Isaiah 66:7-8 (NIV), “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? 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.”
Of course, a nation cannot be created in a single twenty-four-hour day, but the Scriptures use the word day in several ways. Israel’s “day of temptation in the wilderness” was forty years. (Psalm 95:8) 2 Peter 3:6 says, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
In this passage, a day is also a period of time — not a 24-hour day. Isaiah is here prophesying about the day when both spiritual Israel (the body of Christ) and the nation of Israel should be “born”. Verse 7 teaches the spiritual Israel (true Christians) is delivered before the most intense time of trouble (before she goes into labor).
Verse 8 explains that Zion (spiritual Israel) gives birth to the nation of Israel when the Jews are converted in Armageddon (in labor). Zechariah 14:2-3, 12:10 (NIV), “I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, …Half of the city will go into exile…Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle….(12:10), And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”
Both Zion and Israel are vital to the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom. Spiritual Israel will rule and fleshly Israel will be its earthly representative. Micah 4:2, “The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
