Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Courtesy of Handel, there are few verses in the whole Bible more familiar than this. However, it still bears meditation. The first thing that hit me this morning is that it repeats the plural pronoun, us. The Messiah is not exclusive! There have been countless groups down through the centuries who have tried to claim that Jesus was their Messiah, to the exclusion of other groups, but God dealt with that issue quite clearly in the early Church, first through Peter (Acts 10) and then through Paul, who repeatedly used the phrase, “first to the Jew, and also to the Greek,” to get his point across. Christ was given to all mankind, but the necessity remains of individual repentance and faith. (Mark 1:15) Jesus focused His earthly ministry on Jews, sometimes to the point of seeming harsh to Gentiles, (Matthew 15:21-28) but what let Him know that the time had come for His ultimate act of redemption was when some Greeks came looking for Him. (John 12:20-28) I think everyone has at least some tendency to parochialism and xenophobia, but “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” Everyone who has ever lived on this planet was created by God in love, and we need to look at them that way. We cannot experience the love of God fully until we allow it to flow through us to others, whether they seem to be like us or not.
On a completely different note, the use of “government” in English translations confuses a lot of people, I think, but the Japanese clears that up by saying “ruling authority.” When we hear “government” we tend to think of politics, but this has nothing to do with that. The kingdom of God is not a democracy or even a republic, but rather the absolute rule and reign of King Jesus. That’s what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer, and we forget it to our own detriment.

Of course this applies to me. I have a truly blessed heritage in this area. One of my grandfathers, W. O. Carver, founded what is currently the oldest continuing Department of Missions in any Protestant seminary in the world, and my parents became missionaries while still single, and married in Japan. My father even did a stint while in seminary of preaching at an English language church in Havana. (Maybe that cemented his conviction that he was called to Japan!) Even so, the Lord has dealt with some negative feelings in me about some people groups, and I have repented of such prejudice. I even resigned my first pastorate over the race issue. At the time, one of the church officers said, “As my father used to say, they (Blacks) may go to heaven, but they won’t do it through my living room.” Thankfully, my departure triggered some very needed changes in that church! Today I pastor a church that is genuinely international. In our candlelight service last night we had people from Japan, America, Taiwan, China, and Honduras. I have no trouble imagining the scene described in Revelation: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” (Revelation 7:9)

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You that Your love truly encompasses all of mankind. May I be a useful instrument in Your hands to impart that understanding to more and more of Your children, so that indeed Your kingdom may come as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!