Big Shoulders (Part 2) Series

Today we are in part 2 of our 3-part series “Without the manger there is no Cross”

But first:

• Did you read something new in God’s word this past week?

• Did you see a familiar passage with new eyes?

• Did you share it with someone?

• Just an FYI: when we share God’s word, that is discipleship among many other things

My prayer this week has been that as you go about the rest of your week, that something you heard or experienced today in church, will leave an indelible impression on you. As I like to say “a soul tattoo”.

RECAP PART 1

Our key verse was Isaiah 9:6 “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.”

We dug into the first part of the verse:

• “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given;

A couple of takeaways from that as we examined:

Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

Micah 5:2 ““But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.””

Those takeaways were:

• how this prophecy was over 700 before the birth of Christ.

• We looked at some history of the prophets and their purpose

• For me personally, the thought that spoke to me so vividly was a quote from Charles Spurgeon:

• Looking at “unto us”:

• If this Child is born “to you”, then you are born again.

• For this Child is not born to you, unless you are born to this Child.

This quote is not only the important to all of humanity, but also to me personally.

Lastly, we touched on meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ, in our lives, and I asked that you examine that. Last week we confined it to a minimal number of verses, but this week we are back to scriptural gymnastics!

BIG SHOULDERS

Today we are going to break out the middle part of Isaiah 9:6 “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.”

When we consider this passage, I believe it depicts Jesus in His entirety.

His shoulder

“and the government will be upon His shoulder”

This passage as a whole, foretells the birth of Christ, as well as the 2nd coming.

We see John write about the 1st Coming in :

• Revelation 12:5 “She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.”

• Between Christ’s incarnation and His coronation came His exaltation, when He was caught up to God and to His throne at His ascension.

We’ll return to this is a just a bit.

Wonderful

Last week I expressed that I hoped what was here (motion my heart), will come out of here (motion my mouth), that way I have it here (motion my head).

I think I may have put my finger on why this has been a challenge to express to you what is on my heart about this verse.

And it is that word “wonderful”.

As I began a deep dive into the Hebrew meaning and usage of the word, it struck me that this word is a little bit like the word Yahweh. Also last week I mentioned controversy. Well, there is much controversy why the Jewish people don’t say Yahweh or God’s name. But part of the reasoning behind not speaking His name, is that it is beyond human comprehension as to what His name truly means.

It is so wide and deep and high that we can’t understand it.

So, back to “wonderful”.

You take the root noun and here are a few the translations:

• miracle

• a marvelous thing

• wonder

• unusual

• extraordinary

• supernatural

These are but a few nouns referring to God’s deeds or words.

One description of this word explained it like this:

• Jesus “wonderful” indicates the He exceeds the limits of human understanding and explanation.

• Sort of a humorous story in the telling of an angel appearing to the woman who would become Samson’s mother.

• Found in Judges 13:18 “And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful? (in other words “seeing that it is beyond your comprehension””)