Woe To Those With Child

Theology
1

In Lord Jesus’ Olivet discourse, He issued a warning about those with child at the end with the time of His future coming. It is easy to simply pass it off that He meant that it will be a time of hardship upon pregnant women. That’s what I had thought He meant for a long time…

Luke 21:20-23
20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
21 Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
KJV

Is that above woe meant for women in Christ, truly? I don’t think so. Yet Lord Jesus did include it for those of His servants that He told to flee because of what will be coming upon that area with His coming on the 7th vial (Rev.16:15-17).

But what about that “wrath” upon those women with child? If that is about women in Christ, then it would contradict what Paul said in 1 Thess.5:9 that we are not appointed to wrath. And that day of vengeance there indeed is the time of God’s final cup of wrath of the 7th vial on the day of Christ’s future coming.

Matt 24:16-19
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
KJV

There it is again, given along with those Jesus says on that day for those in Judea to flee to the mountains, and not come down from the housetop, and if in the field to not return back to get clothes. If that is about His coming to rapture us out, then why did He say in Luke 21 there would be great wrath upon those with child?

I’ll explain why He said that about those ‘with child’ in my next post.

2

The following Scripture is Christ’s warning to the Daughters of Jerusalem about them and their children being found ‘with child’ when He returns in our near future. Lord Jesus is pulling from His parable that’s written in Isaiah 54 about “Blessed are the barren…”.

Luke 23:27-30
27 And there followed Him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him.

Those women were on the sides as Lord Jesus was on His way to be crucified.

28 But Jesus turning unto them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us”; and to the hills, “Cover us.”
KJV

That idea of giving suck of course is about breast feeding an infant. But Jesus isn’t speaking that in the literal sense, but in the spiritual worship sense. God’s Word often uses real things in life as symbolic analogy for a deeper spiritual Message.

The woe to those with child is one of those analogies. In the above, it is the deceived who will be saying that, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.” Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 saying he wants to present us to Christ, our True Husband, as “a chaste virgin”, is another pointer to this woe to those with child metaphor Jesus gave.

The idea of the parable is this: one’s symbolic womb remaining barren and not giving suck, means remaining “a chaste virgin” for Lord Jesus waiting on HIS coming. But to be found ‘with child’ when Jesus returns means to have not remained a chaste virgin, but being found married to another in His place, and one’s symbolic womb not remaining ‘barren’.

I am not making this up. When you put all of these relevant Scriptures together, especially the Isaiah 54 where “Blessed are the barren” was quoted from, then this is a warning from our Lord Jesus to remain faithful and not go with the coming false-Messiah that comes first. Since Lord Jesus used the idea of marriage, and having a child with the wrong one, it reveals about those who will be deceived and in bed with the Antichrist thinking he is our Lord Jesus.

3

The “Blessed are the barren” analogy from Isaiah 54…

Isa 54:1-3
54 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
KJV

How do we know the above Isaiah 54:1 verse is a parable or analogy using the idea of one’s womb being barren vs. with child? It’s because of that last statement, “… for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife…”.

If that were literally about real women’s wombs, would that make sense to you? In real life, would the woman with the barren womb have more children than the married wife? No, of course not. That’s why it is a simple spiritual analogy about who one chooses to worship at the end. The married wife is symbolically married to the false-Messiah when he comes, the one Paul warned about that some falsely preach, the “another Jesus” (KJV - 2 Cor.11). The barren woman represents those who remain steadfast waiting on Lord Jesus’ future coming, and do not fall away to the false-Messiah that comes first.

And… this Isaiah 54 analogy God also uses regarding His marriage to Jerusalem (See Isaiah 54:11-13).

Isa 54:5
5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called.
KJV

This is why Lord Jesus showed in Luke 23 that those found ‘with child’ will be the ones saying, “Blessed are the barren…”. It will be because when Jesus appears, and they realize Who they rejected, they will appear in shame, and will wish for those mountains and hills to fall upon themselves.

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@DavyP This is not an attack. Nor am I mocking you. You claim that Isaiah 54:1 is a metaphor about people being “in bed with the Antichrist.” However, we don’t need to speculate about what Isaiah 54 means, because the Apostle Paul explicitly interprets Isaiah 54:1 for us in Galatians 4:26–27.

Let’s look at how Paul actually uses the passage. Paul writes:

“But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.”

Notice how Paul applies Isaiah 54:1:

The “Children of the Desolate” are believers in Jesus Christ. You, me, and every born-again Christian under the New Covenant. “She which hath an husband” represents the earthly Jerusalem in bondage under the Old Covenant law (symbolized by Hagar).

Your allegory actually reverses Paul’s teaching. Under your theory, the “barren woman” is an individual Christian keeping their symbolic womb empty from the Antichrist, while the children represent spiritual deception. But Paul says the exact opposite: According to Paul, the “barren woman” of Isaiah 54:1 yields the redeemed children of God.

Paul explicitly tells Gentile believers:

“Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” Galatians 4:28.

By turning Isaiah 54:1 into a story about sleeping with the Antichrist, you are completely rewriting a passage that Paul used to celebrate the glorious expansion of the New Covenant Church.

When Jesus quotes the “blessed are the barren” concept in Luke 23 to the Daughters of Jerusalem, He isn’t secretly referencing your Antichrist theory. He is warning those specific women of the literal, terrible Roman siege of Jerusalem in AD 70.

In a military siege, mothers nursing infants (“paps which never gave suck”) suffer unimaginable horror watching their children starve. In that historical tragedy, childless women were “blessed” solely because they didn’t have to watch their infants perish in the siege.

You are taking a historical warning about the horrors of the AD 70 siege (Luke 23) and linking it to Isaiah 54, while completely ignoring how the Apostle Paul defined Isaiah 54 in Galatians 4. Paul says Isaiah 54 is about the spiritual birth of New Covenant believers through the Heavenly Jerusalem. It has nothing to do with being spiritually pregnant by the Antichrist.

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Peter

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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa_54:1-3
1”Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child;
Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;
For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous
Than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.
2”Enlarge the place of your tent;
Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not;
Lengthen your cords
And strengthen your pegs.
3For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.
And your descendants will possess nations
And will resettle the desolate cities.”

Isa_54:1-3 This first strophe has several IMPERATIVES that relate to rebuilding restored Judah/Jerusalem (cf. Isa_49:20).

  1. shout for joy - Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 943, KB 1247
  2. break forth into joyful shouting - Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 822, KB 953
  3. cry aloud - Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 843, KB 1007
  4. enlarge the place of your tent - Hiphil IMPERATIVE, BDB 931, KB 1210
  5. stretch out the curtains - Hiphil IMPERATIVE, BDB 639, KB 692, used in a JUSSIVE sense
  6. spare not - Qal IMPERFECT, BDB 362, KB 359, used in a JUSSIVE sense
  7. lengthen your cords - Hiphil IMPERATIVE, BDB 72, KB 88
  8. strengthen your pegs - Piel IMPERATIVE, BDB 304, KB 302
    Paul uses this quote in his typology about Abraham’s sons and the two covenants in Gal_4:21-31.

It always amazes me how modern believers take a verse like this totally out of context and use it for a sermon on building a new church building!

If you allow a total disregard for the original setting and the inspired author’s intent, you can back up any action. It seems that modern evangelical Christians psychologically need a Scripture text to support all their events and projects! See Seminar on Biblical Interpretation online at www.freebiblecommentary.org
Isa_54:3 “your descendants will possess nations” At first glance this phrase looks like another one of Isaiah’s universal texts, but note the parallelism of the next line. This is referring to taking over the tribal areas of Judah and Benjamin. It is referring to Cyrus II’s edict about the seed of Abraham returning to Palestine after the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles (cf. Isa_14:1-2).

As to @DavyP …

Paul’s apostolic reading in Galatians 4 is the controlling interpretation for the church. Isaiah 54 is about the heavenly Jerusalem giving spiritual birth to New Covenant believers through the promise.

“corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children” The metaphor here is between the current system of Judaism centered in Jerusalem and the coming, eschatological city, New Jerusalem. This city, not made with hands, exists eternally in the heavens (cf. Heb_11:10; Heb_12:22; Heb_13:14 and Rev_21:2; Rev_21:10).
Notice that Paul made the Jerusalem above apply to the Church. NT apostolic writings change the focus of the OT (Jews vs. Greeks) to believers vs. unbelievers. The NT reorients the OT geographical promises from Palestine to heaven (earthly Jerusalem vs. heavenly Jerusalem). It is this basic change of focus that allows the book of Revelation to refer to (1) believers, not Jews or (2) a universal kingdom, not a Jewish kingdom.
Gal_4:26 “free” Freedom here refers to the believer as being released from the obligation of both Judaism (i.e., free from the curse, cf. Gal_3:13) and paganism (the stoicheia). Freedom is not related to the believer becoming self-directed, but

  1. we are free to serve God (cf. Romans 6)
  2. we are free from the terrible tyranny of the fallen self
    To put it another way, believers are free “to serve” and free from “self.” It is a dual freedom! We willingly serve the Father and the family as sons and daughters, not slave and servants!
    Gal_4:27 This is a quote from Isa_54:1. In context it refers to the restoration of the city of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. The New Jerusalem is mentioned specifically in chapters 65 and 66. Paul projected this eschatological understanding into his typology.
    Gal_4:28 The believers in the Galatian churches were the true descendants of Abraham by faith (cf. Rom_2:28-29).
    Gal_4:29 Paul associated all true followers of Jesus with the true descendants of Isaac through God’s promise. Although the OT does not specifically mention persecution (i.e., Jewish tradition), it does mention Hagar’s haughty attitude toward childless Sarah (cf. Gen_16:4-5), but also Sarah’s mistreatment of Hagar (cf. Gen_16:6). The rabbis interpreted Gen_21:9 as Ishmael mocking Sarah and her child. The Hebrew text itself reads “playing” or “laughing” (BDB 850, KB 1019). Possibly Paul was referring to the later animosity between Jews and Gentiles.
    The last phrase of Gal_4:29, “so it is now also,” implies that the physical descendants (i.e., children of the Mosaic Covenant) of Abraham are still persecuting the spiritual children (i.e., faith children) of Abraham. There is conflict between the two mountains!

It is not about AD 70, and it certainly has nothing to do with the Antichrist. Anyone who says otherwise is handling the word crookedly.

J.

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You have it backwards Davy…

Read the chapter in order.
Isaiah 50:1 - “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away?” Yahweh asks why He put Zion away.
Isaiah 51:17–20 - Zion is the drunk, bereaved mother who has no one to guide her children.
Isaiah 52:2 - “O Jerusalem, the holy city… loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”

Then comes Isaiah 54. The barren woman is Zion in exile, forsaken, desolate, childless because of judgment. And who is her husband?

“For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.” (Isaiah 54:5, KJV)

You are saying… the “married wife” is married to the false Messiah. The text says the opposite: the barren woman’s husband is Yahweh Himself. She was barren because He disciplined her (Isaiah 54:7–8: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee… with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee”). Her barrenness is temporary judgment, not faithfulness.

The “married wife” in 54:1 is simply the contrast, the woman who appears secure with a husband and children. The desolate one (Zion) will surpass her. There is no Antichrist in this verse. To insert one is to make the text say what it refuses to say.

  1. Luke 23:29 - What is Jesus actually talking about?
    “For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.” (Luke 23:29, KJV)

The context is the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus weeps over the city in Luke 19:41–44 and predicts the siege: “Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee… and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee.”

In Luke 23:29, “blessed are the barren” is not spiritual triumph over the Antichrist. It is raw physical horror. In siege warfare, mothers watch their children starve, be killed, or be eaten (cf. Deuteronomy 28:53–57; 2 Kings 6:29; Lamentations 2:20; 4:10). Jesus is saying: the barren will be spared that agony.

Matthew and Mark make this explicit:

“But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.” (Matthew 24:19–20, ESV)

This is about fleeing a city under military siege. It has nothing to do with spiritual pregnancy by a false Messiah.

You are importing a foreign idea into a passage about physical suffering.

  1. Paul’s interpretation in Galatians 4 -the controlling reading
    Your appeal to 2 Corinthians 11:4 (“another Jesus”) to frame this as end-times apostasy.

But Paul himself tells us how to read Isaiah 54, and it is not your way.

Galatians 4:26–27 (KJV):
“But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.”

Paul says the barren woman is the Jerusalem above, the mother of New Covenant believers. Her children are born by promise and the Spirit. The “married woman” (Hagar, the present Jerusalem) bears children into slavery under the law.

Paul does not say the married woman is the Antichrist’s bride. He says she is the present Jerusalem under the Sinai covenant. The barren woman is the free woman, the church. Your reading directly contradicts Paul’s own allegory.

J.

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The prayers of those who heard this warning were answered, since the Roman general besieging Jerusalem opened up a temporary “humanitarian corridor” in the Spring. Contemporary reports indicate that all of the Christian in Jerusalem heeded the Lord’s stern admonition and got out of the doomed, damned, and dying city.
The Great Tribulation was an event that happened within the time frame Jesus gave it, to the “this generation” that was listening to him then. And sure enough, 40 years later …

And it was an event that could be escaped on foot. IOW, intensely local.

RJR spoke of the horrible middle-third of the 20th century, when Communist and Nazi armies occupied village after village in Central Europe. The survivors WALKED away from everything, leaving the lights on and the doors unlocked, like families taking a casual walk together. They went to the bus station, and bought tickets for SHORT rides, just a village or two away. Rinse and repeat until freedom was reached. With their lives, and the clothes on their backs.

Meanwhile, agents of the occupiers waited at train stations, looking for overdressed people with heavy suitcases.