Handel's Messiah: The Person and Work of Christ

28. 'The Everlasting Father'

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
How can Messiah, God the Son, also be "The Everlasting Father"? Why was this prophetic statement vital?

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 28 of a series. Read part 27.

How can Messiah, God the Son, also be "The Everlasting Father"? Why was this prophetic statement vital?

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

As we consider the names given to Jesus in our study of the Scripture texts of Handel's Messiah, we next find that the coming Redeemer was also to bear the name, "the Everlasting Father." This raises a question: As we have seen repeatedly, the Messiah is prophetically called "the Son" in the Old Testament, and He came into the world as the Son of God at the beginning of the New Testament. How, then, could the Messiah also be called "the Everlasting Father"?

The Father Who Pities His Children

There is a twofold answer to this question. First, Scripture contains many illustrations of God's relationship with man that draw comparisons with a human father's relationship of love and concern for his children:

But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. (Isaiah 64:8-9)

A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. (Psalm 68:5-6)

As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:13-14)

Messianic Scripture Forgotten & Ignored

By the time of Messiah's first advent, the religious leaders of Israel had largely forgotten these tremendous truths; often they simply denied them. Instead, they had imposed the burdens of a merciless legalism, which God had never ordained, upon the people. For this reason when the Messiah came to earth He repeatedly pronounced woe upon them, as recorded in Matthew chapter 23:

For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
... 
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
...  
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.
... 
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:4, 13, 23, 27-28)

A Prophetic Answer to Future Unbelief

Nevertheless, these men would say to Jesus, with hearts full of pride, "Abraham is our father" (John 8:39). Worse, they would accuse Him of being the naturalistic product of an immoral relationship ("We were not born of fornication," verse 41).

Here was the crux of their attitude toward the Messiah who now stood before them, and this is the primary reason why He is called "the Everlasting Father" in Isaiah 9:6. Those were prophetic words; they were spoken centuries before as the ready answer to the unbelief that the religious leaders would exhibit when the Messiah did come.

The point of controversy with the religious leaders was the fact that Jesus, as they put it, was "making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18). He spoke often of God as "My Father." Before His resurrection, even Jesus' own disciples did not fully understand the truth about Him:

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves." (John 14:5-11)

Jesus consistently proclaimed that He had not come to earth in human form to do His own will, but was in everything subservient to His Father. Again, in John 14:24 He declared, "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."

After the resurrection, when Jesus continued to teach them for forty days before His ascension, His disciples finally understood. But the Jewish religious leaders persisted in their unbelief, even to the point of putting Him to death:

Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.

"I and My Father are one."

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." (John 10:24-33)

Here is the issue: As prophecy declared, and as His first advent proved, Jesus the Messiah truly is the Everlasting Father. He is the Second Person of the Trinity. He is one with the Father. Any teacher or church that says otherwise proclaims a false god who cannot save. This truth, boldly proclaimed in the Scripture text of Handel's Messiah, is so vital - and so neglected in our day - that we shall examine it further as we continue.

 

Next: The Messiah of the Trinity

hm_28


Copyright 1998-2024

TeachingtheWord Ministriesmmmmmwww.teachingtheword.org

All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced in its entirety only,
for non-commercial purposes, provided that this copyright notice is included.

We also suggest that you include a direct hyperlink to this article
for the convenience of your readers.

Copyright 1998-2024 TeachingTheWord Ministries