Question:

About Isaiah 9:7. This is clearly about a real king who would answer all
the Jews’ longings for God to deliver them independance and prosperity. It
is not a messianic prophecy as you claim in your book From Shadow to
Reality. This is perfectly clear from the context. To make it a
“prophecy” of something totally different is to distort the passage
completely.

Answer:

I have heard this argument. I have looked at it carefully. I have
thought about it as well. I have seen arguments that Isaiah 9:1-7 is in
fact a prophecy of Josiah. Bottom line, I simply do not agree with this
interpretation. I believe this is a messianic prophecy. When I go down
to Isaiah 9:6f I cannot escape the fact that this is a messianic prophecy.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government
will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. There is no king in the
history of Israelto which this fits.

I will say that Josiah is a prefigure of the Messiah, and to the extent
that this prophecy applies to Josiah, and I believe it does, at least
partially apply to him, then it is still a prophecy of the Messiah as a
prefigure. Josiah was, as you say, a real king who answered some of the
Jew?s longings for deliverance. Unfortunately, any deliverance he gave
was extremely temporary. Judahfell to Nebuchadnezzar within less than one
generation of his rule. Besides, Josiah did not in any way I know honor
Zebulun and the landof Naphtali, as Jesus clearly did! Josiah certainly
would not have claimed to be Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace. In fact, he was killed in a war!!!! In verse eight, Isaiah has
this king establishing and upholding justice and righteousness from that
time and forever. There is no way this is Josiah. Sorry, this is a
messianic prophecy.

John Oakes, PhD