Our Wondrous God: The Wonderful Counselor in Isaiah
Our Wondrous God: The Wonderful Counselor in Isaiah.
“O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! What a deep wealth of wisdom and knowledge He has! How incomprehensible are His decisions, how unsearchable His judgments! How undiscoverable are His paths, how mysterious His ways, beyond finding out! Who has understood the mind of Yahweh? Who knows how the LORD thinks, or what His thoughts are? Can anyone discern the LORD’s intentions, His motivations? Who knows enough to give Him advice? Is there anyone qualified to be His counselor? Who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? Who could ever have a claim against Him? For everything was created by Him, everything lives through Him, and everything exists for Him; So to Him must be given the glory forever! Amen!” (Romans 11:33-36, also Isaiah 40:12-14).
WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful believer who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute to a living object lesson the next. Desperately needed is a young person who can respond to Yahweh with “Send me.” It didn’t take long for the young man Isaiah to answer God’s Want Ad.
Isaiah. There is no doubt that the prophet Isaiah’s unforgettable calling from the LORD fueled his life and ministry from beginning to end. Being given a vision of God’s eternal throne room, complete with the Lord sitting high on His throne with myriads of angels attending Him (Isaiah 6), His role as prophet lasted anywhere from 40 years to 60 years, depending on the scholar. His ministry spanned the reigns of five kings of Judah, and Isaiah remained in and around Jerusalem during that whole time. Much like so many of the other prophets, the people refused to take his words to heart. They wouldn’t listen to Isaiah’s messages from God. He would announce God’s judgment only to be ignored.
Franz Schubert – Sanctus from German Mass
The Versatile Prophet. But Isaiah was adaptable. He would both confront the people and comfort the people. Sometimes he was harsh and condemning, and sometimes he was soothing and hopeful. His encouraging words were based on God’s promise of a future Messiah who would redeem and heal them, and save them from permanent judgment. So Isaiah spoke of God’s justice one minute and God’s mercy the next. He spoke more about the coming Messiah than any other prophet in the Hebrew Bible. His poetry painted a picture of both woe and hope, and is probably the finest in all of Scripture. So Isaiah has been called the Bible’s greatest prophet, since he is quoted over 50 times in the New Testament.
The Wondrous Son of the Father:
Handel: Messiah, For unto us a child is born (Sir Colin Davis, Tenebrae, LSO)
“For unto is a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful (“pele”) Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6).
Pili (pil-ee), Pala, or Pele = the Hebrew word which means: wondrous; miraculous; unsurpassed; something so wonderful that it is beyond comprehension; remarkable, extraordinary, marvelous; so awesome it cannot be understood by humans; so amazing that it seems impossible or too difficult to accomplish; so uniquely set apart from human understanding that it is God’s secret.
Miraculous in Wisdom. Many Hebrew scholars claim that the word “pele” usually refers to something miraculous, supernatural, beyond extraordinary, something that far surpasses what could reasonably be expected. Moses and Miriam exuberantly used “pele” in their Song of the Red Sea, exclaiming “Who is like You, O Lord? Majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wondrous miracles (“pele“)! So this Son to be given to humanity is filled with such wisdom that His guidance, His counsel, will lead to something miraculous, His counsel will be a marvel, resulting in guidance that far surpasses anything human or natural. We can confidently call this long-expected Messiah a wondrous counselor for all who follow Him.
A Sure Thing. The journey from Isaiah 8 to Isaiah 9 describes the greatest miracle in the Bible. Going from spiritual darkness to the Great Light. From the absence of truth to truth incarnate. From walking in blindness to walking in the light. From spiritual ignorance to the light of wisdom from on high. From a time of hopeless grief to a time of celebration and rejoicing. From a world without the Messiah to a world with Him in the midst. About 700 years before its fulfillment, we hear about a child born who will be the light of the world, a son who will be given to us, who will bear the government of the world on His shoulders. The Messiah’s rule will be eternal and upheld with justice and righteousness, Isaiah tells us. And the wonderful thing is, God really, really wants this to happen. This coming of the Messiah is not just of passing interest to the Lord. The “zeal of Yahweh” will accomplish this prophecy. God promised to pursue this Incarnation with great energy, with intense fervor, with passion and determination. God passionately desires that His Son would come into the world. And, as we know, God tends to get what He wants in due time. In the middle of this prophetic word in Isaiah 9, we are offered four titles of the Messiah that end up being a fascinating character description. Isaiah wrote this well before the truth of the Triune God became well-defined. And so the titles here don’t necessarily reflect the roles of the Messiah in the Trinity as much as describe his character. There are various ways one could translate this passage. Nonetheless, these four titles are all true in the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.
“Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (NKJV).
“Wonder-Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (NJB).
“The Mighty God is planning grace; the Eternal Father; a peaceable ruler.” (Tanakh, JPS).
“Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” (NAB).
Miraculous Advisor, Champion God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Wholeness.
A Wonderful Counselor is the Mighty God! The Everlasting Father is a Prince of Peace! (TPT).
Father of Eternity. When Isaiah refers to Eternal Father, what kind of Father was he thinking of? This might be surprising, but the Father in the Hebrew Bible was recognized as being the Creator and the Maker; the Molder and the Shaper; the Protector and the Provider; the Redeemer; the Head of the household of the world. Most of all, the OT father was a person, or Person, of love and mercy… “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.” (Ps. 103:13). In the Hebrew Bible, the role of the father is not applied to an austere, distant taskmaster, a person who exists merely to punish or judge. The image of the father inevitably involves compassion and kindness. If Jesus is the Eternal Father, we couldn’t find a more apt title for Him. One reading of the gospels and we are convinced that Jesus, in this biblical sense, was fatherly in all He did. The source of Jesus’ compassionate fatherliness was His divine intimacy with the Father. They shared the same character. Jesus loved others the way the Father loved Him, like a father. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing, which was act like a father. Since all the Father’s fullness dwelt in Jesus, Jesus spilled over with the qualities of the Father. Jesus expressed the Father’s compassion, He reflected on earth the heart of the Father in heaven. Jesus represented the Father by doing what the Father wanted Him to do. Jesus was and is the Eternal Father because He is the exact visible image of the invisible Father. Jesus was fatherly, because if you’ve seen the Son, you’ve seen the Father. Jesus cared for His people the way the Father cares for His. Father-like, Jesus tends to His flock. For He is the Great Shepherd. He is the Eternal Father. “There is no unfathering Christ, and there is no unchilding us. He is the Eternal Father to those who trust in Him.” (Charles Spurgeon).
Going Full Circle. For all his trouble, Isaiah died a martyr’s death at the hands of the very wicked king Manasseh. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the last thing Isaiah thought about was the very first thing he decades ago… The LORD sitting high on His throne, the heavenly angels singing about the His glory, and how he was overwhelmed with the holiness of God. Holy! Holy! Holy!