Isaiah 9

Welcome to the First 15 Podcast.

Our scripture for today comes from Isaiah 9, verse 6.

Scripture says, 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.

We serve a God who is the author, giver, and sustainer of peace.

Isaiah 9, 6 prophesied about Christ by saying, "'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.'" In order for us to fully grasp and live with the peace promised to us in Scripture, we must first understand the peaceful nature of our God.

The pages of Scripture are filled with declarations about God's peaceful nature and desire for peace on the earth.

1 Corinthians 14.33 says, For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.

2 Thessalonians 3.16 states, Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.

And that means that his reign as the king will be eternal.

Isaiah 9 goes on to tell us in verse 7, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end because he is the everlasting father.

He is eternal in his person.

He's eternal in all his attributes.

For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still outstretched." And so we see the speaker of obscenity there.

But what is the meaning of this phrase? And his hand is still outstretched at the end of Isaiah 9, 16 there.

Rav Hanan said in the name of Rava, everyone knows why a bride enters the wedding canopy.

That is for the consummation of the marriage.

The plowshare indicates fruitfulness, producing food, feeding people, stable populations, good serene communities.

This is quoting from Isaiah.

also from micah but from isaiah and it's saying that there will come a time when we'll study war no more we'll pound our swords into plowshares war will be no more and there'll be a reign of peace there are some real ironies in this statue this is quite amazing number one it was given by an officially atheistic nation at the time of ussr union of soviet socialist republic What's left of that now is just the country of Russia.

The other satellites are gone.

Thirdly, it's given in 1959, the peak of the Cold War, when Khrushchev was saying, quote, we will bury you, And about this close to the same year, when he at the General Assembly took his shoe off and pounded it on the table as a way of intimidation.

So here, when you go into the United Nations, it's a reminder on your left.

Pull up the Isaiah wall, if you would, Alan, if you go to the south west corner of the United Nations and cross first Avenue here's what you see the exact same scripture so the United Nations is parametered by scriptures that say only the Messiah will bring ultimate world peace I got to do one more go to the stained-glass window if you can find a stained glass window.

If you walk into the building and you look to your right as you go through the lobby, there's a stained glass window, the Marc Chagall stained glass window.

In Romans 15, it talks about the God of peace.

In Isaiah 9, 6, this beautiful prophecy, which is pointing forward to Jesus, it talks around Jesus as the Prince of peace.

We've got the God of peace.

We've got the Prince of peace.

So I had three options.

It was obviously fantasy, but what I didn't understand I was looking for was the spirit of government and that Isaiah 9 mantle, which is the sevenfold spirit of God that rests on the shoulders of Jesus.

and covers us as we administrate the Ministry of Reconciliation on the earth.

And so I went up to the capital and I sort of probably, you can say, inspected with my dad, I inspected that national gate and just sort of had a look around and saw the parliaments and saw the High Court of Australia in sitting and saw the War Memorial and connected into that sort of Anzac spirit or just observed and had a look and sort of was open-hearted to the Spirit of the Lord if he wanted to speak to me about anything.