Advent Week 3: Sacrifice and Salvation
God spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament, using poetic words and imagery, to describe the hope of salvation. This week, we contemplate prophecies pointing toward the Messiah—the servant, the light, the promised one God’s people longed for.
Read Isaiah 9:6–7.
In my experience, watching cartoon movies has been an essential part of being a dad to three young boys. Boss Baby is one such movie. The film caricatures an infant who’s “all grown up” and constantly bossing around his seven-year-old brother behind their parents’ backs.
The irony in Isaiah 9:6–7 is a similar juxtaposition: a newborn baby who is “all grown up.” Isaiah describes this promised one as a newborn child, a government ruler, and the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
The amazing testimony of this prophetic text is that Jesus is all of this, and so much more. Jesus, born as a human child, was both fully human and fully divine: the God-Man, the Baby King.
Isaiah was speaking to a discouraged Jewish community that had been groping in darkness, hoping to find a pathway to freedom from their “distress and darkness and fearful gloom” (8:22). Into this context, Isaiah prophesies, “He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever” (9:7) This reference to David’s throne hearkens back to God’s promise to David: “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you … I will establish his kingdom. … I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:12–13). God is a covenant-keeping God. And nothing will stand in the way of this promised miracle: “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isa. 9:7). God is zealous to keep his covenants with his people.
God is also zealous and passionate about the gospel. The Good News of Jesus becoming flesh is that in Christ there is no longer darkness (Isa. 9:2; John 1:4–5, 14). God is on the move, across the globe, on every continent, in every nation, exposing the darkness through the power of Christ’s first coming and his imminent return. Jesus’ incarnational entry into the world signifies a new day, “for to us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Isa. 9:6)!
This is the Good News, the gospel, that we must share with the world. The light has come; the light is Jesus! We no longer need to live in darkness and we can share this light with a world that needs to hear about our “Mighty God,” our “Prince of Peace.” May we proclaim it freely: Jesus, the Baby King, is here, and he wants to reign in your hearts.
Matthew D. Kim is the George F. Bennett Professor of Preaching and Practical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the author of Preaching to People in Pain.
Meditate on Isaiah 9:6–7. (Option: Also refl ect on John 1:14.) In what ways does this promise point toward core tenets of the gospel? Which aspects of this prophecy most draw your attention? Why? Pray, praising Christ for each aspect of his identity described in Isaiah 9:6–7.
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
A Christian reconciliation group in Israel and Palestine warned that war would come. Now the war threatens their relevance.العربيةFrançais
The Grammy-winning artist was found dead at her home in Nashville at age 47.
