Isaiah James May
I came across a phenomenal story on the Internet whose details arrested my attention. A young couple in Canada brought a son into the world on October 24, 2009. The parents’ names are Isaac and Rebecka May. The first names of the parents should be readily identifiable to all who have a familiarity with the Scriptures. Isaac, the son of Abraham, and Rebecca were the parents of Jacob and Esau. (See Genesis Chapter 25 and following.)
It would be remarkable enough for two people today to be wed who had these names in common, but it is even more remarkable that their baby bears the same name as the son of the Biblical characters whose names they share. Some years ago in my study of the Scriptures I discovered that the name James and the name Jacob are identical in their origin.
Jacob/James
From the Latin Iacobus, which was from the Greek Ιακωβος (Iakobos), which was from the Hebrew name יַעֲקֹב (Ya'aqov). In the Old Testament, Jacob (later called Israel) was the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of the twelve founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was born holding his twin brother Esau's heel, and his name is explained as meaning "holder of the heel," or "supplanter." Other theories claim that it is in fact derived from a hypothetical name like יַעֲקֹבְאֵל (Ya'aqov'el) meaning "may God protect."
The English names Jacob and James derive from the same source, with James coming from Latin Iacomus, a later variant of Iacobus. Unlike English, many languages do not have separate spellings for the two names.
[Source: www.behindthename.com]
I have no way to know whether the parents were aware that James is a form of the name Jacob, or were aware of the spiritual type they were fulfilling by naming their son James. Most English speaking people are not educated in the origin of these names. Whenever you read the name James in the Scriptures, in actuality you are reading about a Hebrew male who was named after Jacob the son of Isaac and Rebecca. For example, consider the following:
James 1:1
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.
Because the translators of the most popular English Bibles were inconsistent in their rendering of Hebrew names, many types and shadows from the Scriptures are obscured. Jacob was the father of twelve sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel. (Yahweh changed Jacob’s name to Israel when Jacob wrestled with the angel at the ford of the Jabbok.)
Consider the symbolism that would be observed had the Bible translators rendered the name of this early Christian as Jacob, maintaining the consistency with his Old Testament counterpart.
Jacob 1:1
Jacob, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Yahshua Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.
Now we would have the New Testament Jacob writing to the twelve tribes, following a pattern of Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebecca, addressing his twelve sons.
Following are the details of this news article regarding this young Canadian couple and their son.
EDMONTON — The family of a severely brain-damaged baby, who are fighting to keep their child on life-support against the advice of doctors, got a temporary reprieve Wednesday from an Edmonton judge.
The judge ruled Isaiah James May will remain on a ventilator at the Stollery Children's Hospital until Feb. 19, giving lawyers more time to arrange for medical experts to assess what's best for him.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the family said a doctor from Victoria has agreed to provide an independent assessment of the three-month-old boy.
The heart-wrenching story of Isaiah and his parents has attracted international media attention.
The boy was born Oct. 24 in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., about 220 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, after a difficult 40-hour labour.
His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, choking off his oxygen supply. He was transported to Edmonton, where doctors said he has irreversible and severe brain damage.
Doctors told the family they thought Isaiah should be taken off life-support, but the child's parents refused, saying they wanted another opinion, and took their battle to court.
"It definitely gives us some more breathing space," Isaiah's father, 22-year-old Isaac May, said Wednesday about February's court date...
Rosanna Saccomani, the Mays' lawyer, said Dr. Richard Taylor, a neonatologist from the Victoria General Hospital, has said he can come to Edmonton in the third or fourth week of February to physically examine Isaiah.
A pediatric neurologist from the Mayo Clinic is also considering involvement in the case...
Close to 25,000 people are following their story through a special Facebook site set up by a family friend, a number that is going up hourly...
Rebecka said it's a relief to have medical professionals willing to come to Edmonton to give independent physical assessments of Isaiah, who moves his arms and legs and opens his eyes, even though doctors from the Stollery hospital said he would never do so.
"They remain professional and kind," Rebecka, 23, said. "We thank them for the care they're giving Isaiah. They're doing an outstanding job. They're very nice..."
[The parent’s lawyer] said the parents just want more time. They want a 90-day grace period, while Alberta Health Services would like the issue resolved within 30 days...
[Source: http://www.canada.com/health/Family+brain+damaged+baby+gets+temporary+life+support+reprieve/2490675/story.html]
The details of this story are phenomenal. In order to discern the parable here, let me share some of the symbolism of the story of Isaac and Rebecca in the Scriptures. The history of this couple is found in a series of three generations that are set forth as a profound parable of Yahweh’s work among mankind. The three generations are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These three are named specifically whenever Yahweh wanted to identify Himself with a remnant of mankind.
Genesis 50:24
And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you, and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob."
Exodus 2:24
So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Matthew 8:11
"And I say to you, that many shall come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven...”
Luke 20:37-39
"But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to Him."
These three names occur together over 100 times throughout the Bible. A remarkable similarity of experience is found in the lives of each of them. All three of these men had barren wives who did not give birth until they were well advanced in age. Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren. Isaac’s wife Rebecca was barren. Jacob’s wife Rachel was barren.
Genesis 11:30
And Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Genesis 25:21
And Isaac prayed to Yahweh on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and Yahweh answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Genesis 29:31
Now Yahweh saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
What is signified by this unusual pattern of barrenness among these three women? It has been the desire of Yahweh to bring forth a godly seed in the earth, a righteous generation. Yahweh is revealing through the barrenness of these women, and the impotence of their husbands to produce offspring through them, that sinful man cannot raise up godly offspring. God must undertake to perform for man what he cannot accomplish himself.
Last year I wrote of this in the book The Marriage Covenant. In the chapter on blood covenants, I wrote the following words.
One of Yahweh’s great desires is to have sons in His own image, and He has placed this desire in the heart of man. What Yahweh had actually promised Abraham was that he would father sons who would be holy unto Yahweh.
When two men enter into a blood covenant of friendship, they literally are pledging themselves in every area of their lives to one another. Yahweh literally pledged to Abraham that He would undertake for him to raise up a godly seed. Abraham had no power to accomplish this by any power of his own. Therefore Yahweh walked between the pieces alone. He promised to accomplish all, for man cannot in his own strength raise up a seed that will be “holy unto Yahweh.”
It was necessary for God to open the wombs of each of these women in their old age in order that they might be able to bear seed. This was a supernatural act in each instance, for the wombs of these women were dead.
Consider now a further astounding similarity between these women. When they did give birth there was a threat to the life of the son who was born as a godly seed. Sarah gave birth to Isaac in her old age, yet when Isaac was a lad Yahweh instructed Abraham to take him to a certain mountain and to offer him there as a burnt offering.
Later Isaac and Rebecca gave birth to two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob, though the younger, having been born as a twin of his brother, was chosen by Yahweh to be the godly seed. Jacob faced more than one threat to his life. His brother Esau threatened to kill him, and Jacob’s father-in-law Laban may also have sought to slay Jacob had not God sternly warned Laban in a dream.
Jacob and Rachel gave birth to Joseph, and Joseph also faced the anger of his brothers who spoke of killing him, but sold him into slavery instead.
Thus, in all three instances, the godly seed that came forth from the barren woman faced peril, having their life threatened with extinction. Yet, in all three cases, God preserved the life of the one appointed as a godly seed.
This pattern of a threat to the life of Yahweh’s godly ones is further observed in another grouping of three. Those appointed to be deliverers of the people of God have been in peril for their lives. Joseph was called of God to preserve alive a remnant of God’s people in a time of famine and starvation. We read of Joseph that his brothers thought of killing him.
Genesis 37:18-20
When they saw [Joseph] from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. And they said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!"
Over four centuries later Yahweh raised up another deliverer for His people in the birth of Moses. At that time the Pharaoh of Egypt commanded that all of the baby boys born to Israelite women should be killed. But God protected Moses, and he was even raised in the household of Pharaoh.
Both Joseph and Moses serve as types of the Son of God who was born to be Savior and Deliverer to mankind. King Herod sought to have the Son of God put to death, but Yahweh once more delivered the One who was born to be a deliverer of His people.
I share these examples because the Spirit testifies that this pattern of a godly seed being born, and a threat to the life of the one appointed to righteousness, is being repeated again. Consider the foretelling of this event in the book of Revelations.
Revelation 12:1-5
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems... And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Satan always seeks to destroy the holy seed. Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and he fills the hearts of evil men with murderous thoughts that the holy seed might be extinguished from the earth. This was observed as far back as the conflict between Cain, the ungodly seed, and his righteous brother Able, whom he slew. These two men were the first fruits of Adam and Eve, and the conflict between a righteous remnant and ungodly men has continued ever since.
Let us return now to the story of the baby whose life is in peril. On the one hand we observe parents who are motivated by love. On the other hand we see a medical system whose judgments are often predicated upon financial expediency. The child whose life is in peril is symbolic of the righteous remnant that God must bring forth at this time. He is Jacob, whose elder brother Esau plotted to kill him.
Genesis 27:41
So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
We have not yet observed the end of this struggle for the life of this young child. A specialist is coming from Victoria (Victory), British Columbia. God has promised to send forth victory to all those who will wait upon Him.
Satan has worked to end the life of this child before it has barely started. The forty hours of labor the mother experienced are symbolic of the trials through which the overcomers must pass. That the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck, cutting off the flow of oxygen is a further symbol of how Satan seeks to separate the godly seed from the life of Christ. In the writing Gospel Chemistry I shared how the element Oxygen is symbolic of Christ.
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/gospel-chemistry.html
In this hour as the sons of God are in labor to be brought forth the enemy is working to sever them from the nourishing flow of divine life that comes from the Spirit of Christ. The sons of God must not give up, and those who care for their souls must not grow weary in seeking to bring them forth to the light of day, for the revealing of these sons will mean the salvation of the entire creation.
Romans 8:19-25
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
The words perseverance and endurance are being spoken much by the Spirit of Christ in this hour. This young couple has been persevering in hope for three months, and now is not the time to abandon hope. Their experience is a parable of a much larger event that is transpiring among the creation at this hour. Sons of God are being birthed, and the enemy of their souls is seeking to extinguish their life before they can grow to maturity and bring an end to his despotic rule over this earth.
Do you know your own part in this immense struggle? Is Satan seeking to choke out the life of Christ in you at this time? Are you growing weary of standing in hope, looking for a salvation that has been delayed? Is hope being attacked, and pressure mounting due to the high cost of continuing the fight?
I know of a number of saints who are standing in some place of great difficulty where the Spirit of Christ has commanded them to stand. Some face physical struggles of serious health issues. Others are waging war against financial peril, looking in hope to Yahweh to deliver them. Some are dealing with other enemies. Yet the common denominator is that the victory has delayed, and hope is under attack.
There are other details of this story that are full of promise. The parents’ lawyer’s name is Rosanna. This name is a combination of Rose and Anna. Rose means that which is fragrant, and Anna is a form of the Hebrew name Hannah. Hannah was herself a barren woman who cried out to God for deliverance and God granted her petition. She gave birth to Samuel. This lawyer has cried out to the judge to stay the medical care-givers in their intent to end their support of the baby’s life. The judge granted Rosanna’s petition. Rosanna was quoted as saying that the parents simply want a period of GRACE.
The doctor who has agreed to come from Victoria to further assess the struggling infant has the first name of Richard. The meaning of this name is “Brave Power.” Surely, courage and strength are what is needed to win the victory. Will you wait until courage and strength arrive? Will you persist in hope, and be motivated only by love, despite the growing antagonism and enmity of others around you? Will you persist even when the experts of this world declare that you must surely be mentally impaired and cannot recover? Such are the judgments of this world when they encounter a son of God walking by the Spirit when they themselves are accustomed only to walking according to the counsel of the natural mind.
People of God, stay the course! Stand where the Father has called you to stand.
Hebrews 10:35-39
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Again, I say, “STAND FAST!”
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 5546
Macon, GA 31208
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