Jesus the Prince of Peace
By Jonathan Bronn | December 2021
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.” Isaiah 9:6-7
The year: 700 BCE
We Jewish people are waiting for the Hope of Israel. We have been longing for the Messiah since the announcement of this person to come in the Garden of Eden.
Now Isaiah announces a new prophecy. The Messiah will be a baby, a boy, and he will stabilize the world’s government like Atlas on his own shoulders. He will have new names including Prince of Peace.
Fast forward 700 years to Israel, specifically to Bethlehem. Approximately 0 BCE
The more familiar Currier and Ives scenes in your home this Christmas begin to take shape.
What do we see? The baby Jesus in the stable at night, lying in the manger. Perhaps we see his parents, Miriam and Joseph kneeling or lying next to him. Do you see the shepherds rushing from their pasturelands and even the sheep they were tending all joining together to see this newborn King called in Hebrew, Yeshua.
For this baby boy was the ‘Child who was born to us, the Son who was given to us,’ that the prophet Isaiah spoke about hundreds of years earlier. But what do we think of this? What does it mean for this ‘Child to be born to us?’ What does the Christmas story really teach us?
This passage shows us that the ‘government would rest on his shoulders.’ He would be a great ruler. But he would not be like many normal, historical, earthly rulers who looked out for themselves, especially under Roman rule at that time.
Instead, this ruler is called Wonderful Counsellor. He is the one who is near us and counsels us into all truth, showing us the best paths for our lives. He is called Mighty God. He is more than an earthly ruler, He is Immanuel, ‘God with us’ and it is through him we can be made right with God and know God personally. He is mighty, meaning nothing can defeat him. He is called Everlasting Father. He is the one who provides for us, protects us, and sustains us. This Father is always there for us. He is everlasting. Finally, He is called Prince of Peace. When the world is in turmoil, when governments attack and ruin each other, when diseases bring uncertainty our way, he is our only hope. That hope is the anchor for every believer’s soul, bringing stability in the rough waters of life, and the assurance that we can cling to him in a world which is increasingly unstable.
But wait-- there’s more.
Isaiah wrote the next verse. This great ruler will ‘rule with fairness and justice from the throne of His ancestor David for all eternity.’ For us who know Jesus, He is already all these things Isaiah described. And the Bible promises that in the same way we could anticipate ‘this child was born to us,’ we can anticipate that he will also return to us. And it is this which is our ultimate hope. All the current troubles of this world will diminish and fade. One day we will be ruled for all eternity by the one who gave his life for us, and we and all the world will know peace, because of the ‘Prince of Peace.’