What is His name?

Wonderful Counsellor

Harry Foster

It seems to be agreed that the names given in the well-known passage of Isaiah 9:6 are really four in number, each of them being double names. The first of the four is Wonderful-Counsellor.

Isaiah was convinced that God would solve His people's problems by means of a human agent. There was to be a new kingdom, perfectly governed by a perfect Man. The government would be on the shoulders of one who was a Man and yet more than a man. Unto us a child was to be born – He was born at Bethlehem. The eternal Son, however, could never be born, but He was graciously 'given' to us, in order to be our Saviour and our King. The four names help to identify and explain Him to us, and we can find great comfort in this first: "His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor".

All those who have had personal dealings with the Lord Jesus will agree that He is well named. He is the ideal Counsellor, and He counsels with the added miraculous element which can only be described as wonderful. A counsellor must have full understanding of the true needs of the one he is to help. He must also have full understanding of how those needs can be met. And then he must be so able to communicate with the enquirer that the solution becomes equally plain to him and provides the satisfactory solution of his problems.

In all these characteristics Jesus excelled. The wonder element is that He Himself provided the remedy which He prescribed. This is everywhere illustrated in the Gospel. He knew people's needs – He even knew their names – and He was able to convey with divine simplicity just what was the right thing to do. There was nothing stereotyped about His advice, and while He was dealing with anyone, He gave them the sense that they had all His attention. In resurrection He is still the same.

Take the church at Laodicea as an example. He listened to all that they had to say – a matter of primary importance to any counselling. He diagnosed needs which they were quite unaware of. He made it clear that their history, past and future, was of great personal concern to Him. And then He counselled them (Revelation 3:18). He told them of the gold, the white raiment and the eye-salve which would be the adequate answer to all their needs, but He did more. He was to them a wonderful counsellor, for He Himself offered to supply them with just those crying needs of theirs – "I counsel thee to buy of me...".

It is always like this. Christ knows our true state and our real needs; and He not only knows the answer, He also has it. He can not only tell us what we ought to have and ought to be, but Himself has the provision ready to hand if we will only listen to Him and open the door for Him to come in and take charge of our affairs. He is indeed the Wonderful Counsellor. What a pity that we do not more often avail ourselves of His proffered help!

There is a further feature of this name which is so wonderful that it baffles every human attempt to understand or define it. It points back to the divine counsels concerning the Church which were formulated in eternity. This eternal feature reminds us that the actual counselling which the Lord Jesus gives to us personally is based on purposes of grace and planning in love which took place before ever we were born.

The Lord does not have to improvise, as human counsellors often do; He is not forced to accommodate His counsels to the circumstances in which He suddenly finds us; He knows the destiny which He has determined for us and He never swerves from that glorious objective. So it is not just that He is wise in counsel, but that He is wonderful in making sure that His wise counsel is fulfilled. "O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, even counsels of old..." (Isaiah 25:1).

The day will come when the whole universe will accept Him as its counsellor, and concerning that time we are told that: "of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end". Is it not amazingly wonderful that each believer can now call upon the destined Counsellor of the universe to be his own present personal Adviser?

Toward The Mark, Vol. 3, No. 2, Mar. - Apr. 1974.

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