For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9:6
I love this verse. It’s packed with wonderful promises, speaking of Jesus’ birth and His future reign. It also gives us several amazing titles for Jesus. (And it’s the text for my favorite chorus from Handel’s Messiah, which always starts playing in my head when I read this verse.) There’s so much here that we’re going to take a couple of weeks to savor all the goodness.
The first thing I want to point out is that the child whose birth we’ll celebrate in a couple weeks is a gift from God: “to us a son is given.” Jesus is the very best gift ever given to anyone, because through His gift, we have eternal life with the Father (John 3:16-17). That’s the real reason to celebrate Christmas, to remember God’s incredible gift to us.
The many titles of Jesus in this verse just reinforce the beauty of this first Christmas gift. The first one we see is Wonderful Counselor. Some translations have a comma between Wonderful and Counselor, making this into two titles.
We often use “wonderful” to mean great, like “it’s wonderful to see you here today.” But this word comes from the same root as “miracle” and could also be translated marvelous. Meditating on who Jesus is should fill us with wonder, awe, and reverence; we should marvel at who His is.
A counselor is someone who gives advice and guidance. Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor, who gives us all the guidance we need to live for Him.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, - 2 Peter 1:3 ESV
Think About: Have you received the gift of Jesus? How has He been your wonderful counselor?
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