isaiah 9:6 reflection

"And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

I was initially exposed last year to the idea of Isaiah 9:6 as a synopsis of the ideal qualities of the Davidic dynasty and not primarily a reference to Christ, and I am finally understanding what this means. The passage was a pattern, an expectation of the Davidic kings, but no one met it. The people would have heard what Isaiah said and looked at King Ahaz to see if he would fulfill it. He failed at the first one. Hezekiah? Closer, but not quite. Zedekiah? Definitely not. But then—wait. Jesus. Matthew and the other apostles watched Him with baited breath. Wonderful Counselor? The wisdom He spoke with had to come from above. Mighty God? He healed the sick and forgave sins. Everlasting Father? He protected women, cared for children, and provided food for 15,000 people! Prince of Peace? His death brought salvation and peace with God. And the apostles believed that He will bring ultimate peace over the whole earth when He returns.

I realize that I have read the Bible referentially most of my life (immediately linking a passage with a future person or event), but it is becoming easier to approach Isaiah from a literary perspective and to understand the author’s original intent. I am sure that this will be a continued theme for me for many years. I am starting to see the patterning of Isaiah 9:6 in other passages. Some of these tell how the LORD or His messenger exemplify these (Isaiah 11), while some show how other rulers have failed to meet them (Isaiah 9:13 – 10:2).

I think what strikes me the most is that as a church leader, these same qualities should be true of my character.

Am I a “wonderful counselor”—do I make wise decisions and give advice from a framework of wisdom?

“Mighty God”—how do I use power? I can think of three specific avenues:
1) The power (authority, influence) of my position as a leader:
Do I use this power to love and help the people entrusted to me in their relationship with Christ or for my own selfish gain and notoriety?
2) The power and resources to help those less fortunate
3) The power (strength, might) of the Holy Spirit:
Am I relying on His power in all of these areas, or my own strength?
All three of these make me think of the example I am to others—my character in each of these areas affects the people in my sphere of influence. This is an overwhelming prospect which I do not take lightly but too often forget.

“Everlasting Father”—I am not a man and in that sense will never be a father, but there are qualities of a father that should be true of me—comforter, encourager, and protector and provider (which can be exemplified by generosity).

“Prince of Peace”—am I a peacemaker (Romans 12:16-18)? Do I seek the unity of the Spirit or cause petty arguments with my fellow workers? Do I complain and grumble? Am I vindictive? How do I relate with staff from other churches? (We're all in this kingdom thing together.)

prototype 3-d interactive desktop

"Bumptop." This is sweet. Sign me up! It's about having a desktop that truly reflects how we organize (not organize) stuff on our real desks. I especially like the "crumple" effect for the intermediary step when I have an icon on my desktop I'm almost ready to delete. And then there's the whole idea of using a pen instead of a mouse. The downside to this system is that I don't have a messy desktop that needs organized. But it sure looks cool!

1980s mcdonald's commercial

Remember this piano recital? It certainly brought the popularity of Fur Elise up a couple of octaves.

parable of the shrewd manager

Luke 16:1-15

This is one of the most difficult parables in Luke and one that I've wrestled with. What exactly does it mean?

In this parable, Jesus says that a steward was given the pink slip by his master because he was wasting the master's possessions. The steward, not having any other marketable skills, cuts the bills of his master's debtors by 50 and 20 percent, so that they will think highly of him and help him when he is fired. The master praises the "dishonest" steward for his shrewdness.

There are three views on what the steward did. At face value, the first view always seemed like what happened, but Jesus' application never made sense to me because of it.
1) Traditional – the steward undercut the master (thus, the master calls him dishonest, but also "shrewd"—in this case, using worldly wisdom)
2) The steward removed the interest charge
3) The steward removed his own commission

Any of these three would have made both the steward and the master look good, and so the shrewdness of the steward is seen.

The pros of #3 include:
a) The master would have commended him #3, but I have a hard time seeing why he would commend him for cheating him (#1)
b) The wisdom of #3 lines up more closely with the Greek word for "shrewd" (wise or prudent) than does the worldly wisdom of #1
c) #3 makes "dishonest" in v.8 refer to v.1 (wasting the master's possessions), not to what the steward did in v.5-7
d) From the IVP Commentary: "The steward has sacrificed what he could have taken now and has given it to others so that he can receive gain later." The steward sacrifices nothing in #1-2.

I believe letter d jives the most with the point Jesus is making: be generous and wise with your money (included here is sacrificial generosity). Think through what you do with it. Help people. Here on earth, you will make friends for yourself. But this is also an eternal perspective. This is loving God, not money. If you can be trusted with little, you will be trusted with much, but if you can't be trusted with this world's wealth, you won't be trusted with true riches—kingdom service—serving God and others. This also shows the high honor of serving God.

This passage finally makes sense to me! Now I just want to know what v.18 is doing in this context.