WHAT’S IN A NAME?: HIS NAME IS COUNSELOR!
--Isaiah 9:6
How you punctuate a sentence can make a difference in its meaning. Many of our modern translations of Scripture omit the comma between wonderful and counselor in our text. The meaning, therefore, would be that Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor which indeed is true; but I prefer to look at the text still separating the two Names in the more traditional reading in keeping with the way we always hear the text in the Chorus “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” from Handel’s Messiah and in keeping with the way we sing Audrey Mieir’s Chorus “His Name Is Wonderful” that has been around since 1959. Therefore, last week our message was “His Name Is Wonderful,” and today’s message is “His Name Is Counselor.”
Every one of us has needed advice on one occasion or other. Perhaps we have turned to a trusted friend, our pastor, a parent, or a brother or sister in those instances. If it has been a problem in school or in making a decision about our vocation, maybe we have sought the advice of our high school or college guidance counselor. The Best Counselor of them all is the One whose birth we now celebrate and whose Second Coming we anxiously anticipate.
We all have a general understanding of the duties of any counselor. People in the counseling profession give advice with wisdom, authority, and personal concern for the persons seeking their advice. Sometimes counselor may even be another name for a lawyer or attorney. Used in this sense a counselors is pleads someone’s case in court or advices their clients on legal matters.
The Bible has much to say about advisors or counselors and the advice they give. It praises good counselors and warns against evil ones. Solomon declares in Proverbs 11:14:
Where there is no guidance, a nation falls,
but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Actually Solomon only presents a half truth in some respects. I would be safe in following the advice of many counselors if they were trustworthy, dependable counselor, and if they were basically in agreement with each other. However, if I have many counselors pulling me in many different directions I would end up being more confused than helped. If their advice, although in basic agreement with each other, were not in keeping with the principles of God’s Word, I would end up taking the wrong path and being greatly harmed.
Solomon’s Father King David gives us the best guidance of all in Psalm 1:1:
Blessed are they who have not walked
In the counsel of the wicked,
Nor lingered in the way of sinners,
Nor sat in the assembly of the scornful.
The Amplified Bible explains this verse by reminding us that we are not to follow the
“advice, plans, or purposes” of evil counselors.
In our American Government system we have two types of counselors. There are counselors of State and counselors at law. Examples of counselors of State are the men and women who sit on the President’s Cabinet. They carry out and administer the Law of our Land and advice the President in forming the polices of the country and in making important decision about our National Welfare. Daniel was such a Counselor of State in the Court of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Counselors at Law represent and speak for their clients before the courts of our Sate and Nation.
Our Messiah and Saviour Jesus Christ is both types of counselors. He is a Cabinet Member in the Holy Trinity, and He is your Lawyer and mine before God our Heavenly Father. As a member of the Holy Trinity Jesus Christ is the Creator of humankind and of the universe. The Bible says in John 1:3, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” As a member of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ is the one who has made possible our forgiveness from sin as Paul testifies in I Corinthians 15:3, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”
Jesus Christ is also a counselor in the sense of being our Divine Lawyer. He is the Only One who as a perfect knowledge of God’s Law. Therefore, He is the One best able to advise us about God’s ways and plans for our lives. He is the One best qualified to “Lead us in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake.” As our Wonderful Counselor He shows us how to apply the Word of God in our daily lives.
As our Divine lawyer, Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father pleading our case for God’s mercy and grace whenever we fall short of His glory. John declares in I John 2:1-2, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. . .” Advocate is another term for counselor. His ministry as our advocate, counselor is to “speak to the Father in our defense.” When we have sinned and come before the Father in true repentance placing our faith in Jesus, He is our mediator who pleads our case before the Father.
We need Jesus Christ as our Counselor for the same reason Solomon needed Him when he became King of Israel. In I Kings 3:9 Solomon humbly prayed the Lord would give him “. . .an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil.” In our own understanding we can not distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong. We need the guiding hand of the Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to choose and follow the right path.
So many counselors are advising us today that each one of us often wonders “how can I know the voice of Him who is the Wonderful Counselor from the voices of the counselors of the world.” We can not physically have an audience with Jesus Christ in the flesh as did Nicodemus and the Woman at the Well; therefore, He has given us two means of hearing His counsel: (1.) through His Word and (2.) by His Holy Spirit.
Through the written Word we come to hear the voice of Christ our Counselor who is the Living Word. The Bible stands as our best and only sure rule for following the guidance of Christ. The Bible unfolds for us the mind of God Himself. We come to hear the voice and Christ and know the mind of God by becoming People of the Word. When Christ lives in us, as we read His Word, we come to know His thoughts in all matters. The Psalmist advises us well when he testifies in Psalm 119:105-106:
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to observe your righteous ordinances.
“The flickering light cast by the olive oil lamp of Bible times was only bright enough to show a traveler his next step.” [SOURCE: Lawrence O. Richards, The Bible Reader’s Companion: Your Guide to Every Chapter of the Bible (n. p.: Scripture Press, 1991), 376. The Bible is such a light to us Spiritually. It guides us in making right choices and decisions, but just like the oil lamp, God’s Word guides us “one step at a time,” not weeks, months, and years into the future. He holds our entire future in His hands. He asks us to trust Him and let him guide us “one step at a time.”
The second means Jesus has given us for hearing His voice is the gift of the Holy Spirit. In John 16:13, He promised His disciples that upon His return to heaven He would send them, and us as well,” another Comforter. Comforter is another name for Counselor. This other Comforter would be “the Spirit of truth to guide us into all the truth.” In John 14:26 Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit guides us by “teaching us everything, and reminding us of all that Jesus has taught.” In Romans 8:14 Paul expounds the counseling ministry of the Holy Spirit by explaining that He “leads, guides, or directs God’s children.” The Holy Spirit is our inward teacher Who directs our lives and gives us assurance that our sins are forgiven and that we have eternal life.
Jesus Christ our Messiah is the only dependable counselor we can trust. Without the guidance of His Word and His Spirit, all other counsel is false and perhaps even fatal. King Saul learned that lesson the hard way. Having lost the Spirit of God to counsel him, he went to the witch of Endor to conduct a séance
And conjure the spirit of Samuel from the grave. All that the spirit of Samuel could tell Saul was, “What’s more, the LORD will hand you and the army of Israel over to the Philistines tomorrow, and you and your sons will be here with me. The LORD will bring the entire army of Israel down in defeat.” [I Samuel 28:19] In the battle the next day Saul was killed, beheaded by the Philistines, and his head displayed in the temple of the Philistine god Dagon. All of this happened to Saul, according to I Samuel 29:18, “. . . because you did not obey his instructions concerning the Amalekites.” God’s counsel is always dependable, but we must be careful of all other.
Anne Alexander of Marietta, Georgia, has captured so well the difference between the counsel given to us by the world and that we receive from our Wonderful Counselor:
The world says “Take control and be in charge—conquering is the key.”
MY FATHER SAYS “I know the plans I have for you—give it up and follow Me.”
The world says I should love things and use people. That’s the way it’s been!
MY FATHER SAYS I should love people and us things. That’s the way to win!
The world says in this fast-paced life that “busy is the best.”
MY FATHER SAYS “Come unto Me and I will give you rest.
The world says “Sacrifice to reach the top—the bottom you don’t deserve.”
MY FATHER SAYS “The least shall be great—so humble yourself and serve.”
The world says “There are no absolutes—it’s up to me to decide.”
MY FATHER SAYS “Forgive them once—forgive them twice—forgive them
again and again!”
The world sees the outside—the accomplishments and pride.
MY FATHER sees the inside—from Him I cannot hide.
[SOURCE: Anne Alexander, Marietta, Georgia]
Whose advice do you follow and seek? The many voices crying out in the world or that of Him Whose Name is Counselor, indeed Wonderful Counselor? He is our only reliable One you can always trust. He truly knows the plans He has for you. “Give it up and follow Him,” because from “from Him you can not hide.”
