Everlasting Father
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
It is the third Sunday of Advent. The series of messages we are considering over this season is based on the titles which the prophet Isaiah gives to the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6.
Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)
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 Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
We are already considered what Isaiah means when he says that the Messiah is a wonderful counselor. Last week we looked at what Isaiah means when he says that the Messiah is a mighty God. And now today we move on to think about what Isaiah means when he says the Messiah is an everlasting Father.
Isaiah’s choice of using “father” as a title applied to the Messiah is not intended to have a trinitarian reference
Let’s acknowledge right at the front that we need to untangle this title from what we say and believe about the Trinity. For centuries the church has professed that the Bible reveals God to be a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And let’s also acknowledge that much of what the Prophet Isaiah writes about the Messiah points forward to Jesus—who is the Son, the second person of the Trinity, not the Father. We need to set that aside for the moment for a couple reasons. First, in the time when Isaiah was writing there was not any kind of fully developed theology of the Trinity. No one during Isaiah’s time would have made distinctions between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Isaiah’s choice of using “father” as a title applied to the Messiah is not intended to have a trinitarian reference at all. And Second, the people of Israel in the time of Isaiah would not have addressed God as a heavenly Father in the same way we do today. It is in the gospels of the New Testament that Jesus begins making Trinitarian distinctions by referring to the first person of the Trinity as a heavenly Father.
We need to think of what Isaiah means by father a little differently than what we might otherwise assume based upon our theology of the Trinity. We’ll get to that more a little later. For now, let’s flip to a passage elsewhere in Isaiah which sheds some light on what the prophet may have in mind when he uses the title of everlasting father in reference to the coming Messiah.
Isaiah 45:14–19 (NIV)
14 This is what the Lord says:
“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,
and those tall Sabeans—
they will come over to you
and will be yours;
they will trudge behind you,
coming over to you in chains.
They will bow down before you
and plead with you, saying,
‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
there is no other god.’ ”
15 Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself,
the God and Savior of Israel.
16 All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced;
they will go off into disgrace together.
17 But Israel will be saved by the Lord
with an everlasting salvation;
you will never be put to shame or disgraced,
to ages everlasting.
18 For this is what the Lord says—
he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
“I am the Lord,
and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret,
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
‘Seek me in vain.’
I, the Lord, speak the truth;
I declare what is right.
For those of you who remember the old Sesame Street shows, every now and then they featured a segment called “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others.” They would sing the song:
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
Three of these things belong together
Three of these things are kind of the same
Can you guess which one of these doesn't belong here?
Now it's time to play our game
the prophet’s version of playing the Sesame Street game “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others”
Typically, a picture would be shown of four objects and one of them was very obviously different from the rest. These verses from Isaiah 45 are the prophet’s version of playing the Sesame Street game “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others.” We are only looking at five verses here today, and yet three times we see the phrase repeated that there is no other like the LORD. Isaiah makes these statements in comparison to the idols and pagan gads of the surrounding nations.
reaction of the people in Israel would be to assume that the pagan gods of Babylon have won and that the LORD has lost
Let me back up for a moment and recap one of the concepts from Isaiah we saw last week in chapter 40. The prophet Isaiah is bringing forth the news that Jerusalem will be overrun and destroyed, and the people will be hauled off into captivity. The very certain and expected reaction of the people in Israel would be to assume that the pagan gods of Babylon have won and that the LORD has lost. The assumed outcome for the people of Israel is that the LORD has abandoned the Israelites and gone away in defeat.
hangs on an idea that somehow all the various gods of all the various nations more-or-less hold the same standing
That entire narrative hangs on an idea that somehow all the various gods of all the various nations more-or-less hold the same standing. Within that ancient worldview, no any one of the gods was inherently superior to any of the others. As kings and kingdoms battled each other in the ancient world, it was interpreted as one god flexing his strength to dominate another god. And as time goes along this cosmic game of king on the mountain passed along from one god to the next as one nation after the next positioned themselves into places of dominance over all the rest.
only a matter of time before somebody comes along who will knock out the champion and take over the title
Play this all the way through, then. It is sort of like holding the title of heavyweight boxing championship. One boxer can hold that title and dominate all challengers for a while. But everybody knows it is only a matter of time before somebody comes along who will knock out the champion and take over the title. That is how people in the ancient world saw the battles between nations being played out. Isaiah’s prophecy for the Israel basically amounts to the announcement that the Jewish people are about to lose the Stanley Cup and it’s not coming back anytime soon.
The LORD is not just another god among a menu of possible gods who holds no more-or-less power than any of the others
Into all of this Isaiah inserts a different narrative. This is not the way the world works. The LORD is not just another god among a menu of possible gods who holds no more-or-less power than any of the others. Isaiah is insistent—there is no other like the LORD. But this leaves Isaiah with a bit of a problem. If the ancient worldview of battles between pagan gods is false, then how does Isaiah explain the collapse of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity of Israel? What else in their worldview could account for what looks like a cosmic loss in a divine battle?
Look at how Isaiah describes it. The passage begins with language that acknowledges this is a different narrative. Verse 14 describes something other than this cosmic back-and-forth between the divine powers.
Isaiah 45:14 (NIV)
14 This is what the Lord says:
“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,
and those tall Sabeans—
they will come over to you
and will be yours;
they will trudge behind you,
coming over to you in chains.
They will bow down before you
and plead with you, saying,
‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
there is no other god.’ ”
Messiah is so different and so unlike any other display of divine salvation that all those who witness it will exclaim that the LORD is the only God
When the salvation of the LORD’s Messiah becomes evident, even all those other people of the surrounding nations will see it an acknowledge that this is different. This whole business of various cosmic gods battling each other for dominance cannot hold up or stand up to the LORD once the Messiah is revealed. It will be so different and so unlike any other display of divine salvation that all those who witness it will not be able to help but exclaim that the LORD is in fact the only God.
Verses 15-16 carry this on.
Isaiah 45:15–16 (NIV)
15 Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself,
the God and Savior of Israel.
16 All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced;
they will go off into disgrace together.
Messiah is so very different from every expectation that it will seem as though God has been hiding himself
The Messiah will present himself as so unexpectedly different from all the rest of what the world perceives as gods. The Messiah will be so very different from every expectation that it will seem as though God has been hiding himself. We follow this narrative forward to see its fulfilment in the gospels. No one expected the salvation of God to arrive in a stable in Bethlehem to an ordinary common couple. No one expected the Messiah to be sent to execution on a cross at the hands of Roman soldiers. But in the end, neither did anyone expect an open tomb and an empty grave. The Messiah reveals the salvation of God in a way which sets the LORD apart from all others.
And here is where we get to Isaiah’s proclamation of the LORD’s salvation.
Isaiah 45:17 (NIV)
17 But Israel will be saved by the Lord
with an everlasting salvation;
you will never be put to shame or disgraced,
to ages everlasting.
something which is permanent—its existence cannot be taken away
something which has long duration—elsewhere in Hebrew as a very long road to walk
Even though the word everlasting appears twice in this verse, it comes from two different Hebrew words that are both translated into English as everlasting in this passage. The first one means everlasting as something which is permanent—its existence cannot be taken away. The second one means everlasting as something which has long duration—it is sometimes used elsewhere in Hebrew in reference to a very long road to walk.
the LORD is in no way as fleeting or fragile or temporary as the so-called salvation sought by the surrounding nations
Here's the point Isaiah is making: the salvation of the LORD is in no way as fleeting or fragile or temporary as the so-called salvation sought by the surrounding nations of the world. What the rest of the world looks for and thinks of as salvation is just a breath of air compared to new life which the Messiah brings. The salvation brought by the Messiah is everlasting. That means you can count on it to always be there. You can trust our God to never let go of his covenant promises. Nothing will ever overtake or undo the salvation of our God.
Hebrew father = all previous generations of family which have gone before
In Isaiah 9:6 the prophet gives the title of everlasting father to the Messiah. As I have said, this is not a reference to the heavenly father as the first person of the Trinity. The Hebrew term for father is not exclusive to only the one preceding generation. In Hebrew the term father can also be used in reference to a grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and so on. It is a term that points to all previous generations of family which have gone before. Isaiah is using this title of everlasting father to point towards a lineage that never ends. Let’s not forget that in Isaiah’s day the chosen people of God did exist within a specific family lineage—the descendants of Abraham.
the Messiah who is our everlasting father yet holds a covenant love which can never fail and never let go
It is from Abraham’s decedents that Jesus is born. It is within this line of everlasting fathers that the Messiah comes into the world. And even though that stable in Bethlehem appeared to be hidden from view from most of the world around them in that day, something amazing and unlike anything else came into the world that first Christmas Day. And even though we today continue to live in a world which seeks our salvation in fragile, temporary, fleeting moments, the Messiah who is our everlasting father yet holds a covenant love which can never fail and never let go.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul describes it this way.
1 Corinthians 13:4–13 (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
he shall be called everlasting father—the Messiah whose love for his people never lets go
It is the never-ending love of God given to us in Jesus which reveals the everlasting father spoken of by Isaiah. The love of God (along with faith and hope, says the apostle Paul) is the only thing in this world which lasts. And he shall be called everlasting father—the Messiah whose love for his people never lets go.