He Gets Us

A series on Isaiah 9:6 – The Child of Prophecy
 – Wonderful Counselor
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 7:10-52 

[Jesus was a child of prophecy. The Christmas story in the Bible was predicted in many Old Testament prophecies but the centerpiece of these is Isaiah 9:6. It was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. In this series we’re going to look at the meaning and implications of this amazing prophecy.]

  

You may have seen commercials for the media campaign called “He Gets Us”. The focus of this campaign is to reintroduce Jesus in a way that shows that he understands us, as well as to encourage people to love their neighbors.

 

During Isaiah’s ministry as a prophet of God, Israel had already been divided into the northern and southern kingdoms. And Assyria was aggressively expanding their kingdom. It was a dark world where Isaiah spoke mostly about judgment, but also words of hope. Words about a Messiah who they believed would one day rule their nation.

 

Isaiah told them that the “darkness and despair will not go on forever”. That the nation of Israel will see a great light and rejoice. Then he prophesized that a “child will be born and that the government will rest on his shoulders”. He then added that the child will be called “Wonderful Counselor”.

 

The Festival of Tabernacles was a pilgrimage festival that brought Jews to Jerusalem from far and wide. Jesus was freely teaching in the temple courts. Recently he also had healed someone on the Sabath, which was strictly forbidden by Jewish law. Between his teachings and the healing, Jesus was creating controversy.

 

The crowds couldn’t agree on who he was. Some thought he was the Prophet spoken of in the Old Testament. Some said he was a good man, while others thought he was possessed by a demon. Thinking that he might be the Messiah, many believed in Jesus. Others were amazed at what Jesus said because he had no formal training.

 

What would make someone a “Wonderful Counselor”? Being compassionate and empathetic? Or being wise and insightful? What about helping people to understand themselves and giving practical insights on how to deal with their problems?

 

Jesus had all these qualities and more.

 

The writer of Hebrews said that he can “empathize with our weaknesses” because he’s been tempted in every way like us but without sin.

 

When David confessed his sin of adultery, the Lord promised, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you”.

 

Upon reflecting about the Lord, the psalmist wrote that “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path”.

 

Prophesying about the Messiah, Isaiah wrote that the “Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord”.

The question asked by the festival crowds reverberates through the centuries: “Who is this man”? The same question is there for us to answer. Isaiah said that he was to be called “Wonderful Counselor”.

 

Indeed… “He Gets Us”.

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Within You

A series on Isaiah 9:6 – The Child of Prophecy
 – King of Kings
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Daniel 2:24-49 

[Jesus was a child of prophecy. The Christmas story in the Bible was predicted in many Old Testament prophecies but the centerpiece of these is Isaiah 9:6. It was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. In this series we’re going to look at the meaning and implications of this amazing prophecy.]

  

In 1961 a movie titled “King of Kings” was released. It was an epic production about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. 

The person of Jesus came alive on the screen showing “the power, the passion, the greatness and the glory” of the King of kings. But there were many great and powerful kings before Jesus.

 

King Nebuchadnezzar was the second king of the Babylonian Empire. Early in his reign he had dreams that disturbed him so much that he was unable to sleep. His magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers couldn’t tell him what he had dreamed, let alone its interpretation. The king became furious and ordered the execution of the wise men which included Daniel, a Jewish exile in Babylon.

 

But the Lord revealed both the dreams and the interpretation of them to Daniel. Once he learned this, he went before Nebuchadnezzar and told him that his dreams were about the future. He explained that no man could do what the king was asking, but that the God in heaven had revealed it to him.

 

Daniel described what the king had seen in his dreams as an enormous statue of a man that was awe inspiring. Its head was gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were iron and clay.

 

Continuing, Daniel related that the king had also seen in his dreams a rock that was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. And the rock smashed the statue to pieces which were then blown away like dust in the wind. Following this, the rock became a great mountain that filled the whole earth.

 

After describing the king’s dreams, Daniel interpreted them. The statue represented four successive kingdoms. The head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar. But after his kingdom comes to an end another kingdom will take his place, then a third and finally a fourth kingdom. Each kingdom will replace the one before it.

 

Finally, Daniel explained what the rock represented. The one that was cut from the mountain and had crushed the statue.

 

⁴⁴ “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.           NLT

 

For centuries, the Jews had been expecting a Messiah who would fulfill this prophecy of the rock by building a political kingdom. As Isaiah 9:6 states, “The government will rest on His shoulders”. But that wasn’t what Jesus did. Instead, he came to build an eternal kingdom… the Kingdom of God.

 

In Luke 17 we read that on one occasion the Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. Here is his answer.

 

^20b Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. ²¹ You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”   NIV

 

In this verse the Living Bible translates “among you” as “within you”. Think about that for a minute. This means that as a believer in Christ that the King of king’s lives within you wherever you go and whatever you do. Paul put it like this.

 

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.      NIV

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

It’s Complicated

A series on Isaiah 9:6 – The Child of Prophecy
 – Son of God
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Isaiah 7:1-17; Matthew 1:18-25 

[Jesus was a child of prophecy. The Christmas story in the Bible was predicted in many Old Testament prophecies but the centerpiece of these is Isaiah 9:6. It was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. In this series we’re going to look at the meaning and implications of this amazing prophecy.]

 

“The Night Before Christmas” is a classic poem/book about Santa Claus being discovered by a dad on Christmas Eve. It paints an idyllic picture of the children snug in their beds when Dad hears a noise and springs from his bed. To his surprise he discovers that it’s Santa and his eight tiny reindeer.

 

Another image of Christmas is the surreal picture of the baby Jesus lying in a manger with Joseph and Mary gazing at him. A bright star shines overhead. Close by are some shepherds. Three wise men are kneeling and a few barn animals graze nearby. It all looks so very peaceful.

 

However, life was anything but peaceful or idyllic during Isaiah’s ministry as the Lord’s prophet. Assyria was on a murderous rampage moving westward and conquering any nation that dared to get in their way… including Israel and Aram.

 

To protect themselves, King Rezin of Aram and King Remaliah of Israel, formed an alliance. Then they devised a plan to coerce King Ahaz of Judah to join with them. But their real plan was to dismantle Judah and put their own puppet king in place of Ahaz.

 

Despite Isaiah telling him that the Sovereign Lord had promised that their plan would fail, Ahaz trembled in fear. He didn’t have faith in the Lord. Because of this, he decided to take things into his own hands by making an alliance with Assyria against Israel and Aram. It’s complicated!

 

But the Lord gave Ahaz a sign to confirm his promise of protection.

 

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.                NIV

 

Fast forward over 700 years later. Mary, a teenage girl was engaged to Joseph. But he learned that she was pregnant so he planned to divorce her quietly. However, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that the baby was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit. Also, that she would have a son who was to be named Jesus because he would “save his people from their sins”.

 

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).       NIV

 

Truth be known, it wasn’t peaceful or idyllic for Joseph or Mary. In fact, it must have been very stressful! After all, Mary eventually went to her cousin Elizabeth’s to avoid the rumors and shame of being pregnant. And Joseph’s carpentry business could very easily have been hurt by the apparent illicit affair. It’s complicated!

 

In an effort to make it less complicated, John explained it like this.

 

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.         NIV

 

Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God doesn’t promise peace, but he does give us peace in the midst of chaos. Life is complicated, but the Sovereign Lord is always with us.

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

The Rest of the Story

A series on Isaiah 9:6 – The Child of Prophecy
 – Son of Man
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Daniel 7:1-18; Hebrews 4:14-16 

[Jesus was a child of prophecy. The Christmas story in the Bible was predicted in many Old Testament prophecies but the centerpiece of these is Isaiah 9:6. It was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. In this series we’re going to look at the meaning and implications of this amazing prophecy.]

 

The story below was taken from a Paul Harvey radio broadcast in 2004.

 

During a winter storm one Christmas Eve, a man discovered that a flock of birds had flown into his picture window seeking shelter from the snowstorm. They were huddled outside under the window trying to survive.

 

Seeing their plight, he attempted to save them by getting them into his barn. First, he opened the barn door and turned on the lights. Then he made a trail of bread crumbs leading to the door. Finally, he tried shooing them into the barn. Nothing worked.

 

Suddenly, he realized that they were afraid of him. He thought, if only I could become a bird, then they would follow me into the safety of the barn. No sooner had this thought passed when he understood. That’s exactly what Jesus had done to save us.

 

In 605 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and defeated Judah. The king ordered that some of the best and brightest of the Israelites be deported to Babylon where they would serve him in his court. Daniel was among them.

 

Being uprooted was a challenge for Daniel and the others. They were forced to leave their family, their home and their Temple; to live in a land that they had never seen and amongst a people whose culture and gods they were in conflict with.

 

In chapter 7 Daniel has an apocalyptic dream about four beasts that represent four kingdoms that rise to power on earth. They were the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian alliance, the Greece kingdom and the Roman Empire. But then Daniel saw a vision of another kingdom.

 

¹³ As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. ¹⁴ He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.                    NLT

 

From these verses, Jesus chose the title that he most often used for himself… “Son of Man”. Like the man in Paul Harvey’s story, Jesus realized that he needed to become one of us so that we would trust him and not be afraid.

 

Isaiah prophesied, “For to us a child is born”. He became one of us… not a god or a king, but a child. The writer of Hebrews described what it means for the Messiah to be born a child.

 

¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.    NIV

 

As Paul Harvey said at the end of all of his broadcasts, "And now you know... the rest of the story".

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com