Very often at this time of the year we will hear people say- I have already heard people say- maybe you have even said it yourself that… we have “lost the meaning of Christmas”. And I must say I totally agree, because, Christmas for a lot of people is about shopping presents and parties but that’s not what Christmas is about. For others it’s a time to reconnect with family and old friends- thats great but that’s not what Christmas is about either. For more others tis a time to reach out to neighbours or think of those less well off; again that’s great but its not what Christmas is about. Finally for some people of course; hopefully for most of you here; Christmas is a time to remember when Jesus was born.
Which it is but it’s more than that. Jesus’ birth is but one part of a much much bigger story the story of the trinity, the triune God and his relationship with mankind about how we messed it up but he promised that he would sort it out. About how God chose one group of people whom he could use to show the world how to live again how he chose this same group to be the people from whom the messiah would come from and about all the many great things this messiah would bring. So if you want to think a little deeper of the meaning of Christmas this month consider it to be about God keeping his promises to the world, particularly about his promise to send us a messiah a saviour. So today I’m going to look at the first of four aspects of this messiah that was promised to us way way back just over 2700 years ago in or around the year 730bc; a promise that came to us through a fiery gentleman by the name of Isaiah.
The context of today’s verse is as follows. God had promised the Jews that the saviour of the world the messiah would come from their tribe. Later he promised that this messiah would be their king and would come from David’s family. These promises were dear to the faithful Jews. However, Solomon the third king of Israel did not live as he should and God in response said he would split the country in two as punishment. Now I should add he only did so after many warnings. You can read about this in the 11th chapter of the book of kings if you are interested. The Jewish people of the time our passage were living in two kingdoms. A northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah. So what we have during Isaiah’s time; what we have during the time that this verse was first spoken is two Jewish kingdoms each with their own king rather than the one that there should have been for the promises that God had made to come true. Things were not good for the faithful then. Most of the kings were not godly men. Over the span of Isaiah’s life he would have seen at least 5 of these kings in action and none of them including the two at the time these verses were spoken were very good. Often these kings worshipped other Gods they put their trust in foreign leaders instead of God and they did some despicable things- burning babies in religious ceremonies being one of the more dishonourable things. However God did not leave his people who loved him all alone because in amongst all of these unholy people and strange events we have the prophets. They were there to tell people what God had told them to tell them; which could be to remind the Jews of the ways in which God had said to live or to tell them that unless they changed their ways they would be punished in a specific fashion. They also existed to encourage those who were following God’s laws; those who still put their trust in God that God still remembered his promises to them because God had made many promises to them that had yet to happen. When we meet Isaiah here he is in this last mode. He is encouraging the faithful that things will be much better in the future. Do not lose hope he is saying do not look at the current situation and think all is lost. To the faithful Jews these words of Isaiah’s were of great comfort. The specifics of these verses relate to an event in 733BC Israel the northern kingdom had been repeatedly warned about its behaviour with the warnings saying that if they did not change their behaviour they would be punished and indeed in 733BC historical records show as does the bible that the king of Assyria came and took and chunk out of northern Israel. Taking over many towns in the area of the tribe of Zebulon and all the towns in the area of the tribe of Naphtali. Not only did he successfully invade these towns but he also took as slaves all the people he found there. So once again slavery had come to Jewish people. With this event still fresh in their minds whilst living under a king who was despicable enough to sacrifice his own son and all the time whilst living with the old kingdom of Israel remaining divided it would have been very easy for the faithful Jews to get discouraged. God had promised to the Jews that the messiah would sit on David’s throne and that this messiah’s reign would have no end. How could this happen if the kingdom was not only divided but bit by bit it was being divided up... and they were being brought back into slavery.. By any estimation of current events they couldn’t say that it was not going to happen soon. So in steps God with a timely message for his people who have stayed true to him. So then not long after the events of 733 where the northern tribes have been taken . Isaiah says
(Isaiah 9:1 ESV) But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
Effectively through Isaiah God is saying “don’t worry about what has happened in the north, that area will be greatly blessed again”. How will it be blessed again? Well as Matthew tells us in the first chapter of his Gospel this promise was fulfilled by the fact that Jesus does much of his ministry in this area. Indeed Nazareth where Jesus grew up was in the land of Zebulon one of the areas that was conquered. So in a couple of sentences God through Isaiah simultaneously tells ‘em not to worry about the north and that the messiah is still coming. He tells us that there will be great joy all because…a child is born. This child will be a new ruler and he will be much better than anything that you have now. For the situation that the Jews find themselves in that this is exactly what they needed to hear and I dare say for the situation we find ourselves in Ireland today its also what we need to hear. Our country is in one way being run by outsiders; our government it would seem has failed us badly but we can have hope in a new leader who according to the scripture will be known for four different characteristics that will give us hope. Of course he is talking about Jesus. It is these four things in verse 6 that I and Chris hope to look at over the next month. The first is wonderful counsellor.
This new leader that Isaiah tells us about will have to be great leader. The kings of the time where not great, they had many talents but did not use them correctly. Jesus is not like that. The greatest leaders in our world are those with the experience and wisdom that enables them to lead better than the rest. When we go to Jesus we will receive good counsel- good advice from a man who been through it all. But let’s unpack it a bit
What is a counsellor? A counsellor is someone you go to for advice on how to overcome problems. But there are many types of problems; so when Isaiah calls Jesus a counsellor does he wish us to imagine that Jesus helps us with our personal problems is Jesus the world’s greatest psychotherapist wonderfully encouraging us to overcome all our insecurities and fears? Does he mean that Jesus is the universe’s greatest dispenser of advice? Doling out solutions to all the problems that a person can have in their day to day life? Is he saying that Jesus is a strategist beyond parallel? Showing us how to conqueror all comers and all obstacles? I would say Yes- to all of them. To earn the title that he has here of wonderful counsellor Jesus has to have knowledge or experience of all types of situations or problems. In any type of problem that you could possibly have; we see in the bible that Jesus has ample experience of all of them.
There are many types of problems and I have already hinted at them but for the purpose of this talk I have chosen to divide them up in the following way- personal problems regular problems and the problems relating to our endeavours or our mission or missions in life.
By personal problems I’m talking about the issues that affect us on the inside. Guilt fear insecurities pride selfishness loneliness anger arrogance whatever anything like that. How is it that Jesus is able to counsel us about these? Sure wasn’t he perfect himself? He is able to counsel us because he has an unsurpassed knowledge of what it means to be you. He knows what its like to be a person. He knows this -well because he made us- but he also knows it because he lived as one of us, he literally has a lifetime of experience as a human. In the book of Hebrews we learn that he was tempted in every way. Whatever you’ve struggled with he’s struggled with. He knows therefore all of the ins and outs of the human condition
By regular problems I’m referring not to things that are ordinary but to things which happen on fairly regular basis to either us or the people around us. They could be anything at all from as mundane as what food to buy to heavier one such as money problems right up to serious things up to the death of a loved one. In this section of life Jesus also qualifies as the best person to turn to. For what other God can claim to have lived life as an ordinary person, with an ordinary family with brothers and sisters, with a mother who pestered him with an ordinary job and yet is still God. In scripture we see Jesus dealing with the death of his first cousin the apostles fighting amongst themselves, hunger, crowds, sick people, his mother interfering with him, being betrayed, and of course he did deal with the most regular problem of them all and the one that is certain to come to all of us. Our own death. No other God lived a life that in many ways was so ordinary. The many things that life throws at us where thrown at him too.
And lastly the problems associated with new challenges, how do we overcome obstacles to our dreams or missions. All of us have some goals or some project we’d like to get done it mightn’t even be for ourselves but for our children or maybe its not something that you decided to do but something you’ve found yourself in, have you got a fight on your hands? Whatever the case may be when we set out on these types of things we need good counsel to navigate the way. In Jesus we have a person who can counsel us on these things because we have a person who is the leader of the largest movement in history. Should we want tactical advice on endeavours of ours there is none like him. Obstacles and other people and even ourselves will get in the way whenever we try to set out and do something new or big. We will need to turn to the man who has overcome both the entire world and our biggest obstacle – death to help us through whatever endeavour we have in mind.
Now that I’ve shown that he has the experience how exactly does he counsel us? Well, firstly how does anyone counsel us but with words. And what words they are! If you have never read the gospels in their entirety I counsel you to do so as soon as you can. Nowhere is so much wisdom packed into such little space. At times Jesus’ teaching is practical, at times it challenging at times its comforting. Currently my favourite time with Jesus words is when I approach the bible hoping to find the answer to a question but after listening to Jesus for some time I leave not with the answer that I originally sought but with the very thing that was driving me to seek him out smashed into little pieces. By way of example let me tell you this story. About a month ago I really let Erika my wife down. I let her down badly and I really hurt with my actions. And I knew that something needed to change and in fact this kind of thing had happened before but this time was different I really wanted to not do this anymore. So I got up early next day and I tried to pray, I went looking for that verse in john where he says that he whoever believes in him out of his heart will flow rivers of living water which is the Spirit of God and I knew from pauls letter to Corinthians that wherever the Spirit of God is there is freedom. So I was saying to God look if your really there at all if this stuff true then this has to work I need to change this cant go on. So then I started ask him what must I do, I dont not know what to do, what I must do to change what must I do what must I do. Cause this stuff had been going for ages like something has to go. Eventually I got my answer. I was walking down by the dart station nearly in tears with the frustration when it hit me. I was asking the wrong question. The question isn’t what must I do but rather what is He doing and the answer to that is He is loving me. All this that I’m going through is for my own benefit to make me a better person. I had come wanting a specific answer but got a totally different one. I wanted to know how do I change my behaviour, he said I aint going to tell you that but I will tell that I love you. And the interesting thing is that that’s what I needed to change. He didn’t give me a five step plan ot overcome this thing instead knowing that he cared about changed me and I genuinely didn’t want to do that thing anymore, now I might in the future but for the moment knowing im loved is sufficient. Counsel from Jesus is often not what we expect to hear. Whatever it is that you come to him wanting he will always give you what you really need whether that lines up with your original request doesn’t matter. So friends, brothers, sisters read you bible and pray, for in this way you’ll meet the man in question and he will lead you where you need to go.
I could leave it there but I don’t want to for while I believe I have shown that he has the necessary experience and wisdom to counsel us I haven’t shown you yet what elevates him to the status of wonderful. Maybe you might think that by simply having all the answers he is wonderful enough- that’s true too but I want you to ponder on this, what psychotherapist that you might attend wouldn’t just advise you on your problems but go so far as to take your place and carry your problems even taking any punishments coming your way for your shortcomings. What friend giving you advice would also say well look your biggest problem is that your going to die but don’t worry about that I’ll die instead of you so you can live. Or what wise person giving you counsel on what direction to take in life would tell you that he has already done what you needed to do just in case you don’t.
We have a counsellor who doesn’t just give us the best advice possible we have one who takes the punishment for our failings and gives us his perfect record instead. He doesn’t just tell us what to do, he has done it for us. There can be no greater counsellor than the one who by his very actions ultimately heals the things that causes our need for counsel. This Christmas remember that a long long time ago God promised such a man to us and. He. Is. Here.
