A good story doesn’t give everything away on the first page, not even in chapter 3. As Scripture records God’s dealings with man, even as Scripture records God’s promise that He will send a Man, the revelation progresses. We’re in a blessed position, and can work our way back (and forward) from many spots on the timeline. We know more about the Christ in Christmas than anyone in the Bible (mostly because we have our own complete copies unlike any of them), but that doesn’t mean we long for His coming as we should.

This year as we head toward Christmas day in a advent season series of sermons, I am taking us back to the Old Testament. We’re getting a prophetic start, a progressive anticipation.

Last Lord’s Day we started at the beginning of mankind, and with what has been called the protoevangelium, the “first gospel,” in Genesis 3:15. Christmas is the celebration that the Dragon-Slayer Seed was born. It was going to be a man, which is important for sake of Him identifying with our sins, but it’s also the promise to bruise the head of the serpent. We who believe in the Son of Man are also offspring of the woman. The devil is defeated in principle, but mad, and the ongoing spiritual battle between his offspring and the woman’s offspring is everything that is wrong with Christmas.

A lot has happened between Genesis 3 and our text for today, Isaiah 9. The flood, Babel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel, Joseph, Egypt, Exodus, and back into the Promised Land to Abraham. The Lord chose a family to become a nation which He would love and from which would come the Man. He lead them personally, He led them successfully (even miraculously), He led them mercifully, and they didn’t think it was enough. They wanted to be like other nations (1 Samuel 8:6). They wanted an embodied ruler, one who could take them into battle and govern their land (1 Samuel 8:19-20). They rejected the Lord as king (1 Samuel 8:7).

The Lord gave them Saul, whose resume stood a head above the rest, for a while. Then the Lord gave them David, and to David the Lord promised a son who would sit on the throne and rule forever (2 Samuel 7:14-16).

But even though we know the petty and disobedient and divided and in some cases tyrannical history of Israel’s kings after Solomon, note that the original desire for a king was right. It was not right in terms of how the people went about it, says God Himself. But as He reveals His purpose for the offspring of the woman, the particulars include the Seed’s coming as a Man-King.

Post Tenebras, Rex (After Darkness, a King)

Things were in a bad way near the end of Isaiah 8. Things were dark. The people of Israel were looking to spiritual mediums (Isaiah 8:19), they weren’t looking to God’s Word and so they had “no dawn” (8:20), the earth was “distress and darkness,” they were thrust into “thick darkness” (8:22). The people walk in darkness, “in a land of deep darkness” (9:2). Isaiah sees the Assyrian army under Tiglath-pileser taking over the northern part of Israel, “the land of Zebulun and…Naphtali” (9:1, see also 2 Kings 15:29), who are a burden of oppression (9:4). Ahaz was the king at the time, and his kingdom was full of distress and war. But the prophecy doesn’t end with the blackness of night, it looks forward to a better king. After darkness, a King.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
(Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV)

The “child born” picks up a previous word from the Lord in Isaiah 7:14 about a son born of a virgin named Immanuel. It’s a man, who is God, and who takes dominion.

The government shall be upon his shoulder, and of the increase of his government…there will be no end. The word “government” is good, but the Hebrew word (pronounced miś·rā(h)) means domination . The LXX translates as ἀρχὴ (arche), the meeting point/corner of authority and power. The VLG has principatus, the first or eminent one. But domination works, even as it is related to Dominus, the Lord. This is the Lord of lords, the King on the throne of David. He can shoulder the responsibility of rule.

There are four titles for Him.

• Wonderful Counselor. There have been wise rulers, but the vast majority throughout history must certainly be considered policy half-wits and political jesters. They get promoted, they get to inherit what daddy built. This coming King will know what to do; think of Joseph’s solutions to African famine but applied to every issue for every nation. His decisions will inspire delight and admiration.
• Mighty God. More than a Man, more than the divine right of rule, He will be the Divine Ruler, again related to Isaiah 7:14. He is strength incarnate, a Warrior King.
• Everlasting Father. This is not a confusion of Trinitarian persons or relationships, it’s a typical, figurative usage of “father” (see Job 29:16 and Isaiah 22:21). It is the King who cares for and protects His people, and this role will be His forever.
• Prince of Peace. Prince here isn’t second in line, but emphasizing his royalty. Peace is the thing men want. Peace is the thing nations fight about. Peace is the thing the serpent and his offspring hate and disrupt. Peace in safety and prosperity define this King’s kingdom.

Four more things describe the King’s accomplishments in verse 7.

• Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end. His rule expands in space and time, dominion grows.
• On the throne of David and over his kingdom. His rule fulfills the longstanding promise.
• To establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness. No dishonesty or corruption, no delinquency or compromise.
• From this time forth and forevermore. See “Everlasting” and “no end” above.

This isn’t speculation of outcome based on exit polls, this is God’s commitment. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

God sent a King.

Hostile to (Royal) Hierarchy

The wise men from the east came because they saw the sign of whom? “Where” is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:1-2). When Herod realized the wise men weren’t coming back with a report of this baby’s location, he ordered the murder of all the boys two and under because his throne, his dominion was being threatened.

Jesus was killed for His claim to be King (Matthew 27:11, 29). God sent a King, and “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed” (Psalm 2:2).

This is the problem with domination, or attempts at it, among men. It’s a constant fight to be top dawg. This is the way it was since the serpent, this is the way of the serpent himself (compare with Isaiah 14:12-14). This is the way among the “rulers and authorities, the principalities and powers.” This is the way of all those who typify the Beast of the Apocalypse. This is what’s wrong with politics, with governors, with men in power.

The levels of incompetence among our rulers are higher than Snohomish County flood warnings. And I get that being anti-authority is cool. But that is mostly a show.

While there is a tendency of hostility toward hierarchy, something about a King appeals to men because of God’s regality.

Give me a good king to submit to. Deep in their hearts men want a King, at least one like Isaiah’s prophecy. God established this desire. We have a king-shaped whole in our hearts, not separate from the God-shaped hole, but the archetype of a magnanimous king is universal and eternal. It is divine. God set up and progressively revealed the glory of His kingship. The Christ as Messiah, the Anointed One, is Priest but also King.

If you are at the top of your hierarchy, you don’t understand Christmas. Those hostile to King Jesus are just mini-Herods. Wise men bow down.

Conclusion

This King has sons, not just servants. And He glorifies His court.

What king surrounds himself with warped, dwarfish, worthless creatures? The most glorious king, the more glorious the titles and honors he bestows. … He is a very great king to have figures of such immense dignity in his train, or even better, to have raised them to such dignity. … All glory to him, and in him, glory and honor to these others. (Thomas Howard, Evangelical is Not Enough, 87)

His glory is never threatened, His glory is heightened by raising us up. Jesus said, that all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him, and we represent Him.

Born They people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.
—Charles Wesley, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus”

Joy to the world! The Lord is come; let earth receive her King!

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Charge

Beloved, you must give as those who have received, you must forgive as those who have been justified by grace, and you must use your authority as those who are under the dominion of the Dominus, the Lord Jesus. God sent a King, and God has delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. Adore the King, adorn His ways.

Benediction:

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:13–16, ESV)