Where Is “The Nation Born In A Day?” Identifying the Latter-day Prophecy in Isaiah 66:8
Famous evangelical scholar, Morgan G. Campbell, wrote in his discourse on Isaiah chapter 66, “This last chapter is confessedly difficult of interpretation. In it, the prophet seems to look beyond all that he has previously described, and to deal with destiny. The challenging question is whose destiny is in view in this prophecy.”
The key to the prophecy is found in verse 8: “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Many Christian scholars have written on this subject, and their views are broadly diverse.
Biblical commentator John Trapp reported a Roman Catholic claim of fulfillment: “Can a land or a country be brought forth in one day? A nation be born at once? Cardinal Pool abused this scripture in a letter to Pope Julius III, applying it to the bringing in of Popery again here so universally and suddenly in Queen Mary’s days.” However, Roman Popery’s short rule over English churches came to an end with the demise of “Bloody” Queen Mary, ruining this strange novel interpretation!
The Summarized Bible sees this prophecy as fulfilled in 1948 in the establishment of the Jewish state. They opine, “The Christian watches with great interest the providences of God towards the Jews, knowing that their return to their land is a preparation for the fulfillment of much prophecy, a sign of the approach of the close of the age and Christ’s coming.” Was the establishment of a non-Christian, nearly godless state really what the Lord was intent on bringing to pass? Even if the Jewish people should constitute the House of Judah, we will see that it is the other House, Ephraim-Israel, which fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy.
Bible teacher William Constable also sees a Jewish fulfillment of this prophecy, but in a longer timetable. He states, “This would be a supernatural work of God. It will happen at Messiah’s Second Advent. He will recreate Israel as a nation after Antichrist and the combined Gentile nations of the world have sought to destroy her. However, the whole rebirth of Israel from the Exile to the Millennium may have been in the prophet’s vision.” Here all pretense to a particular day is dropped. Dr. Constable is yet another who believed that Christ would return intending to facilitate the establishment of an unregenerate nation who rejects Him! This interpretation was made before the year 1948, but it gives to Christ all of the credit for the founding of an atheistic secular state.
In stark contrast, countering the idea that Isaiah’s prophecy refers to a secular agnostic state, “Commentary on the Whole Bible,” J.R. Dummelow, ed., says this prophecy shows “The wonderful restoration of Israel. The mother is Zion, the child regenerate Israel, and in Isaiah 66:8 the normally slow processes of birth and growth are contrasted with the astonishing development of God’s people.”
Noted Bible scholar Franz Delitzsch, D. D., agreed that the prophecy relates to Israel in a regenerate state. “The God, who has already prepared everything so far, will suddenly make Zion a mother; a man-child, i.e. a whole nation after Jehovah’s heart, will suddenly lie in her lap; and this new-born Israel, not the corrupt mass, will build Jehovah a Temple.” Dr. Delitzsch is not referring to a physical temple, but to a spiritual Temple, the Christian Church, as we read in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” (cf. 2 Cor. 6:16) There is no New Testament basis for the rebuilding of a non-Christian Jewish Temple, nor for the physical establishment of latter-day Israel as an unredeemed secular nation. (cf. Isa. 35:10)
Dickson’s Teachers Bible Commentary also believes in a spiritual fulfillment, and that Isaiah 66:8 was fulfilled in a single day, “…when God sent His Spirit, men and women responded in one day to the good news of Jesus.” Yet was the Christian world, Christendom, really converted in one single 24 hour day, or did the spread of the Gospel cover many centuries of the Church Age? This commentary adds, “God had started the birth of the Messiah into the world when the gospel was first preached to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). For two thousand years He protected the Seedline of Abraham in order to give birth to the Messiah, who in turn established the spiritual Israel of God in one day in A.D. 30.” This is a misdated reference to the Crucifixion of 33 A.D. Yet the argument hardly holds true. Christendom is a spiritual Church; it is not a nation, which designates a political entity.
The Companion Bible also emphasizes that the Isaiah 66:8 spoke of a physical political entity, “a nation: i.e. the righteous nation of Isaiah 26:2. Referred to in Isaiah 66:7, Matt. 21:43…at once = at a stroke.” At a stroke of a pen a nation came into being! Isaiah 26:2 proclaims, “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.” Where is that righteous nation, born at a stroke, today?
It is also significant that the Companion Bible identifies Isaiah’s righteous nation as the fruitful nation of Christ’s prophecy in Matthew 21:43. The verse reads, “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” The word “fruit,” Greek “karpos” (Strongs #3390), translates to the Hebrew “Ephraim,” meaning fruitful or doubly fruitful. It is indeed very possible, even likely, that on this occasion Christ actually used the corresponding Hebrew word to get His meaning across. “Ephraim,” fruitful, is the Scriptural name for the Ten Tribes of the Northern House of Israel, the so-called “lost tribes” which were dispersed out of Palestine in the Assyrian conquests of 732-676 B.C. Where in history did the reunited tribes of Ephraim fulfill prophecy to become “fruitful,” and “a nation born in a day,” at once, at the stroke of a pen?
We have given no less than four important signposts to identify “the nation born in a day.” The prophecy relates to Israel, and specifically to the “fruitful” branch of Israel known as Ephraim, the lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. These people would be regenerate Christian believers. Furthermore, these Christian descendants of the House of Israel would be constituted a political nation. Lastly, this would happen “at once” in one day, “at a stroke” of a pen.
Where in history do we see such an event that occurred exactly as this? The Bridgeway Bible Commentary connects verses 7 to 14 of Isaiah 66 to understand the context: “…the new nation Israel will appear suddenly and unexpectedly, like a baby born before the due date (v.7-9). As with the birth of a baby, there is much rejoicing over the birth of the new nation (v.10-11). The ‘baby’ grows strong and active because God is the one who nourishes it. Under the controlling hand of God, Israel prospers (v.12-14).” We see this in American history from the date of its national inception. America has certainly prospered beyond any nation in the earth’s history, with much rejoicing around the “super-centennial” 250th anniversary of our founding at the stroke of a pen on July 4, 1776. No other nation in history matches the prophetic description of Isaiah’s redeemed covenant nation.
Yet one more signpost of fulfillment is that America is called a “melting pot,” the only nation on earth where all of the tribes of Israel were regathered together as a regenerate people. Their establishment as a political entity is quite improbably linked to a single remarkable day in history.
Critics may assert that identifying America as the prophetic righteous nation is just an assumption based on an interpretation of a number of Scripture passages. However, they are not my own assumptions, but a compilation of the educated analyses of leading recognized biblical scholars, which when combined serve to flesh out the prophecy.
It also has an historical basis. Noted American Colonial religious leader, Dr. Samuel Johnson, spoke in 1780 of the founding of the Republic in an address before the Continental Congress, with John Hancock presiding. He said, “It is, we believe, ‘a happy foundation for many generations,’ and the framers of it are indeed the Fathers of their country…Such men have a monument of glory more durable than brass or marble. Behold the man, whose name as President of Congress, authenticates that immortal act, which in form constitutes the Independence of these United States, and by which ‘a nation’ was literally ‘born in a day!’ (Isaiah 66:8).” Our Christian founders were gratefully and humbly aware that they had fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy.
The book, “Law in Colonial Massachusetts” tells us that in colonial times, our forefathers often referred to America as “Zion,” and as “a city set upon a hill,” using Biblical imagery for the earthly Kingdom of God. (pp. 7, 52, etc.) The colonists referred to each other as Israelites (p.62), and judges frequently based decisions upon Bible law. For example, we are told that in cases of theft, Justice John Clark “invariably ordered that the defendant pay to the victim three times the value of the goods stolen,” based upon the principle of restitution in Exodus 22. (p.117-118) Even the famous Liberty Bell contains an inscription taken from Bible law in Leviticus 25:10: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” There was a reason that American institutions were based upon Hebrew Biblical principles: it was their heritage.
Bible Commentator John Trapp observed, “The birth of a man would seem a miracle were it not so ordinary…but the birth of a whole nation at once, how much more!” Yes the birth of the American Republic was a divinely-ordained event that fulfilled biblical prophecy in a marvelous way.
