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.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy Devotions. This devotional was originally published on Worthy Devotions and was reproduced with permission.
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These verses capture one of the most profound Messianic truths in all of Scripture. What man cast aside, God exalted. What the builders saw as flawed and unfit, God chose as the foundation of His eternal plan. Yeshua (Jesus), the rejected One, is the very cornerstone upon which salvation, identity, and destiny are built. This is more than a theological concept — it’s a divine reversal that reveals the heart of redemption. Rejection by man does not disqualify–it often qualifies you for God’s greatest purposes.
These verses are far more than ancient lyrics — they are a spiritual invitation. The psalmist doesn’t just admire the gate — he pleads for it to open. “Open to me the gates of righteousness…” This is the cry of a heart that longs for access to God, not by merit, but by mercy. In Hebrew thought, gates represent transition points — thresholds between the common and the holy, the outside and the inner court, the temporal and the eternal. These are not man-made doors — they are divine entrances into the presence and promises of the LORD.
As we continue our study in Psalm 118, I want to take a deep dive into verses 17-18, where the psalmist makes one of the boldest declarations in all of Scripture: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.” This isn’t the voice of someone untouched by pain — it’s the cry of someone who has been through the fire and come out declaring God’s faithfulness. This statement is not a denial of suffering; it’s a defiance of death. It’s the resolve of a heart that’s been chastened, refined, and pressed, yet remains confident in the God who preserves life — not just for survival, but for purpose.
Over the past two devotionals, we heard the song of the redeemed and stood at the wells of salvation. We saw how strength, song, and salvation flow from Yeshua Himself — how the joy of drawing from His presence is not just a poetic promise but a lifeline for our day. Yet today, we stand at a prophetic threshold. Something has shifted. Something has broken open. We are not only being refreshed — we are being awakened and called.
Yesterday, we heard the anthem of the redeemed rise like a trumpet blast: “The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.” We explored how this was more than personal — it was prophetic, Messianic, and generational. We saw Yeshua not only as our Deliverer but as the very embodiment of God’s strength, the melody of our praise, and the fulfillment of every promise. We stood in awe as tents of rejoicing rose in the midst of warfare, and households became sanctuaries of celebration. But today, we go deeper — we step to the well.
There’s a reason this verse resounds like a national anthem of the redeemed. It’s not just a personal declaration—it’s a generational cry that echoes back to Moses at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:2) and forward to the final deliverance of Israel. The Hebrew word for salvation—Yeshua—makes this verse unmistakably Messianic. It isn’t a vague deliverance. It is the revelation of Yeshua (Jesus), the Deliverer, who embodies strength, becomes our song, and stands as the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan.
The cry that shattered the stillness of Golgotha—“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46)—was not a random cry of despair, but the deliberate voice of Yeshua pointing to Scripture. As He hung on the tree, bearing the sin of the world, He invoked the ancient words of David—not only identifying Himself as the righteous sufferer, but signaling that Psalm 22 was unfolding before their very eyes. In that moment, heaven and earth bore witness to a divine mystery: the Holy One, seemingly abandoned, was fulfilling a prophecy written a millennium earlier. Yeshua did not merely suffer—He fulfilled every word, every shadow, every stroke of divine prophecy.