In the time when the prophet Isaiah wrote this prophecy, everything round him was exactly opposite to his words. The king of Judea, his country, was not reigning in righteousness. He was an unrighteous and wicked governor. The weak and poor and needy had no one to right them, no one to take their part.
I. But Isaiah had God's Spirit with him; the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness, righteousness, justice. And that Holy Spirit convinced him of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, as he convinces every man who gives himself up humbly to God's teaching. God's Spirit in his heart made him feel sure that, in some way or other, some day or other, the Lord God would come to judgment, to judge the wicked princes and rulers of this world, and cast them out. It must be so. God was a righteous God. He was not lazy or careless about this poor sinful world, and about all the sinful, downtrodden, ignorant men and women and children in it. He would take the matter into His own hands. If kings would not reign in righteousness, He would come and reign in righteousness Himself.
II. Isaiah saw all this but dimly, afar off. He perhaps thought at times that the good young prince Hezekiah the might of God, as his name means who was growing up in his day to be a deliverer, and a righteous king over the Jews, was to set the world right. Hezekiah failed to save the nation of the Jews. But still Isaiah's prophecy was true. "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given;" even the Babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ the Lord. The government shall indeed be upon His shoulder; for it has been there always. His name is indeed Wonderful; for what more wondrous thing was ever seen in heaven or in earth than that great love with which He loved us? He is not merely the might of God, as Hezekiah was, for a sign and a prophecy; for He is the mighty God Himself. He is indeed the Counsellor; for He is the light that lighteth every man who comes into the world. He is the "Father of an everlasting age." He gives eternal peace to all who will accept it; peace which this world can neither give nor take away.
C. Kingsley, Sermons on National Subjects,2nd series, p. 140.