Isaiah 9:7
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 9:7 and Numbers 25:1-13
Before we move past this amazing passage, I wanted to dig into the very last phrase of verse seven. Isaiah is promising God’s people this future Messiah who is everything we would want him to be. The savior of Israel will be born into the world and yet also be divine. He will stamp out Israel’s oppression and take his seat on David’s throne for all of eternity. He will be righteous and just and will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This was the promise and all the people of Israel and have clung to this promise ever since. What proof do we have that this will happen? What is a sign that this isn’t just Isaiah saying something to give some hope to his people? God essentially sealed this promise and signed it with the phrase: “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” This Messiah will come and be all that Isaiah claims he will be and even more because of the zeal of God Almighty.
The word “zeal” in the Hebrew is qin’â which means “jealous anger.” In the ancient world, zeal is the word generally used to the jealous tension between the pagan gods. In the Old Testament, zeal is used to define the Lord’s intense love and dedication God has toward His people. God has a defined purpose for Israel and his zeal is His commitment to see it through to the end.
Before Israel entered the Promised Land, there was a time when the Jewish men were “indulging” in the Moabite culture and messing around with the Moabite women. God had forbid them from mixing with other cultures and it would be an understatement to say that He was angry with their actions. God sent a plague on Isreal and told Moses to “take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight” (Num 25:4). This would appease God’s anger and He would end the plague.
Moses gathered Israel’s judges together at the Tent of Meeting and gave them the order to execute God’s punishment. It was an emotional scene and they were all devastated. As this scene is unfolding, an Israelite man passed by right in front of them with a Midianite woman and took her into his tent. Aaron’s grandson Phinehas was there and witnessed this with everyone else. Phinehas followed them into the man’s tent and killed them both.
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites’” (Num 25:10-13).
God is zealous for His people and He expects us to have a zeal for Him. He alone is our God and He expects us to have no affection or allegiance to any other gods. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deut 4:24). The zeal of the Lord demands faithfulness and obedience from His people. God accepts nothing less than our loyalty.
But regardless of our zeal for Him, the Lord’s zeal for us is unwavering. We can be assured of God’s intense love, devotion and total commitment to accomplish His purpose in our lives “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Phil 2:13). The Lord will triumph over our enemies and He cannot be stopped. Jesus came to earth to secure our place with God for all eternity because of God’s zeal for us. Our future and our salvation are secure because the zeal of the Lord Almighty accomplished it.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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