« The Mystery of the Second Virgin Birth »

by Randall Carter Gray

No fault is assigned the natural man
Who does supernaturally what he can
To read the cosmic script of signs and wonders
And the race being run and its forerunners.

But in this script of sacred history
The novice is exposed to mystery;
Though Bible scholar he (she) may not be
The clues are there for him (her) to see.

The Author, patient and generous,
Precise, eternal and illustrious ...
Among the fabric of his story
Has illustrated types to reveal his glory.

The just conclusion one can reach ...
The marvels typology can teach ...
Lead all who’ll take the earnest climb
To see God’s words transcending time.

Joseph was a forsaken soul;
Though beloved, he was dropped into a hole.
His brothers’ betrayal involved a lie ...
They told Jacob his favourite son had died.

But Joseph rose to prominence,
With wisdom, grace and common sense,
Forerunning David and Solomon
And at last, the King, the Holy One.

How similar is Jeremiah’s fate,
Who, kept in a pit, had to wait,
Until a savior ... an Ethiopian
Pulled the prophet up and made him free again.

Coincidence, these similarities?
Chance interwoven into the tapestry?
Perhaps, if the trend were not repeated:
Rescue, victory, when once defeated.

What once was ... will be again;
We have assurance from our friend,
Whose birth and life was so like Joseph’s,
Like Adam’s, Jacob’s, Jeremiah’s, Isaac’s and Moses’.

Condemned to wear a false prophet’s label,
A man of sorrows, so much like Abel ...
The Holy One, persecuted, scorned,
Doomed to wear a crown of thorns ...

Sent to the pit, the bowels of hell,
Like Nehemiah’s Serpent’s Well,
The Holy One upon his mount ...
Surveys the well, the Virgin’s Fount.

Does history in cycles somehow repeat,
To show God must have performed these feats?
From Eve’s birth pangs and mankind’s birth,
To the prophets’ reports of a recreated earth? ...

We see creation return to the beginning,
In the restoration tale, of Israel winning.
Though once forsaken, banished from the garden,
In due time Eve returns to the place called Eden.

Betrayed, contending, a sacrifice
From slave to Deliverer, he paid a price:
A Passover lamb, he gave his blood;
Like Noah and Moses ... he solves the flood.

This link has not been often praised,
Though circumstances show him raised;
The bond is nevertheless revealed:
For he spoke truth that was concealed.

His parables, his poetry ...
Meant as wise instruction for you and me ...
Bear the selfsame prophetic mark ...
Of ancient utterances of times so dark.

Our drama forerun in the past
Has types and figures precisely cast
So we might see the parallels
So we might avoid the tricks of hell.

Fountains, rivers, lakes and springs,
Streams and pools, from each God brings
Object lessons of former things
From which new cleansing truths will spring.

Fulfilment of the ancient past
Recurs increasingly so fast --
Like Eden’s mysterious river Gihon
'Twas that which David built upon ...

When like a seed he scaled the shaft,
Though the Jebusites made fun and laughed,
Daring David, rudely mocking him ...
‘Till he appeared in Jerusalem.

Gihon, the gusher, shows what’s in store:
When the Holy One stands at the door ...
And bloodied Israel banished outside ...
Is cleansed to be her husband’s bride.

The meaning of Gihon is not isolated ...
Eden's river is the source God created ...
To water the children of Israel ...
Like Massah, Meribah, the rock-hewn wells ...

Which Moses struck with his staff ...
Though natural men may mock and laugh ...
The rock where Ezekiel's streams will flow ...
Was struck by the Holy One's tree, just so.

The Gihon Spring, where Isaiah prophesied
Of the virgin birth, Israel's pride ...
Was where David entered Jerusalem,
'Twas here that Ezra sang the procession hymn;

Here, Hezekiah, at this high place ...
Dug the tunnel, saving Israel from disgrace;
For water flowed to the pool Siloam
From the upper pool straight to Israel's home;

And 'twas here at the pulsing Gihon Spring
Where Israel's future Son and King
Proclaimed he was the living source
Of water along Hezekiah's course.

The metaphors used by Jeremiah,
Hosea, Micah and Isaiah:
An expectant mother’s wall bulges, bursts
And satisfies the barren woman’s thirst.

If Jesus is not in the company
Of the Hebrew prophets, for all to see ...
Why do his warnings intertwine,
Echo the birth pangs, wonders, signs? ...

In a day like Noah’s, cursed by the sword,
As the first was so will be the last Day of the Lord,
A judgment to befall the nations ...
While Israel’s restored with all creation!

The Gentiles fortunes at last reversed ...
Some are saved, while some are sadly cursed ...
But not by God, but by cruel invaders ...
Whose evil is halted by the redeeming Saviour.

And not a babe who descends to earth ...
But a man whose given second birth ...
Born of a virgin, as only God can arrange ...
Are the words of Jeremiah all that strange? ...

Behold, the Lord will do a new thing ...
From a woman’s womb ... a grown man will spring ...
When a mother, a virgin surrounds a man ...
As the Father concludes his restoration plan.