be born a Child.
The implication, given in parallel style, is that this Child, a Son, was to be born into the nation
of Israel (unto
us) as one of the covenant people.[6] This Child is to be born for the benefit of the Jews first, and
then the Gentiles (compare “to you,” Luke 2:11).[7] “For unto us a Child is born”, means
that the coming Messiah is going to be a man (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:35; Luke 2:8–14; John 1:10–18; 1 John 4:9–15).
Isaiah 9:6 “Unto us a Son is given” (Psalm
2:7), stating that the Messiah is going to be God. This is God’s gratuitous gift…(John 3:16; Romans 6:23).[8] The expression “I have begotten you” refers not to physical
birth but is an extended metaphor describing his becoming God’s “son.”[9]
We see that the Messiah is God’s “perfect gift…from above” (James 1:17)
to mankind as “a
Son” (Isaiah 9:6) to “for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) to
give us peace that we “have
not known.” (Romans 3:17)
03. The
Messiah Will Rule
He will rule over God’s
people (Micah
5:2) and the Messiah will rule over the world (Zechariah 14:9).[15] The prophet then leaps
ahead to the Kingdom Age when Messiah will reign in righteousness and justice
from David’s throne. God had promised David that his dynasty and throne would
be established forever (2 Samuel 7:16); and this is fulfilled
literally in Jesus Christ (Luke 1:32–33; Zechariah 9:9-10), who will one
day reign from Jerusalem (Isaiah 11:1–5; Jeremiah 23:5–8; Jeremiah 30:8–10).[16] That kingdom will never be conquered by another (cf. Daniel 6:26).
His reign will be established on earth (Revelation 20:1–6). At the expiration of the
1,000 years of the Lord’s millennial reign, He will surrender the kingdom to
God the Father, after which Christ will be appointed as Ruler over God’s
eternal kingdom forever (1 Corinthians 15:24–28).[17] Throughout the Bible we see
it recorded that the Messiah will reign (cf. Psalm 110:1–4; Jeremiah 23:5–6; Zechariah 6:12–13; Matthew 11:27; Ephesians
1:21–22; Revelation 19:16). What this means is that all
authority is given to this Child (cf. Matthew
28:18-20).
[7] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary
Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 440). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research
Systems, Inc.
[8] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary
Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 440). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research
Systems, Inc.
[10] https://www.gotquestions.org/five-solas.html
[12] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary
Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 440). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research
Systems, Inc.
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