“. . . and His name shall be called. . . . The everlasting Father . . .” (Isaiah 9:6).

Christ’s being called everlasting Father should not clash with the doctrine of the Triune God. Jesus referred to His Father over and over again, attesting to distinctions within the Godhead. The Second Person, God the Son, should not be confused with God the Father. Nevertheless, Jesus should be called everlasting Father because the title belongs to Him, the Messiah. It refers to His everlasting Fatherhood in relation to those He came to heal and save.

Not only did the Lord Jesus heal, but He addressed a suffering woman with “Daughter, be of good comfort” (Matthew 9:22) and a paralyzed man with “Son, be of good cheer” (v.2). He took children into His arms as a father might and called disciples “children” (Mark 10:24). He also said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19).

In the chapter prophesying Messiah’s death and resurrection, Isaiah wrote that “He shall see His seed” (Isaiah 53:10). The author of Hebrews applied another verse in Isaiah to the Lord Jesus when he wrote, “Behold I and the children which God hath given me” (Hebrews 2:13; cf. Isaiah 8:18).

When reading about the Lord in the Old Testament, let us include the Lord Jesus. Jesus made it clear that the Old Testament testified about Him (John 5:39). When we read in Psalm 103:13, for example, that “as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him,” let us view this also as referring to our “everlasting Father”—the Lord Jesus.

There can never be a better revelation of God the Father than Jesus, God the Son. He is “the brightness” of God’s glory “and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), and He said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Let us, therefore, honor Him with the same honor we give our loving heavenly Father (John 5:23)! PGH