Mighty God
This is the second blog post in a 4-part series on the names of Jesus found in Isaiah 9:6.
Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold of His birth and that He would be known by four names.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9:6)
Through this prophecy, Isaiah was saying that these names would represent the Messiah’s nature and character. They would define who He was.
In the first blog post, I wrote about the name, Wonderful Counselor. This time, we’ll look at what it means that Jesus was called Mighty God.
MIGHTY GOD MEANING
This title is two different Hebrew words. The word “El” is the first word, and it means God.
The word “Gibbor” is the second word, and it is an adjective that means superior, strong, or mighty. It’s also translated in other parts of scripture, “hero,” “champion,” and even “warrior.”
Isaiah was saying that when this child was born one day in the future, He would be the One true God and that as God, He would be full of superior strength and might.
GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE
The title “Mighty God” is related to His omnipotence. All throughout Scripture, we see God’s might, strength, and power talked about.
In Genesis 18:14 the question is asked, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The implied answer there is “No, nothing is too hard for the Lord.”
As a matter of fact, God Himself asks the same rhetorical question in Jeremiah 32:27… “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
Again, the implied answer is “No, nothing is too hard for God!” He is omnipotent. He is the Mighty God!
We see the evidence that nothing is too hard for God based on His abilities and the actions He carries out throughout history. In Gen. 1:1 it says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
God took nothing and created everything. Now that’s power. It’s hard enough to take nothing and create anything, but God took nothing and created everything! And it didn’t strain Him. He didn’t have to work at it. He didn’t get tired.
Psalm 33:9 says, 9 “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”
As the all-powerful God, He just spoke things into existence! That is how powerful He is.
Aside from creation, we see the Mighty God’s power on display on many occasions in the Old Testament.
God parted and dried up the Red Sea overnight (Exodus 14).
He causes water to pour out from a rock (Numbers 20).
He makes the sun and moon stand still (Joshua 10).
He demolishes a wall around Jericho with the sound of a trumpet (Joshua 6).
He even lit a bunch of wet wood on fire in a showdown with some prophets of a false god that caused them to begin to bow down and worship Him as soon as it happened (1 Kings 18)!
These are just some of the actions of the all-powerful, Mighty God in the Old Testament.
What about this baby though, whom Isaiah was saying would be born one day and would be the Mighty God?
JESUS, THE MIGHTY GOD
Look at the way John describes Him in John 1:14:
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:14)
John says that God became flesh. The all-powerful and Mighty God took on an additional nature and was born fully God and fully man. Not 50 % man and 50% God, but rather, 100% human and 100% The Mighty God.
The helpless and cute little baby we put in our manger scenes at Christmas time is the same God who spoke the world into existence, Who parted the Red Sea, Who made the sun and moon stand still, and Who caused the wall at Jericho to fall. This baby was the same God Whom the false prophets of Baal began to fall down and worship after He showed their so-called god up in that showdown!
John also says that “we (he and the others who were on earth when Jesus was born) have seen his glory.” They saw Jesus walk around as a man, just like them, but they also saw Him do what only the Mighty God could do.
They watched Jesus grow up and go to the cross without ever making a mistake.
They saw Him heal the blind, cast out demons, and cure lepers and others who were sick.
They witnessed Him tell those who were paralyzed and crippled to get up and walk, and they did!
They were there when He fed thousands of people with two fish and five loaves of bread, and they even watched Him raise people from the dead.
This was the Mighty God in the flesh!
One of my all-time favorite testimonies of Jesus as The Mighty God is found in Matthew 8:23-27 when Jesus rebuked the winds and the waves during a storm, and suddenly it was completely calm.
When the disciples saw this happen, they cried out, “What kind of a man is this?” They noticed that He was no ordinary man. They saw The Mighty God in the flesh and how even the winds and waves obey Him. That’s power.
THE MIGHTY GOD’S GREATEST VICTORY
As great as all these acts of power are, there is one act of Jesus, The Mighty God, that trumps them all. Remember, “Gibbor” can refer to the might and strength of a warrior. Well, Jesus went to war against sin, death, and Satan at the cross.
Jesus, The Mighty God, took all the sins of the world and placed them on Himself and died for them. He paid the penalty for all past, present, and future sins, and then He rose from the dead, defeating the power of sin, death, and Satan forever!
Romans 6:10 says, ”The death he died, he died to sin once for all.”
In other words, The Mighty Warrior God went to battle against sin and won!
1 Corinthians 15:54 declares, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The Mighty Warrior God went to battle against death and won!
The apostle Paul, in Colossians 2:15, writes, “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Jesus, The Mighty God went to battle against Satan and won!
What we see is that Jesus was born into this world to war against sin, death, and Satan in order to save us, and He did!
THE MIGHTY GOD IN YOUR LIFE
This means that if you have put your faith in Jesus for salvation, He has defeated the power of sin, death, and the influence of Satan over you.
You are in union with The Mighty God, and you have eternal life in Him. In Him, you have the power to say no to temptation and sin. You don’t have to fight for victory; you live in a place of victory.
Being in a relationship with The Mighty God also means that He is powerful enough to overcome the obstacles you face in this world.
He is big enough to cure that illness, restore your broken relationships, overcome your depression and anxiety, and keep your fears from crippling and paralyzing you.
Whatever it is that you are dealing with today, please know that it is not too far out of reach for The Mighty God living in you. The One who can calm the wind and the waves is big enough to handle your problems.
However, with that being said, we also have to remember that Jesus is also the Wonderful Counselor. This means that He has a wonderful plan for your life. So, while The Mighty God is big enough to deal with your problems, that doesn’t always mean that He’ll deal with them in the way that you think they should be dealt with or the timing with which you think they should be dealt.
Our job is to trust that He is big enough as The Mighty God and wise enough as The Wonderful Counselor to handle our problems in the way that is best for us, even if it’s different than what we think.
This is the meaning and the practical application of Jesus’ name as The Mighty God. May we remember these truths as we celebrate His birth during this season, and may we cling to Him as our El Gibbor.
