Christmas Peace, Pt. 3

Jesus Christ was indeed the Wonderful Counselor. He spoke with wisdom, depth, profound knowledge, and He always gave the truth.

Christmas Peace, Pt. 3

"For to us a Child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."‬‬

(Isaiah‬ 9:6)

Some Bible translations like the NKJV have a comma after the word Wonderful. But there should be no comma after the word Wonderful; it should read Wonderful Counselor. The Hebrew word translated "Wonderful" is pele, which means "marvel" and "extraordinary". The Hebrew word for "Counselor" is yaats, which means "advise" and "give counsel". J.A. Motyer states, "Wonderful: literally 'a Wonder of a Counsellor'. The vast majority of the eighty times the pālā', its noun (as here, pele') and adjective (pilĕ'î) occur, they refer to the Lord, himself and his works. It is the nearest word Hebrew has to the idea of 'supernatural', here bringing a wisdom far above the human." (Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 101–102). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)

Jesus Christ was indeed the Wonderful Counselor. He spoke with wisdom, depth, profound knowledge, and He always gave the truth. One example is when He was asked what the greatest commandment was. Jesus gave this amazing response in Matthew 22:36-40, which I summarize as, love God and love your neighbor. Genius! What grand insight, and just think if we did this, if we loved God and loved each other, what kind of world would we have? I referenced this verse recently while sharing the Gospel with a 23-year-old who told me he had tried Christianity but left it. I differentiated for him the vast difference between religion and Jesus!

Wonderful counselors give guidance and direction to those who seek out their wisdom. Andy Andrews has been called the modern-day Mark Twain. He is an excellent writer and speaker, a man full of wisdom and wise counsel. While on vacation this summer, Ashley and I got to meet him at his studio in Orange Beach, AL. Andrews lives in Orange Beach, AL, has sold millions of copies of his books, and has been invited to speak by four US Presidents.

But he started out in a very humble way. At one time, he was homeless, living under the piers on the gulf coast. Both his parents died when he was 19, and in his own words, he said, "I took a bad situation and made it much worse." Zig Ziglar says this about Andrews: "Every generation or so, God produces a person who can communicate like no one else. His words are like cool water to a thirsty civilization." In Andrew's book, The Final Summit, he offers some of the best counsel about depression that I have ever read outside the Bible. Andrews does a great job recreating famous characters and writes what he thinks they would say. On this subject of depression, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln describe how to fight off the black dog of depression by not asking bad or negative questions but asking good ones instead. (See pages 147-49.) I came away from that section feeling as though I had received wonderful counsel.

If I may today, just four days from Christmas, take a moment and encourage those of you who are weary in heart and soul, I want to point you to the Wonderful Counselor who is the source of all wisdom, and that is the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He has the power to replace your depression with His amazing peace. He invites you to come to Him if you are weary and heavy laden, and he will give you rest. He has the power and the ability to do it, for He is the Wonderful Counselor Himself (Matthew 11:28).