Holiday Blessings in Messiah,
One God, Many Names
The God of the Universe, God of Creation, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is so Big, so Powerful, so Majestic, so Eternally Great, that He cannot be described by only one name. In Hebrew thought names reveal essence, character, or destiny. A many-faceted God of love must, of necessity, have many names to reveal the multiple aspects of His character.
There is one name, however, which is above every other name. It is the name, given by an angel, of God’s only begotten Son, whom He sent into the world to save mankind from their sin. The angel Gabriel announced the name of this Savior to a young Jewish virgin named Miriam, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel: “The angel spoke to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you shall call His name Yeshua [ישועY’SHOO-ah]. He will be great and will be called Ben-Elyon [בן עליון BEHN el-YOHN]. Adonai Elohim will give Him the throne of David, His father. He shall reign over the house of Jacob for all eternity, and His kingdom will be without end’” (Luke 1:30-33 TLV). When Joseph, Miriam’s betrothed, learned that she was with child, he also had an angelic visitation. The angel said to him in a dream, “…‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Miriam as your wife, for the Child conceived in her is from the Ruach ha-Kodesh. She will give birth to a son; and you shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people from their sins‘” (Matt. 1:20-21 TLV).
God gave the Child’s name twice because it held great significance. Yeshua is a Hebrew name meaning “God saves” from the verb yashah ישע) yah-SHAH)—to save or deliver. The baby to be born had a name that defined His essence, character, and mission. He would be SALVATION for His people. (This gets lost when Yeshua is translated as Jesus or Jesús or any other language except the Hebrew original.)
The day is coming when everyone will acknowledge and revere Yeshua—God’s Son and the Messiah of the world—who humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death. “For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue profess that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord—to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11 TLV).
His Name is Wonderful
I love stories about how songs were composed. Both words and music of the old classic gospel song, “His Name is Wonderful,” were written by Audrey Mieir in 1956. Audrey and her husband were co-pastoring a small California church at that time. On Christmas Day, she was sitting among her young people’s choir as her brother-in-law began his sermon with a paraphrase of the joyous and prophetic verse from Isaiah 9:6: “His name will be called Wonderful.” Audrey was so moved by the sermon and by the love that surrounded her, that she wrote a poem and its melody on the flyleaf of a Bible in a matter of minutes. Some years later, when Audrey and her husband arrived in the Orient as missionaries to the “nameless children” born during the Korean War, they found that her song had preceded them and was being sung by the people they had come to serve (paraphrased from the Reader’s Digest Family Songbook of Faith and Joy). A retro version of Audrey’s song can be heard on YouTube by Carman.
If we study Isaiah 9:6 in its Hebrew original, we uncover the depth of meaning of the names given to the Messiah who would come about 700 years later! “For to us a child is born, a son will be given to us, and the government will be upon His shoulder. His Name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, My Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace” (TLV, 9:5). The four “names” given to this child who would be born as Davidic king, are actually titles which describe Messiah’s attributes, characteristics, and character.
Wonderful Counselor
Wonderful Counselor in Hebrew is Pele Yoetz פלא יועץ) peh-LAY yo-ETZ). When we consider counselors today, we think of advice, mental and spiritual help, guidance, comfort, understanding, and personal assistance for our individual needs and problems. Many people have therapists from whom they seek guidance. Neil and I always suggested that both individuals and married couples find a good, godly counselor to help give an outside perspective and biblical wisdom in difficult life situations—or even just as a listening ear to offer helpful advice.
Wonderful and Counselor go together in the Holy Scriptures; the Tanakh says the following concerning God’s counsels: “O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth” (Is. 25:1). In some versions (KJV, NKJV, ASV, ERV) a comma is placed between Wonderful and Counselor. To be sure, our God is Wonderful —in many many ways. But in this verse, the focus is on Messiah as being a Counselor who is Wonderful in counsel. King David’s “Wonderful Counselor” is praised in Psalm 16:7: “I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons.” Israel, unfortunately, had a history of forgetting or ignoring the counsel of the Lord. Even after He had opened the Red Sea and redeemed Israel from her enemy, “They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel” (Ps. 106:13).
In His Names Are Wonderful by Elizabeth L. Vander Meulen and Barbara D. Malda, the authors state an important truth: “Human counselors are helpful, but all truth, wisdom and healing comes from God. For He alone understands clearly every situation. He discerns the motives of our hearts and knows what is best for us.” I experienced this following the robbery of my card case, as mentioned in the October newsletter. While the Lord restored even more than had been stolen, I know that nothing happens in my life without God’s permission, so I waited to hear from Him. Sure enough, He told me that He had allowed the robbery—for a reason. My Wonderful Counselor had me picture myself when the robbery occurred. He said, “Look at yourself. What were you doing? What was in your hands?” I thought, “I had a purse, a sweater over my arm, an oatmeal raisin cookie in a little plastic bag, my card case, the device that buzzes when your order is ready, my credit card, and the empty coffee cup.” Then my Wonderful Counselor asked, “What did you do then?” I answered, “I went to the coffee bar and filled the cup. I put things down on the counter in order to do that. Certainly my card case was among them.” Then it occurred to me that I must have gathered everything except the card case when I went to get my lunch order. I was juggling a lot of things! My Wonderful Counselor spoke again: “That is a picture of your life, Jamie. You are juggling too many things.” (The enemy can rob us when we do—of joy, peace, strength, and more.)
Pele Yoetz. I realized at that moment that, as a widow, without my beloved Neil, there is no one here to “put the brakes on me.” But God. He is here. He did. He gave me wonderful counsel as I asked Him for His top three priorities for me in this season. (Note: Everything I was doing was ministry and “good,” but not what the Lord wanted me to focus my time and energy on.) By the grace of God, I have obeyed, even though I had to say “No” to people and projects that I love. How about you?
Time is short. The world is spinning out of control. Look at Israel—God’s timepiece. As I write this letter, there are still over 200 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. I have the names of two of them written on the palms of my hands, Ariel on my left hand and Mia on my right. (Thank you, “FIRM, Praying for Israel by Name,” for this brilliant, God-counseled idea, according to Isaiah 49:16: “I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…”) We need Pele Yoetz to lead and guide us every day, every moment. Our Messiah promised that He would be with us until the end in the Person of the Holy Spirit. He said to His talmidim, disciples, shortly before He left this world, “If you love Me, keep My mitzvot. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever” (Jn 14:15-16 HNV). “But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you” (Jn 14:26 HNV).
The Wonderful Counselor always gives wise counsel. Our job is to listen to His counsel and obey it. From the Tanakh: “Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever…” (Deut. 12:28). From the Brit Hadashah: “Then He [Ye-shua] said to them, ‘Take heed what you hear…‘” (Mark 4:24). Abba, please help us to listen and obey Your good counsel daily.
Mighty God
Mighty God in Hebrew is El Gibor אל גבור) EHL gee-BOHR). It means the Mighty Warrior God, the Champion. This is the God mentioned in Jeremiah 32:17-18: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You… the Great [הגדל haGadol], the Mighty God [הגבור haGibor], whose name is the Lord of hosts [יהוה צבאות Adonai T’zvaot].” El Gibor seems to be synonymous with Adonai T’zvaot, translated in English as “The Lord of Hosts.” This title signifies that the Messiah would be the Ruler over every other power in the universe, both material and spiritual. Mighty God, Lord of Hosts, appears more than 240 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It reminds us of God’s sovereignty and His dominion over all creation. It is the name that David used when he spoke to the giant Goliath, “…You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts [בשם יהוה צבאות, b’Shem Adonai T’zvaot] the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (I Sam. 17:45).
El Gibor is the Commander of the hosts of heaven, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He is the One who appeared to Joshua with a drawn sword in His hand and identified Himself as the Commander of Adonai’s army. He told Joshua to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground (Josh. 5:13-15). We must conclude that this “Commander” is the One spoken of in Isaiah 9:6, El Gibor, the Messiah, pre-incarnate Yeshua, the Lord of Hosts. Mighty God.
Andrew Jukes, in his classic book The Names of God, mentions that Adonai T’zvaot is the name most related to Israel when in trouble, divided, unfaithful, and desperately needing God. Therefore, when all things shake, the psalmist says, “The LORD of Hosts is with us, though the earth be removed, and the waters roar, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea” (Psalm 46 paraphrased). ISRAEL NEEDS EL GIBOR, ADONAI T’ZVAOT, RIGHT NOW! “The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Is. 8:13-14). Israel needs her Messiah, now more than ever—as I write in November, and as you read this, in December.
Be assured of this: God will not abandon His people Israel; He is in covenant with them. Hear what the God of Israel says through the prophet Isaiah: “…’As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey…so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill. Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; passing over, He will preserve it‘” (Is. 31:4-5).
El Gibor is Strong and Mighty in Battle.
My Father of Eternity
Most Bible versions say “Everlasting Father.” The Hebrew—Aviad אביעד) ah-vee AHD) is literally My Father Eternal or of the Age to Come, since Avi is “My Father” in Hebrew and Ad means eternal or everlasting. This title is indeed Pele (wonderful). Imagine: A son, a child, who is somehow an “Eternal Father.” This is the Son prophesied in Psalm 2 where the Father says to the Messiah “…’You are My Son, today I have begotten You‘” (Ps. 2:7). Aviad is also a term used for the perpetual head of a family or clan. Yeshua, as the Head of the Body (see Eph. 1:22-23), is this “Father.”
Andrew Jukes gives an interesting explanation of Yeshua, the Son of God, being a “Father of the age.” “Yeshua is the Father of Eternity in the sense that His Kingdom is called in the New Testament, ‘The age (or world) to come.'” (See Mark 10:30.) It is through Yeshua that we have “everlasting life.” He is from everlasting to everlasting, and the worlds were made through Him (Col. 1:16). Yeshua gave birth to us—as a father—through the Good News. Rabbi Saul (Paul) makes an interesting comment in which we can see the “son” of Isaiah 9:6 in a “fathering” role: “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Messiah, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Messiah Yeshua I have begotten you through the gospel” (I Cor. 4:15).
Yeshua the Messiah, as the “Father of Eternity,” promises everlasting life to all those who believe in Him: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life” (Jn 6:47). Finally, since Yeshua and the Father are One, He can assume the title of Aviad. This is foreshadowed in Isaiah 63:16: “…You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.”
The “father” aspect of the Messiah not only includes His gift of eternal life, but His unconditional, incomprehensible, everlasting, fatherly love for each one of us. “Thank You, Yeshua, that the love You have for us is the love of a Perfect Father. I am totally accepted and secure as Your beloved child because You never stop loving me, no matter what.”
Prince of Peace
Sar Shalom שר שלום (SAR shah-LOHM) means Prince of Peace in Hebrew. This title of the Messiah Child of Isaiah 9:6 is perhaps the most well-known. At His birth, angels proclaimed a message of peace for the whole world: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!” (Luke 2:14). Our world desperately needs that peace, shalom, today. External peace, in and among peoples and nations, will not be possible until the Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace, returns. Until then, those who have received Yeshua as their Messiah and Lord have internal peace— the peace of sins forgiven, of knowing God intimately, and having a hope and a future. The Bible calls this peace “…the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding…” (Phil. 4:7).
The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means much more than the absence of conflict, strife, or war. It conveys the idea of total well-being, body, soul, and spirit. Wholeness. Completeness. Success. Contentment. Safety. Prosperity. Tranquility. That is shalom! Messiah, as the Prince, initiator, leader, and source of peace brings all these blessings when He rules in a life. The Apostle Paul, speaking to Christians in Ephesus, said the following about Yeshua: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation” (Eph. 2:14). The New Covenant reveals Yeshua as the source of all peace. We have peace with God “…through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). This makes it possible for us to have peace with others and within ourselves.
Yeshua promised us His peace in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” In Him, the supreme goal or value in traditional Judaism—SHALOM—is fulfilled. The Aaronic Blessing (Num. 6:24-26) exemplifies this with its three parts, ascending in number of words and importance: “‘The LORD bless you and keep you [protection and physical well-being]; the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you [prosperity of the soul; grace and favor; mental, emotional well-being]; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace [spiritual well-being; wholeness in every way].'”
Praying Numbers 6:24-26 over you this holiday season.
Love in Yeshua, the Sar Shalom,
P.S. Your End-of-the-Year Love Gift will help Jewish Jewels finish 2023 victoriously!
You must be logged in to post a comment.