Birth Pangs: How Pregnancy Reveals God’s Plan for the Ages
The premise of Birth Pangs is that God’s plan for the Ages can be seen allegorically in a woman’s pregnancy & delivery. In our day today we are late in the third trimester of that figurative pregnancy.
First, we have the Creation as a conception & the Old Testament stories as the first and second trimesters of the pregnancy. This was a time full of birth pangs but without potential to birth the baby. Christ’s First Coming is likened to a pre-term labor which was arrested when the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah. After Christ’s Resurrection & Ascension, the last two thousand years to our present day constitute the third trimester, the days of false labor. In the future we will see the true labor and travail of a woman clearly in the labor pains of the Book of Revelation. That will be culminated allegorically by the most wonderful event in a woman’s life, the birth of her baby which illustrates the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the most awesome event in the history of the world!
Take a trip through the Bible looking through the unique lens of this pregnancy allegory in Birth Pangs: How Pregnancy Reveals God’s Plan for the Ages.
To follow are a few excerpts of this epic story!
The Present:
The 20th century has seen the words which our Lord spoke come alive in a way which is charged with anticipation to those with eyes to see.
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceives you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: See that ye be not troubled: For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And there shall be pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. And these are the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 24:3-8
Jesus told his disciples that the signs leading up to the end of the age would be as sorrows upon a woman. Specifically, he said they would be the beginning of sorrows!
And, as we have noted, sorrows are very complicated. They start at the beginning of the pregnancy, they can lead to a miscarriage, they can come prematurely, they can come falsely, but they will ultimately get closer and closer with increasing pain and intensity before the birth of the baby.
Jesus was saying: Be patient, a lot is going to happen before I return! But to those with ears to hear, he was also giving a blueprint of the times prior to his return. A blueprint that mothers can best understand!
But also, here in Birth Pangs, I desire to point out something even bigger than the analogy of sorrows compared to the end-times scenario.
I want to show that the entire history of the world and more specifically, the history of mankind here on this planet can be compared to a pregnant woman’s course. That God’s dealing with Israel, the Church, the Nations and Creation itself can be typified by pregnancy and delivery. A pregnancy with conception, a miscarriage, contractions remote from term, pre-term labor, false labor, rupture of membranes, true labor with its divisions of latent phase, active phase and transition, and finally the delivery.
It’s all there and I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I will enjoy showing it to you!
For we know that the whole creation groans & travails in pain together until now. Romans 8:18-22
We are living in a world that is pregnant! Specifically, it’s a world that is in “late” pregnancy. No, the water hasn’t broken yet and the true labor hasn’t yet started, but as we shall see, it could begin at any time…
The Book of Revelation presents the outline for the days in which we live as well as for events yet to occur. Thus, for the remainder of this book I will have the joy of following the Revelation as we discuss the allegory of God’s dealings with mankind as a woman’s pregnancy. And specifically, in this wonderful section of scripture we will learn of the world’s false labor, the rupture of membranes, the true labor, and the delivery of the baby!
So, let’s dive in for a blessing!
As I’ve heard Pastor Jon Courson say so many times, the Book of Revelation is not a hard book to understand. For it is the only book of the Bible that comes with its own divine outline! That outline is found in Chapter 1 verse 19.
Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Revelation 1:19
God divided this revelation which was given to John into three sections. First, he said to write the things which you, John, have seen. Next write about the things which are presently. And lastly, write about the things which will occur hereafter.
So, let’s ask ourselves, what are these three things of which God was speaking?
The things which thou have seen: That’s the resurrected and glorified Christ. That’s chapter 1 of this wonderful book!
Look with me at some of the beauty of this first section. Of the things John had already seen!
I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. …What thou see, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches…And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the chest with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters…and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. Revelation 1 (excerpts)
Wonderful Chapter 1 of the Book of Revelation. The things which John had seen and which God told him to share with us. He saw the “Whole Christ!”
You see, the gospels are amazing, but except for the transfiguration scene as well as the Resurrection & Ascension, we do not see Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! He is the Servant who came for the purpose of fulfilling his Father’s will. And that was to die so that we might live. We saw him as a man of flesh and blood. He was a kind and gentle man, a man who we saw weeping. One who laughed with friends and ate with sinners. One who slept out under the stars and traveled by foot wherever he went. But now in the first chapter of the Book of Revelation we really get to see Jesus the Christ in all his glory and majesty!
That’s the first section in God’s divine outline! That’s what Jesus meant by using the phrase, “the things which thou hast seen.”
The things which are: Next, we learn that the Alpha & Omega, he who is and was and is to come, is writing to the “seven” churches. You will remember that seven is God’s number for spiritual perfection. The Lord wants his church to have this revelation. His entire church! The church in John’s day and the church today. The one that meets in Medford and sings contemporary music and the one that gathers in China behind closed doors. He is speaking to seven literal churches in Asia Minor but also, he is speaking to the Church in its entirety. That New Covenant Church which was born on the day of Pentecost and will continue on unto the day that we meet him in the air! That’s the second section of this divine outline! The Church Age is what Jesus is speaking of by using the phrase “the things which are!”
We will see that these seven churches outline the entire course of the times in which we live. The era we call the Age of Grace. To John, these churches were not only congregations that he oversaw but also a prophetic revelation. These things had not yet occurred to him, but to us looking back we will see the awesome wonder of God’s Word to those who would have eyes to see. In God’s divine outline, chapters 2 & 3 are “the things which are.” Also, it is this time frame that our Lord spoke of when he told his disciples of those events leading up to his return. To the “Beginning of Sorrows.”
The things which shall be hereafter: In chapters 4- 22 we find the third division of this holy outline. It’s the future, if you will! In this last section we will see the Rapture of the Church, the Tribulation time period, the Second Coming, the Millennium and the New Heaven & New Earth. In our obstetrical analogy, we will see the rupture of membranes, the hard labor, the delivery of the baby and the joy that follows!
You see, John was living in the beginning of the Church Age, in the beginning of the second section. But he would not live to see the things which shall be hereafter. With hindsight we understand that the second section of the Revelation has continued for the last two thousand years! But remember dear saint, with the Lord, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day (II Peter 3:8). In God’s economy “the things which are” have thus far only lasted two days!
Thus, in considering our analogy of God’s dealing with mankind as the course of a woman’s pregnancy, we are now in this 2nd section of the Book of Revelation. The time in which we live is recorded in chapters 2 & 3. It’s “the beginning of sorrows” that Jesus spoke of to his disciples. It’s the time of false labor…
The Future:
Just as the rupture of membranes is the most unexpected and unique event in all of pregnancy, so too, the Rapture of the Church will be the most surprising and matchless event in the history of the world. And just as the breaking of the water begins the onset of labor, so too, the departure of the believers in Jesus Christ will signal the onset of the Great Tribulation.
But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have died, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not proceed them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: And the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: And so, shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one other with these words. I Thessalonians 4:13-18
In my opinion these are about the most wonderful words in all of scripture. This is the “hope” which I have in my heart. That one day I will be caught up to be ever with the Lord! This is what “turned me on” to the Lord those many years ago in 1973 when I first saw through the fog of life and realized that there was “oh so much more!”
The Tribulation as a Laboring Woman:
Let’s look at some of the obstetrical imagery that God uses to describe this time.
And these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 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? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble… Jeremiah 30:4-7a
Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, shall all hands be faint. And every man’s heart shall melt: And they shall be afraid: Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: Isaiah 13:6-8a
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child: I Thessalonians 5:1-3
The Future Glory:
There are certain days in our lives that exude God’s blessing. You know, the days when we can palpate God’s glory & presence. Your wedding day is a good example, but the day of the birth of your baby may be the best! Everyone intuitively understands that a birthday is most sacred.
For a woman who calls Jesus her Lord, the delivery of her baby is the most wonderful moment of her life. For it’s a spiritual moment she will never forget! In similar vein, I see this spiritual phenomenon come to light for the unbelieving woman also at this time. For in that moment of delivery, the unbelieving woman will often sense her Maker, even in her unbelief. Indeed, it’s a holy time, for in the birth process is embedded a moment of the miraculous!
Having seen thousands of births has not dimmed my enthusiasm for the event. In fact, I’ve only become more addicted to my calling as an Obstetrician as time goes forward. Of course, that’s because a birth is more than a new physical life coming into the world. It’s an intense spiritual moment that we all crave to experience! Thus, I hope you can see that this picture I have developed, that of God’s dealings with mankind as a woman’s pregnancy & delivery, is a true divine portrait. For just as the birth of a child is the most momentous event in a woman’s life, so too, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will be the most awesome moment in the history of the world!
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful & True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: And his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth went a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron: And he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Revelation 19:11-16
This day will be without compare...
Epilogue:
We have come to the end of this book. And we have come to the end of the Book! Jesus has some important last words for us as chapter 22 of the Revelation concludes. He is the Alpha & Omega, the beginning & the end, the first and the last. The Lord says he wants us to know the end. “Behold, I come quickly!” He says he does not want us to keep this a secret. “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” He warns that there is a point in time when a person’s destiny is fixed. “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” The Lord promises to come back with rewards according to our works. Thus, it is important to remember what it is…to do the work of the Lord!
Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:29
My faith in Jesus, my love for Jesus, that’s the work of God!
Hence, the rewards he will return with will include all the blessing we have discussed. Such as, our seven-year honeymoon with him in Heaven, the wedding banquet, the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heaven & Earth.
Unfortunately for the rejecter of the Gospel, the rewards will not be good. Judgment & destruction, outer darkness & eternal death will be their end. Consequently, I understand why Jesus wants to remind me of this bad news at the end of the book. So I will remember the lost. So I will pray for the lost. So I will speak to the lost!
Next, the Lord gave a final invitation. The Spirit & the bride say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
Isaiah echoed this sentiment beautifully, “Ho, every one that thirsts, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price,”(Isaiah 55:1).
Lastly, Jesus says not to add or detract from his words. Or else! If any man adds to his words, plagues will be added. If any man takes away from his words, well, his name & future home will be taken away!
So, these are the Teacher’s words to us today. We know the end of the story, don’t keep it a secret, our destiny is safe, he has rewards for us, offer the invitation and respect his Word.
Pretty good advice from the One who gave his life for you & me! God Bless You as you walk in his incredible grace & mercy!
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Revelation 22:21