The King with Four Names
DANIEL AKIN
BASED ON ISAIAH 9:1-7
Suppose that an alien from another planet, or even another galaxy, were to come and visit our earth during the holiday season. What do you think that alien would discover and conclude about Christmas? Would he conclude that it is more about Santa, or Savior? Rudolph and reindeers, or a Redeemer? Jingle bells, or Jesus? Happy Holidays, or Merry Christmas?
During the 2005 Christmas season in Denver, a Christian group was denied permission to participate in the city's annual Parade of Lights because they planned to sing hymns and say "Merry Christmas" on their float. A part of Denver's holiday celebration for over thirty years, the parade was open to the vast majority of the community, including homosexual American Indians, belly dancers, and, of course, Santa Claus among its participants.
In McHenry County, Illinois, children, parents, and teachers gathered for a time of holiday celebration at school concerts. They sang of Hanukkah, gave a rendition of a Jamaican folk song, and made their list for Santa. In the "spirit of inclusiveness," however, there was no mention of Christ and no word about the Christmas story. Later it was reported that the slight of our Savior was "inadvertent."
Even Time and Newsweek magazines entered the debate with cover stories about Christmas, though the observations from Times's "Secrets of the Nativity" and Newsweek's "The Birth of Jesus" probably would not impress those of us who take the Bible seriously. For they question the reality of the Virgin Birth. They question whether or not the shepherds ever came or the Wise Men ever showed up, and they questioned, "Did it ever really happen?"
Well, from Genesis through Malachi, the Word of God paints for us a beautiful portrait of the Savior who is to come, the Christ of Christmas. The Old Testament unfolds the drama of redemption and the true essence of what Christmas really is all about. There, painted for us in magnificent detail, is a king with four names.
The year is approximately 725 B.C. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, faced an ominous and perilous situation from the north, as an evil and aggressive Assyrian empire was growing and expanding. Tiglath-pileser III had built Assyria to its zenith in power, and now Shalmaneser V was poised and ready to attack and to morally bankrupt a militarily weakened Israel.
It's important to note here that just three years later, in 722 B.C., Israel would be sacked, overrun, and crushed in humiliating defeat by the Assyrian empire. Loved ones would be brutally killed, families would be broken up and destroyed; the land would be devastated, and economic havoc would be rampant. The once- proud nation of Israel would be brought to its knees in shame, humiliation, and judgment. And yet, in the midst of their despair and hopelessness, they received a Word from God.
In Isaiah 9 we are told that sorrow would turn to rejoicing. The distress of verse 1 would turn into the joy of verse 3.
The oppression of verse 1 would turn into a broken yoke in verse 3.
The darkness of verse 2 would turn to the light of verse 2.
The shadow of death of verse 2 would be overcome in verse 6.
In these verses, all of the verb tenses are in the perfect tense. In Isaiah's mind, these things had already happened; they were a settled reality. Why? Because there was to come, in a wonderful new day, a king with four names.
E. J. Young, a wonderful Old Testament scholar, notes that these verses find initial fulfillment in Matthew 4:14-16. There is going to be great rejoicing among God's people because God has broken the yoke of burden and oppression! The burden and the oppression are removed because the weapons and garments of the warrior are destroyed. The basic reason for these blessings is that a child has been born.
And so, seven hundred years before the Wise Men gave, before the angels sang, and before the shepherds arrived, Isaiah explains for us in wonderful detail what Christmas is all about. He tells us about a king with four names.
What would Isaiah have us understand from this wonderful text? There are three truths that I want to put before you as we walk through these verses.
HE IS MARVELOUS IN HOW HE CAME
Verse 6 reads, "For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given." Now, it is imperative that you see the flow of Isaiah's argument in this section of his book. Here Isaiah intimately connects to the virgin-born Immanuel of Isaiah 7:14 -- this Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace of Isaiah 9:6, who we learn later is the bloodline or the stem of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1), and ultimately is the Suffering Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53.
There is something particularly marvelous and majestic about His coming, something that is indeed mysterious as we try to unfold the truth of what we have before us. He is marvelous in how He came for two reasons. First, He came in the form of earthly humanity. "For unto us a child is born . . ." And literally, in the Hebrew language, the phrase "a child" is fronted for emphasis: "A child is born unto us."
Isaiah is not looking at his day but to a new day -- a wonderful day, a day out there in the future of unparalleled joy and blessing for a one- of- a- kind child, when a king with four names is born for us. A child is born. "A child is born" draws us to the baby in Bethlehem. It was unto us, for us, and for our good that this child was born.
Hebrew 2:14 (KJV) helps us understand why it was necessary that this One be born as a human baby. There the Bible says, "Inasmuch as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself, likewise, shared in the same."
Paul adds his commentary in Galatians 4:4, where he says that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.
Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is quite clear and quite precise in his prophecy. He did not say, "A child is born," but rather, "A son is born." No. Isaiah, the inspired seer of messianic prophecy, wrote words that he may not have fully understood, but words that were clearly, specifically, and precisely true. Indeed, it's been well that God's Christmas gift came in the person of deity, wrapped in the package of humanity.
Now, please understand that Jesus' birth in Bethlehem was not the beginning of the Son. There was a time when Jesus was not; His beginning was Bethlehem. But there was never a time when the Son was not. Indeed, John 1:1 reminds us in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Hebrews 1:1-2 says that God -- who in the past spoke many times and in many ways through the prophets of old -- has in this last day spoken to us by His Son.
John Phillips, that wonderful expositor, explains it beautifully: "The great mystery of the manger is that God should be able to translate deity into humanity without discarding the deity or distorting the humanity." Yes, indeed, the incarnation was a true and genuine wedding of perfect deity and sinless humanity.
I love the way R. G. Lee, that wonderful pastor for many years at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, explained it: "Jesus is the only one born with no earthly father, but an earthly mother. He had no heavenly mother, but a heavenly father. He was older than his mother, and as old as his father."
John would add in his gospel, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (3:16). Yes, He is marvelous in how He came. He came in earthly humanity; He came in heavenly deity.
HE IS MAJESTIC IN WHO HE IS
And now see with me that He is also majestic in who He is. From Genesis to Revelation there are more than 250 names and titles given to our Lord; but here, Isaiah does something utterly unique. Here, Isaiah brings together four names in a concise package -- names that appear nowhere else in the Bible.
Indeed, more names are crowded together in Isaiah 9 than anywhere else in all of Holy Scripture. Taken together, they encapsulate in a beautiful way the totality of both the person and the work of Jesus -- who He is and what He does. And when these four titles are coupled with the fact that He is the child who is born, He is the Son who is given, the result is nothing less than the God- man Immanuel, "God with us."
In the ancient Semitic mind, names, titles, often constituted the character of the person and the activity of the person -- who they are and what they do. Jesus Christ will show Himself to be absolute perfection in terms of these four names that de- scribe Him.
What can we say about these four names?
Wonderful Counselor
This name tells us He is a wise counselor who solves my confusion. "Wonderful counselor" could perhaps be translated as a "wonder of a counselor." In other words, He is glorious and He is wondrous as a counselor, unfailing in His wisdom. It's interesting to note that the word translated "wonderful" there is never used in the Bible to describe humankind, but always as an attribute of God.
Of course, we live today in the day and the age of the counselor, of the psychiatrist, the psychoanalyst, and the therapist. It has been said that a counselor is someone who will help you organize your hang- ups so you can be unhappy more effectively.
It was by a counselor that the world fell into sin. Satan got Eve involved in psychoanalysis. She got Adam involved in group therapy; together, they plunged the whole world into insanity. Yes, the world was ruined by a counselor, but the world is also redeemed by a counselor.
In 1 Corinthians 1:24, we are told that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. This phrase tells us He is our adviser and He is our teacher. He is our friend and He is our confidant. And Jesus Himself said in Matthew 11:28 (KJV), "Come unto me all ye...
