"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." [Isaiah 9: 6]
Considering the fact that this prophetic passage in Isaiah was written between 600-700 years before Christ (if you don't buy into all the theories about Isaiah 1 and Isaiah 2 and all modern man's ridiculous attempts to critically analyze or discredit prophetic Scripture), this is a tremendous declaration. Isaiah is clearly prophesying the Messiah coming as a child to take the burden of kingdom authority upon His shoulders. And, according to Isaiah's inspiration by the Holy Spirit, this messiah (a title we will study on its own later on) would be known as wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and prince of peace. I find myself wondering if Isaiah had any idea of the magnitude of what He was prophesying.
Yesterday we looked at the beginning of this description of Christ's character: Christ as wonderful counselor. Today, we are going to look a bit deeper into the two following (and may I add, contentious) titles/character traits: Mighty God and everlasting Father.
As I began studying this passage, I must confess that I got discouraged and frustrated. Every internet site or commentary offered arguments, hypothesis, and opinions regarding how to interpret this verse. It quickly became apparent that there are two (probably a LOT more than that, but two that seem viable) schools of thought about this first title we are studying today. Our English translations and many scholars support the Hebrew translation of "El" as God in this passage. However, there are a large group of scholars who also believe that "El" should be translated as "strength" or "power", making the title/characteristic of Christ ascribed in this verse as "mighty and strong" or "mighty and powerful" as opposed to "mighty God." How one interprets this word will have a dramatic impact on what is claimed regarding Christ in this verse. I see all that is to lose for scholars if this verse is allowed to be interpreted as a claim to Christ's divinity but I don't see the danger of interpreting it is as such. "Isn't that foolish to accept something as truth that may not have been intended?!" you may ask. Maybe so, but let me give you an analogy. If I write a letter to you and tell you in 4 different places within that letter that I am a nurse, but one of the sentences is blurred over and you're not sure it says that I'm a nurse or not, what difference does it make if you assume that it says I'm a nurse?? I've made it clear in the other 3 locations that I am a nurse. If the blurred sentence actually says something different, you may have missed learning something else about me, but you have not added something incorrect to your understanding of who I am. I see this passage the same way. If it says that Christ is "mighty and strong", that's true. If it says He is "mighty God", that is also true. There is far more evidence supporting Christ's divinity that I do not need to rely on the "blurry interpretation" of this one verse.
SO, without further ado, if we take the English translation at its face value, (which I am going to do because, quite frankly, both of these schools have done their research and faith is required for belief in either interpretation) Christ prophesied as "mighty God" is another title, like "almighty", that ascribes divinity to our Lord. In light of this prophetic interpretation, I find the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus' claims to divinity somewhat perplexing. They wanted Christ arrested and killed for His blasphemous claims to be of one substance with the Father and yet Isaiah's prophecy itself ascribes divinity to the Messiah that was to come. I can only come to the conclusion that many jewish teachers would have interpreted this verse through the realm of deeply engrained monotheism and been in agreement with the "mighty and strong" interpretation offered by the other school of thought aforementioned. This is not surprising to me, as Jesus Himself spoke of many of the Jews of His day being blind to the truth. This is not a slap to the Jewish people. This is a slap to religious humanity as a whole. Sometimes those of us who appear to be closest to the truth are the ones that actually miss it altogether. Lord, may we not miss YOUR truth today. Not the truth of our traditions, our academic study, or our opinions, but YOUR truth.
When I first started to think about our second description, Jesus as "everlasting Father", I got very confused. I realized after further study that the reason I was confused was because I was hung up on "everlasting Father" as a name or title rather than a character trait. This interpretation is consistent with the whole counsel of Scripture since we do not find Jesus calling Himself the Father in any other location. BUT, we do find Christ saying that He bears the same character as the Father. We also observe Christ claiming to be eternal, the source of all that is created. In this way, He is the Father of eternity or all that is everlasting. The Hebrew in this Isaiah 9 verse bears the connotation of "life-giver", which also fits perfectly with the role of Christ who came to gave life to those who were dead in their sins. He will forever be the Father of all that lives.
I must say that the more I study of Christ and His titles, the more I see how contentious and offensive He is. He claimed equality with the one true God in a religious society that fervently guarded the oneness of God against the pagan heresies of their day. He claimed exclusivity amongst gentiles who worshipped a different god at every temple and hill top. He did indeed come as the "Everlasting Father" and "life giver" and we have rejected Him in favor of wallowing in our pitiful, dying flesh. We have tried to reinterpret Him to make Him less contentious or easier for us to comprehend. I have to wonder... when did we grow to hate that which is mysterious? Why does every puzzle piece have to fit? When did our own logic and intellect become our God?
Lord, I pray this day that YOU will teach us truth yourself. I'm weary of schools of thought. I'm tired of people (myself included) believing they can learn their way to you when you told the Pharisees that though they diligently studied the Scriptures which testify about you, in all their study, they missed you. They missed life. Keep us from doing the same. Give us faith to believe you are "mighty God and everlasting Father". Forgive our idolatry that leads us to worship ourselves. Reignite in us a love for that which we cannot explain away or fully understand, for only in loving that which is beyond us can we ever grow to love You.
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