Sister,
 
     Always keep in mind the context in which an event occurs.  If you will notice the preceding verses (13:6-9) are talking about the barren fig tree.  This fig tree in His vineyard was to be ultimately cut down if it did not bear fruit.  By looking at Isaiah 5:1-7 we know that Israel is the vineyard of the Lord, Judah is His pleasant plant, and Jerusalem is where He built the tower and the winepress (compare Revelation 14:19-20).  True to His Word, the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. because they brought forth no fruit unto God.
 
     But then the Scripture in Luke goes right into the healing of the woman that had an infirmity 18 years.  Sister, this type of thing is commonly brought out again and again in the Old Testament prophecies.  Over and over again in the OT God pronounced terrible severe judgment against Israel and Judah, and then immediately gave to them promises of the glorious kingdom to come.  This was apparently done so that those who did take heed to God's Word would not be totally discouraged by the coming judgments, but rather would look beyond them to the glorious future yet promised to them.
 
     Putting this in proper perspective, the Lord pronounced judgment upon the nation of Israel and their beloved Jerusalem because they were bearing no fruit, and that judgment did come.  But then in the next few verses He also promised complete and total healing for them on the sabbath day, a type of the great millennial sabbath to come.
 
 The woman is again a type of Jerusalem which will receive her total and complete healing only when all Israel turns to the Lord at the end of the Tribulation.  Go back again to the 12 years mentioned in my previous writing.  That 12 years ends this year, 2005.  Now add 6 more years to it to make a total of 18 years and what year does it bring you to; 2011.  That year will mark the end of the Tribulation when Israel turns to the Lord with all her heart and soul.  And what city in Israel is mentioned as being the very city that the Lord saves when He returns?  Jerusalem!  Read all about it in Zechariah 14.  Glory to God!  The woman bent under the load of sin and unbelief will be healed and stand straight and tall before the Lord at His return during the great millennial sabbath, and the Lord will extend peace to her like a river, Isaiah 66:10-14.  Glory to God!  Praise the Lord!
 
     Sister, this is again just another indication that our Lord's coming is right at the door.  1993 + 18 = 2011.  Glory!
 
     Thanks for writing and God bless you.
 
                   Pastor F. M. Riley

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From: elenalareina

Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 8:41 PM

Subject: Woman healed of infirmity of 18 years
 
 

  Here is another healing miracle, and it gives a specific number of years. The woman in Luke 13: 10-17 was CRIPPLED for 18 years.
 
     And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
 
  Jer 52:29 "In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons"
 
  18 years ago was 1987. Three things were significant in Israel that year, that I have discovered:
 
  1. The Ethiopian leaders in Israel organize an assembly at Binyanei Ha'uma in Jerusalem, where the Israeli public comes together in solidarity for reunification of Ethiopian Jewry. This ties in with the account of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch that I wrote about earlier!
 
  2.On December 10, 1987, a mass uprising against the Israeli occupation began in the "occupied Palestinian territory" of Gaza, (the first intifada), and spread like a fire across the West Bank and into Jerusalem itself. Daily strikes and demonstrations, with Palestinian youths hurling stones and petrol bombs, kept the Israeli occupation army at full stretch for nearly three years. The Intifada drew world attention not only to Israel's 20 or so years of  military occupation of the territories and East Jerusalem, but also to the measures Israel was using to put down the uprising. We know what satanic power is behind these terrorists, and it relates to what Jesus said about the woman, a daughter of Abraham, or Israel, being bound by Satan.
 
  3. This was the year that the site of Bethesda was discovered by archaeologists. This ties in with the earlier articles I sent about the healing of the blind.