On the third Sunday in Advent we looked at Isaiah prophesying that Jesus will be the 'Everlasting Father'! A child born to be the everlasting! Father?
“His Name shall be called … Everlasting Father”. Isaiah 9:6
This one has me stumped. Why would you call a baby “Everlasting Father”? Son, brother, or uncle might be a better description. I have some ideas rambling through my mind, but this particular prophecy has captured my imagination this Christmas season. It is a most amazing prophecy concerning Jesus’ names 750 years before he was born. A very powerful declaration of the uniqueness of the coming Messiah.
Something else has captured my imagination as well. I was gathering up our Christmas albums to play some Christmas music while decorating our home for the season (Jan is always so creative in making our home “gemütlich” – cozy this time of year!) when I came across a cd labeled: Christmas 1969. I had no recollection of it, so Jan suggested I play it and find out what was on it. The first sounds I recognized immediately as the Bells of Bethlehem, something as a boy I often experience as we spent our Christmases in Jerusalem.
During Christmas 1969 I was in my freshman year at college, and met up with my sisters during the Christmas break. Our parents were still in Beirut, Lebanon, and sent us a tape they had recorded for us. Somehow it had been saved to a cd, and I found myself listening to my mother’s voice for the first time since she had died in 1976, and my fathers voice since he died in 1990. I was reliving memories from over 53 years ago: memories of special experiences as a child shared with family growing up in the Middle East. From my baptism in the Jordan River to walking in the places Jesus had walked, our parents had given us a very special childhood. It was a foundation that would directly impact the rest of my life. I can see how from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth I have gone sharing about Jesus wherever I went. Seeing people from all walks of life turning from sin to a savior, breaking the devil’s chains, and being set free to forgive and to be forgiven. Family is important and key to the growth of individuals as well as communities and nations. Our father’s have great influence on us for good or for bad. How often do we take on the characteristics of our fathers? Their influence gives us norms in life. We judge what is normal and foundational by their behavior. That is not always a good thing.
Just because I got the belt when I was a kid, that was how I knew to punish and correct bad behavior. And that was how I started with my boys as well. It’s what I knew, and based on my experience it is what I did. Believe me, I had to repent of my power methods. But we see Fathers as just a larger extension of our own fathers – domineering, inciting fear (just wait until your father comes home!), absent, disinterested in your life, ruling your life to the smallest detail, etc. is the mighty God really like that?
That kind of a Father is not full of wonder for sure! If we can adequately describe him, he cannot be the wonder-filled God of this prophecy.
Now all of us had sinful parents. They probably did their best, and we all still messed up, regardless of the effort they made. That, however, does not negate the value and importance of family. Especially when it comes to learning how to be selfless and other key values to living in community. Family is the foundation of ordered life, something our very self centered society is drifting away from. Kindness in some government circles a very rare commodity. Meanness, anger, gossip, name calling, accusations, and general lack of good manners in social intercourse is the rule of the day. What does that teach our children? Perhaps we need better fathers who can teach their children in word, deed, and by example how to live good lives? That has always been the cry. Where are the fathers who do that? From the beginning of time we see this very need! Whether it is Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Saul, David, or evil men like Herod, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Putin who waste lives striving for power… we always need fathers. But all the fathers are sinful from Adam on. And we don’t just need a father for one generation, but for all generations! Every child needs a father! Every generation needs fathers as well; the need is new with every child born! Our great need is for a a good and an everlasting father! One who has the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of One who is old, but the excitement and joy and discovery of one who is a father for the first time!
We each yearn for a father who fits that bill: who loves us unconditionally and continues to pursue us, doesn’t abandon us, who is always available wether we need him or not. We need a steady constant model we can see and follow, but whose thrill of life and joy is so contagious. Not just a disciplinarian, but an encouraging source of life, help and encouragement. We need someone who is there for us, our children, our grandchildren, and for generations to come! We need a strong, and compassionate father. A wise and caring, knowledgeable and understanding father. My father is no longer here to ask for guidance or insight, or understanding. Where is the father who is dependable, available, and trustworthy?
Now you. Ought jump ahead of me and say well God is that kind of a father. The problem we face however, is that we already have a father.
Even if such a person were available how do you adopt them? If I try to sneak into someone else’s family, the closest I could get would be stepfather. They might be kind. But I would still be an outsider, a fostered child. The only way you can be a father, is by giving birth. You see the seed enters the woman and it fertilizes the egg and a baby is the result. Not a different kind of animal, but one born of the same kind.
It is no wonder that Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3: 3-21: “you must be born again!” If we are born by sinners, then that is the nature we get, but if we are born again by the spirit of God, we have a new Father! The Father Heart of God is ours and it affects all of our life. The word of God is the seed and when it enters our hearts, and is joined by the Spirit of God, it creates a new creature in the likeness of the everlasting father! It is all encompassing!