The Prince of Peace: Reflections on Isaiah 9:1-4

With this marvelous tale as backdrop we may now hear the famous announcement of the child "born for us" in a rather different light. The child will have "authority" and is named "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Do you hear Handel again?) Because his last-named attribute is "Prince of Peace," and because he promises that his coming will bring "endless peace," it appears that that is the focus of the son's life and work. He will bring peace; the throne of the great David will at last be a guarantor of peace. This son will "establish and uphold it (the peace) with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore" (9:6-7).

But peace will only come when verse 5 has been realized. "For all of the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire." This image is reminiscent of the memorable Psalm 46 that describes the "works of YHWH" as "making wars cease to the end of the earth, breaking the bow, shattering the spear, and burning the shields with fire" (Ps. 46:8-9). Just as on the day of Midian, when no shields or bows or spears or tramping warrior boots were to be found, but only jars and torches and musical instruments, rendering battles finally absurd and useless, so will this son seek not the implements of battles and power, but rather the authority of justice and righteousness that only leads to endless peace.

Such was Isaiah's hope for this unnamed son.

Whom did he have in mind? We can hardly know; it may have been one royal birth or another. But his identity is far less important than Isaiah's conviction that he will one day come. The early Christians were convinced that he had in fact come in Jesus of Nazareth. Yet, it must be said that wars have not ceased, boots still tramp in nearly every land, and the terrible modern equivalents of swords and spears and shields rain unspeakable death on millions. We still await the full appearance of the Prince of Peace. If Jesus was this prince, we have yet to take his peaceful demands with seriousness.

John C. Holbert is the Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, TX.