THE KING ’ S BUSINESS
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ernment shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Coun sellor, The (omit, The) mighty (Mighty) God, The (omit, The) everlasting (Ever lasting) Father, The (omit , The) Prince o f Peace. Of the increase of His govern ment and (add , of) peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order (establish) it, and to establish (uphold) it with judgment and with justice (with justice and with righteousness) from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord (Jehovah) of hosts will perform this." These are two marvellous verses, marvellous not only because o f the clear and unmistakeable prediction o f the birth o f Jesus o f Naza reth, made more than seven centuries befcire the event, but marvellous also for the fulness and richness o f the revelation they contain concerning the Person, Char acter and Work o f Jesus Christ. Way' back here in the Old Testament, we find as wonderful a revelation o f the Deity of the Coming Prince as we find anywhere„in the New Testament, even in Paul or John. These words are the despair o f Unitarians and o f all who desire to undermine the faith o f men in the full inspiration o f the Old Testament prophets. They are driven to all sorts o f absurdities in their attempts to explain them away. Most teachers will do well to put most o f their time and strength into the exposition and applica tion o f these verses. Here we have, first o f all, His Human Nature, “Unto us a child is born,” i. e., He is born to Man (the Son o f Man) and more specifically to Israel (cf. Luke 2:11), But immediately, following this we have His Deity, “A Son is given” (cf. John 3:16; 1:14). Next we have His reign, “ The government shall be upon His shoulder.” It is a wondrously glad truth that some day all government is to rest upon Jesus Christ. That and that alone will prove the solution o f all our social and political and international prob lems (cf. Ps. 2:6-11; 72:2-4, 7-9, 11-14; 110:1-4; Jer. 23:5, 6 ; Zech. 6:12, 13; 9:9, 10; 1 Cor. 15:25). ,Now follow His won-
there is to be a wonderful increase of population (Isa. 49:20-22; Jer. 31:27, 28; Zeph. 10:8). In Christ there is to be great joy, the joy o f harvest and o f victory (cf. Isa. 35:10; 55:12; 61:7, 10; Jer. 31:7, 10- 12). The religion o f the Lord Jesus is pre-eminently a religion of joy (cf. Acts 8 : 8 ; Phil. 4:4 ; 1 Peter 1:8). vs. 4, 5. “For Thou hast broken ("omit, Thou hast broken) the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor (add , Thou hast broken) as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and gar ments rolled in blood; but, this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. (For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be fo r burning, for fuel of fire).” The child that was to be born, the Messiah, was to be a deliverer as well as a Light and a Joy-bringer. This is to have literal ful filment in the literal Israel: when Jesus comes again to reign as the Messiah, He will deliver Israel from the oppressors that for these many centuries have ground them under foot, and He will exalt Israel above all the nations o f the earth (Zech. 12:1-3; 9:12-17; 8:20-23). But Jesus is delivering today, removing the yoke of every burden (Matt. 11:28-30), breaking the rod o f every oppressor (John 8:36). The fifth verse sets Christ Jesus forth as the Bringer-of-Peace (see R. V.).' With the consummation o f our Lord’s work, all war is to cease forever (v. 5, R. V .). War never will permanently cease until He does come and take the reins o f government. W e are seeing now the utter futility o f all o f man’s schemes to promote peace. It will always be so until Jesus comes. There may, o f course, be temporary peace, but it will always be for a brief time until He comes. In that day “ all the armor o f the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel o f fire.” God speed the day—“ Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” Come quickly, vs. 6 , 7. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: ( ;) and the gov
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