Advent Week 1 - A Child Is Born A Son Is Given Series

A Child Is Born and A Son Is Given

Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:

Psalm 1:1-2

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His Law he meditates day and night.”

And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:

Isaiah 9:6

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Today we will be reading from Isaiah 9:2-7

What do you do when you come across information that flies in the face of something you have always believed? How do you handle that?

Isaiah 9:6 is a text written by one of Israel’s most revered prophets.

Now, Jews believe in one God, Yahweh or Jehovah and so do we.

This is a prayer from Scripture that faithful Jews often repeat.

“Hear O’ Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is One” and this is a true belief for Christians as well!

Jews also believe that Yahweh is the eternal God who exists, “before all ages, now and forever more” (Jude 25) and that He was never a Child.

So, what do they do with a verse that speaks about a Child who is called “Mighty God” among other things!

Let’s take a look at Isaiah 9:2-7 and see if we can figure all of this out.

(Prayer for help)

So, how do the Jews handle Isaiah 9:6?

They have various interpretations, of course, and it is translated in a variety of ways.

For instance, some believe that the “child” was the king Hezekiah.

And, they word it something like, “Unto you a child is born, unto you a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders and the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father shall call his name, Prince of Peace.”

You see, there is a great tension in Judaism. They long for their Messiah and reject Him at the same time.

Our hearts should be heavy for the Jews. The Bible tells us that Jesus came first to the Jews and then to us, the gentiles. So, our prayer should be that many would turn to Jesus and find their Messiah who is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.

OK. So, if the Jews DO believe that this passage is about Hezekiah and not about Jesus, why do WE believe it is about Jesus and not about Hezekiah? After all, they have had those Scriptures hundreds of years before we had them, right?

Let’s start out with the first two phrases found in Isaiah 9:6, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given …”

This is a very familiar Scripture to those of us who have attended church for many years and who have heard many Advent sermons and those of us who have read the accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Bible.

It is easy to simply take the two phrases to mean that a child will be born and the child will be a son.

But, it is NOT really that simple.

A child is born TO a father and mother and into a family, right?

Our son and daughter were born TO us and into our family.

I guess you could say that they were born into the world because they became members of the world population but that would really be stretching the usual understanding of how that phrase is used.

But, here we are seeing something different. Yes, the Child is being born into the world but He is also being born unto, or for us!

How do we know that? We know that because the first phrase cannot be disconnected from the second phrase.

“Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given …”

Now, this is saying much more than “there will be a child born and the child will be a boy.”

This is a description of what we call the incarnation. The Eternal God who is Spirit is joining His Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity with the Child who is a human and who is being born of a woman by the Holy Spirit.

When this verse says, “unto us a Son is given” this is describing the giving of God’s eternal Son in the form of a man, the God Man.

And, we see the confirmation of this awesome truth in Luke chapters 1 and 2 which confirms the phrase, “Unto us a Child is Born”. He is the Child of God born of a woman; fully human.