Advent 2025, Week 2: Isaiah 9, Part 4
We just had a new baby in our family. Our second son and his wife had their first, a son, a month ago. I was holding my new baby grandson recently, as he was sleeping, and I noticed his blond eyelashes. Not typical for my family, but so cute. When a baby is born, we want details. What color eyes, hair, length, weight.
It’s Christmas season, and I wonder what Jesus looked like as a baby.
We’ve been studying Isaiah 9 this second week of Advent, and in verses 6 and 7, Isaiah mentioned a baby: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.” What image does that bring to mind? The nativity scene, right? Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus in a manger.
When Isaiah wrote this, he likely wasn’t thinking about a specific childbirth in Bethlehem seven hundred years in the future. He might have been thinking about the birth of his own sons, which had just happened one chapter previously, in Isaiah 8.
Yet, when we jump ahead to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, what do the angels declare to the shepherds in the fields just outside town? In Luke 2:10-11 they declare, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
The Messiah means “anointed one,” a savior. The angels were right! This is good news. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. Not simply because a baby was born. Anytime a baby is born, it is good news. But this baby was, is, the Messiah. The Savior.
After telling us that a son is born, Isaiah now begins to describe this baby. But he doesn’t give us height, weight, and hair color. Look at the rest of verse 6, “the government will be on his shoulders.”
Government? On a baby’s shoulders?
In Jesus’ day, many people misinterpreted Isaiah’s prophecy, believing that the messiah was going to be a political, government, military leader who was going to restore the kingdom of Israel to its glory as in the days of the great kings David and Solomon.
The messiah was not going to be an earthly king who would kick the Romans out of Israel. The Messiah is king of the eternal kingdom of God. When you think of the eternal kingdom of God, what word comes to mind? Heaven, right?
Where we go wrong is to assume that the Kingdom of God only refers to some non-earthly heaven. We go wrong when we assume that God just wants us to leave this earth and go to heaven.
But didn’t Jesus talk about his kingdom as not of this world? Yes, he did. In John 18:36, as he was being questioned by the Roman governor Pilate, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
Jesus is not suggesting that his kingdom has nothing to do with our world. He is simply saying that his kingdom is not a geographical, national kingdom or government like those that are of the world.
We know that the government of the Kingdom of Heaven is here on earth too, because Jesus taught us that. His earliest sermons declared, “The Kingdom of God is in your midst, is near.” When he taught us to pray, he said we should pray to God asking, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” The Kingdom of God is here now, not in a building, not by elected officials, not in courts, not with geographical boundaries.
The Kingdom of God is here now, as people like you and I, within whom God the Spirit lives, when we behave in ways consistent with the way of Jesus. This is why at Faith Church we so often refer to the Fruit of the Spirit. We demonstrate the Kingdom by living a life of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. We strive to invite other people to enter that kingdom as well, to meet Jesus, to follow his ways. We strive to eradicate the structures of injustice in our communities, because in God’s kingdom oppression will cease.
In that way, the government is upon his shoulders.
Isaiah has more to say about the government being on the shoulders of the baby, and he does so by giving us more descriptions of the messiah. We learn about that in the next post.
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 