
Terry R. Baughman
“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6).
“His Name shall Be” — Everlasting Father
It might seem strange to name a child Everlasting Father, but this was no ordinary child. This prophesied child was the Son of God, the very God of Heaven who would take on the form of humanity. It would be more than a passing visit or an apparition. His appearance in Bethlehem would not be a temporary theophany. His birth would be the Incarnation, the fusion of God in flesh, deity in humanity. John said, “The Word was God …. and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1, 14 NIV).
Charles R. Swindoll, in Jesus: The Greatest Life of All, named a chapter, “Deity in Diapers.” Truly this was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prediction, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Indeed this child was “God with us.” Jesus Christ became the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). According to the writer of Hebrews, God spoke in various ways throughout time, but in the last times He spoke by His Son, “being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).
The prophecies proclaimed that the coming One would be the Anointed, a prophet, a ruler, a king, a deliverer, the Son of God, … and a newborn child. While much of the focus of prophecy was on the fulfillment of His purpose Isaiah predicted His beginning, and the truth of who He was.
In His humanity Jesus always honored the Father. He prayed to the Father giving us an example to follow. He sought to bring glory to the Father in all He did. He acknowledged that He could do nothing without the Father. Eventually, Jesus revealed the unique oneness He had with the Father, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).
So inextricably was Jesus one with the Father that when Philip asked if he might see the Father, Jesus responded, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” He went on to say, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:9, 11). The Father cannot be seen except in the face of Jesus Christ. John wrote, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18).
Jesus was born and called Everlasting Father. That name speaks of His eternal quality. In the prayer of Moses declared, “Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:2). Jesus self-identified with this attribute, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, … who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). He indeed is the Everlasting!
The angel that appeared to Mary proclaimed, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32–33). His kingdom is without end and “His Name shall be … Everlasting Father.”
His Name shall Be!
Scripture:
“Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father’” (John 14:9).