For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us.  And the government will rest on His shoulders.  And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government, or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.  The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.  Isaiah 9:6-7.

Isaiah and the other prophets follow these major themes:

1. God loves you (Israel), has chosen you, has made many great and wonderful promises to you, and has been faithful to you.
2. God calls you to respond to Him with love, obedience, faithfulness, and exclusive and authentic worship.
3. Your response has been compromised by mixed worship of other gods, disobedience, and lack of faith.
4. God has sent various and ever-increasing calamities trying to get your attention, that you would turn your heart back to Him.  The latest and strongest of these has been invasion and domination by other countries and peoples.
   • These invading powers sometimes become misled into thinking their domination is because of their superiority, or God’s rejection of His people.
   • However, God will judge, punish and sometimes destroy those peoples for their own wickedness, including idolatry, and pride.
5. God does not intend these calamities to continue unendingly, but that there will come a season of restoration and redemption, where you will live in God’s covenant relationship as He originally intended.
6. The promise of restoration culminates in the coming of the Messiah, and His permanent rule and reign.

It is in this cosmic context, and to this last point of the coming Messiah in particular, that God promises, of all things, a child.

To be sure, the promises concerning the child are great:  Wonderful Counselor, peace, justice and righteousness, among them.

But, still, the initiation is a child.

Weak.  Small.  Insignificant.  Powerless.  Dependent.  Vulnerable.

But full of promise.

It is in this promise, God’s promise, that there is hope.  It is because God promises that we are not to despise the day of small beginnings.

We hope.  We believe.  We rejoice.  Because to us a Child is born.