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Have you noticed that a phenomenon of aging is that life seems to go by faster the older you get? I attribute this to a mathematical equation since each year becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of your life. When I was ten, a year was 10% of my life (actually even more in experience, since we don't even remember our first several years). But on my last birthday a year of my life was just 1.5%. Of course each year I get older this percentage continues to decrease!

In high school in the early seventies I read the science fiction novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four", by English novelist George Orwell. Though 1984 was only some 12 years away at that time it seemed like it was way out there in  the practically unimaginable very distant future. Of course that year came and went and then it was looking ahead to the new millennium which again seemed so far away but of course the year 2000 came and went and, amazingly, we are now already over 20 years into the new millennium!

But consider with us today a 700 year period of time. Looking back that would place us in the middle ages in 1322. Looking ahead would take us to 2722!

We ended our message on Friday with the words to the "Hallelujah Chorus", likely the most well-known song from Handel's Messiah. But another well known selection from "Messiah" is "For Unto Us a Child is Born" which is based on our daily (and weekly verse).

This is a prophetic message from some 700 years before Christ was born. The idea is that the future prophecy was so certain to transpire, that it was presented as if it were an accomplished fact in Isaiah's day. This is known theologically as the prophetic perfect. It's similar to Isaiah's prophecy about the suffering Messiah in chapter 53 where he writes, "Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering..." (Isaiah 53:4ff)

Isaiah prophesied the characteristics of the Messiah in our daily text, and later those of a suffering servant (Isaiah 53). He looked ahead as he declared his prophecy, unaware that it would be 700 years for his prophecy to be fulfilled. Bonhoeffer, in his book, "God Is In The Manger" makes this observation: "The prophet is so deeply immersed in God's thought and counsel that he speaks of the future as if he saw it already."

"Unto us a Son is given" This is precursor to one of the Bible's most memorized verses: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." (John 3:16).

"And the government will be upon His shoulder". When we read this we may tend to consider "government" in the sense of those who presently rule our land (wherever we may live). However likely this has the sense of Christ's rule over the Kingdom of God, by far the most important of the two kingdoms in which we live. Pastor Richard Dresselhaus writes regarding our citizenship:

Today let us place our focus on the Son of God who came unto us to establish His kingdom.

Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)