Called and Coming

It was a challenging time for the Prophet Isaiah. He was required of God to preach judgment upon his people. That is always painful. Of course God is right in bringing judgment to the Divided Israel. They had not obeyed God and not fulfilled God’s requirements for them. On a personal level, Isaiah had served God faithfully under the good kings Uzziah and Jotham. But, King Ahaz has come to power and he was not a good king in spite of having the godly examples of his father and grandfather and the godly advice and warnings from Isaiah. Isaiah told Ahaz he could ask for a sign from God but Ahaz refused and made himself sound pious in doing so. Isaiah tells Ahaz, God will give his own sign: ‘A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son’. (see fulfillment in St. Luke 1:26-38) These were dark and dismal days for Isaiah. He is given some prophetic hope. He prophesies; ‘Those who sit in darkness will see a great light and those who dwell in the land of death, will have the light shine upon them.’ (see St. Matthew 4:15-17 & Isaiah 7:14). This prophecy was only fulfilled after almost 700 years but is nonetheless a hopeful word. There is another prophecy given in (Isaiah 9:6-7) yet to be completely fulfilled after 2,000 years and I want to look at that one. “For unto us a Child (speaking of His human nature) is born, unto us a Son (speaking of His divine nature) is given. The Government (likely speaking of His reign during the Millennial Kingdom (ruling 1,000 years on earth.), shall be on His shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful, We might think it strange to have the name ‘Wonderful’: We are having some health issues here at home and sometimes Sharon calls me ‘Wonderful’. I am not really, but if I can accomplish something that pleases her, fulfills her wants, needs, desires, I do feel good about it. In Old Testament times, names had meaning. i.e. ‘Abram’ means ‘exalted father’, ‘Abraham’ means ‘father of a multitude’. I recognize Jesus is the One being spoken about here and He did fill the people with wonder and amazement. They said things like: “No one ever spoke like this man.” “We never saw anything like this done before.” “No one ever opened the eyes of one born blind before.” And, of course, we recognize He rose from death after three days in the tomb. The people brought their friends, family members, and neighbors to Jesus to be healed by Him. They understood things that could not be done by anyone else, could be done and were done by Jesus. He could heal every disease and could cast out any and every demon. We can truly say of God, “Nothing is impossible for Him. We can ask the question and know its answer is “No.”, “Is anything too hard for Him?” Not only can we say these things about God we can and do say them about Jesus. With a step of logical faith, we can equate Jesus with God. He Himself said, “I and My Father are One.” Isaiah never actually puts a personal name to Jesus but we can see, through many of Isaiah’s prophecies, Jesus, The Christ, is the One Isaiah is prophesying about. In the next weeks, I want to look at the other names listed in this passage of Scripture. As we Approach the Christmas Season, I trust you will be thinking about the Names Isaiah applied to Jesus. Scripture contains many other names for Him but these are special and to be used specially at this time of the year. Listen to Handel’s Messiah a time or two this Season if you can as well.

Scriptures to Read

Isaiah 6:1-8

Isaiah 7:14 & St. Luke 1:26-38

Isaiah 9:6-7

St. Matthew 4:15-17

Isaiah 1:1-9

Isaiah 1:10-20

Isaiah 5:1-7