Isaiah 9:1-7

The Rise of The Great King Immanuel (Isaiah 9:2).

The rise of Immanuel is described in terms of great light and rejoicing, and is connected with the defeat of the enemies of God's people. As a result the child promised in Isaiah 7:14 will be born and will gain worldwide dominion.

Analysis.

a The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined (Isaiah 9:2).

b You have multiplied the nation, You have increased their joy. They rejoice before You, similarly to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil (Isaiah 9:3).

c For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, You have broken as in the day of Midian (Isaiah 9:4).

c All the armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the clothing rolled in blood, will even be for burning, for fuel for the fire (Isaiah 9:5).

b For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government will be on His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, (or ‘a wonder of a counsellor'), Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

a Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David, and on His kingdom to establish it, and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness from now on even for ever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:7).

In ‘a' we have the shining of God's light on the people, and in the parallel the establishment of the everlasting throne of David. In ‘b' we have the growth of the people and their great rejoicing as though of harvest, and in the parallel the rise of the chosen seed with the great joy that that will bring. And in ‘c' we have the defeat of the great enemy, and in the parallel the destruction of his armour.

Isaiah 9:2

(Isaiah 9:1 in the Hebrew text)

‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined.'

Galilee was yet to have a time when their darkness would be turned to light. There would, as it were, be a new creation when darkness became light (compare Genesis 1:2). For although they were now seemingly cut off from Israel and Judah and walked in darkness, even severe, deathlike darkness, they were not to despair, for in the future they would yet enjoy glorious light which would shine on them, for the king was coming who would bring hope to all and would bring them a great light (compare Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6).

Isaiah 9:3

‘You have multiplied the nation,

You have increased their joy,

They rejoice before you, similarly to the joy in harvest,

As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden,

And the staff of his shoulder,

The rod of his oppressor,

You have broken as in the day of Midian.

For all the armour of the armed man in the tumult,

And the clothing rolled in blood,

Will even be for burning,

For fuel for the fire.'

The picture is one of deliverance from all oppression. (Note that no specific oppressor is named). One day Galilee, it is promised, will be abounding in inhabitants, replacing those carried off into captivity, and will be full of joy, joy like the joy at harvest time when there has been a good harvest. Joy similar to that of victors when they divide up abundant loot. For God will have raised up His anointed king. The yoke of all oppressors will have been removed from them. The staff which struck them will have been broken, the rod destroyed, just as God once removed from them the unbearable yoke of Midian (Judges 7:19; Psalms 83:9). The armour (or footwear) of the enemy, and their clothing, sprinkled with the blood of those they have slain, will be thrown in the fire and burned. The conquerors will be conquered.

The picture is one of full deliverance from all oppression. And this became literally true. For Galilee did at one stage literally know release and freedom even prior to Jesus' coming, and did find joy, and once again became part of Israel. But even more did they come to know great joy at the coming of Jesus when He went around teaching, healing the sick and proclaiming the Kingly Rule of God, shining as a light in the world, and offering to remove the greatest of all oppressions, the oppression of sin and death and Satan. And the joy continued when He took the yoke off many of their shoulders and they were redeemed, so that they might enter under the Kingly Rule of God, and so that one day they would be with Him in the greater Galilee, in the new heavens and the new earth.

Isaiah 9:6

‘For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government will be on his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, (or ‘a wonder of a counsellor'), Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom to establish it, and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness from now on even for ever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will perform this.'

Now we understand the full significance of the child born of a virginal young woman. For He is to be great David's greater son. There is emphasis on the words ‘child' and ‘son', stressing that it is a unique child who is coming, and a unique son who will be given, and the previous prophecy stresses whose son He would be. The child is to be a miraculous gift of God, born of a virginal mother, and brought into being through God's power (Isaiah 7:14). He is to be God's final answer to Ahaz.

The son is also to be God's gift to us, especially ‘given' by God. The emphasis all through is on His unique status and unique origin. He is a special gift from God. Here we have the virgin birth, resulting from the activity of God on the womb of a chosen woman, made clear. And although born in lowly status in a captive land (Isaiah 8:8) the government will be placed on His shoulder, the place of strength, so that He reigns indeed. And He will be so supreme that He will be called by great titles, revealing His wonder, His wisdom, His power, His overall fatherly care and His establishing of peace.

‘His name will be called.' This is how the world will see him and describe him in his very nature. He will be called ‘a wonder', just as Yahweh had said that His own name was Wonderful (but a different Hebrew word - Judges 13:18). Compare how the same word is used of God's acts in Isaiah 25:1. He will be called the Counsellor (Determiner, Purposer), not needing the guidance of counsellors, just as it is Yahweh Who is the final Counsellor (Determiner, Purposer - see Isaiah 14:24; Isaiah 14:26; Isaiah 19:17; Isaiah 23:9; Isaiah 40:14; Psalms 16:7; Psalms 32:8 Jeremiah 49:20; Jeremiah 50:45). Or alternatively he will be called ‘a wonder of a counsellor' with similar implications. (This would fit in with the remaining dual descriptions, but a fivefold name would link Him directly with the covenant, for five is the number of the covenant, and the fivefold name therefore seems more likely). He will be called ‘the Mighty God (El)', a title later used of Yahweh (see Isaiah 10:21; Jeremiah 32:18), demonstrating that at the least he will be seen as standing uniquely in the place of God and acting in His name (Psalms 45:6), but in a far deeper sense than earlier Davidic kings. (There are no good grounds for making El merely mean ‘godlike'. El used in this way is always predominant).

He will also be called the Everlasting Father. The title ‘father' is never applied to a king in the Old Testament. He may be seen as the shepherd of his people but never as their father. God is the father of Israel. Early on God is seen as adopting Israel, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Israel is My son, my firstborn' (Exodus 4:22). That is why Moses can say to the people of Israel, ‘is He not the Father who has bought you, who made you and established you?' (Deuteronomy 32:6). So they had a genuine sense of their nation as being the ‘child of God', with God as their Father.

That is why, when Isaiah saw that they were forsaken because of their sins, he remembered these promises and cried out to Him, ‘Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory, where is your zeal and your mighty acts? The longings of your heart and of your mighty acts are restrained towards me. For you are our Father. Though Abraham does not know us, and Israel (i.e. the patriarch Jacob) does not acknowledge us, you, O Yahweh, are our Father, your name is our Redeemer from everlasting' (Isaiah 63:15). Then he adds submissively ‘but now, O Yahweh, you are our Father, we are the clay and you are the potter, and we all are the work of your hand' (Isaiah 64:8). He recognises that they have sinned so badly that even their ancestors will not recognise them, but he depends on the faithfulness of God as their Father.

The same concept is held by later prophets. God, in seeking to bring them back to Himself, is depicted as saying ‘will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth'?' (Jeremiah 3:4). To which is added, ‘A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I then am your Father, where is my honour? And if I be a master, where is your fear?' (Malachi 1:6). This is why Malachi adds his remonstrance to that of God, ‘Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?' (Malachi 2:10). So when the coming child and son is not only called Father, but Everlasting Father, He is genuinely being seen as acting very much in God's place, especially as He is now seen as having everlastingness.

And finally He will be called the Prince (sar) of Peace, the establisher and overseer of peace. This rather unique idea in those violent days contrasts him with all the surrounding kings of Isaiah's day. Each king when he came to the throne had to establish himself by bloodshed, removing any other claimants, but not so this prince. He will establish His throne in peace. And we should note inn this regard that in Isaiah 66:12 it is Yahweh Himself who is seen as extending peace to Jerusalem, and in Isaiah 45:7 it is Yahweh Himself who perpetually ‘makes peace' (compare Psalms 147:14).

So the coming king will be seen and described in terms directly associated with God in a way never known before. He will be seen, as it were, as a God-man. It is doubtful if Isaiah was actually thinking in terms of him being Yahweh, but it is difficult to see how he could have got closer to calling Him so without using the name. We might feel that God was revealing more than Isaiah could at that time accept or understand, that the king would not only be a superhuman figure (it is clear that he saw him as that) but was indeed Yahweh, or if we prefer to so express it, the supernatural Angel of Yahweh, Yahweh's ‘other self'.

‘Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom to establish it, and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness from now on even for ever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will perform this.' The superlatives continue. Continual and unending increase in both his authority, and in His establishing and maintenance of peace over the throne of David and over His kingdom, and the upholding of it with true justice and total righteousness from now until eternity. And all this the result of the zealous purpose of Yahweh Himself. The everlasting kingdom will thus be established in eternal justice and righteousness. The final triumph will have come.

The word for ‘zeal' regularly means jealousy. There is thus emphasis here on God's ‘jealous' activity on behalf of His own. They are His and He is jealous over them and will therefore act on their behalf (compare Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14). The powerful feeling of Yahweh for His people, as well as His effectiveness, comes out here.