Isaiah 9:1-7 - Endless, uninterrupted personal rule of Christ

[asterisktom]

Here are the first seven verses of Isaiah. I want to especially focus on the last verse, but the preceding six help us to fix the time of fulfillment.

1 Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,
As when at first He lightly esteemed
The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
And afterward more heavily oppressed her,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
In Galilee of the Gentiles.

2 The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.

The light dawning here was, of course, Christ (Matt. 4:13-17). His message was "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand."

3 You have multiplied the nation
And increased its joy;
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

The multiplying of the nation and increase of joy already is looking toward the New Testament times. The reason for joy is threefold (signaled by the word "for"), but the last reason is foundational.

4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of Midian.

5 For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle,
And garments rolled in blood,
Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

6 For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From henceforth*, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

*The above is from the NKJV except for the phrase "henceforth", which is KJV, meaning from "from this time forward". Interestingly, NKJV dulls the immediacy of the prophecy with "from that time forward".

Hopefully in a few days I will write more on this passage, but for now I just want to point out the phrases above that are underlined. Notice that, once begun, the kingdom will have no end.

Two things I have noticed in my studies on this topic:
1. Once these fulfillments are started there is no gap spoken of. Both here, in this very passage, and elsewhere in the prophets one is left with the impression of the continuity of the Kingdom.
2. Many of these Old Testament Kingdom passages - very many - are integrally connected by New Testament writers with the growth of the New Testament Church.
Conclusion: These topics are the same. The Kingdom of Zion is none other than the Church of Christ. There will be no future spiritual rennaisance as far as the Kingdom is concerned. It will grow, but it will not metamorph into something totally different or (which would be more grotesque) lapsing back into obsolete Jewishness.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Couple of considerations:

Some prophecies co-mingle events that relate quite distinctly to the first advent and the second (kingdom) advent of the Messiah. You have to look carefully and "divide" them out.

Example in your text: child/son born (first advent); running government of the world (second advent, most assuredly NOT in the Gospel era or today).

Jesus Himself did this in His reading in the synagogue in Nazareth.

Luke 4 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book.

There He stopped. All of this was to be fulfilled in the first advent. But the prophecy of Isaiah continues, "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."

Why leave that out? It is applicable to the second advent, NOT His NT work or work today in the church.

So be careful trying to make ALL prophecies apply to the same event/time frame. Even Jesus may clear distinction here.

 

[asterisktom]

Couple of considerations:

Some prophecies co-mingle events that relate quite distinctly to the first advent and the second (kingdom) advent of the Messiah. You have to look carefully and "divide" them out.

Divide? Who says we have to do this? When a context is all of one piece than the overriding consideration is to keep it in one piece unless there is clear indication from scripture. And I hope that you aren't one of those (I think you aren't) who derive their "divide" idea from the KJV "rightly divide", which is a different concept.

Example in your text: child/son born (first advent); running government of the world (second advent, most assuredly NOT in the Gospel era or today).

Most assuredly it is. Maybe you are, as the Baptist hymn has it, "sighing" for His "coming Kingdom". I am enjoying the here and now of it.

Jesus Himself did this in His reading in the synagogue in Nazareth.

Luke 4 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book.

There He stopped. All of this was to be fulfilled in the first advent. But the prophecy of Isaiah continues, "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."

Why leave that out? It is applicable to the second advent, NOT His NT work or work today in the church.

No, that is not why He left it out. The two go together, the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance are two sides of one coin. He left it out in Nazareth because the rest of the passage was not germane to His message.

And also, I believe, at least, to demonstrate to the hearers and readers of this gospel the animosity of those synagogue hearers to the pure grace and good news of Christ's message. Think of it, if He had included that last line and then they had reacted so violently as they did we might have assumed that they were responding negatively to that negative part of His announced Messiahship. But He made no such announcement, making their rejection all the more unconscionable.

No, the two parts go together, as you can see in several places in scripture. Not to go too far afield, just look at Isa. 63:1-6:

1. Who is this who comes from Edom,
With dyed garments from Bozrah,
This One who is glorious in His apparel,
Traveling in the greatness of His strength?—

“ I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

2 Why is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

3 “ I have trodden the winepress alone,
And from the peoples no one was with Me.
For I have trodden them in My anger,
And trampled them in My fury;
Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments,
And I have stained all My robes.

4 For the day of vengeance is in My heart,
And the year of My redeemed has come.

5 I looked, but there was no one to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold;
Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me.

6 I have trodden down the peoples in My anger,
Made them drunk in My fury,
And brought down their strength to the earth.”

Notice especially verse 4. Day of Vengeance and Year of Redemption again occur together, but this time the order is reversed. Actually the one draws from the other. God frees the prisoners by spoiling the prison keeper. The strong man (Satan) has met the Stronger Man (Christ), Luke 11:22, Rev. 20:2.

And once these things begin to happen - and they most certainly have - they cannot (Isa. 9:7) quit happening - and then again after an unbiblical hiatus of nigh on 2000 years.

The Lord of Lord and King of Kings does not rule over an intermittent Kingdom.

So be careful trying to make ALL prophecies apply to the same event/time frame. Even Jesus may clear distinction here.

The distinction is in the pre-taught supposition, not in the teaching of Christ.