"For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise... and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor." (Isaiah 9:6 & 5,KJV) As I read and studied Isaiah, chapter nine this morning using Matthew Poole's commentary, I was struck by these two verses. While the passage is referring to coming wars for the Israelites and the coming promised Messiah, I saw also the plight of man in his depravity and his crying out for relief from the plight.
Battles had become for the people of God a continual fear, and God in His mercy continued to warn them and call for them to return to Him. This is still true of man today with "wars and rumors of wars". Yet for this post, I refer to the war within us; the battle that daily afflicts us with "confused noises". The battle with sin is not being fought by those who do not believe. But for the believer, the battle rages. Romans seven clearly depicts the battle as we "do not do the good we want to do but do the very sin we do not want".
In writing about the verse in Isaiah, Matthew Poole says this about "confused noise": "with the triumphant exclamations of the conqueror, and the battle lamentations of the conquered and the differing cries of the same persons, sometimes conquering, and sometimes conquered", I could not help but think that this is the battle with sin, Paul writes about in Romans seven. However, with a great victorious exclamation, inspired Isaiah goes on to say in verse six: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given...shall be called Wonderful, Counselor..." Ah, what a relief to have a counselor for this "confused noise" of the mind and heart. Poole writes, "Christ, truly wonderful, in His person, and natures, and words, and works, being made up of wonders, in whom there was nothing which was not wonderful..." And about "Counselor", he goes on to say, "may well be called "counselor", because He knew the whole counsel of God... and is the great Counselor of His church and people in all their doubts and difficulties."
We must as believers, continue daily to throw our doubts and difficulties on Him Who is our best Counselor and always available. He has kept His church through the ages and He will not let us down now, no matter how hard the battle may be. Poole says Christ "has gathered, and enlarged, and preserved His church by admirable counsels and methods of His providence, and in a word, hath in Him all the "treasures of wisdom and knowledge". (Col. 2:3) We do well to always run to Him first in prayer; not to man, whether friend, professional analyst, or self-absorption. Only Christ, our ultimate Intercessor and Counselor, has the solution and power to solve life's hardest battles and all the confused noises that come with them.
