Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The prophet Isaiah belongs in a class by himself. Not only has he written the longest book in the Bible (66 chapters), he is our biblical Poet Laureate. And not only that, the Holy Spirit employed him to portray Christ in prophecy in the most intimate way. We meet Jesus personally in Isaiah. The words the poet chose in chapter 53, for example, are heart-stopping. Of inspired writers of all time, Isaiah stands at the pinnacle.
But it is in his chapters 7 and 9 Isaiah confronts us with a most profound revelation of Jesus as a Baby. Not only is Jesus born of a virgin, but the Baby's name is "God with us" (Matt. 1:23). The only Baby in all eternity to be both divine and human is given to "us" for all eternity. "Unto usa child is born." All you inhabitants of other worlds who have never fallen, stand back; all you holy, sinless angels, stand back; Jesus is ours. We fallen, sinful mortals, wehave Him. The Son of God! And we have Him forever.
Just knowing and believing this kills sin at its roots. (If you are still a slave to sin, you don't yet believe it.)
But 9:6 details an almost unbelievable truth about this Baby. Even in His infancy, as soon as He was born, the "government" of the universe was laid upon His shoulders--baby shoulders. From His first breath as Mary's Child He was set to fight in a war--the great controversy with the Enemy, Satan. If as a child, He were to "choose" the "evil" and "refuse" the "good" (as every other baby in all time has done; see 7:15; Rom. 3:23), He would have marred His record and "the government" of the universe would have fallen.
The plan of salvation was laid upon a Child. He couldn't be allowed to wait until what we say is "the age of accountability." He was "accountable" from His first breath. And He wasn't programmed to be flawless: He was so from human choice--"He knew to refuse the evil and choose the good" (7:15).
Stand back, all human beings: your salvation as well as that of the throne of God was on the shoulders of a Baby.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 1, 2004.
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