Riffin' On Isiah 9:6

“For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the Messenger of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him.” Isiah 9:6

This prophecy from Isiah has been interpreted as foreshadowing the coming of Christ.

Many can’t help but to wonder if there are dark ironies between the seeming discrepancies between the prophecy and what played out. After all, while Christ counseled to all, including those in political authority, and while he had teachings that certainly had political implications, ultimately his government did not willingly take on his vision. They were not “upon his shoulder” other than perhaps in the sense of a devil, and arguably they robbed Christ of all of his “health”…

Still, in his Passion…in his persecution and crucifixion… he was “glorified”. What played out is that somehow in killing him, those on the fence, utterly unwilling to glimpse from vantage points that Christ truly was the Son of God and could work miracles, ultimately ended up utterly convinced at some level that he was in fact, Christ, and that he had spoken universal truths, as well as worked legitimate magic…

Verse 7 goes on to explain the prophesized child will bear the government “upon his shoulder” “forever”… the references to shoulders can be seen through a more modern lens here… these two passages together are construing Christ as the Judge… the Source of sensibility/the internal narrative… He’s that which puts both the angel and the devil upon your shoulder…the entire game…but he only advocates one…

He’s the servant forever at the right hand of the Father throughout all of human history (including before his historical birth) who has somehow shaped life itself into a testimony on the nature of God for every single life form that experiences it, and this is what shapes reality. The prophecy merely parallels sensibility with holiness/the works of Christ himself in an utterly comprehensive way; it’s in this fashion that we are saved, or bound to be, simply by living/accruing life experiences.

This “child” “born to us” is also a “given” “son” in the sense of Luke 1:35…only an act of God can usher in the creation of a new life, and so that baby born to you is a son or daughter of God “given” in some sense.

Notice the name of the child in the prophecy is “Messenger of great counsel”…which is a clunky title for what is essentially mysticism. The great message to be relayed is that God is real, you can definitely find Him personally within, and you should turn to Him for counsel in all things in life at all moments once you learn how to do so. It really is that simple.

What I love about this particular passage is that it really advocates, or seems to, Democracy…social equity. One voice, one vote… the prophecy is regarding Christ, but the greatness of Christ is that all can follow in his example entirely. We are to have the government upon our shoulder in some meaningful sense of it, if we are living life seriously and are morally righteous people… we should be messengers of the greatest counsel of All… we should do so so that “peace” is brought to our world and “health” is brought to our own lives.

Alan Watts has many a lecture on a spiritual system called “Wu-wei”… it essentially is a way of life in which you stay communed with Source at all moments and live a life that is very…natural… very… effortless… harmonious… as if of the universe’s dreaming… this ultimately is where it often spirals, the curriculum of Christ, the notion of seeing life entirely in terms of the Father. It’s classic Chinese spirituality…old as dirt…. Zen.