Isaiah 66:9, commentary and pictures

The verse asks twice whether God would bring to the point of birth and then fail to bring forth or shut the womb, expecting the answer No, that having brought to birth He will cause to bring forth and will not shut the womb. The birth is Zion bringing forth her children as a nation in one day at once, which is the resurrection of the righteous dead and the change of the living to immortality at Christ's second coming, the first resurrection as the new birth into the kingdom unto eternal life as free children of the free woman. That birth follows the voice of God out of Zion waking the dead, with Christ the first-born from the dead as the pattern of what all Zion's children will be. Afterward they are received into the Jerusalem above, the mother of all, to dwell and be comforted, nourished and delighted with the abundance of her glory and with peace extended like a river. It is God's assurance that He will complete what He has begun, so that those who seek salvation will find the door opened, souls travailed for in agonizing prayer will be born into His kingdom, while believers now are only begotten through the truth in prospect of rising in that birth.

Wording and Prophetic Setting

The wording poses two rhetorical questions whose implied answer is No: having brought to the point of birth, God will cause to bring forth and will not shut the womb, with cause meaning beget. Having of His own will begotten through the truth, He is able to bring forth and will bring forth when graves are opened and the dead live.

The verse belongs to the future-focused second part of Isaiah beginning with chapter 40, which carries the reader forward to Christ's sufferings and the glory of His reign. That part presents Israel's deliverance from Babylonian exile and also deliverance from sin through the Messiah, sometimes intertwined, with the vision of the Messiah's spiritual kingdom at times taking prominence. The prophecy changes rapidly from one scene to another like a panorama, with events having a general relation but passing suddenly in vision from scene to scene. This differs from the prophecies of Daniel and John and the Saviour's prophetic discourses, which often follow and connect like links of a chain and are plainer and easier to follow, so the time of the different scenes in Isaiah 66 can only be ascertained by comparing them with other plain texts of Scripture, for the transition is often very sudden. Expressions like this verse, grouped with similar expressions in Isaiah 65, are to be treated as spiritual rather than literal.

The verse harmonizes with the teaching that signs show the end is near and that a warning proclamation goes to the world so God's people are not in darkness about its nearness. It harmonizes with the teaching that at Christ's coming the righteous dead are raised and the living changed to go up with the Lord to the Father's house. At that coming the day of God's wrath slays all the wicked and leaves the earth utterly desolate without a living man for a thousand years. At the close of the thousand years the city of God comes down, the wicked dead are raised to surround it and are destroyed by fire, and the earth is melted, purified, and made the everlasting home of God's people, and the verse contains nothing that conflicts with these positions.

In the chapter's setting, the promise concerns the Lord's coming and the deliverance of His people at the beginning of the thousand years, assuring that just as He does not bring to the point of birth and then prevent delivery, He will bring His promised work to fulfillment. The chapter shows that the Lord's seventh-day Sabbath will continue in the new earth. The Jewish festival sabbaths tied to the ceremonial law, by contrast, ceased.

Birth as First Resurrection

The bringing to birth is the sudden gathering of Zion's long-barren children as a nation in one day, at once. That birth is the resurrection of the righteous children of Zion from the dead together with the change of the living to immortality at the second coming of Christ. It is the first resurrection, the new birth into the kingdom unto eternal life as children born free of the free woman. It brings rejoicing with Jerusalem and gladness for all who love and mourn for her.

It takes place after the voice of the Lord is heard roaring from on high on the day of recompense to His enemies. Then the trumpet or voice of God out of Zion wakes the dead, the earth casts out her dead, and the dead in Christ rise first so that a nation is born at once.

Through travail Zion brings forth her children, for the dead remain in the grave until the resurrection. Then they are redeemed from the power of the one who held them and brought forth as Zion's children. The remnant then joins the resurrected dead, and together they go up to Zion.

Christ as the first-born from the dead is the specimen of this birth and of what all Zion's children will be. As He appeared suddenly and disappeared in an instant like the wind, so will all who are born from above do.

Believers are not yet in that state and are not yet born again but are only begotten. Having of His own will been begotten through the truth with the spirit of adoption as first-fruits and pledge, they await the resurrection morning when graves are opened and the dead live. They are begotten by the Lord Jesus Christ through the gospel, not by hearing the word preached but by believing and obeying, with baptism as the first action showing faith in a risen Saviour, having put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man in prospect of rising in the first resurrection.

After that birth the people of God are received into the holy Jerusalem, the Jerusalem which is above which is the mother of all, in bondage no longer. There the righteous go at the coming of Christ to dwell and be comforted, manifested, dandled upon her knees, and nourished by the tree of life in the midst of Zion. They suck and are satisfied with the breasts of her consolations and milk out and are delighted with the abundance or brightness of her glory, nursing and being comforted in Jerusalem with peace extended like a river.

Assurance and Present Application

The verse is God's assurance that he will complete what he has begun, bringing to fulfillment what he brings to the point of birth, causing it to come forth and not abandoning it before its fulfillment. Just as he does not bring a child to the point of birth and then prevent its delivery, so he will bring his promised work to fulfillment. In its setting the promise concerns the Lord's coming and the deliverance of his people at the beginning of the thousand years. It assures those who seek salvation that God will bring his work to completion, supporting the promise that the door will be opened to the one who knocks and that no power can silence the plea for salvation.

When God's servants feel the death agony of souls upon them and travail in prayer for deliverance, with faces upon the ground, God will surely cause souls to be born into his kingdom. Victory for the salvation of souls is first obtained by this agonizing intercession, for God does not bring to the birth without causing to come forth. Its birth travail points to persecution for the truth of the commandments of God just before the coming of Christ. Patience is therefore called for under afflictions rather than in prosperity, in accord with the truth that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution in the last days.