Friday, February 12, 2010
Isaiah 9:6a To us a child is born, to us a son is given.
EARTHLY CHILD -- HEAVENLY PROMISE
"Although Hebrew is normally an unrhythmical language, Isaiah's words here have a pronounced rhythm, just as does our translation, except that the original is more resonant. The two sentences stand side by side without connective--the way a heart overflowing with joy would express itself. The prophet views the Child as a newborn baby, flesh of our flesh, and lying in the lap of his virgin mother. He entered the world not, like Adam, as a mature adult, but as the Woman's Offspring, the virgin's Son, carried by and born of a woman. He entered the world, however, not as the result of a deliberate act of a man and a woman. This child is "given"; He is presented to us as a gift by the special decision and act of God. The word "son" ... is simply a poetic parallel to "child." God has "given" us this Child (Jn 3:16), has "sent" Him into the world (Gal 4:4), by His "set purpose and foreknowledge" (Ac 2:23). The phrase "to us" emphasizes that the Child is given in the first place and appropriately, to believers; only they actually benefit from the salvation He brings. This is not to deny that Christ was appointed and was born to be the Savior of all people without exception, a fact the Scripture elsewhere teaches clearly" (August Pieper).
It is clearly amazing that to these people who "sit in darkness," who suffer under the cruelty of the coming darkness, the Lord God offers this comfort, a Child. It is true that Isaiah will proclaim this Child both as God and as the seed of David to restore the Davidic kingdom. But he starts with neither. He therefore makes it clear that the remedy to their and our vast suffering is not immediate and is not glorious. This child is God wrapped in lowliness; this Child is the hope of what will be, not of what now is. Many people will and do throw such a promise away in disgust. What good is that to me now? I don't care about heaven and God and the spiritual, I care about my "perceived needs." "I care about right now." But it is a Child which the Lord gives and it is faith that perceives His value and holds on to Him until the maturing of God's own time--at which point the result will be "Wonderful."
