Notes of Faith December 21, 2025
He Dawns as Mighty God
To us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . and his name shall be called . . . Mighty God. (Isaiah 9:6)
Each December, this famous Christmas prophecy becomes all too familiar to our ears. The loss in such familiarity is that we miss the stunning turn it represents.
In Isaiah 9, first comes a striking change of fortunes for Israel’s hinterlands, the people farthest from the nation’s heart in Jerusalem. Once united under David and Solomon, these rebel territories had become contemptible for their idolatry after the division of the kingdom. They would fall to Assyria in 722 BC, during the life and ministry of Isaiah.
Yet, contrary to what God’s people would have expected, the prophet foretells that this anguish will give way to a time of no more gloom. The nation will multiply as these northerners, “Galilee of the nations,” return to him, and with their return will come a soaring of joy (Isaiah 9:3).
To that surprise, Isaiah adds another. We might expect the emergence of some imposing figure, a mighty man, full-grown and battle-tested, ready to carry the nation on his shoulders. But Isaiah says,
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given.
A child! Long had God promised the world’s redemption would come through the offspring who would sustain a bite to the heel yet, in the very act of battle, crush the serpent’s head. Even as kings and prophets pinned their hopes on the coming births of sons, God unfolds his master scheme of one son to overshadow them all.
A glimpse of this Son’s manifold greatness will be captured in his name (Isaiah 9:6), which turns out to be not singular but fourfold. He is Guide, Champion, Caretaker, and Peacemaker, and each of these paired with attendant glory.
Godlike Warrior
Other meditations in this Advent series will illumine his first and final two names. Here, let’s ask what we might make of the second, “Mighty God.” Alongside the third, this name moves us toward the most daring claim in the prophecy, and perhaps in all of Isaiah.
Today, we doubtless hear “Mighty God” as a clear and ringing attribution of divinity to the Christmas child, but it wasn’t so simple in Isaiah’s day. The word for “God” in Hebrew (El) has a range of possible referents, from great men to angels to God himself. Context is critical — and poetic prophecies can be enigmatic.
This “God” of Isaiah 9:6 paired with “might” brings us to the battlefield. The “Wonderful Counselor” guides his people with wisdom at a fork in the road; the “God of might” stands before them in battle. David had his mighty men for war. God’s people, forecasts Isaiah, will have a Mighty God with them in combat.
Man of the In-Between
Such a mighty figure on the battlefield may not only lead his people and fight among them with distinction. He may also go out from them, into the in-between space before the opposing army, to fight as a single champion on behalf of his people.
Goliath had been such a champion for the Philistines: “There came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath . . .” (1 Samuel 17:4). Champion represents a Hebrew phrase we could translate “a man of the in-between,” meaning that space between the two armies as they face off.
“He is not just a godlike warrior but the Mighty Warrior who is God.”
For forty days, Goliath stepped into the in-between and dared the people of Israel, with no response from King Saul or Israel — until a young David, who had the anointing of God’s own Spirit (1 Samuel 16:13), found himself within earshot of the champion. Stirred with holy zeal, David offered himself as Israel’s “man of the in-between,” to fight Goliath one-on-one. David’s defeat would be Israel’s, but were he to win, his triumph would be the nation’s (1 Samuel 17:9).
In Isaiah’s day, all knew the story of David’s great conquest. Now, some three centuries after David, this “Mighty God” oracle tells of a greater champion to come who will be the climactic “man of the in-between.” God will give his people a godlike warrior to secure their fate.
Warriorlike God
But is this Mighty God just god-like in his military might, or might he be more than other human warriors?
Crystal clarity comes just a chapter later. Isaiah’s Mighty God, we discover, is no mere human figure who is great like David in battle. No, this Mighty God is far more. This is the very one to whom the remnant of Israel will return when they return to God himself:
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. (Isaiah 10:20–21)
“Mighty God” here comes from the same unusual Hebrew phrase as in the previous chapter. The proximity makes their connection unmistakable. Somehow, the one who comes as a child to secure victory on the people’s behalf is God himself. He is not just a godlike warrior but the Mighty Warrior who is God. Even as a helpless babe, “in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
Our Supreme Champion
Four times the New Testament celebrates Jesus as this supreme Champion of his people. (The corresponding term in Greek is archēgos, one who goes before his people, to pioneer their path and have them follow, and benefit, in his wake.)
Most memorably, Christ as our Mighty God and divine champion appears at two key junctures in the book of Hebrews. In Jesus, God was pleased to “make the founder [champion] of [our] salvation perfect through suffering” (2:10), and this Jesus is “the founder [champion] and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (12:2).
Whether in English we say founder, pioneer, or champion is immaterial. What we cherish at Christmas is that this great figure, this Mighty God, did come as an infant, and grew, and indeed did fight on our behalf, as only God-and-man could do.
While still a child, he survived Satan’s attack on Bethlehem (through Herod), as a first act of war. Once grown, he enlisted in the Spirit and battled Satan one-on-one in the wilderness. One healing at a time, he conquered the curse for the blind, lame, leprous, deaf, and dead. As Mighty God, he put himself forward as the man of the in-between in going to the cross. And our Divine Hero rose again to indestructible life and ascended in majesty to his Father’s right hand, and now leads his new-covenant people in his wake to glory.
The Mighty God, our champion, has secured the final rescue. His name is Jesus.
David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for Desiring God
Majority - Gaither Vocal Band
I've got power that you can't see
God is living inside of me
I can fight any enemy
Cause God and I make a majority
[Verse 1]
This world is trembling in doubt and fear
There's very little hope and less good cheer
But I'll keep a smile wrapped around my face
Because I know who's gonna win the race
I've got power that you can't see
God is living inside of me
I can fight any enemy
Cause God and I make a majority
[Verse 2]
You might be thinking that I'm sure to lose
But I've got reasons for the sides I'd choose
Well, the Lord is with me and He's always won
So I'll stay with Him until the battle's done
I've got power that you can't see
God is living inside of me
I can fight any enemy
Cause God and I make a majority
The “Mighty God” fights our battles until all are won and we are with Him eternally! May we remain faithful in battle, secure in His plan for our life, and dwell on the things in heaven rather than the things of earth!
Pastor Dale
