What does it mean that Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)?

Corresponding to the little finger on the hand is the last title, viz., the "Prince of Peace." Although that may be simpler than the others as being in the realm of our comprehension, it involves the others as antecedents, because no one could be the Prince of Peace but He Who in His essence is The Mighty God and the Father of Eternity. He alone could make peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20). By Him alone will complete reconciliation of all things be effected. From time to time men have conjured with these ideas, conceiving an Utopian state evolved by human effort and resting on the supposition of human consistency. In recent years Peace Palaces have been erected at the Hague and at Geneva with the evident intent of ultimately ushering in a millennial state on the aforementioned basis. All through the histories of such movements ominous underground rumblings should have made the authors and promulgators of the ideas very uneasy, yet they hailed the result of "the War to end war" as something permanent. Suddenly the volcano, on which their peace and safety slumbered, blew up, blasting all the hopes of men and demonstrating the fallacy of the idea! There is no other peace of lasting value than the one which is God-given and commences with the individual who has not to wait for peace as the groaning creation has to do for the advent of its deliverer! The Colossian passage already cited goes on to say "you who were formerly alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death" (Col. 1:21-22). On the night of His betrayal He could say to His own in the upper room, "Peace I leave with you," in anticipation of the accomplishment of the work of redemption. That was the peerless legacy which will yet be communicated to all creation. The Prince of Peace will administer absolute justice! The government, not only of David's kingdom, but of the wide universe, will be borne lightly on His shoulder. The government of a small part of the world has defied the wit of man to perform properly. So periodically the rulers shuffle off the burden to the shoulders of others, as the responsibility incurred and the obloquy of failure would be too great to carry for any length of time.

After such a description of His name, calling for the very greatest energy of thought, we enter, as it were, a quiet harbour of rest in the last word, “PRINCE OF PEACE!!” Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. “No end” to the peace which others enjoy through His rule presently, but He Himself is the Prince of it, the Head, the Chief. He is “the Prince of the kings of the earth.” There is none above or beyond Him. This is King David’s greater Son! This is the true Solomon (“Peaceable”) of Psalm 72. In the time of His government we read, “The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness … He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures … All nations shall call Him blessed … Blessed be His glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen.”

Lastly, being all this, He is "Prince of peace," the only One who, in this rebellious world, can establish it upon a permanent basis. This He will do by the warrior judgments, predicted in verses 4 and 5. Becoming "Seed of David," as we have seen, He will sit upon the throne of David, and having crushed man's rebellion and evil, He will govern with judgment and justice to the glory of God and the blessing of men. The Second Advent of our Lord will see these great predictions fulfilled to the letter.

Soon the Lord Jesus will come again to reign as "Prince of Peace"; but peace will be introduced through fearful judgments. The peace that men have long yearned for, but have never been able to procure by their own efforts, will come when all evil is set aside by the executive and sessional judgments of the Lord. The One who "made peace by the blood of His cross," and who now preaches peace in the Gospel, will bring to the world a peace that men have never known before. Till then, all the united efforts of men for peace will end in failure, for Christ is not in their thoughts. They will continue to say, "Peace, peace," as we hear all around today, and vainly imagine they are able to procure it, only to be overtaken with "sudden destruction."

So we find the prophet adds one more title to this wonderful Person, that is, “The Prince of Peace” (9:6). This involves His death, His atoning death. He made “peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). We find this prophesied in Isaiah 53, that chapter, which the unbelieving Jew finds so difficult to explain away, for it so plainiy points to the suffering Messiah. “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (v. 5).

But when once righteousness has been secured, peace will follow. As Isaiah testifies: the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. Again it follows the same order as in the gospel. As Paul teaches — being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is on this account that the Lord is termed the Prince of Peace. In the character of David He will establish His throne in righteousness, and then He will reign in the character of Solomon, as the Prince of Peace — of the increase of whose government and peace, as Isaiah speaks, there shall be no end. And again, as he assures Jerusalem, in the name of Jehovah, "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee … and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children." (Isa. 44:10-13.) Thus as the true Melchizedek, He will be first, King of Righteousness, and afterwards, King of Peace. Such passages might be multiplied indefinitely, and we read moreover that He who will establish His throne in righteousness will also speak peace to the nations, and thus peace will characterise the sway of the Sun of righteousness throughout the whole world. As the hymn expresses it: "He shall come down like showers Upon the new-mown grass, And joy and hope, like flowers, Spring up where He doth pass. Before Him on the mountains, Shall peace, the herald, go; And righteousness, in fountains, From hill to valley flow."

THE PRINCE OF PEACE. There is not much said about peace in Matthew's Gospel, it belongs more to Luke's and the latter part of John's, but the reason is not far to seek. As the Prince of Peace He sent forth His messengers preaching peace in every house into which they went, but the people were not worthy of that peace for they rejected the Prince of it, and the peace they would not have returned to those who carried it (10:13), and the Prince of Peace had to say in view of this stubbornness and blindness, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword" (10:34). Nevertheless He was the Prince of peace, and Peter proclaimed this when He told the first Gentiles that ever heard the gospel, "The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; (He is Lord of all)" (Acts 10:36). And all who owned His Lordship entered into peace then as they also do even to this day.

193 Christ has not yet the government here spoken of upon His shoulders, nor is there the increase of government and peace without end, nor is His name yet called Prince of Peace as here in the exercise of His functions. He is prince or originator of life whom God raised up from among the dead. He has not come yet to give peace in the earth, but a sword and division. He would have us fight, clothed with all spiritual armour. When Christ shall reign, He will be Prince of Peace as Son of David, and peace shall be on the earth. Christ must have the pre-eminence in all things, and have every sort of glory, as Son of God, Son of man, Son of David, etc., all things put under Him, and not merely Israel or the Gentiles. We shall sit with Him on His throne, as now He sits on the Father's. Up to the present we are seated in heavenly places in Him, not with Him as yet, on high.

How could Christ reign over such a people save to dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel? that is, to judge them as the heathen (see Ps. 2) But then what about the promises made to the fathers, to Abraham and Isaac, and renewed to Jacob? What about the word spoken by the prophets, if Israel be entirely and for ever cut off through sin? All the earth is to be blessed through the exaltation of Christ as King of Israel. Where will the earth's blessing be without the kingdom? But where the glory of the coming King if the fairest portion of His earthly domains be not according to the original promise? Isaiah has only Israel before him when he says (Isa. 9:6), "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Israel's condition must be changed before Christ could be to them Father of the age to come.* He would ever be the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, were Israel swept from the earth; but how then to them the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace? The kingdom must be established; and when the people are gathered out of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south (Ps. 107:3) Messiah says, "Behold I and the children which God has given me" (Heb. 2:13). The apostle in proving that the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, inasmuch as (they partaking of blood and flesh) He took part in the same, calls the Hebrew believers "children" (not here children of the Father, which is common to all believers now, but) as part of the godly remnant saved before the kingdom comes, quoting (Isa. 8:18), where the "children" are the remnant for whom Messiah waits while Jehovah hides His face from Jacob. The "children" are correlative to "the everlasting Father." The King will reign in righteousness, in righteousness He will judge the nations. To Israel He is the Prince of Peace, and the prophet continues, "Of the increase of His government and peace, no end." How the Prince of Peace to a nation rebellious from the beginning?

[* This name in no way confounds the person of the Father with the person of the Son, but is a title which Messiah will take in His official glory as King of Israel. This child shall be called the Father of eternity. It is special to Israel, not to the Gentile, nor to the church.]

It is very blessed to see that the place which the Lord chose for His dwelling on earth was Salem, the city of peace. There, in very early time, His holy witness and minister showed himself. Gen. 14. And so, when He Himself really descended to the earth, He came as "the Prince of peace," seeking Jerusalem; His heralds proclaiming "Peace on earth." Luke 2. But man was not ready for this. Man had previously built a city of confusion (Gen. 11); and builders of Babel could scarcely be prepared for a king of Salem. "The son of peace" was not on earth to answer the salutation of "the Prince of peace" from heaven. Jerusalem, in her day, knew not the things that belonged to her peace. He had, therefore, as we see here, only to weep over her. Her citizens had refused Him, had said He should not reign over them; and He has to return to the "far country" (the supreme seat and source of all power), to get His title to the kingdom sealed afresh.