And He Shall Be Called || Mighty God
When I was a freshman in high school, I was playing in a basketball tournament. We were one of four teams, which meant if we won the first game we got into the finals. We were supposed to play a team we were evenly matched with. We were excited to play knowing we had a very good chance of going to the finals.
When we walked out of the locker room, we were greeted by a very different team than we were expecting. The school was much bigger than ours and much more talented. Our confidence quickly faded when they were swishing threes left and right. We lost.
The next day in the locker room, we were preparing to go for 3rd place. Our coach was trying to get us pumped up. In the middle of his pretty great speech he said:
“Now girls, sometimes in life you face adversity and you have to learn to deal with it. Last night…”
I put my hand up mid-sentence. “Yes, Fry?”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I’d say we are a pretty adverse team. I mean we have Jina who’s Korean, Tish is Mexican, my family is German…”
“Fry, that’s diversity not adversity.”
“Oh sorry, coach.”
Coach inhaled to finish his motivational speech and I put my hand up again, “Yes, Fry?”
“What does adversity mean?”
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Look - obviously vocabulary isn’t really my thing. But I’m not the only one that was confused. I mean think about it: the Israelites read or heard Isaiah’s words and they didn’t really understand it either.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
--Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)
When Isaiah wrote these words, his readers didn’t know the whole story like we do. So think about reading it like they might:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given
A child is born - a boy child.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder
So he’s going to be a politician.
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor
And I guess a therapist too - big dreamer!
The mighty God
Wait! I thought this was a human kid?
The everlasting Father
I thought God was the Father, but maybe Isaiah is just trying to say he’s going to be a dad someday too and he’s going to live a long time.
The Prince of Peace
Oh and he’s royalty! Wow, this kid has quite the life ahead of him.
The idea of this human child being “the mighty God” was unusual to the Isrealites during that time. Remember, they don’t know the whole story. They didn’t expect God to become flesh and walk among them. They have no concept of resurrection. They - despite walking the desert for 40 years - weren’t expecting a solution that took patience. I mean they had to wait centuries more for Jesus and even at that he came as a baby and we had to wait 30+ more years
So what does it mean to be the mighty God?
Webster’s Dictionary defines mighty as “possessing might” - very helpful, huh?
So their definition of might (noun) is “the power, authority, or resources wielded (as by an individual or group)”
The mighty God - the God of power.
The God of power to forgive all sin (Psalm 103:10-14).
The God of power to do the impossible (Matthew 9:26).
The God of power to love you unconditionally (1 John 3:1).
The mighty God - the God of authority.
The God of the authority over heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18).
The God of authority over demons and disease (Luke 9:1).
The God of authority over death (1 Corinthians 15:55).
The mighty God - the God of resources.
The God of resources to provide gifts (James 1:17).
The God of resources to provide strength (Philippians 4:13).
The God of resources to provide peace (John 14:27).
Unlike the Isrealites, we know the end of the story. We know who the Wonderful Counselor and Might God is. May we submit to the mighty God - the God of power, authority, and resources.
