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]A new driver for an interstate trucking company was having a difficult time. He found the long cross-country trips extremely tiring. The older driver who traveled with him, however, seemed to thrive on those long trips. He always seemed to look as fresh at the end of the ride as he did at the beginning.
In the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Yeshua prophesied that “… nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” The word “nation” in Greek is the word “ethnos”, from which we get the English word “ethnic”. All of this polarization and ethnic warfare which the media feed upon and incite is the work of the enemy as he stirs up the sinful nature of men.
Several hundred years before Jesus was born, a plague broke out in Athens, Greece. In an effort to stop the plague and appease the ‘gods’, the Athenians sought counsel from a wise man named Epimenides from the island of Crete.
There’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love, however if we want to experience His blessings we need to observe the qualifications that He’s given us in His Word. Psalm 112 details a whole list of blessings, but the key to receiving them is verse 1.
Looking at the relationship between “love and affection” (“chiba” in Hebrew) and “obligation” (“chova” in Hebrew), we find another closely related word, “chaver”, one of the Hebrew words for “friend”. Friends are people with whom we share love and affection and also a sense of obligation. Our God and Father wants us to be His friends, to share love and affection with Him and to carry the sense of responsibility and obligation which friendship requires.
We are called to be servants, are we not? Well, what does a servant do? He (or she) carries out the will of his master. A servant doesn’t tell his master what to do — he performs whatever tasks the master requests of him. A servant doesn’t choose what days or times it’s most convenient to serve his master. A servant’s function is simply to follow and obey his master’s instructions. A servant does not develop a vision for the master either. The master is the one with the vision — and he wants his servants to be ready and available to carry out that vision and bring it to fruition.
This passage in Isaiah contains a poetic play on words which is lost to any reader but one who understands Hebrew. A word for word translation runs something like this: “If not you will believe (lo ta-aminoo), surely not you will be established (lo te-amenoo).” The three letter Hebrew root – “aleph”- “mem”- “nun”, is the same in both words, and the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah is clearly playing on this root to emphasize His point. The same root letters are also used in the spelling for the familiar word “Amen” which literally means “truthfully”.