Advent
Meditation
December
25th
33.
A Son is Born!
Isa
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 Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
As
we have gone through these Advent meditations, there has been a tendency
to try to put ourselves in the place of the people concerned, in order
to catch the reality of the events and the possible impact upon us today.
In doing this we have almost ignored the baby! In a sense the baby is
the most important person in the story but, by necessity, we focus on
the people involved with the baby. In the last of these meditations
we now seek to remedy that by looking at this Old Testament prophecy
about this coming one.
A
child…. a son is given….. the prophecy
is all about a male human baby yet to be born who, from the descriptions
that follow, will be far from ordinary, who will be ‘given' as a gift
from God!
….
and the government will be on his shoulders…
he will carry the burden of rule, a quaint way of saying he will be
a king.
….And
he will be called….
when you call somebody something, you are acknowledging who or what
they are.
Wonderful
Counsellor…
this is literally wonder-counsellor or supernatural counsellor, one
who will come with great wisdom and insight that is beyond human capability.
When Jesus came he came with a different level of teaching (Mk 1:23,27,
Mt 22:33) and knew what people were thinking (Mt 12:25, Mk 2:8, Lk 5:22,
6:8, 11:17) and stopped with mouths of the religious teachers with his
wisdom and insight.
Mighty
God…
what a staggering prophetic claim! The word mighty gives no
room to go off into wondering if the prophet was going off into some
fantasy New Age speculations, (“we are all gods”). No this is Isaiah
saying this child will be Almighty God. Of course, as we've noted a
number of times, this defies our intellect and was therefore a stumbling
block for the Jewish teachers. But this is at the core of the Christmas
story – today we celebrate the coming of God Himself to live on the
earth in human experience!
Everlasting
Father…
again there is no room given by the prophet for us to speculate about
this coming child. Everlasting has to speak of God Himself
for no other being is eternal or everlasting. The concept of God as
Father was limited in the Old Dispensation, and only came to fullness
when God came in the form of His “Son”. Contrary to the so-often terrible
role models of today, this Father is a faithful, caring, compassionate
and understanding provider who is always there for His children – which
is what He calls us when we come to Him (Jn 1:12, 1Jn 3:1). Within these
latter two descriptions so far, is the sense of unity. Jesus is the
Son, but he's also one with the Father (Jn 10:30 ,38, 14:9). John makes
over 110 references to the Father in his Gospel! He understood
something of the incredible concept that Jesus was sharing.
Prince
of Peace….
a prince is a son of a ruler… hence Jesus the Son of the Almighty Ruler
of all things. His role? To bring peace between God and man, to reconcile
us sinners to Holy God (Rom 5:11,
2 Cor 5:19).
This is what this baby is going on to do. Without him we would be estranged
from God and could never know the wonder of His loving acceptance and
the blessings that follow.
That
is the wonder of this day – God has come to bring the means to bring
us to Himself. Rejoice in it! Celebrate it! Worship Him! Have
I received this gift from God? Has Jesus become the ruler of my
life? Have I acknowledged him for who he is? Is he my counsellor,
the one who knows all about me and who guides me? Do I acknowledge
him as God? Is he the way to my knowing the Father, the one who cares
for me and provides for me? Have I received the peace he brings?
If
I can respond in the affirmative to all these questions then the only
thing left is to thank God for all of those things - for my gift
of life, the leader of my life, the bringer of wisdom and all else that
I need, my entry to heaven, my peace here on the earth.
Lord
I thank you for all these things. Thank you for this day! Thank you
for Jesus!
If
you wish to e-mail us any comment on this meditation please click here
:
tony.thomas@rochfordcc.co.uk
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