He is Wonderful

Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

700 years prior, in Isa 9:6 where the son is promised to be given, born as a man there are a number of descriptions of our Lord, one of them is wonderful. It is what begins of the many names the Son is to be called.

Wonderful means Indescribable beyond comprehension to fully grasp. He is the perfect one that is beyond description.

We find this name wonderful applied to God in the Old Testament.

Ps. 111:4 He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; The LORD is gracious and full of compassion”

Ps. 119:129 Your testimonies are wonderful; Therefore my soul keeps them.”

Isa. 28:29-29:1 This also comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.”

There is another specific time we find this name wonderful revealed in the Old Testament.

It begins Judges 13:1 where the “children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty year”

We find details of this clandestine account in Judges 13:2-4: Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. Here she is sterile and God purposely intervenes. “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. In v.3 we find "he shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."

V.6-7 So the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name.”

Judges 13:8-21 Manoah prayed to the LORD, asking to let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born."

Manoah’s prayer brought the angel of the Lord back a second time for a face to face talk.

V.9-10 and the Angel of God came to the woman again when Manoah was not with her. the woman and told her husband, and said to him, "Look, the Man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me!" 11 So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the Man, he said to Him, "Are You the Man who spoke to this woman?" And He said, "I am." Manoah converse with the angel then in v.15 asks for him to stay and eat with them V.16 And the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the LORD.) Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?"  And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful ?" v. 21 When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the LORD.”

The Angel of the Lord is the messenger of the covenant is no other than the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Son of God. Notice what he says to Manoah, that his name is wonderful and then disappears.

Manoah’s son is Samson, a Nazarite who was set apart to God from birth. “It was in the time where everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” And Samson did not different than his countrymen. As an adult he failed in his dedication as he desired to marry from Israel’s enemy a philistine (whom his parents protested). One disobedience led to another as he became a womanizer giving into temptation. In the end God still used him for his purpose, to deliver Israel from the Philistines as told to his parents.

Gen.32:29 -30 we later read of Jacob wrestling with the same angel of the Lord all night that Manoah met. After which the angel knocks out his hip and then blesses him with a name change to Israel.  “And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

Here Jacob has his name changed but is denied to hear this messenger of the Lords name.

Gods plan was Jesus all along. In the New Testament it says he is given the name above all other names. Being called Emmanuel tells us who He is but being called wonderful tells us in some way what He will do. For he is wonderful in so many ways that are indescribable. For giving us salvation as a gift showing us kindness, grace and mercy. Giving us beauty for ashes, that is wonderful.

Luke 2:8-18 As the shepherds were in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

  "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" 

This may be the only time man has heard angels sing as it was a special event that even the angels were astounded at.

V.15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."

The shepherds could not fully grasp this event, it was too wonderful to them

V. 16 – 18  “And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

 The shepherds and the people they told contemplated what they could of this unusual wonderful event. Of angels announcing a baby born to mankind away from the population, among the animals. God came to earth not as a king but among the animals whose sacrifice would end by his own sacrifice.

You must know who he is (Emmanuel) to call him Wonderful. Because he is wonderful to us we follow him, we worship him. May he be known as wonderful to you too.