Today we finish up the Christmas posts with Isaiah chapter 9.
After chapter 8 ended with a dark curse for those who do not speak according to god's word, verse 9:1 says its not the end of the world. "In the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles...The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the shadow of death a light has dawned." Matthew 4:13-16 claims this was a prophecy that was fulfilled when Jesus lived and preached in Galilee. However, there are no contemporary extrabiblical sources that place Jesus in that place at that time. The (unknown) author of Matthew could very well have written his story with an eye to choosing vague prophetic sounding passages that could do double duty.
The passage goes on to talk of the gentile nation (In the Galilee region) being enlarged and increasing their joy. The yoke of oppression will be lifted and war time clothing burnt. According to my study bible this did happen, kind of. Around 701 BCE, the Assyrian army lost its hold on the region. If the author of Isaiah was deliberately projecting his writing into the future, as though he was writing from the past, he would have known that. But what does that have to do with Jesus? Why do some verses of Isaiah apply to Jesus and others do not? Shouldn't real prophecy be internally consistent? The easy answer is that the authors of the New Testament gospels picked and chose the ones that would help enforce the story they wanted to tell.
Verses 6-7 says that this improvement in the region will happen... "for to us a child is born, to us a son is given..." Okay, who is US here? Ahaz and his young woman, or Isaiah and his prophetess? And what son? Immanuel or Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz? Or is it talking about Jesus as Christians claim? Could it have two meanings?
More about this child from verses 6-7: "and the government will be on his shoulders." Did that happen to Jesus? Nope. "And he will be called Wonderful Counselor." Did that happen to Jesus?
Not anywhere in the New Testament. Christians do call him that now, BECAUSE of this passage. He will also supposedly be called "Mighty God." Was Jesus ever called that? Not in the Bible. "Everlasting," nope. "Father," nope. "Prince of Peace," nope. If he was ever called any of these things outside of the bible, it was usually because someone had read this passage and assumed it was talking of Jesus.
Verse 7 says "of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end." Did that happen? First of all Jesus never had a government, unless you count the government of the Catholic church and the Vatican. I hope you don't. It certainly has not had a reign of peace. "He will reign on David's throne." Did that happen to Jesus? No. However, the gospels tried to get around that by claiming Jesus had direct lineage from David, and christians say that he "reigns" with god in heaven on the "true throne of David." It's all metaphorical don't you know. At least the parts christians find convenient to be metaphorical. The virgin birth, that's literal.
Continuing on in verse 7, the son will establish and uphold David's kingdom "with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever." Did that happen? Uh, no. In fact it didn't happen to the Jewish nation after Assyria left either, they were eventually conquered by the Babylonians. There was no justice and righteousness forever, and no peace without end. This section ends by saying "the zeal of the lord almighty will accomplish this." What happened? The prophecy failed, no matter who it was about.
We will not finish chapter 9 because it is blatantly obvious that it can not be applied to Jesus in any way. But I urge you to continue reading to the end. It's got a lot of interesting stuff about the wrath of god against Israel and false prophets. (I think we can assume the author of Isaiah does not consider himself one. )There is even a mention of cannibalism at the end of the chapter.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and Warm Wishes to all my readers. Until next week.
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