Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 9:2

I. One almost invariable sight revealed to us in the shadow of death is the imperishableness of the past. There is good in this revision of the past. (1) It is good to know that the past as much as the present is real; that our deeds lie there, imperishable, dormant, but not dead; that we cannot hide from them when they awake, nor put them away from our lives. (2) The remaining hours of our time here are more likely to be encountered and occupied with serious hearts. (3) Nothing more disposes us to listen to the offers of Divine mercy, than a clear unambiguous view of the actual past of our lives.

II. Another and more important sight vouchsafed to us in serious illness is the sight of the world we live in dwarfed to its true proportions. This is a great sight. It is gain to a man's soul, even when no bodily betterness can take place. It is actual light to him in the land of the shadow. For if the cares and anxieties of our daily duties be disproportionate, if the great mass of them be nothing more real than shadows, it is better that we should know it here, than that we should pass deceived and deluded into the presence of Him from whose face all shadows flee away.

III. A third experience in serious illness is, that away from the resurrection of Christ there is no light for the world to come. We are bereft of human light. Our friendships do not help us here; our books wave farewell to us. The light they once brought to us twinkles behind us like street lights on a gradually receding shore; and the conviction comes nearer and clearer to our heart that the one light for the shadow, the light which alone can reveal the future, is the light which burns without consuming in the resurrection of our Lord.

IV. The next experience is the loneliness of suffering. This loneliness is the shadow sent to bring us home. God is our home. In Him, now and here, we live and move. The shadow separates us from our earthly home—puts friend and companion far from us; but it is, eventually, to bring us closer to our home in Him.

V. To the children of God affliction is in every way a good. Its shadow is a retirement for renewed and deeper insight into the character and purposes of their Father.

A. Macleod, Days of Heaven upon Earth, p. 262.

References: Isaiah 9:3.—F. J. Austin, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 137; J. Pulsford, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 233; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. v., p. 155; H. Thompson, Concionalia: Outlines for Parochial Use, 2nd series, p. 14; T. C. Finlayson, Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 523. Isaiah 9:4.—E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 63; S. Cox, Ibid., vol. vi., p. 410. Isaiah 9:5.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., p. 184.

Isaiah 9:6

I. There is no such thing as an insignificant birth. All births are intense with meaning. Each has in it the splendour of immortal powers, and each of them is luminous with the unquenchable spark whose flames will burn with increasing brilliancy through the eternities. No birth is insignificant, but births differ in the quality and degree of their emphasis. There are births which are like the introduction of new forces and energies into human society, which pour the current of their power down through the ages with ever-widening and deepening volume.

II. Our commemoration today is of the birth of a man, not the promulgation of a system, or the inauguration of a faith in a mere religion. Religions there were before the Christ was born. Systems of truth there were, out of which governments and civilisations sprang. But up to the time that Christ was born, up to the time that Divinity became incarnate, and the amiable elements of the Divine disposition entered into and animated flesh and blood, the world had lacked a man perfect in holiness, distinguished in the wisdom which inherent righteousness can alone bring to human ability, and pre-eminent in those affections and amiable instincts which in themselves are a revelation of the fatherhood of God. Humanity did not need a new religion; it needed a Divine presence.

III. We must remember (1) that Christ was greater than any truth He ever uttered. We must study Him through His words and His deeds, if we would receive the glorious impression which his purity and virtue and goodness are calculated to make upon us. (2) That we celebrate the birth of a man with universal connections. His little family did not absorb Him. He was not the Son of Mary and Joseph, He was the Son of humanity.

IV. At the birth of Christ the world began to live a new life, because the saving grace of perfect conduct of a saintly spirit and of an atoning death had been given it. Religions were translated out of words into life, out of speech into spirit, out of books into manhood, out of the intellect into the untaught and the unteachable impulses of the soul.

W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, p. 146.

The Incarnation and the secret of believing it.

I. Our nature shrinks from the imagination of Deity existing in solitude. Suppose that self-manifestation is a property of the Divine nature, as essential to its perfection as wisdom or love, then He in whom that manifestation is made, to whom God communicates His nature as the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, must be co-eternal with Him. From the beginning the Word was with God.

II. There is nothing absurd in the idea of such a union of two natures in the person of our Lord. Each of us also is possessed of two natures—a corporeal and a spiritual. There is as much inexplicable mystery in the union of these two natures in the humblest human being, as there is in the union of a Divine and a human nature in the person of Christ.

III. Suppose that at some meeting of citizens, publicly convened for deliberation, an individual, abject in mien and poor in apparel, should present himself for our notice; and that, when he proceeded to address us in language of serious admonition, we resented what we reckoned his presumption, repressed him, and turned him out with abuse,—our conduct would be not a little censurable, as a breach of the great law of the fraternity of all men, and a violation of the rights of citizenship. Well, we have expelled him from our assembly; but there he is back, with the crown of Britain on his head. How much more criminal it would be to treat him with indignity now. His flesh is now the flesh of a king; it is sacred: touch it not for harm; protect it with loyal care. The Divine nature of Christ was a crown to His human nature; not changing that human, so as to render it essentially different from ours, but giving it official preeminence—royalising it. (1) What must sin be in the judgment of Heaven, that, when He who was crowned with the diadem of Godhead presented Himself on our behalf, His substitution was not refused as if it had been exorbitant to ask so much? (2) Does the kingly crown save the king from feeling like other men? The crown which Jesus wore saved Him no pain, no pang, by which His brethren are afflicted. He felt as keenly as we feel—even more keenly; for in mental suffering, at least, the nature, being more refined, is necessarily more sensitive, in proportion as it is sinless.

W. Anderson, Discourses, p. 33.

I. We have here the great mystery of the Incarnation. "Unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given." "Unto us a Child is born" relates, we may safely say, to the humanity of Christ. "To us a Son is given" relates to the Divine nature of Christ. He was a Son when born, even the Eternal Son of God.

II. "The government shall be upon His shoulder." He is a King then; born for kingly office, and with kingly power. For one who shrinks from Christ, through dislike of the cross, there are hundreds who shrink from Him through dislike of the throne. The hard sentence to flesh and blood is not "The world's iniquity was laid upon His head," but "The world's government is laid upon His shoulder." Christ is King, and He reigns, whether to reward the loyal, or to punish the rebellious.

III. "Wonderful." This is the first title which the prophetic herald assigns to the newborn Prince. Wonderful in His actions, for look at His miracles; wonderful in His endurances, for contemplate His sufferings; wonderful in life, for who shall declare His generation? wonderful in death, for He saw no corruption; wonderful in His resurrection, for He raised Himself; wonderful in ascension, for He carried our fallen nature into heavenly places; wonderful in the love which moved Him to do and to suffer for sinful beings like ourselves.

IV. Next He is called "Counsellor." Not our Counsellor, as though the office were one limited to the children of men, but Counsellor in the abstract; denoting, it may be, His intimate union in the Divine essence, as a Person in the Godhead, and as such concerned in all the counsels of eternity.

V. "The Everlasting Father." The Septuagint Version renders this title, "The Father of the world to come." "The world to come" was an expression, under the old dispensation, for the new dispensation that was promised and expected. We may consider this title as indicating in Christ the Source or Author of those eternal blessings, which are now proffered to and provided for the believing.

VI. "The Prince of Peace." "On earth peace, goodwill toward men" was the chorus with which the hosts of heaven rang in the birthday morn. Christ came to give peace to troubled consciences. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2282.

I. Consider, first, who is the Son given, and what is His purpose. It is our Lord Jesus Christ. The verse begins with His humanity; and, mounting upwards, it rises to the height of His divinity. The prophet conducts us to Bethlehem and its stable, to the desert and its hunger, to the well and its thirst, to the workshop and its daily toil, to the sea and its midnight storm, to Gethsemane and its bloody sweat, to Calvary and its ignominious death, and all along that thorny path that stretched from the manger to the cross; for in announcing the birth and coming of this Son and Child, he included in that announcement the noble purposes for which He was born—His work, His sufferings, His life, His death, all the grand ends for which the Son was given and the Child was born.

II. By whom was this Son given? By His Father. Man has his remedies, but they are always behindhand. The disease antedates the cure. But before the occasion came God was ready. Redemption was planned in the councils of eternity, and Satan's defeat secured before his first victory was won. The Son gave Himself, but the Father gave Him; and there is no greater mistake than to regard God as looking on at redemption as a mere spectator, to approve the sacrifice and applaud the actor. God's love was the root, Christ's death the fruit.

III. To whom was He given? He was given to us. "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." "God commendeth His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."

T. Guthrie, Penny Pulpit, No. 174.

I. Look first at some of the characteristics of Christ's wonderfulness. (1) It must be evident that this wonderfulness is essential to His being and continuing the centre of interest for men. If He is to be the great world-power, He must be always the unquestionable world-wonder. He must arrest and compel attention. Whatever novelties appear He must eclipse them. He must always make the freshest appeal to the heart and soul of man. For wonder is that which rouses men. It is the token in us of the boundlessness of the universe and the infinitude of God. Wonder is the presage of endless progress and its stimulus. It throws a glory and freshness over existence. It makes all things new. Therefore He who is to dominate the world, save it, and fill it with heavenly life through all the ages must be the enduring unapproachable wonder. (2) No one can at all appreciate the wonderfulness of Christ who does not consider its freedom from the merely marvellous. It has a meaning and a power prior to that and above it. It is not simply this notable absence that impresses us, but the positive atmosphere of soberness. There is everywhere an air of sagacity, prudence, balance, insight, common sense. (3) The different wonders of Christ's nature and work form together a unity. Each fits into the others, and the very things which, taken apart, give rise to the greatest perplexity, are found to be the main uniting elements. We accept each because of the all, and the all because of each, and cry out, My Lord and my God.

II. The wonderfulness of Christ in its bearing on the wonderfulness of man and of God. (1) The wonderfulness of man. Man viewed in his nature and present condition is a transcendent and most painful wonder. The great objection that many in our time have to Christ is, that He is too wonderful. To this mood we present the marvel, the perplexing, terrible marvel, of man. Christ exactly meets this terrible marvel of man's condition. The one wonder stands over against the other, and fits into it. (2) The wonderfulness of God. It is the wonderfulness of Christ which alone answers to the wonderfulness of God. God is infinite in all His attributes,—power, justice, wisdom, holiness. Christ is the splendour of love that irradiates all. His wonderfulness vindicates God and wins man.

J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p. 229.

References: Isaiah 9:6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., Nos. 214, 215, vol. v., No. 258, vol. vi., No. 291, vol. xii., No. 724; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. ix., p. 279; Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., pp. 275, 373; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 71; J. Keble, Sermons from Christmas to Epiphany, pp. 49, 79; Bishop Moorhouse, The Expectation of the Christ, p. 49; J. Edmond, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 145; W. Anderson, Ibid., vol. x., p. 392; A. Mursell, Ibid., vol. xxii., p. 299; D. Davies, Ibid., vol. xxvi., p. 273; H. P. Liddon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 174; Bishop Walsham How, Plain Words, 2nd series, p. 20.

Isaiah 9:6-7

In the time when the prophet Isaiah wrote this prophecy, everything round him was exactly opposite to his words. The king of Judea, his country, was not reigning in righteousness. He was an unrighteous and wicked governor. The weak and poor and needy had no one to right them, no one to take their part.

I. But Isaiah had God's Spirit with him; the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness, righteousness, justice. And that Holy Spirit convinced him of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, as he convinces every man who gives himself up humbly to God's teaching. God's Spirit in his heart made him feel sure that, in some way or other, some day or other, the Lord God would come to judgment, to judge the wicked princes and rulers of this world, and cast them out. It must be so. God was a righteous God. He was not lazy or careless about this poor sinful world, and about all the sinful, downtrodden, ignorant men and women and children in it. He would take the matter into His own hands. If kings would not reign in righteousness, He would come and reign in righteousness Himself.

II. Isaiah saw all this but dimly, afar off. He perhaps thought at times that the good young prince Hezekiah—the might of God, as his name means—who was growing up in his day to be a deliverer, and a righteous king over the Jews, was to set the world right. Hezekiah failed to save the nation of the Jews. But still Isaiah's prophecy was true. "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given;" even the Babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ the Lord. The government shall indeed be upon His shoulder; for it has been there always. His name is indeed Wonderful; for what more wondrous thing was ever seen in heaven or in earth than that great love with which He loved us? He is not merely the might of God, as Hezekiah was, for a sign and a prophecy; for He is the mighty God Himself. He is indeed the Counsellor; for He is the light that lighteth every man who comes into the world. He is the "Father of an everlasting age." He gives eternal peace to all who will accept it; peace which this world can neither give nor take away.

C. Kingsley, Sermons on National Subjects, 2nd series, p. 140.

Isaiah 9:7

When Isaiah lived, that part of the world in which Judea was geographically situated, that is to say the eastern world, which was then the seat of civilisation, exhibited certain grand, imposing, and ancient kingdoms. How did Isaiah feel towards these kingdoms? and what was the place which they occupied in that scheme of things which he had in his mind by Divine teaching and inspiration? The answer to this question is given in almost every page of his prophetical writings. He regarded them as mere passing, temporary governments, destined to vanish and give way to a glorious kingdom which was one day to appear, founded upon totally different principles from those on which they were erected; a kingdom of peace under a Prince of Peace, or the Messiah, who was to collect all the nations of the earth round one centre, and bind them in bonds of harmony and love.

I. The great kingdoms then existing in the world were doubtless serviceable, under God's providence, in keeping up something like law and order amongst men. But they did this in the worst possible way in which it could be done, and only because, even for their own selfish purposes, it was necessary to do this. It was inflated and infatuated pride, combined with oppression, rapacity, and injustice, and total indifference to the rights of the weak and helpless, that Isaiah saw when he cast his eyes upon the great governments of the world of that day, upon the kingdoms of the East, to which he so constantly refers; and with all this the kingdom of prophecy, that great future kingdom which forms the goal of prophetic vision, was to be in complete, marked, and utter contrast.

II. To a certain and very limited extent, we may allow that this prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled, and is fulfilled now. Under Christendom, certainly a great change has taken place in the government of the world, a great change has taken place in human society. There is a justice, a public spirit, a consideration for the mass of the people which was not known under these old governments. But no prophecy of the regeneration of human society is fulfilled in this world. The Christian Church does but foreshadow the real communion and society of the prophet's vision. The Gospel tells us when and where this kingdom will be; that it will be in another world when this has passed away.

J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 244.

I. Government comes before peace. First, authority must be established, and then quietude will follow; for tranquillity is the child of order. Christ is setting up government that He may establish peace. It is the secret of everything. If you look out on the wide area of the world, here is the cause of all the strange and painful processes,—the conflicts, the distress, the judgments, which you see around you—all to make government, absolute universal government. And then, and not till then, will come the peace of the whole earth.

II. To those who have learnt thus to connect government with peace, and who are jealous over their own hearts' outbreaks, it will be a pleasant thought that the government, if only you will let it, must increase. He who was born for this very end, to be the King of your heart, will not leave it till He has made that little province quite His own. There is "no end." That sweet subduing, that blessed ruling, will continue till there is not an affection that strays, nor a will that rebels,—and then the "peace."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 232.

References: Isaiah 9:10.—A. Scott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 230.