He Will Be Called: Wonderful Counselor

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"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
       Wonderful Counselor
                     Mighty God,
                             Everlasting Father,
                                         Prince of Peace."
 Isaiah 9.6 (NLT)
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This is the so familiar Advent refrain. But in its familiarity we forget what it really means! Think back to Moses or Jacob in their encounters with God: they made a singular request that related to the belief structure of the day. Both asked, "What is your name?" Perhaps because they wanted power over this God they were meeting, perhaps because they actually wanted to know; I'm not going to make that call. Regardless, God gave them a name: Y-W-H (I know, I'm not writing this as a Jew but still think it's better that way!). Y-W-H means, "I am who I am." or "I will be who I will be." Rather vague, huh? Yes, I am glad that my God is constant and who He is is who He is, not who He is is not who He will be; but I'd like some more info on this guy I follow!

Thus, the incarnation! God made flesh, "Emmanuel." Jesus broke the scope of history by becoming what He had made turning everything upside down. This is the amazing part of the Christmas story: God stepped out of His realm, voluntarily chose to become like us, and face torture and death for our sake! That is an unheard of leap for a God. He is not so transcendent (almost unintelligibly different and far off) as to be beyond our reach, but instead is immanent (near to us) in the incarnation. This is what Advent is about, preparing our hearts for the celebration of the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who became a baby and had poopy drawers. It's crazy, yet so earth shatteringly important that I want to take this season to look at who God shows himself to be, in prophecy and in person.

First off is the name, "Wondeful Counselor." In the Hebrew it's "Pele Yoetz" (and forgive the transliteration, it's as close as I could convince the page to get to the actual Hebrew text). Pele means "beyond understanding, too wonderful for words" and Yoetz means "to advise; to consult, to guide." Now, think about who that says Jesus is: he is there to advise, guide, and counsel us in an amazing, wonderful, beyond words fashion. Now, let's take that to the New Testament and shed some light on what it means to have the incarnate God as our counselor:

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV)

Did you see what that said? It said that our Jesus went through everything we will ever go through, but never sinned. Therefore, knowing what we're going through, He can guide and lead us through it! The adage, "You can't lead where you haven't been," is true and Jesus becoming man allows Him to lead us where He has been. If he were merely our Creator (which He is), we would know Him much as the item being repaired knows its Creator: as the divine repairman. However, Jesus went a step beyond that and brought His repair knowledge to earth as one of us! That is simply amazing! But, let's examine some of the implications of Jesus knowing where we've been and being simply and advisor, guide, or counselor leads...

First, think about counseling if you've ever been. You go in, relax, and they ask a lot of questions. Your answers determine where things go. They're probing, looking for the root cause of whatever problem you're facing. Just like my doctor examines my body to determine exactly what is wrong, a good counselor probes your answers to find out where the problem area is. However, there's a catch: you can easily mislead a counselor through your answers if you're not being honest. While they'll catch it, they cannot force you to be honest. The truth is, you have to be open, honest, get down to the not-so-pretty nitty-gritty if you want to see any real change happen. If not, you might make some superficial progress, but never take care of your major problems! Jesus told us why he came: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:31-32). And the honest truth is, we're all sick.

But, most of us have tuned out the voice of our Wonderful Counselor. I mean, we are over-noised into oblivion. We run from place to place with our music blaring in our headphones, then turn on thee TV, stereo, or computer and start the cycle again. We drown out the voice of God in the midst of our noise and busy-ness. Heck, I mean who notices the noise of their fridge despite it being an extremely noisy appliance? Its constant hum has become a part of our existence and we never even think about it! I mean, think back to Samuel's calling in the middle of the night (read 1 Samuel 3 for the whole story): he heard a small voice calling to him in the stillness of the night, not a yell from the rooftops during the day. Or Elijah (read the story in 1 Kings 19) who felt and saw the wind ripping the mountain apart, felt the earthquake shaking the foundations of creation, and saw the fire blowing all around him yet only met God in a "quiet whisper," "breath," or "still small voice?" That sounds like the opposite of our current status quo. We are looking for loud, obvious, blaring signals when God speaks when we are still and quiet? Perhaps that is why God urges us to, "Be still and know that I am God?" I mean, God had to split the heavens and tell the disciples (some twice!) to "listen to Him" (meaning Jesus during His baptism and the transfiguration on the mountain). So, if we do take the time to be quiet and still our hearts, God has told us He'll speak. But, what is our response to the Wonderful Counselor's quiet promptings?

I'll tell you: it's often complete ignorance of the solution. Just like when a doctor told my grandpa to change his diet after a quadruple bypass, the doctor couldn't force him to do that. Instead, grand dad had to change his eating habits and cut out a lot of things he enjoyed so he could spend more quality years with his family (and I'm very thankful he made/is making that choice still!). He had the option to ignore what the doctor said, just as you can ignore what a counselor suggests. Jesus, as our Wonderful Counselor is the same. Look at this story from Mark's gospel:

"'Teacher,' he declared, 'all these I have kept since I was a boy.' Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' he said. 'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth."
Mark 10:20-22 (NIV)

The young man goes away sad because he cannot do what the Wonderful Counselor is asking him to do. Are we much different? I think not. For Jesus' to be our Wonderful Counselor we need to get honest with Him (and ourselves!), listen to what he has to say, but most importantly, do what He tells us to do.

Last Wednesday with our Junior High group and last night with our Senior High group, I asked them to get honest, listen, and then do what God told them to do. It revolved around three simple questions in the silence:

1. How am I "sick?" (or phrased differently "Jesus, what is one thing you want to change about me?")
2. What is keeping me from changing?
3. What do I need to do today to get "well?" (or start changing as the phrasing might be)

I asked our students to take 10 minutes in silence and ponder those thoughts to see what God gave them. Although, I will caution you as well, sometimes we fill in for the voice of God and say what we want to hear. But, as I'll discuss later this week, there are some simple steps to avoid misinterpreting God's whispers: it lines up with the Bible (no God is not telling you to have sex with your girlfriend, just read any of a kajillion verses and you'll see that that's not God!), it should fit who you are (if you're tone deaf God is not very likely to call you to lead worship!), it will be wise (God is not telling you to go out and spend all of your life savings on lotto tickets!) and it will be verified by others (if all your friends/mentors/parents are telling you that it's a bad idea, it probably is!). So, I'd encourage you to slow down today, take ten minutes and reflect on those questions. See what God has to say to you, honestly examine your own "sick" area, and begin to take action to change as God reveals it to you. You'll be amazed at what happens...

Thanks to Craig Groeschel from Life Church for preaching the original sermon from whom I am deeply indebted in terms of ideas and texts!