Unto us a Son is given…Isaiah 9:6

What joyful promises this prophecy holds! For Isaiah the promise was seeing Israel’s long awaited Messiah, the One who would free his people and usher in a different kingdom. He saw a king coming from the House of David, from Israel itself. This Messiah would be a Son who would be given to them and coming from them. And He would be named most extraordinarily.

Reading the second part Isaiah 9:6 , I sense how the weary Prophet must have been  suddenly filled with excitement and joy. Up to that prophetic insight, Isaiah’s words pile warning upon warning over Israel’ apostasy and rebellion  against God. Most of Isaiah 9 is prophetic doom and gloom . The Assyrians had come and gone; the Babylonian conquest was pounding toward the gates. Without repentance, Israel’s destruction was unavoidable.

But God never leaves His people without hope. As if pulling away a heavy veil, the Lord gave Isaiah  a glimpse of the Light which would   break through Israel’s  broken hostile world .  Isaiah saw  Messiah coming through time and space. He would be one of his kind, born of his own people, not of a foreign nation. The Consolation of Israel would be a Son of Israel, given unto his own people.

There is something incomparable about “getting” a boy child, especially if you’ve had to wait for one. I’ll never forget the joy Dan and I had when our son Chris was born. Our daughters were wonderful, of course, but being able to present Dan with a son was special. Back in the olden days of the 70’s, we didn’t know the baby’s sex ahead of time. I was fully convinced it was going to be another girl. In fact I was so sure of it that we hadn’t even chosen a name. For the first day or so my son’s hospital crib was generically tagged “Baby Boy Gabbert”.

While Dan  happily passed out large cigars to his law partners,  our best friends came by the hospital with a  football. As young families, we’d formed close friendships because none of us  had  families in Boise. Chris was welcomed as someone special, a “son” for everyone. Across the country Dan’s mother and my parents were thrilled. ” Es ist ein Bub’ ” my mother told all my New York family.   “It’s a boy!” And my father, for whom family lineage and heritage was tantamount, proudly bragged about his first longed -for grandson.

In the natural,  it’s difficult for most to understand the idea of belonging to “a people” as Israel does. We  Americans are a grand melting pot of every nationality, language, culture, ethnicity, race, tradition and religion. The national identities which immigrants bring to this country  lose their power over time. Slowly, each generation  forgets  a little more of its unique ancestral heritage. My children speak English, not German. We’ve broken with most of the traditions my parents brought with them from Europe. My grandchildren won’t know the “people” or homeland so cherished by my parents, except that I teach them. As my family’s cultural roots disappear, I   sense a loss of identity.  To honor the memory of my parents, I don’t want to forget my ancestors or the   people  I come from.

However, there is another heritage offered to me and to every believer. We belong to a “people” far grander than our earthly one. God’s blessed gift  of the Son   foreseen by Isaiah is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God Himself “given unto us” the people who believe on His Wonderful Name . We’re neither Gentile nor Jew, grafted into God’s own people, beyond all nationalities, mores and worldly heritages.  We are a new people and a new family. Our spiritual  identity comes from  Jesus alone and I for one, gladly give up every other  world- driven identity in order to belong to Him.

Isaiah’s  prophetic vision of Jesus, the Son given unto us….is also the promise of Great Light piercing the darkness of modern  threats and conquerors.  As the prophet ‘s eyes beheld the future Messiah,  our eyes look at the same Savior this Christmas week with hope and unending joy that the Word has come and is fulfilled.

EAG