Isaiah 66:7-13 “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; Before her pain came, She delivered a male child. 8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children. 9 Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the LORD. “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God. 10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, And be glad with her, all you who love her; Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; 11 That you may feed and be satisfied With the consolation of her bosom, That you may drink deeply and be delighted With the abundance of her glory.” 12 For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed; On her sides shall you be carried, And be dandled on her knees. 13 As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
The expectation of the coming Kingdom of God is intimately connected with the restoration of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. The preceding passage describes Zion in labor, as once again, we find the metaphor of birth used to convey this scriptural promise. It is a national gestation which will not be aborted, but will come to fruition. But first, before this labor begins…a “male child” is born… This can be none other than Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, Israel’s King, Himself, arriving beforehand, (on a donkey, at that), quite some time before the labor which gives birth to the nation; and causing the prophet to wonder if a nation can be born in a day.
So, the King comes to Jerusalem, humble and proclaiming the Kingdom, offering it to the people of Israel, if they will accept it, claiming that John the Baptist is the Elijah who came, and demonstrating His Messianic and kingly authority….but knowing in advance that they, especially the leaders, won’t receive Him; [Isaiah 53], and the Kingdom will have to wait. Nevertheless, shall the delivery process stop? Should the womb suddenly be shut? No, it will continue, but after some time.
In the interim, the nations will receive the gift of salvation through Israel’s Messiah, and the seed of the Kingdom will be planted in them. Then, after two days (two thousand years), [Hosea 6:1-3], the Kingdom promise will begin to be fulfilled in our day, in the rebirth of modern Israel as a nation, three years after the Holocaust….”Zion’s labor,” and so a nation IS born in a day, May 14th, 1948. But is this the Kingdom? No, not yet. It’s still only a harbinger.
Such a series of “birthings” already, and still more to come? The modern state of Israel will once again go through the travail of birth. “Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?” Jacob’s Trouble, yet another “birthing”….then, finally, all Israel will be saved! [Jeremiah 30:6-7; Romans 11:25-29]
Ask any mother about giving birth. Ask her especially about “transition,” though you may never have heard the medical term for the final stage of labor. If she’s a believer, she may tell you that she never prayed like that at any other time in her life, and if not, she may tell you that she prayed for the first time in her life during transition. The pain is excruciating. The Lord is longing for the birthing of His Kingdom, even as the labor pains increase, the nations align themselves against Jerusalem [Zechariah 14:2], and Zion’s final travail seems on her doorstep. So He calls to the faithful of all nations to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, [Psalm 122:6], and to His watchmen, to give Him no rest [Isaiah 62:6-7] until Jerusalem is a praise in all the Earth, and to everyone, “Thy Kingdom come!”
But is it possible you also are experiencing some kind of “travail”? The Kingdom, in its seed form, in us also, is birthed through painful trials, and we should not be surprised about it; [1 Peter 4:12]. If the King, Himself was made perfect through suffering [Hebrews 2:10], we also, will enjoy the same privilege, with the same result. Endure in prayer through your trial, and let the Kingdom be birthed in you. He will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Israel finally crossed into the Promised Land—on the 10th day of Nissan, the very day they had been commanded to choose their Passover lamb [Exodus 12:3 , Joshua 4:19]. They couldn’t enter into their inheritance until a lamb was chosen—a powerful foreshadowing of the more excellent Lamb to come, in preparation for the Passover [Joshua 5:10], they were about to observe at Gilgal.
The New Testament records that when Yeshua (Jesus) died; there was a great earthquake and the veil of the Temple was torn in two. The size of this gigantic veil is not recorded in the NT…but we read from other sources that it was roughly 60 feet long and 30 feet wide with multiple woven layers the thickness of a man’s hand! It was hung on a crossbeam stone – a lintel – which was over 30 feet long and weighed more than 30 tons! It was not an easy cloth to tear…
Thousands of people all over the world will celebrate Pesach (Passover) tonight, commemorating the day the Angel of Death passed over the Israelite slaves in Egypt, sparing their firstborn because the blood of a lamb was applied on their doorposts. Many believers in Yeshua (Jesus) also recognize this as the day that Messiah was crucified, offering Himself as the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, which reconciled man to His Maker, and restored them to close relationship.
Tomorrow night, thousands will begin celebrating the feast of Pesach (Passover), the day we remember God’s merciful redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. When the final plague struck Pharoh and the Egyptians in Exodus, those who were spared were the ones who applied blood to their doorposts as God warned. Interestingly, the blood that God required them to apply then was the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb.
In the parable of the unmerciful servant, the servant mistakenly thought that he could demand justice from another servant all the while asking mercy for himself from the king. When the king found out about this servant’s awful behavior, he became enraged and said to him “You wicked servant, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to; couldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”
There are two kinds of birds that roam the desert: vultures and hummingbirds. The vulture thrives on a diet of rotting meat. He flies overhead searching for traces of leftover carcasses from slow-footed critters eaten by wild animals who’ve already had their fill.
In Biblical Hebrew, the verb tenses are not like our “past”, “present”, and “future” – there are only two: “perfect” and “imperfect”. The “imperfect” tense is that which is not yet, not done, or not completed. The “perfect” is that which is done, complete and finished.