hi vasilefPart of the significance of 'travailers' is that the English word 'travail' is used for a woman's birth labours. So there is an idea behind Ravenhill's words of the kind of 'commitment to a conclusion' and of the 'necessary intense labour required' to bring to birth a life. Once a woman has begun this process there is no way back other than to persevere to the end. This is part of what Ravenhill will have had in mind. It is a powerful and moving 'word picture'. So your Scottish friend is right but it has a special application of intense and persistent labour that brings something to birth.You will see the sense here...Is. 21:3 (KJVS) Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it. Is. 26:17 (KJVS) Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. Jer. 22:23 (KJVS) O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail! Jer. 48:41 (KJVS) Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. Jer. 49:22 (KJVS) Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. Jer. 50:43 (KJVS) The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. Mic. 4:9 (KJVS) Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. John 16:21 (KJVS) A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. Gal. 4:19 (KJVS) My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, 1Th. 5:3 (KJVS) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. The Greek word for a woman in labour-pains is used here...Matt. 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. Mark 13:8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. Acts 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. 1Th. 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. Hope this helps.What part of Romania are you living in. I have visited the Transylvania area a few times and know some of the churches there.
