¹⁴ “Before she [that is, another Jerusalem] began to come into labor pains she gave birth. Before birth pangs could come to her, she even gave deliverance to a male child. Who has heard of a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will a land be brought forth with labor pains in one day? Or will a nation be born at one time? For Zion has come into labor pains as well as given birth to her sons.”​—Isaiah 66:7, 8.

15. How does that birth-time experience compare with that described in Revelation 12:1-17?

¹⁵ Such an extraordinary birth is just the opposite of that description of the birth of a male child given in the last book of the Holy Bible. There, in Revelation 12:1-17, we read: “And a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon was beneath her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars, and she was pregnant. And she cries out in her pains and in her agony to give birth. And another sign was seen in heaven, and, look! a great fiery-colored dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and upon its heads seven diadems; and its tail drags a third of the stars of heaven, and it hurled them down to the earth. And the dragon kept standing before the woman who was about to give birth, that, when she did give birth, it might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male [she brought forth a man child, Authorized Version], who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was caught away to God and to his throne. . . . And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.”

16. We must identify that “sign” woman and her “son, a male,” as being what or whom?

¹⁶ Since no woman on earth has the moon beneath her feet and a circlet of twelve stars about her head like a crown, the above-described “sign” woman must be symbolic. As her child was accepted and acknowledged by God, He must be the one who made her pregnant. So she is, as it were, married to him. All things considered, the “sign” woman in heaven must symbolize God’s wifelike organization of heavenly spirit creatures, among whom his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, is the chief one. The woman’s child, “a male,” must likewise be symbolic, and it symbolizes God’s kingdom, inasmuch as the male child was caught away to God’s throne. So as to make the kingdom more than a mere abstract, theoretical thing, there has to be a live person to serve as the royal ruler. That real person must be the one with whom Jehovah God made a covenant for the kingdom.

17. So how did the only-begotten Son of God become the rightful one to occupy the throne at his Father’s side?

¹⁷ Yes, that one was his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who, by reason of his miraculous human birth in Bethlehem and in the family line of King David of Israel, was the natural heir to the kingdom. (Isaiah 9:6, 7; Luke 22:29, 30; Matthew 1:17-25) Rightly, then, in connection with the heavenly “woman” it was emphasized that her child was a “male,” forasmuch as the kingly office was reserved for a male offspring in the royal line of David.

18. So how do the circumstances surrounding the producing of that symbolic man-child line up with those set out in Isaiah 66:7, 8, as shown by the American Standard Version?

¹⁸ All those circumstances surrounding the birth of a “son, a male,” of the heavenly “woman” differ from those set out in Isaiah’s prophecy, particularly with regard to the matter of pregnancy and the labor pains and birth pangs. Thus there are important reasons for concluding that the “male child” of Isaiah 66:7 relates to a different situation prophetically than does the “son, a male,” at Revelation 12:5. Evidently the “male child” refers to the “nation” produced in the “land” in Isaiah’s prophecy. Moreover, in the case of the restored Israelites, kingship, or rulership, was not the prominent feature in their getting reestablished at Jerusalem in 537 BCE. A king in the line of David was not placed on the throne again. Judea being a Persian province, they were under the rule of King Cyrus who had issued the decree to rebuild the temple and restore true worship at Jerusalem. Nevertheless, restoration came suddenly, unexpectedly. According to the American Standard Version, Isaiah 66:7, 8 reads: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”

19. (a) To whom did it seem that the birth of the postexilic nation of Israel had been accelerated, and for what reason? (b) How was it a brand-new generation that took up dwelling on the land of their forefathers, and in what sense was it a newborn land?

¹⁹ True to the prophecy, the birth of the postexilic nation of Israel, was, so to speak, speeded up. It came with surprising suddenness for the ancient world, in 537 BCE. The pagan world never expected the long-dead nation of Israel to come alive again, on its own God-given land. It was really a new Zion that came into being, giving birth to a new nation.

A new Zion arose upon a newborn land. She became the mother to a new, postexilic nation. It occupied the new Persian province of Judea.

God’s modern-day, antitypical response to his own questions was his making the antitypical Jerusalem, his heavenly organization, fruitful so that she brought forth a spiritual “nation,” on earth. This was under the direction of the Greater Cyrus, the newly enthroned King in heaven.

² “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be joyful with her, all you lovers of her. Exult greatly with her, all you keeping yourselves in mourning over her; for the reason that you will suck and certainly get satisfaction from the breast of full consolation by her; for the reason that you will sip and experience exquisite delight from the teat of her glory. For this is what Jehovah has said: ‘Here I am extending to her peace just like a river and the glory of nations just like a flooding torrent, and you will certainly suck. Upon the flank you will be carried, and upon the knees you will be fondled. Like a man whom his own mother keeps comforting, so I myself shall keep comforting you people; and in the case of Jerusalem you will be comforted. And you will certainly see, and your heart will be bound to exult, and your very bones will sprout just like tender grass. And the hand of Jehovah will certainly be made known to his servants, but he will actually denounce his enemies.’”​—Isaiah 66:10-14.

3. Thus the restored Jewish exiles were likened to what, with what enjoyment, and whose hand would they see in this matter?

³ Thus those restored from exile were likened to newborn babes taking nourishment. To the Jewish exiles by the rivers of Babylon the references to sucking the breast and sipping the teat denoted that there would be another Jerusalem built on the site of the destroyed capital city; also that she would mother a population of many citizens or inhabitants and the many other citizens of her realm. (Compare Luke 13:34.) Like mothers then in the Middle East, rebuilt Jerusalem would have her children straddle her left or right thigh, to carry them; and, when seated, she would fondle them lovingly on her lap. Those Jews who loved Jehovah’s visible organization back there in the sixth century BCE would rejoice over this, and they would cease from mourning over the fact that for the seventy years of their exile in a pagan land there had been no Jerusalem as the capital city of Jehovah’s chosen people. Their joy was like that described in Psalm 126, as in contrast with the sorrow expressed in Psalm 137. Jehovah’s servants saw his hand in their deliverance.

4, 5. (a) How did the remnant react to the manifestation of God’s “hand” in their behalf, and what did they appreciate more than ever? (b) The time had then arrived for what other action? (c) How does Isaiah describe this?

⁴ This was no less the case with the members of the spiritual “nation” that was “born” in 1919 CE. After their astonishing liberation from the restrictions imposed during World War I and the threat of their being wiped out, they rejoiced with unbounded joy. Their mourning passed away. More keenly than ever before they came to appreciate that Jehovah is their God and that he has a visible organization, just as he has an invisible organization in the heavens that is like a wife to him. This invisible organization is, for the remnant, a “mother,” the “Jerusalem above.” (Isaiah 54:1-6; Galatians 4:26) So, coming together again from their disorganized state during World War I, they rejoiced to be nursed, borne along and fondled by this spiritual “mother,” the celestial “wife” of God their Father.