Timely Birth Questions

      A careful reading of Isaiah 66 in relation to Rev. 12 actually reveals three births. Two are obvious: the birth of a Male Child while the Woman is in pain (Rev.) and the birth of a male child while the Woman gives birth without pain (Isaiah). The latter caused Isaiah to ask, “Who has heard of such a thing?” But then he adds another question that is much more cryptic. “Who has seen such things?” The first question is about a singular thing while the second is about things, plural.
     We know the Spirit inspired Isaiah to write these things. So it’s important that we stop to see why, partly because not doing so has led to the erroneous interpretation of this prophecy. Some teach that this prophecy concerns the “rebirth” of Israel as a nation in 1948 after being scattered as a result of her rejection of God’s Son and Anointed One.
       Yet Isaiah goes on to pose three more questions that are meant to give us the clue to understanding the prophecy. “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” (v. 8).
       We’ve already seen that Zion is the Woman in labor in Rev. 12—the nation of Israel. We know from the prophets that this scene reveals the rapture of the Male Child, the Church, as part of the ruling heavenly court with Christ. It also reveals that it happens when the Antichrist invades Israel and makes war against the Woman’s offspring. Because of the rapture and the Jews subsequent recognition of the Messiah, they are now born again, having accepted the salvation that it is Christ. This latter birth is the unheard of singular thing.
       So what is the plural things? It has to do with the birth of the Male Child. We know this birth has to do with the One who shall rule with a rod of iron. That is, Christ and His joint heirs who likewise overcome death through resurrection, being born from the dead.
      End-Time Lesson: Peter described the results of these things (plural) in 1 Pet. 2:8-10. The context is Israel’s rejection of the Christ, having stumbled over this “rock of offense” because they did not rightly divide the Word of God from their own prophets concerning the Messiah.
        Writing to the New Covenant believers, however, Peter explains: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people [Gentiles] but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
        You may recall that the Revelation began with this New Covenant affirmation: “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1:5-6). That is, the Church, His Body. As kings and priests, we are a royal priesthood. Like Esther, we were chosen for such a time as this. We are the end-time generation who shall witness our Lord’s return.
        As with Esther, we shall be His beloved bride who shares up to half the kingdom with Him. We rule and reign as joint-heirs with our King (the King of kings)—and we’re the kings! This creation of a new nation born at once through the rapture is the third cryptic birth buried in this amazing end-time prophesy. Our ruling judgments are the Stone that crushes the 10 toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue to dust. This is our heritage of faith, having believed without having seen Him in person. We are fashioned after the chief Cornerstone, being “in Christ.”
       “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19:22).