Wonderful Counselor

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 (NIV) 

This week children are counting down the days to Christmas and across the nation people are fully engaged in the annual rituals of our celebration of Jesus’ Birthday. Our church has an annual Birthday Celebration on the Sunday before Christmas where we purchase a cake and gather for a Birthday Party. It is easy in all the gift giving to each other to forget that this celebration isn’t about us, it’s about Jesus. I can’t think of anybody else’s birthday where we all get gifts and they are mostly forgotten. Our passage this week serves to remind us that there is ample reason to rejoice. A child is born, a son is given, and He will reign forever and ever. The government will be on His shoulders. All power and glory and honor is given unto Him. Over 700 years before the birth of Jesus the prophet Isaiah was moved by the Holy Spirit to prophecy of His coming and give us some hints of what we were about to receive.

You might notice that there are four descriptions of the child King. Each one has a noun and adjective. Today I want to look at the first – Wonderful Counselor. In the King James Version there is a comma between these two words. In other versions it has been removed. It is possible to read this as “His name is Wonderful.”

Do you remember in Judges 13 when the Angel of the Lord came to visit Manoah and his wife. The angel had told her that she would have a child and now was confirming his word to her husband. In the Old Testament often times the Angel of the Lord was actually the pre-incarnate Christ. Before the Holy Spirit moved upon Mary and she conceived the Only Begotten Son of God there was The Word. “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” That is Jesus! Angels don’t receive worship and when it was an actual messenger of God they would always warn the people to worship only God. But there were times when The Angel of the Lord would receive the worship of men and identify Himself. The most notable example of this is when Joshua encountered the man outside of Jericho who identified Himself as the “Captain (or Commander) of the Lord’s Host” He even commanded Joshua to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground. This was obviously the pre-incarnate Christ.

Back to Manoah. He asked the “angel” that came to visit what was his name? The angel answered that His name was “secret”. In the Hebrew that word is פָּלִיא or “paliy” it can be translated secret or (are you ready for this) wonderful. In Judges 13:19 as Manoah offers a burnt offering to the Lord the “Angel” stepped into the fire and did “wondrously”’ as He ascended to heaven. What a beautiful picture of how God receives our sacrifices of praise. Think about it. God inhabits the praises of His people.

When we say, “He is Wonderful” we are proclaiming one of the names of Jesus. Our hearts are overwhelmed as we think of His lowly birth. He lived sinless and died in our place. He conquered death and the grave as He burst forth from the tomb in glorious resurrection. We stand with arms held high and proclaim, “He is Wonderful!” Jesus stands alone in the annals of history, He alone is worthy, He alone reigns supreme! He is the Only Begotten of the Father, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, reaching down to lost man, His grace is manifested over and over in our lives. YES! He is Wonderful!

But here in Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is called Wonderful Counselor. In all that we know of the wonders of Christ He comes to reveal to us the Father. He leads us beside the still waters and teaches us the way. Everything that Jesus did from His birth to His resurrection was to open our eyes to the love of the Father. His mission was to lead us to that place of restoration and healing where God becomes our All in All.

John starts his Gospel with the statement, “In the beginning was the Word”. This is the name he gives to the pre-incarnate Christ. When we want to make others understand us we use words. It is how we express ourselves and reveal our deepest thoughts and desires. God sent His Word! Jesus! He was one with the Father from the beginning and when God created the heavens and the earth Genesis records that “He said let there be..” It was the Eternal Word of God that placed the stars in the heavens and created the firmaments of the earth. It was by the Word of God that all things were created.

Jesus didn’t just come to earth to show us the way to the Father but to walk beside us. He is the Word that abides in us and empowers us so that we might walk in Truth and Righteousness. He truly is our Wonderful Counselor.