His Name Shall Be Called — Mighty God

Christmas is a paradox: the most helpless of beings, an infant, is called Mighty God . This Advent message opens by acknowledging that the season is hard for many, then turns to Isaiah 9 and its promise to a people terrorized by Assyrian invaders. The Hebrew phrase El Gibor reads almost as "the mighty, mighty one," and the pattern of God doing great things through small means is illustrated by Gideon, the self-described weakest of his clan, defeating Midian with three hundred men (Judges 6-8). Jesus fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies, many before he could walk, and demonstrated that might by feeding thousands and walking on the sea in Matthew 14 . The response Peter commends is to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand and cast our anxiety on him (1 Peter 5:6-7), because the Mighty God still meets us in our hardest moments.