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The Real Meaning Of Isaiah 9:6

By Jack Elder
December 25, 2010

Well, as we all know, 'tis that time of year again!

In my working life I was employed at a nuclear power plant in the training department. We had like eighteen hundred employees at one time. I know that's not a large corporation by a lot of standards, but in my position in the training department, we not only interfaced with the students that we had, we all also interfaced with everybody in the plant. We’d do our little tours around and just circulate and try to stay ahead of what's going on.

But typically this time of year everyone would ask, "Hey, Jack! Are you ready for Christmas?" And my standard reply was, "Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" And that was kind of a response that I gave because when we first learned about Christmas, we were—

In fact, that was one of the things that really got me digging. I know a lot of people have said that some of the booklets and the information that they first got when they came in contact with Worldwide was U.S. and B.C. in Prophecy. But the one that really got me actually started studying and thinking was the one on Christmas, because that one was fairly easy. You can look at the U.S. and B.C. and you might have a little tough time actually proving a lot of that, but in any case I know that's a major doctrine so I'm not touching that! But as far as the Christmas one, it's fairly easy to look that up and you could see all kinds of falsehoods.

I only had actually one person—we had a pretty close training group. And one day somebody came in about Christmas time. I wouldn't participate in the Christmas party. We'd have Thanksgiving parties and all that and I participated in those, but come around Christmas, I wouldn't participate. And one of my friends—like I say, we were a pretty close group—one of my friends came into my office one day. He shut the door. He sat down. He was deadly serious. He thought maybe I had a mental problem or maybe I was too poor to do Christmas, whatever. And he said, "Jack, you don't keep Christmas! Why?" And so that was the only exception where I actually tried to explain to someone why I didn't do it. And I just didn't tell him of all the really rank symbolism, which is really there when you look at it when we understand it, but I just tried to explain to him that it's for a religious reason that I didn't do that. And then I explained to him which religions I did not belong to to clear that up.

But I couldn't explain and what none of us can really explain is the really meaning of Christ's birth goes far beyond any kind of a holiday that man might devise and come up with some kind of a celebration that he thinks is actually commemorating that birth and doing for supposed spiritual reasons.

So when you look at this time of year, there is a little bit of humor though in it because I just cut out a cartoon. I have a funny-bone file. I cut a cartoon out of the paper the other day. To me it's hilariously funny. It might not be to you, but here's a cartoon. There's a cartoon character, a Santa Claus sitting in his sleigh. And the caption is "Santa's early years of research and development." And what he has, he's got a team of cats hooked up to his sleigh. And, of course, the joke there is nobody can herd cats. Here the cats, some of them are asleep, some of them cleaning themselves. That's funny! So there is a little bit of humor in this time of year.

But also this time of year there's many Scriptures that are misused. In fact, last year I started working on this.

And, by the way, I don't—just for the record and so you know that I don't think a message that has something to do with Christmas or has a little bit of Christmas in it, I don't particularly think that's meat in due season. Not the way the Scriptures intend that for us. But the world in general doesn't know that this is actually the beginning of a tremendous event. Hopefully that's going to be sooner than later, but it all comes through the understanding that God has undeservingly given us. We can be very thankful for that.

But one of the Scriptures that is commonly used this time of year and we always have our whole editorial page gets devoted to this. They don't have any of the editorials in but they quote Isaiah 9:6 and Luke where it talks about the birth of Christ. And, of course, they're doing this with a very heavy "Christian" connotation to it.

But let's turn over to Isaiah 9 verse 6. (I may have to resort to my glasses up here.) Over in Isaiah 9 verse 6 and we'll just read the first part of this because this is usually the only thing that you see like on greeting cards, captions on various things. Actually I've collected some other things that usually show up in periodicals or things like that that time of year. But in Isaiah 9 verse 6, it says:

Isaiah 9:6. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given … (NKJ)

And usually it kind of stops right there.

So the title of the message that I'm going to give today is The Real Meaning of Isaiah 9:6. I could very well have titled it A Child is Born unto us, or The Real Story of a Child Born unto us, or something like that.

But we know, too, that that prophecy that is given here in Isaiah 9 and verse 6 is actually fulfilled. And we have that account in Luke chapter 2, also in Matthew 1. Those first chapters of those two gospels actually go through the whole story. The whole context of John the Baptist, his parents of Zacharias and Elizabeth, how an angel appeared to him and said that Elizabeth would become pregnant. And they would be the parents of John the Baptist and on and on it goes.

But when it comes down to Luke chapter 2 and we'll begin in verse 6, breaking in on the story there.

We know that Joseph and Mary had to go to their home towns actually and Joseph being from the line of David had to go to Bethlehem. So they had to go for the census. And there was actually the Feast of Tabernacles going on at the same time in Jerusalem. And Bethlehem was only a short distance away, six, seven miles, something like that. So anyhow they were housed there. And as the story goes, they couldn't find any place, but let's go here in Luke 2 and begin in verse 6—and this is from the New American Standard—because they went for the census.

And you know when you think about that, the Romans were kind of smart in a way, the way they collected their taxes. Because they would wait until the harvest time, which was the fall, so everyone had money, right? It was an agrarian society. And then they'd wait till the Feast of Tabernacles. Then they'd conduct this census and make sure they had everybody. The whole point of being they didn't really care about people, but they cared about the amount of money that each of those registered individuals owed. So they were here registering is what they were doing and keeping the Feast.

So in Luke 2 beginning in verse 6, again New American Standard:

Luke 2:6. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. (NAU)

Verse 7:

Luke 2:7. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (NAU)

Again the census was being taken and the Feast was being conducted.

Verse 8:

Luke 2:8. In the same region there were shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.
9) And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them … (NAU)

It was probably Gabriel, which we go back to the account in Matthew and earlier, he was the one who actually talked to Zacharias. He told Zacharias because he didn't believe him, Zacharias doubted him. So he made him mute for a while, but it doesn't say specifically that it was Gabriel here, but it surely must have been.

But continuing in verse 9:

Luke 2:9b. … and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. (NAU)

The Greek there is phobeo, where we get our word "phobia".

And you have to think about that for a minute because the shepherds here all of a sudden they saw somebody there.

I don't know if you can—I know I've heard many accounts since we've been in the Church of people that have had interventions in their lives, had things that happened to them. And there's really no accounting for them. They just happened. We never really saw any angels, but I think a lot of have had different things happen to us. And we can't attribute to anything else. Something had to have happened.

I know one thing that happened to me years ago. We used to go on work parties and we had an individual in the Quincy area that was a contractor. He put up pole buildings and he did other construction. And we'd go on work parties. We'd go work the Sundays and he'd simply donate the wages to the Church.

So I remember one particular place we were at and I believe it was in Othello or Royal City. I can't remember exactly. I don't know whether Dale was there. I don't remember that exactly where it was at.

But anyhow we were putting up an extension off of a building and we were—actually we had three walls. They had the two side walls and the end wall coming off this other building. And we had some really long trusses. They were thirty-five or forty foot trusses. Very heavy, it'd take three or four of us to put one end up and then we'd go to the other end. We had a rolling scaffold and we'd go to the other end and lift it up. And the guy on the scaffold pulled up with the rope and we'd set it on the sill. And then the contractor himself would be up on the scaffold in the middle and what he'd do is he'd have to space those trusses so everything would come out right when we started sheeting.

And as we came off the building as we put the first few trusses on there, we'd do a tie back to the other building. (Arnie probably knows exactly what I'm talking about.) We'd tie these trusses back so they wouldn't fall. Well, we kept doing that and pretty soon we had—I don't know. We must have had thirty to forty trusses up. We were almost to the end of the building. The contractor was up on the scaffold. He was jockeying the trusses around trying to get them spaced correctly. And they started to fall! They came down like dominoes. And I mean these trusses were all 2 x 6 laminated, had the metal plates in them to keep them together. Anyway this all fell. He was protected by the scaffold.

I was standing in the corner of that building and there was an entry door there. And I can't tell you to this day how I got from where I was standing to outside. I don't know. I was just there. And I didn't even say anything to anybody that was on the work party. I thought, "Just be thankful, Jack!" Because the only reason the contractor himself didn't get crushed is because he was on that metal scaffold. He did get bruised up. He did get hurt.

And another thing happened to me one time even before we came into the Church. I know everybody has these stories. It's really kind of interesting sometimes to hear them at least once. We'd pulled into a gas station one time and at that point we had one of the old Chevrolets that had the gas tank underneath the license plate, that spring loaded license plate. You had to actually kneel down, pull the license plate down, take your gas cap off. And at that point, we had a locking gas cap.

So we pulled into the gas station. I went around to the rear of the car, pulled the license plate down and was looking for the key to the gas cap. Didn't have it! And I had one of those—not the split ring like we have now for keys—it was one of those little clasp things where you open it up and you put your keys on there. And then you re-clasp it and it holds everything together. The gas key was gone off of there. And at the time, I didn't have any inkling of anything. I just thought, "What?"

So I went back around to the driver's side where I had just gotten out of and I remember something kind of hitting the side of my leg. I thought maybe I dropped some change out of my pocket or something. It was that key. Well, the point of this story is that while I was back getting that key, moved from behind the car, a drunk pulled in there, slammed into the back of our car! If I had still been kneeling there, he'd have crushed me for sure! No doubt about it.

But anyhow we don't see the things that happen for us. But these guys [the shepherds] saw something. I don't know whether it was iridescent, someone suspended off the ground. I have no idea having never seen an angel. Hopefully, been helped by some!

But going on in verse 10—they were frightened—of Luke 2:

Luke 2:10. But the angel said to them … (NAU)

And again, they saw the angel. He said:

Luke 2:10b. … "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
11) for today in the city of David [Bethlehem] there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (NAU)

And actually that's also that part's a fulfillment of a prophecy that's back in Micah 5:2. And you don't need to turn there, but for reference if you want to look that up later. But I'll read it and again this is from the New American Standard.

Micah 5:2. "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah … (NAU)

Which is just the region where Bethlehem is located.

Micah 5:2b. … {too} little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." (NAU)

It's talking about Christ.

And as already mentioned, typical editorials and practically the whole entire western civilization tries to translate all of this into some kind a religious forum around the birth of Christ. And when you think about this for a minute, that's actually done, perpetuated, encouraged, and all kinds of things by people that should know better—by religious leaders. We know better. We learned, but they never did that.

I was sitting in Starbucks the other day. And a man walked in, dark suit, had a dark colorless shirt on, big silver chain, big cross. That guy had preacher written all over him. Well, he also had a big floppy Santa hat on. In some cases, and I'm not trying to denigrate individuals that do this out of ignorance.

We understand because God has, again like I said in the beginning, God has given us His spirit and He's taught us these things. But we know in many cases these are deliberate misinterpretations because most scholars know that Christ wasn't born on December 25. It just doesn't compute. Even us folks that aren't scholars, we can look at the conception and the birth of John the Baptist and he was born around Passover. And then six months later around the Feast of Tabernacles is when Christ was born. And we can back up and the math there is very easy.

But we know also that this misapplication is a result of Satan's influence on Christian religion. It perpetuates, as we heard many, many years ago, and maybe we don't think about it very often. We just kind of get jaded like everyone else. The season just comes and goes. But we know it all comes from the pagan Saturnalia.

One author—this is actually on a different subject, but—he actually touches on a little bit of this. And I'll just paraphrase him a little bit. I don't really have permission to quote directly from him. He said some interesting things in there.

He talked about the symbolism of the Christmas tree. And I thought it was kind of interesting. We have to remember that all of these symbols, all of the things that have come down to us to this age have been filtered through all these cultures, through all these years, but if we play it like a movie backwards, it all goes right back to Nimrod is where it goes—Nimrod, Semiramis.

I used to have a set of papers that I can't find anymore by, I believe, it was C. Paul Meredith on Satan's Great Deception. And it traced all that back and it was very interesting. I wish I had that again.

But anyhow all of these things have come down to us so they have different meanings. And, yes, I'm very much aware the sexual symbolism and all that. I'll spare you all of that, of the different things associated with the Christmas holidays. But he did make one interesting observation on the Christmas tree.

And I kind of understand his logic, especially when you think about going back to Nimrod, who was the first tyrant, had the first city-state, actually Babylon. He said the pyramid, among other things—again we have different meanings from different cultures—is a pyramid structure and it actually depicts the pyramidal hierarchical system, which is Satan's system.

If you look at—I did a little search on Wikipedia. (That isn't the other Wiki guy, is it? No, we want to stay away from him, right?) I did a little search on types of government and there are just endless lists of them, but they're all hierarchal. Even anarchy is hierarchal because somebody wants to be in charge, right, even among the anarchists!

If we look at that it's really kind of interesting and if we take this whole holiday celebration that come down to us through these fables, through these legends and all that, comes through the Roman, the Greek, the Egyptian and again, it goes right back to the very beginning to Nimrod. But when you look at that symbolism of what that represents, and you think about Christ when He returns is actually going to take over all the rulership, all the governments of the world because these systems they self-destruct. They all have. We watch, we can see ours just falling apart around us. It just seems like, I don't know about you, but it doesn't look like to me things are getting better. And that's usually the way it goes. Individuals will use the power and the things that they have. But again we know that this is all from Satan. It's all from His influence.

This author also pointed out and I know you probably know this too, but if you do a little rearranging in the letters of "Santa", you'll get "Satan." I know you knew that already. And the name Nicholas itself referring to him, you know "nichols" conqueror or destroyer or victory over the people, "laos"—Nicholas. Again, it's referring to Satan in Revelation 9 verse 11.

And again this author brought out some interesting things because if the tree depicted as a pyramid shape and if we have the star on the top of, on top of the tree, if we go back, if you remember, if you go back to Isaiah 14 where he has that little discourse there starts about verse 11 or 12. And it talks about Satan, where it's actually the type there is Satan. There are actually two types there but Satan is there. And the word Lucifer as we learned early, early on, that's a Latin insertion. The real Hebrew there means shining star or day star or son of the morning. That's talking about the sun. And we look at all the sun worship that's come down through these different cultures, through all the ages. So anyhow if we look at that, if we look at Satan over that pyramidal structure becomes a very interesting picture. In fact, it becomes very sinister when you think about that.

I was in a hardware store. We have Ranch and Home in the Tri-Cities and I don't know if they're all over the place or not. But anyhow I was in there the other day and a big Christmas tree sitting just inside the entry and a Santa Claus on top of it! Well, this is the old Nordic version with the kind of a scraggly, yellowish beard, has kind of a breastplate on with a full robe, no rope. Not the typical almost cartoonish character. And I thought "Wow!"

And I've heard of nativity scenes before with shepherds and everyone standing there supposedly at the birth of Christ. He's in the manger and all that. And Santa Claus is standing there. And I'd never seen one of those until the other day. And I actually cut that out. That didn't go in my funny-bone file by the way. That went in my Christmas stuff file. Here's a Santa Claus and there was no credits given for this. I don't know where it came from. It's like a quarter page ad in the paper we have at home. And here's Santa Claus. He's kneeling down and it goes through kind of a thing there. It's not really a poem, but he's actually thanking Jesus for giving him his job. And that almost has a perverse sickness to it. But I'd never seen one of those before.

But we know that the whole world is deceived. We already know that. And this whole celebration, this whole time of year has nothing really to do with Christ's birth. We know that. And if we really think about all the images, all the symbolism, and everything that's used at this time of year, it's loaded with images that are nothing more than idolatry. And I don't know if I've ever heard it brought out before. This is a direct violation of God's commandments. It says in Exodus 20 verses 4 through 6, where it's talking about making idols. It seems to me this fits the symbolism and things that are involved. And, again, this is just a reference, but in Exodus 20 verse 4, it says:

Exodus 20:4. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (NKJ)

That sounds to me like it covers everything. So we can't really make a "Christian" image out of something and then say, "This is the reason for the season." Verse 5:

Exodus 20:5. you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. (NKJ)

Done in many ways at this time of the year!

Exodus 20:5b. … For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children … (NKJ)

And you've got to think about that for a minute. There was also another article in the paper, a fairly lengthy article, just prior to Christmas maybe a couple of weeks. And it was a lady—and I don't know whether it was a true story or not, but it was in the form of an article. So there must have been some validity to the story. Anyhow it was a woman wondering how she should tell her kids about Santa Claus. So there's another commandment. How do I lie to my kids?

And there were a bunch of different answers. And a lot of these were given by psychologists, professors that said, "Well, it was really okay." But if you think about that, you think about these lies have all come down to us through all these cultures, through all these years, and then to continue to perpetuate that! That's how you "visit" the different generations. It just keeps going. Eventually that will go away and hopefully we'll have some things to do with that, but that will be through correct education. And when you think about that, there's a tremendous amount of damage going on in there. So it's not really okay to pass those things along to children.

But continuing on in verse 6 of Exodus 20:

Exodus 20:6. but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments [who know God's way]. (NKJ)

But when you think about that one commandment, when you think about lying, when you think about stealing from God's truth to practice a lie, when you think about coveting, which as Paul said is idolatry; you're breaking all the commandments by doing these things. And we know we don't do that.

The whole point for us is that we worship a real genuine God and His Son Jesus Christ and we don't need any form of something to represent that. We look at the character and what God is as we worship Him. We focus on those things. And this is certainly not a babe in a manger, which is a false image of a false savior. And I know this has been covered many times in the past, but we know that it's not something that we practice and that we do as a Church. Actually there is one lady attending in the Prosser area that is new to the Church. So these things are new to her.

So I started out and my title is "What's the Real Meaning of Isaiah 9 verse 6?" So let's read it again. I know you're probably still there if you're not asleep. Isaiah 9 verse 6. Because there's some interesting things here that go far beyond what we see go on around us every year. Isaiah 9 verse 6:

Isaiah 9:6. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. (NAU)

It will be. This is futuristic. He will reign as King of kings and Lord and lords. And that's in Revelation 19 and verse 16 specifically, but also what it's talking about—you remember what it's talking about there in Revelation 19? It's talking about Christ returning on a white horse with an army to take over the governments and the rulership of the earth.

But it goes on to say and it lists some things here.

Isaiah 9:6b. … And His name will be called wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, [eternal] Father, Prince of Peace. (NAU)

And one commentary says these are terms for Christ's throne names, His titles. I actually looked up and found a very long list. I mean multiple page list that someone had put together of the titles and the names for Christ. But these are just a few here and I think these actually add a lot of emphasis to what this verse is really saying.

The part where it says, "His name will be called wonderful," one commentary says that "this name is a noun. It's not an adjective. It speaks of His person and of His work and refers to His character, what makes up His being, what God is."

"Counselor," that's referring to the wisdom and the way He operates. And the way He's going to govern the whole earth. We can only speculate on that. What did Paul tell us? We don't have any idea what God has in store for us.

If we look at the structure of the governments and the way things are run on the earth today from corporations, unfortunately churches, all kinds of things are run in that hierarchal structure. And the problem with that always, of course, is that human nature gets in the way. That's the problem.

But if we think about—and I've thought about this; I don't know whether you have—what kind of structure God's government is going to have. I can imagine a government where there is no hierarchy where the individuals are governed with God's spirit. And they're self-governed. That's a really strange concept for us to try to get our minds around because we don't see it. We're submissive to the things that are going on around us, to our governments, local, state, city, county, etc., etc. So we can't imagine that. But Christ in His wisdom as the Counselor, He is actually going to set that up. It's going to be a sharp contrast, I know, to the way things are done today in almost any kind of a hierarchal structure. And again, that's a huge mess. And just thinking back to that symbolism of the tree, that pyramidal shape, and looking at those types of governments, it really is a huge mess. It just needs to be changed.

But just going on there, the next one of these titles—and again, these are throne names for when Christ does rule, when He's sitting on His throne—"Mighty God." And the commentary goes on. I thought this one commentary had some interesting things to say about these titles and I've added a little to those. It says "Mighty God." This means the Omnipotent Supreme Ruler.

Mighty is a reference to His divine power, His might as a warrior. We have to think about that too because again looking in Revelation and you remember years ago, we heard that Christ's coming back and He's mad. Well, He's coming back and He's actually going to have to change things and it's going to take a lot of authority, power, and force. We know of armies that are going to be literally dissolved. But Mighty God, that's talking about that. I jotted down one reference, 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16 where it says that when Christ returns, He's going to descend from heaven with a shout. Kind of like a war cry, I mean.

And the next one, "Everlasting Father," and the commentator on this one points out that a better translation is "Father, or source, of eternity." God's being eternal Himself and He confers eternal life on us when our change comes. And it refers to other things also. He goes on to say that Vine comments that there's a twofold revelation in this term 'Everlasting Father' because it says that 1) He inhabits and possesses eternity. And he cites Isaiah 57 verse 15 where it says God and His Son Jesus Christ inhabit eternity. That is, they reside in an entirely different dimension, spiritual dimension. And number 2) and we have to think about this in the context of a parent of a spiritual, of a heavenly parent. He's a loving, tender, compassionate, and all wise Teacher, and Provider. In other words, He's going to show the way to a few of us now, but everyone that will accept it in the future. All mankind is going to have that opportunity.

And the last one listed there is "Prince of Peace," Prince of Peace, the Hebrew being Sar- Shaalowm. It just means the One that at last will bring peace on this troubled earth. No better reference for that when you think about peace.

Again, Isaiah 9 verse 6, by the way, verse 6 and 7 are some of my favorite Scriptures and also Isaiah 2, but it talks about peace in Isaiah 2. If you want to just turn back there, verses 1 through 4. Again, this is—even though I briefly covered a little bit of stuff there about Christmas, you can save that or throw it away, whatever you want to do—trying to get at the real meaning of what these Scriptures mean, what they portend for us, not only us but all mankind. But in Isaiah 2, it talks a little bit about that beginning in verse 1 and this is from the New King James. It says;

Isaiah 2:1. The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. (NKJ)

It was for them then. They didn't get most of it, but it has a futuristic tense here. It's a futuristic prophecy as verse 2 goes on to explain.

Isaiah 2:2. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days … (NKJ)

Far into the future at Christ's return.

Isaiah 2:2b. … that the mountain of the Lord's house … (NKJ)

And "the mountain," as we know, is symbolic of God's government.

Isaiah 2:2 continued. … shall be established on the top of the mountains … (NKJ)

The other mountains! In other words, it's going to be over them, over all other governments which are going to be displaced by Christ's rule. Again, He's going to be King of kings, Lord of lords.

Isaiah 2:2 continued. … and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. (NKJ)

I think it's kind of interesting. One translation, instead of "flow" here, says that "nations will stream into Jerusalem" because that's going to be the new seat of Christ's government. That's where He's going to rule from over the whole earth. We get that picture in Revelation of the New Jerusalem. People are going to stream to that.

Verse 3:

Isaiah 2:3. Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; he will teach us His ways … (NKJ)

Again, He's that supportive. He's that Teacher. He's that caring Father. He's going to teach of His ways. He's not going to—it's going to be force on force is where the things are going to happen at the beginning of the Millennium. It's kind of like today. Unfortunately force has to be used in the face of force. But He's going to teach His ways, which are entirely different.

Isaiah 2:3b. … and we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law … (NKJ)

I just talked about some law that we so flagrantly ignore at this time of year. And I say "we" as a people, not us, not you.

Isaiah 2:3 continued. … For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the [Eternal] from Jerusalem. (NKJ)

We used to say at the Feast of Tabernacles that this part of Scripture here, that verse 3, is actually a job description for the saints because we're going to have some responsibilities to help do that, to help that Counselor, that Wonderful Counselor, the Lord of lords, King of kings, that providing everlasting Father. We're going to be helping in that.

Verse 4:

Isaiah 2:4. He shall judge between the nations … (NKJ)

In other words, He's going to judge, make decisions, and settle disputes. Unlike today, they're going to be just! They aren't today.

Isaiah 2:4b. … and rebuke many people … (NKJ)

That's an interesting phrase because what that's really referring to is He's going to rebuke people, nations, governments, rulers, whatever might be left at that point. He's going to rebuke them by showing them what they did wrong. He's going to correct them in that way. And then He's going to show them what the real solutions are. That's the way you teach.

I remember when I was an instructor myself I didn't mind letting my students make a mistake as long it didn't hurt anything or didn't destroy any of my equipment. We used to have management come in and evaluate our classes and I got in trouble for that one time because the manager informed me afterwards when he took me aside and raked me over the coals for letting a student make a minor mistake. By the way that student never forgot that because of the embarrassment that he went through. Anyhow, I got chewed out. He said, "We don't make mistakes here." And I just kind of looked. I didn't say anything, because you can't really do anything like in those situations. But I just thought maybe he thought we weren't all humans, never made mistakes. But that can also apply to us. We're going to learn a lot of things that we've done wrong.

But continuing verse 4, the last part:

Isaiah 2:4 continued. … they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (NKJ)

And we know on the grounds of the U.N. there's a bronze statue that has this statement on it, that has this Scripture on it. What I find really ironic and interesting about that statue is: Do you know where it came from? It was donated by the Soviet Union in 1959. I was in the military at that time in the Navy. And I know I've mentioned this before, but we used to get lectures all the time about how many ships, how many guns, how many atomic bombs the Russians had, how many we had. And I guess it was a morale booster because they were trying to tell us, "Well, you don't really need to be afraid of the Russians." Well, yeah, we did! Also the leader in charge at that time was Nikita Khrushchev. They donated that statue. I think there's a lot of irony in that. We know that the U.N. is not accomplishing any peace. They haven't. They can't. They won't. It just doesn't work. Mankind has proven over and over, he can't control his human nature under Satan's influence.

I ran across an interesting quote from The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. And the article, interesting enough, was "Cannibalism."

You know where we get the word "barbeque'? Does anybody know that? It comes from barbacoa. And actually it's a term that was used for the green branches that they used to use when they'd roast a human. Think of that next time you barbeque! That's where we get the word barbeque from barbacoa. I didn't need to mention that at all then.

In 1987, we were able to go to Fiji for the Feast. And I thought it was kind of interesting. We went to a museum there. And, as we were getting the tour around, they were telling—and they used to practice cannibalism on Fiji—and it was kind of interesting. They told us that the last person they ate was a missionary in 1966. They roasted the guy and ate him, but anyhow—they barbequed him. No.

Anyhow going on in this article and to get back to the point of what I'm talking about here. We can't control the human nature that we have. The article goes on here and I quote:

Western morality has always allowed and encouraged mass killing provided the dead never become meals for the living.

It's okay to conduct war—that's my comment.

It has been noted that the decline of human sacrifice and cannibalism in antiquity was not accompanied by a decline in human slaughter generally. On the contrary, the scale of warfare steadily increased with the growth of civilization up to the point where now the highly technical civilizations of today stand ready to exterminate the entire world.

And the point being there that man can't help himself apart from God. When man it seems like when he gets in power and authority, he will eventually at some point misuse that. A recent article in the paper was about Chavez. I'm not sure what his title is in Argentina. He's not really a dictator, but he's definitely going that way. They just enacted a bunch of laws to give him more power. In other words, concentrate more and more power to him. So he can, I guess, stay in power forever. It's pretty much when we look around at the governments of the world it's pretty much survival of the fittest, especially when we see Satan fanning the flames of the fanaticism that we see around us all the time that we actually live in fear of, whether we want to or not. It's there.

But let's go on in Isaiah 9 verse 7. Isaiah 9 and verse 7, it goes on to say:

Isaiah 9:7. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end … (NKJ)

That's the future!

Isaiah 9:7b. … upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal [or the power or the energy] of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (NKJ)

It is going to happen!

I think it's interesting there where it makes the comment "upon the throne of David" because if we turn back over to Matthew chapter 1, it begins to talk about the genealogy of Christ. And this is all in the context of these Scriptures. Actually that one and the fulfillment of it, that one in Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7 and the fulfillment of it. We're in Matthew 1 verse 1, this from the New King James.

Matthew 1:1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: (NKJ)

Here's the Son of David. And it goes through a whole bunch of "begots" here tracing the genealogy of Christ, but let's jump down to verse 16.

Matthew 1:16. And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.
17) So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.
18) Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. (NKJ)

And then we know the story, Joseph being a just man wanted to put her away. Verse 20:

Matthew 1:20. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David … (NKJ)

Everything is key to this genealogy and it actually turns out kind of interesting.

Matthew 1:20b. … do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. (NKJ)

Verse 21:

Matthew 1:21. "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." (NKJ)

"Jesus" meaning Savior. Verse 22:

Matthew 1:22. So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: (NKJ)

And he's quoting Isaiah 7 verse 14.

Matthew 1:23. "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." (NKJ)

Verse 24:

Matthew 1:24. Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife,
25) and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. (NKJ)

So, it's interesting when we look at all that. I know it's kind of difficult to wade through all those genealogies and everything, but when you think about the importance of this because the commentators will point out that Matthew traces the lineage of David down to Joseph because he's addressing a Jewish audience. Luke traces the genealogy to Mary because he's addressing a Gentile audience, Luke being a Gentile himself. Which is kind of interesting, that covers everything, everybody!

But it's much more than simply that. A thousand years earlier God had made an unconditional agreement with David promising him that his Kingdom would last forever and there would be a perpetually ruling line. You can find that over in Psalm 89 in some verses there. So that covenant is now fulfilled in Christ since He was born because He's going to be the legal, He is legal heir to the throne of David through David and the actual seed of David through Mary. So Matthew's account shows Christ's legal documentation to David and Mary, and Luke's account establishes the bloodline from David. It all comes together right there.

And yeah, I know the scholars are going to say, "Yeah, there's some missing information there. I have, in fact, I have a paper that tries to refute everything that—well, I won't mention that. That's kind of depressing. But there's missing information there if you actually look at this. The math really comes out a little bit off and scholars and commentators will point all that out, but it still leaves the evidence there that Christ's genealogy is irrefutable. It's through the line of David.

Another interesting thing when we think about it is that Isaiah announced this good news way ahead of time! It's not about an infant Christ. It has nothing to do with what the world tries to do now.

Let's go over to Isaiah 40. Isaiah is a long book. It has sixty-six chapters, but what's interesting about those sixty-six chapters are the first chapters say one thing and the last chapters say something else. In fact, the commentators say that the last twenty-seven or so chapters beginning around chapter 39, chapter 40, actually talking about that these are prophecies of comfort because they're prophecies of hope and encouragement. That's where Isaiah talks about the coming Christ. So let's go to Isaiah 40 and begin in verse 9, where it says:

Isaiah 40:9. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; lift {it} up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" (NAU)

And again, this is still in a dual tense because it happened then. They didn't get a lot of it, but it's going to happen again. This good news does not change is the point.

Verse 10:

Isaiah 40:10. Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him.
11) Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry {them} in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing.
12) Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales? (NAU)

Kind of compare that with the last part of the Book of Job where God tells him all these things and just overwhelms him with His power and with His ability, with His greatness.

Verse 13, going on:

Isaiah 40:13. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him? (NAU)

One of His titles says He's the Counselor. He's the One that has the wisdom and everything you need.

Verse 14:

Isaiah 40:14. With whom did He consult and {who} gave Him understanding? And {who} taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding?
15) Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales … (NAU)

In other words, don't mean anything.

Isaiah 40:15b. … behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16) Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17) All the nations are as nothing before Him…
18) To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
19) {As for} the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith {fashions} chains of silver.
20) He who is too impoverished for {such} an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol … (NAU)

Makes an idol out of it and we can see that. We do it all the time today. Even in a sense we do it with the stuff that Dale was talking about. And by the way, I appreciated that sermonette because the prosperity that Dale was talking about is future for us. We have some now, but we also are going to have much more in the future.

Verse 21:

Isaiah 40:21. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22) It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (NAU)

Verse 23:

Isaiah 40:23. He {it is} who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. (NAU)

He did it historically. Every hierarchal pyramidal structure has fallen to this point in history. And it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of hope for the ones that are left. But He's going to do that on a worldwide scale at His return.

Verse 24:

Isaiah 40:24. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble.
25) "To whom then will you liken me that I would be equal?" says the Holy One.
26) Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these {stars}, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of {His} power, not one {of them} is missing. (NAU)

Did you catch that recent news article where the astronomers think there's about a gazillion more stars than what they first thought? I can't help but think that when I read this Scripture. And by the way, they're still guessing!

Verse 27:

Isaiah 40:27. Why do you say, O Jacob … (NAU) [mispronunciation]

Jocub! Like my wife says I don't know English even.

Isaiah 40:27. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"? (NAU)

"We're going to get away with it."

Isaiah 40:28. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
29) He gives strength to the weary, and to {him who} lacks might He increases power.
30) Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly,
31) Yet those who wait [or hope in] for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up {with} wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. (NAU)

And the only way we can do that is when we're changed. So this actually talks about God's plan. It talks about Jesus Christ. It talks about those throne names and what's going to happen. And there's many, many more besides this.

I'll go back to what I said in the beginning. All these Scriptures and many more point to the tremendous event that's going to come on the earth. Much more than what the world is trying to portray right now and we know that. Hopefully it's going to be sooner.

But all this comes through the understanding that God gives us. So we can be very, very thankful for that. But all that hope comes in Christ, all that hope we have, it's just been possible since His birth—and His death, actually. So wrapping this up, we can be very thankful and we can kind of maybe adjust our attitudes and what our thoughts should be.

Recently around Thanksgiving time, everyone contributes, again, to the editorial page. I read the editorial page. My wife reads the entire paper from front to back. I read the comics and the editorial page. Anyhow, one couple in town there, they sent in a list of things they were thankful for. And what I liked about it is it's a short list. And some things we can relate to on.

Just a few bullets here: The first bullet they're thankful for is "Jesus Christ." And I know the first thing we're going to think of "Well, that's surface Christianity. It doesn't really count." Second bullet: "For a Christian spouse." It's kind of hard to argue with that one. Another bullet: "Family and friends." Another one: "Church family." Another one is "freedom." Another one is a "warm home."

And I like the last two here: "Popcorn and chocolate!"

And just like Dale talked about, we've got a lot of things to be thankful for. We have so many material blessings. We have a lot of prosperity in this country still.

But the most priceless blessing that we have, the most priceless thing we have is that understanding and that knowledge that God has given to us. Some of us see our life kind of getting towards the end, but this knowledge, this understanding is not going to die with us. And we know that the understanding and the knowledge we have isn't perfect. We can look around at the Church today and there are all kinds of problems. So we're not perfect, but we have this calling. We have this understanding.

What was the latest census? Three hundred and eight, almost three hundred and nine million in the U.S. now. What percentage are we, God's people? Very, very small. I can't even calculate down that far!

But of all those millions of people, all those billions of people in the world, again, they're dying not knowing this! They don't have the slightest clue of what God's plan is. They're celebrating something that they think is religious.

Psalm 116 verse 15, as a reference, says:

Psalm 116:15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. (NKJ)

Recently there was an article in the paper. I thought it was an interesting article. It was about a young nurse. She grew up locally, went to college, got a nursing degree and worked in hospitals for a while and then finally gravitated to hospice care. And she wanted to do that because after working in the nursing homes for a while, she saw that there were people there that just didn't seem to have anybody to care about them—no support.

And she especially got attached to this one gentleman. He was very angry, very cantankerous, would even hit people, do all kinds of things. Nobody could deal with him. She just very patiently worked with him for a long time. And then finally one day she thought she had him figured out and she just asked him. She said, "Are you afraid of dying?" And that stopped him. He changed from that minute on. He was afraid of dying. It was an unknown to him. He didn't have anything to look forward to after that. And the really touching part of the story was that just towards the end of his life, he just asked her to hug him. And she hugged him and he took his last breath. So he had someone there.

That was a neat story, but it's just an example of the way the world is. It has no hope whatsoever. They just think they die. My parents both died in a nursing home. We spent three years visiting them. All the time they were doing things for them. But you know what the topic of conversation is in a nursing home? It's "Who died last night? Who died today?" And they know the names. It becomes very heart wrenching to go through that and see that all the time.

When my father died, he was cremated. And my mother wanted his urn in her room. And we set it on the dresser in her room. And after a couple of days, when we came back, she wanted us to take it down because it was bothering people. It was a place of death. It was a place of frustration, anger, discouragement, depression. That's what they have. But the point for us is that these folks have no, in many cases they have no support. They die alone.

But we don't have to face that. God the Father and Jesus Christ don't have any limitations. They're supportive. We saw that God was an everlasting Father. He cares for His children. In 1 Thessalonians 4—I actually am wrapping up—in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13 where Paul says:

1 Thessalonians 4:13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
15) For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. (NAU)

And then it goes on there. Let's jump down to verse 17. It says the dead in Christ are going to rise first before that. And then it says:

1 Thessalonians 4:17. Then we who are alive … will be caught up together … (NAU)

God doesn't leave anybody behind!

Verse 18, it says:

1 Thessalonians 4:18. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (NAU)

And that word "comfort" just means to give aid, encouragement. It means from God and to each other because of the knowledge that we have, because of the promises that God has made for us.

And also in Isaiah again, as a reference, in Isaiah 57 verses 1 and 2, it talks about the righteous perishes and nobody takes it to heart. And we know that hardly anybody notices if we die, if God's people die. If you're a rock star, you may be memorialized on national TV annually. For what? I don't know. Maybe you're greatest [indiscernible] performance. I don't know. But it says in that verse too that:

Isaiah 57:1b. … merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous [are] taken away from evil. (NKJ)

And there is a lot of evil in this world. But it says we're going to rest in our beds, which means we're going to sleep. We're going to die at some point if we're not alive when Christ comes.

So if we—I can continue—if we look at that chapter—and I don't have time to go into it obviously—but if we looked at that chapter of Isaiah, it talks a lot about the conduct of the Israelites at that point. And they had kind of an attitude and a conduct that we see around us today. We see it not only in this holiday, but in every other facet of life, especially in our western world. It's an idolatrous conduct. It's kind of an eat, drink, and be merry, and ignore God attitude. That's what we have. And that's why it's interesting that last verse there "taken away from the evil," because it is an evil time. It's the same today. We see it in the rank symbolism. And it is rank symbolism that we see in the holidays going on around us.

And we know that it wasn't a baby that did all the things that Christ did. We can develop a whole list of the things that He did—The Complete List in the Acts of Christ. Again, I mention that partial list that I saw somewhere, but it's very interesting in this context to look at the very last verse of the Book of John in chapter 21 and verse 25, again a reference. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about here. From the New American Standard it says in John 21 verse 25:

John 21:25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. (NAU)

And I think it's interesting because if we include everything Christ did, what He has done, what He's going to do, we have to consider Him sustaining the entire universe, the entire atomic structure of every physical thing! Could we catalog that in a book? It's impossible. We couldn't do that. It would be totally impossible.

So my whole point here is that there's tons of hope in God's Word. I've only touched on a few here. Christ was born of a woman—virgin Mary—raised by her and Joseph, became a man, yet God, suffered an unjust trial, was put to death, but He was resurrected. He's now on God's right hand and one of His functions is to be an Advocate for us, for you and me.

Sometimes we have blessings. Sometimes we have that prosperity. Sometimes we have struggles. Sometimes we have trials. Well, you know we know what the end is! Christ's birth was just the beginning and we know what the end is. God the Father and Jesus Christ's desire is to have us in Their Kingdom that never changes ever, ever. So the real meaning of the prophecy here in Isaiah 9 verse 6 and its fulfillment in Christ's birth is:

It was just the beginning. The best is yet to come.

Transcribed by kb January 13, 2011