Wonderful Counselor
By Matt Watson
Isaiah 9:6, “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor …”
Therapy used to be a taboo thing for people to pursue. Something had to be wrong with you to go see someone for help, and you would never admit it in person. Yet one survey showed that half of American households have had a family member seek therapy of some sort, and that the stigma associated with seeking help is decreasing.
Another survey from the CDC and US Census Bureau shows that the percentage of people with symptoms of anxiety or depression has tripled from January to May of 2020.
Together this means that especially this year, people are worried and they don’t know what to do. We need help and wisdom to navigate through the pain points and every crisis big and small that seems to come up this year and the next.
What is a Counselor?
Counselors are people trained to help. The name counselor used to be a term for an adviser, as in advisers to a president or a monarch. They help that person process information and get wisdom for acting on it.
Biblical counselors are Christians with a Biblical worldview that are trained to help you apply the good news to your life. They are someone to listen to, to seek help from, and with whom you can process through hard things like trauma, anxiety, and fear, and then respond in a God-honoring way.
This Christmas we are studying various roles and titles given to Jesus in Isaiah 9:1-9. It is a royal birth announcement 700 years before the birth of King Jesus. Verse six says the government is on Jesus’ shoulders and then calls him “Wonderful Counselor.” This means that not only is he king but that he also has supernatural wisdom to perform his duties. He rules, and he rules in wisdom.
How Jesus as Wonderful Counselor is Good News
Proverbs 16:16 says, “How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” How much more so for the person struggling with anxiety and trying to sort out how to live in this year? Money can solve a lot of problems, true. But good advice, wisdom, and counsel are even more valuable. Jesus is the wonderful counselor, our wise adviser. Do you need help? James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
It does little good to know that God is all-knowing, and all-powerful if he isn’t also all-wise. Someone who knows all the facts and has all the power to act still needs to apply those facts wisely to act well. Thank God he has all the wisdom! And when we need help, he is a good Father to give it to us. His Son displays it perfectly for us. His Spirit is our comforter and advocate, sent to us to “teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that [Jesus has] said to you” (John 14:26).
This is only good news if we believe that the help that is sent to us is done so with supreme wisdom. Knowing that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor means that we can ask him for help when we don’t know how to pay the bills, when we don’t know if the pandemic curve will ever flatten, when we don’t know if we or a family member will get sick and die, and when we need to know how to respond to conflict with friends, family, and neighbors.
This is even more good news when we sin. Our king and Wonderful Counselor did not give us exercises, or a 12-step plan, or a list of prayers to recite in order to deal with our sin. He himself dealt with it on the cross. Our king died instead of executing us for treason. Our Wonderful Counselor, in all-wisdom, took on our sin and its penalty so we didn’t have to.
John Piper says, “Isaiah guarantees these things will happen, and this king will be born, on the basis of God’s own passionate commitment to fulfilling his purposes for his people: ‘The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this’ (Isaiah 9:7). And Isaiah was right. God did deliver on this promise. Jesus was born seven hundred years later and fulfilled every promise announced. God came among us in the person of Jesus. He took on flesh in order to give us wisdom, protection, fatherly care, and peace as we enter into relationship with him.
Today rejoice in the good news that Jesus is king and he is our wonderful counselor.