One of my favorite verses at Christmas is 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.”
Isn’t it amazing that over 700 years before Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, Isaiah prophesied of His coming, and looked even further ahead to the establishing of His kingdom? Isn’t it wonderful to celebrate the inauguration of that kingdom — the coming of the King — this season. Our precious Savior, come to earth? We look forward to the time when He will establish His kingdom of peace and justice forever.
This amazing promise of a coming Savior has special meaning to us because we have been grafted into such a salvation (Romans 11:17), so that the “us” here in Isaiah 9:6 really does include Christians. Christ is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace to you and to me, and we rejoice in remembering the birth of our Savior.
Isaiah 9 is part of a section from Isaiah 8-12, which is interesting because of what the section contains. Chapter 8 sets the stage for setting your hope entirely in God, even though hard times are coming. Then chapter 9 about the coming Messiah (Jesus!). Chapter 10 echoes chapter 8 in saying the Lord will establish His remnant, even in the face of the coming invasion; Chapter 11 echoes chapter 9 in extolling the coming Branch of Jesse, and the peace He will bring.
All four of these chapters are essentially “indicative,” meaning that they state what is coming, they state what is true, and don’t contain specific commands, or “imperatives.”
These four chapters are fantastic, encouraging news. But what should my response be? What is the primary task, the effective doing, of God’s people based on this incredible news — that God will (and has!) sent His Son, and that He will rule over us in peace and righteousness?
The answer is in the final chapter of the section, Isaiah 12. Like so many other portions of God’s Word, the imperative (“do this”) follows the indicative (“this is true”). In this season of remembering the coming of the King, may we also remember our primary response, here in Isaiah 12: praise.
Here’s the whole chapter, all 6 verses:
The first two verses are in the singular — an individual response:
You will say in that day:
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though You were angry with me,
Your anger turned away, that You might comfort me.
“Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and He has become my salvation.”
The last four verses are plural — our collective response:
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;
make known His deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that His name is exalted.”“Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
This is what to do, Christian, based on the coming of your king in a manger in Bethlehem:
- Individually, give thanks, trust, don’t be afraid
- All who come, joyously draw water from salvation’s wells
- Corporately, give thanks, call upon His name, proclaim His deeds and name
- Together, sing praises, shout, sing for joy
This Christmas, let us individually and together praise Him!
We have so much to be joyful about this season, as we remember the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Child born, the Son given. May we also respond as Isaiah proscribes, with thanks, singing, praise and proclamation, because of the wondrous salvation that has been given to us, in grace, by and through our Prince of Peace.