THE GOVERNMENT SHALL REST UPON HIS SHOULDERS

Isa.9:6 – For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;

This verse carries within it the diverse excellencies of Christ. Isaiah revealed Christ as an infant, the epitome of weakness and helplessness. At the same time he prophesied that Jesus would have the government resting on His shoulders. This verse displays the apparent contradiction of a helpless babe and a sovereign king. How could Jesus be both the baby and the ruler? That is what we call the mystery of godliness.
This characteristic of Christ cloaking His deity in His humanity is why it was so hard for the world to embrace and believe in Him. Even in His weakness He was controlling and ruling the world.
From the beginning of civilization He raises up kings and brings them down low. He will raise up evil or good rulers and use each of them to bring about His purposes.
Think about it like this, the worst monster of all time, Adolf Hitler, destroyed millions of Jews because of his hatred for that race. This act of evil is what brought the world to a place to give the Jewish people their own homeland. Unwillingly Hitler was used to advance God’s prophetic plans. The worst moment in Jewish history was used to restore them to the land of promise.
In the same way the Lord works in our lives even using uncomfortable and unpleasant circumstances to bring about the plan of God in our lives. I think often about the tree planting experiences I received during my Bible School days. Parris and I were sent to the mountains of Oregon and Washington to plant trees to help bring financial support to our school. This was not a path we would have chosen but I believe the Lord took us into His mountains to “teach us His ways”. We lived in tents and planted trees for about seven months, needless to say we came down from those tree planting days different from the way we left. We learned about submitting to spiritual authority, trusting God for protection in a crazy environment, and we also learned to trust Him for provision when we really had nothing.
The rule of Jesus is not like the rule of this world. He often takes the worst experiences in our world and uses them to advance us into places of authority and blessing we could never imagine. He may be a child who was sent to us but He is the absolute King of the Universe.