Mary, the Mother of Jesus

“Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me. He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver. He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory.” -Isa. 49:1-3

Hear the voice of the Servant of God, Jesus. He was ordained from the beginning. He was called from the womb of a virgin and His mouth was made like a sharp sword to speak the words of God. And John the revelator saw Him –

“In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.” – Rev. 1:6

He was the ‘select arrow’ that was hidden from man in the quiver of God until the time of salvation was here. He was the Israel God had in mind when HE called Abraham –

“He (the Father) said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory.” – Isa. 49:3

He was sent with the express purpose of bringing Jacob back to God and to reveal the light of God to the Gentiles.

“And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” – Isa. 49:5

Jesus knew that He would be rejected by Jacob when He came the first time but after the Jewish dispersion they would return to Him –

“Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD, And my work with my God.’ ” – Isa. 49:4

He knew that He would yet “raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved ones if Israel”. He knew that after Jacob began to return to the Land Satan and the forces of Antichrist would drive them into the wilderness –

“Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days (3½ years). … Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time (3½ years), from the presence of the serpent. ” – Rev. 12:6, 13, 14

This is known as the Sheepfold of Bozrah deliverance and is forecast in Micah and Isaiah-

“I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together like sheep of the fold, Like a flock in the midst of their pasture; They shall make a loud noise because of so many people. The one who breaks open will come up before them; They will break out, Pass through the gate, And go out by it; Their king will pass before them, With the LORD at their head.” – Micah 2:12,13

“Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength?—“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me. I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth.” – Isa. 63:1-6

The ‘wilderness’ that John reveals the woman flees into is in Bozrah, which is in Edom. Bozrah was known as the place of the sheepfolds. The shepherds would wall in the sheep with stone fences and then in the morning would break down the wall and lead the sheep out.

This prophesy is foretold in the heavens by the Little Dipper, which is called in Hebrew the lessor sheepfold and the North Star is the shepherd who breaks the wall and leads the sheep out. Israel goes into the wilderness as Jacob but comes out as the remnant of Israel.

When the Antichrist attacks Israel with the armies of the world, Israel is defeated and half the city of Jerusalem is taken (Zech. 14:1, 2). Israel has been depending on the arm of flesh, their own prowess, but that all will end as they flee into the wilderness –

“But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.” – Isa. 49:14

But God says –

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.” – Isa. 49:15, 16

Thus as Isaiah prophesied –

Thus says the LORD: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ – Isa. 49:8, 9

Jesus came to declare the ‘acceptable year of the Lord’ to say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth’ and to give light to those in darkness. He was a Light to the Gentiles and He set the prisoners free from the bondage of sin, but He has yet to finish this work. It must done for Jacob as well.

“To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” – Isa. 60:2, 3

This work has begun. For the first two centuries after Jesus’ first coming, the Church was mostly Jewish. And today over 500,000 Jews believe in Jesus as their Messiah. But, the time of Jacobs Trouble, the prophesy of Zechariah 14, is nearly upon us. The nation of Israel will flee into the “wilderness’‘, there to be protected by God for 3½ years, as John prophesied. Then the Lord will come to the sheepfolds of Bozrah with deliverance and break them out of their folds. All of Jacob will be gathered there and all of Jacob will be saved, as in a day, as Paul predicted. They will break out not as Jacob but as Israel, Prince with God.

The “one new man” (Eph. 2:14-18) Paul prophesied about will be formed. Will you and I be in it?