Isaiah 9:6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God...”
barn and laid in a feeding trough would be called Wonderful because He would demonstrate the works and mighty deeds of God. He would be Counselor because He is the wisdom of God who counsels, commands and comforts anyone who would come to Him.
This Savior-Child, Jesus, was sent from God and is God. Haven’t you struggled with that idea? The human mind struggles with understanding and accepting the fact that Jesus IS God and He was sent by God. That sounds impossible (it sounds that way to me) but the foundation of the Christian faith has always been based on the fact that Jesus is God: Jesus is “Immanuel”, sent by God and God with us at the same time in the flesh.
The word for “God” used in Isaiah 9:6 is “El”. Out of the 245 times that it is used in the Old Testament, 213 times, its context causes it to be unquestionably translated as “God”, reflecting the One True, Almighty, Saving, Merciful, Loving, Rock-Solid, Commandment-giving, Holy God.
I read a short book recently entitled “101 Scientific Facts and Foreknowledge.” It tells of 101 non-spiritual facts, disease and prevention, health tips, nature, etc., which appeared in the Bible long before science could verify them. Humankind has always experienced these things, but it took science many years to actually discover, analyze and prove these facts even though God knew beforehand.
Every day we believe in things that we don’t completely understand. We don’t understand everything about electricity but it doesn’t stop you from “believing” in the power and principles of electricity. You don’t know everything about respiration, (breathing) but you don’t stop breathing! We still don’t really understand gravity but we still appreciate the laws of gravity and you wouldn’t jump off the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge to try and defy those principles. People do not have to totally understand something to believe it, but for most of us, we can accept the words of someone else, the writings of someone, some evidence, and then we are able to accept the principles.
The same thinking can be applied to spiritual things: We do not have to understand that JESUS IS GOD in order to believe it. (Jesus said all things are possible to him who what? Believes.) We may not comprehend how Jesus could be present but he is presently present.... Hallelujah!!
The Primate
The Primate
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