“For unto us 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 Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6)
It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of kingship in the ancient biblical world. Kings ruled their people with total power – the king was viewed as either a god himself (as in ancient Egypt) or as the representative of God or the gods (as in ancient Israel and many other Near Eastern cultures). As a result, the birth of an heir to the throne was a symbolically important occasion which was often celebrated in stories of mythic and legendary proportions.
The picture of human rulership painted by these royal birth stories is in stark contrast to Isaiah’s prophecy of the great king who would come. While the “birth oracles” of human kings promised that they would be mighty conquerors destroying their enemies, Isaiah pictures a divine King who would strive for peace. The contrasting nature of the human rulers and the promised King is also seen in their titles. It was common in the biblical world for rulers to take a throne name along with various titles that emphasized their greatness. In Egypt, for example, each pharaoh took five such descriptive titles as part of the coronation ceremony.
The coronation of the King promised by Isaiah is reflected in the statement that “the government will be upon His shoulder” and the four double titles Isaiah gives for the royal child who would be born are kingship titles similar to those used by human rulers, though the second and third stress the true divinity of Israel’s promised King:
Wonderful Counselor: Like the others that follow it, this is a title consisting of two words that convey a single idea. The expression could mean “A wonderful Counselor” or “One who gives wonderful counsel.” The second idea is found elsewhere in Isaiah (see Isaiah 28:29) and is probably what the prophet intended.
Mighty God: In the Hebrew, this title (el-gibbor) is literally “Mighty God” – an expression Isaiah also uses in Isaiah 10:21. While the title “Wonderful Counselor” connects wisdom to the Messiah, “Mighty God” connects strength to him – the two fundamental aspects of good kingship. In Isaiah 11:2 the prophet speaks of exactly these characteristics in “the Spirit of counsel and of might” with which the Messianic child would be born.
Everlasting Father: This title is literally “Father of Eternity,” but it does not mean the promised One would be the Creator of time, or describe the coming King as being eternal. Rather, it means One who continually – eternally – acts as a Father to his people.
Prince of Peace: This last title is particularly interesting as it is almost unique among the titles of ancient Near Eastern kings. Although Egyptian kings often said their reigns would bring about a “repeating of days” or a return to the perfection of original creation, their empty boasts meant little to the people they ruled. Isaiah’s promise of peace in the reign of the coming King is unequivocal, however, and is repeated in the verses following his title, in Isaiah 9:7.
Skeptics have sometimes claimed that the king promised by Isaiah was simply Hezekiah, the son of Ahab – in both of whose rules Isaiah prophesied. However, the titles to be given the promised King could hardly apply to Hezekiah (see also Isaiah 7:14), and he died at a time of great problems and impending national downfall (Isaiah 39:5–7) rather than the greatness foretold by Isaiah.
Nevertheless, many of the people of ancient Judah who heard Isaiah’s prophecy of a coming great King may have believed it applied to Hezekiah. Their country was threatened, and because the ancient Jews doubtless saw the similarities between the names and description of the promised King and those of the physical kings of their time, they looked for a leader in their own time who would be an immediate answer to their physical and political problems. It was doubtless incomprehensible to them that the promised King would not come for centuries after Isaiah spoke, and that when he did arrive he would be born into very humble surroundings rather than a palace, and – perhaps most of all – that he would be very different from the kind of kings with which they were accustomed. But God’s promise to his people held true, nonetheless – and although the promise would not be fulfilled for a number of centuries, it would be fulfilled forever.
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