Reply to Kay re Happy 61st Birthday, Israel

 

<<Who has ever heard of such a thing?  Who has ever seen such things?  Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?  Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.  (Isaiah 66:8) http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/may2009/kay514.htm>>

 

It may interest 'Rapturees' to know that some see an indication in verse 7 (just prior to the one quoted above) that the Rapture will take place before the Great Tribulation.  There are certain symbolic correlations between the Bride of Yahshua and the Bride of Yahweh (Israel).  Here's how it reads in the King James Version:

 

"Before she travailed, she brought forth;

before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child."

-- Isaiah 66:7   

 

1]  The verse above is referring, of course, to the nation of Israel's birth in 1948.  The Book of Revelation indicates that the child Israel gave birth to -- Messiah/Yahshua -- was caught up into Heaven.  Then a dragon chased the mother, Israel, into the wilderness where she was protected.

 

      This is indicative, not only of Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt with baby Jesus -- after His birth -- to escape King Herod's slaughter of infants, but also Jesus' later resurrection and ascension into Heaven (being caught up into Heaven).

 

 

      It is also indicative of Israel's future fleeing into the wilderness to escape the antichrist in the middle of the Great Tribulation, while the manchild (Jesus/Messiah) is still in Heaven.

 

2]  Another correlation from that verse is that the virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus before her labor pains began.  This is borne out in an account found in the book of Josephus the high-priest, called by some "Caiaphas."

 

     As the story goes, Joseph had left Mary to go find a midwife to assist with the delivery and found an old Hebrew woman of Jerusalem.  When he and the midwife returned to where Mary was, the place was filled with lights greater than lamps or the sun.  They found Mary had already given birth and the infant was wrapped up in swaddling clothes and breast feeding, which surprised them.

 

     Another account I have come across stated that angels helped Mary give birth painlessly while Joseph was away looking for a midwife to help.

 

3]  A third and final correlation is that before the Great Tribulation (travail/pain) comes, the 'mystery' Bride of Christ is delivered (Raptured) and will return after the Great Tribulation with the manchild, Messiah (her husband/Jesus Christ), to rule and reign.