REVELATION 12
THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON
Click here to see the "Pregnant Woman and the Dragon" picture
As far as timing is concerned, when the seventh Trumpet is blown, immediately the seven Bowl judgments will commence in rapid succession. These staccato judgments will occur in a matter of days or possibly even hours consummated by the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are like the grand finale' of a fire works display. However, as far as we readers of Revelation are concerned, we will be given a good deal more information before we actually arrive at those events in the book, making it seem much longer than it actually is. Keep this in mind as we come now to the third interlude in Revelation. It takes up all of chapters 12 and 13. Here, our Lord will enlighten us concerning many of the conditions, peoples and politics that will exist on Earth during the final climactic days of the Great Tribulation. These chapters go a long way in helping us to understand why God will strike earth-dwellers with such a clinched fist just before and at his Second Coming.
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Rev 12:1-5
"Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and his throne."
12:1-2
What awesome visages greeted John’s eyes in this new vision! First, a resplendent and pregnant woman in the throws of childbirth appeared. Then suddenly, a second apparition stalked upon the scene. A terrible, many-headed red dragon came and murderously positioned itself before to woman to devour her Child as soon as it is born. The repeated word sign here tells us that these are symbolic representations. Careful analysis will make their significance clear. Let's look at them individually.
"Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me. So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?"
John's woman was clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. These are the same three elements Joseph saw in his dream. Joseph saw the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowing down before him. It was clear to Joseph's family that the sun represented Jacob, the moon his wife, Rachel, and the eleven stars were Joseph’s eleven brothers. They were all greatly incensed by Joseph's dream. Later, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and his sons become the twelve tribes of Israel. The Apostle Paul, speaking about the descendants of Israel, says in Romans 9:3-5...
"For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen."
The woman sign that John saw is clearly symbolic of the nation of Israel from whom, Paul says in the quote above, Christ came.
12:3-4
"He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."
c. His "ten horns" speak of his perceived power. I say perceived because although he is very powerful indeed, his power is not as great as he thinks. As we have noted before, horns are symbolic of power in the scriptures. The Lamb, back in chapter 5, had seven horns, a symbol for total or complete power for he is the Omnipotent One. Satan's symbol having ten horns is a picture of how he views himself as even stronger than the Lamb.
d. The "dragon" flung a third of the stars of heaven down to Earth with his tail. As already noted, stars are sometimes used as symbols for angels in the Bible. I believe that to be the case here. We know from the scriptures that Lucifer was not the only angel that fell (First Peter 3:18-20). These stars are symbolic of the angels who Satan caused to fall with him. We know them today as demons. And, by the way, a third of the angels of Heaven is no small number ... for God's angels are said to be innumerable (Hebrews 12:22). ..
e. The dragon positioned itself to gobble up the "male child as soon as it was born." This is an obvious reference to Satan’s attempts to kill the infant Jesus after his birth. An account of it is found in Matthew 2:16...
"Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men."
Make no mistake about it, it was Satan, that old murderer himself, who was behind Herod in that awful incident.
May we step aside again here for a minute? Satan has been trying to stop Christ from coming into our world ever since the Garden of Eden. After the fall, the Lord said to Satan...
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Genesis 3:15
Christ is the promised Seed to whom the Lord was referring to there. Satan’s seed refers to his demons as well as all unregenerate human beings that reject God's lordship in Christ. People who don't know the Lord belong to Satan. They are his to do with as he pleases. They are, in a very literal sense, Satan's seed. As Jesus put it when speaking to the Pharisees of his day...
"You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. John 8:44a
Paul, speaking of lost people, said...
"And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive my him at his will." Second Timothy 2:26 (KJV)
Jesus said to Paul, concerning lost mankind, that he was sending him forth with the gospel...
"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Acts 26:18 (KJV)
The Hebrew word translated bruise in Genesis 3:15, actually means to crush. To Satan, God's words were unmistakable. "Someday the Seed of the woman will come who will kill you." Those words have made Satan sweat from the day God uttered them. They clearly predicted his demise under the heel of the coming Seed of the woman. One cannot rightly understand biblical or even secular history until he understands how that its events are related to Satan’s attempts to stop this prophesied Seed. Shortly after this prophecy was spoken, Satan moved Cain to kill Abel in order to stop the Seed, but God raised up Seth. In the days of the great flood, I believe it was Satan who moved all of mankind to become so wicked that God would have to destroy them all and thereby nullify the Seed of the woman, but God raised up Noah.
When Abraham arrived upon the scene, God made a covenant with him saying, "in your seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed" (Genesis 22:18). From that time on, the Seed became embodied in a people, the descendants of Abraham, the Jews. And, from that time on, Satan concentrated on exterminating them. One of his tactics was to turn them away from their God and cause them to break their covenant. He knew that would bring about their destruction by God himself (Deuteronomy 28) and the Seed would be cut off. Satan's attacks rained down on the line of the coming Seed. He moved Esau to say, "I will slay my brother Jacob" (Genesis27:41) through whom the Seed was to come, but God sent Jacob away to Laban’s house.
In the days of the kings of Israel, God further defined the Seed when he pronounced it would be from the royal line. Christ would come from the seed of David (Second Samuel 7:12). The history of the aftermath of this new information can be read in First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles. These books of the Bible are replete with accounts of Satan’s onslaughts on the royal line. Take for example, the account of wicked Queen Atheliah in Second Kings 11. When her son, king Ahaziah died, she seized the throne and immediately set about to exterminate all of the royal seed so that she alone would sit on the throne of Israel. She almost made a complete job of it, murdering, she thought, all of her grandchildren. But God had seen to it that she missed one. While Atheliah was busy murdering the royal seed, Jehoshiba whisked little baby Joash and his nurse away and brought them to Jehoiada the priest for protection in the temple. For six years, God’s whole purpose in the promised Seed rested in the life of that one little boy. Then, when Joash was seven years old, Jehoiada set him on the throne as the boy-King of Israel and had wicked, Satan backed, Atheliah put to the sword. Once again, the promised Seed was secured and preserved.
Finally, Satan not being able to stop it, the Seed of the woman arrived on Earth. As you have it in Galatians 4:4...
"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,"
Now, Satan was faced with the Seed Himself. He had come. Immediately, he moved Herod to destroy the child but the plan failed. Being warned in a dream, Joseph fled with the infant to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14). All through Christ's life on Earth, Satan plotted to kill him. Finally, by means of Satan backed Jewish and Roman leaders, the Seed was nailed to a Roman cross. Satan’s laughter must have echoed throughout the universe! At long last he had succeeded in destroying the Seed! He had killed the one who God had said would kill him and the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 was nullified! What Satan didn’t know however, was that it was in the sovereign plan of God that his Son die on a cross. He had come to lay down his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Then, after having satisfied God’s righteous demands for our sin on the cross, Christ arose from the dead.
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out." Romans 8:33
Satan now knows that in reality he lost big time at the cross. As you have it in Hebrews 2:14-15...
"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
Ha! Ha! We are free! Satan is no longer our master and death has lost its sting. Since that resurrection morning however, Satan still pursues his opposition to the Seed. Now, he concentrates on anything and anyone who has anything to do with Christ as he goes about seeking whom he may devour (First Peter 5:8b). Today, Satan is scratching and clawing for every advantage to thwart the Seed. But he is a loser and an already defeated foe! He lost in Eden and he has lost over and over again down through history in his opposition to Christ. He lost big time at the cross and he is losing today. Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Inexorably, Jesus is now ransacking Satan's kingdom, calling out of it a people for his name's sake!
We are given this history lesson here in Revelation 12, to remind us of the great struggle that has gone on and is going on right now in our world over the Seed of the woman. The struggle will greatly intensify during the days of the Great Tribulation. At that time, Satan will pull out all the stops to hold on to what is his and to oppose the Seed's coming again. He will seek to exterminate anyone and everyone who has anything to do with Christ and ultimately will make war with the Lamb Himself at his Second Coming. But, as the saying goes, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!"
12:5
"I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to me, 'you are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
Clearly, the male Child represents Christ. As John continued to watch the awesome drama unfold, the male Child was born but before the dragon could gobble him up, he was caught up unto God and to his throne. This is an obvious reference to Christ's ascension and exaltation after his resurrection. As you have it in Acts 1:9 (KJV)...
"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."
And, in Hebrews 1:3 (speaking of Jesus), we read...
" ... and when he had by himself purged us from our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High."
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Rev 12:6
"Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days (three and a half years)."
12:6
When Antichrist breaks his treaty with the Jews and seizes their temple, Jesus forewarned them to immediately flee away from Jerusalem.
"Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Matthew 24:15-16
When this event actually arrives in history, our text says that those who obey Christ's words to flee will find a place prepared by God. We read, "Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God". God will have made a place of refuge in the wilderness for his covenant people who make it out of Jerusalem on that awful day of their future. How will God protect them there? Let me assure you, he will have no problem on that score. Do you remember how Jesus escaped from the mob at Nazareth who were hell-bent on throwing him off a cliff? He simply walked through them, did he not? (Luke 4:28-30). With God, such things are a piece of cake!
Our passage goes on to say, "that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days" (three and a half years). Who do you suppose the "they" who will do the feeding refers to? Who will feed these people? And, what do you suppose those Jews will be eating for three and a half years at the place of refuge? Would it surprise you to learn that angels will feed them manna once again? That is the implication here. I believe the "they" refers to angels who will again daily feed God's people just as they fed their counterparts out there in that same wilderness in Moses' day. One day, the Jewish people will dine again on angel’s food (Psalm 78:25).
One more thing, remember when we said that the Jew of the Tribulation would be saved by direct confrontation, as was the Apostle Paul before them? Although that will be the method of their salvation during the Tribulation, no doubt they will not all be saved at the same time or at the same place. Many will be saved through the confrontation of the sixth Seal. I believe the 144,000 are in that group. However, these who flee from Satan here in Revelation 12, are yet another group. They are Judean Jews who will have been living in and around Jerusalem and worshipping at their temple. They will also have just experienced the sixth Seal but to compound that awful experience, as soon as the skies have been zipped up again, they will find an invading Antichrist on their doorstep who will seize Jerusalem and their temple. Those who are wise will immediately flee for their lives. They will have been existing with Antichrist’s blessing and under his treaty of protection for three and a half years but on that day they will experience his treachery as foreseen in Daniel 7. Then, those who flee as Jesus instructed them to do, will finally arrive at the place of refuge. But upon their arrival, boy are they in for a great shock. The Lord Jesus Christ himself, their God and their Messiah, will be awaiting them there! And then and there ... at the place of refuge they will be saved by direct confrontation. As you have it in Ezekiel 20:35-38...
"And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead my case with you face to face. Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead my case with you," says the Lord GOD. I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall at that encounter? ("Fly on the wall" ... and old foggy expression meaning to see and hear everything that is happening while going unnoticed.)
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Rev 12:7 -12
"And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time."
Click here to see the "Satan cast out of Heaven" picture
12:7-9
As I have said previously, I am persuaded that the events of Revelation are given to us in the exact chronological order in which they will occur in history. This passage adds further weight to that hypothesis. Right here in the middle of the story of the fleeing Judean Jews down on Earth ... it's as if the phone rings and we readers have suddenly been summoned back up to Heaven! Why? Because, at that exact same point in time something extremely significant will be happening up there as well. A parallel crisis will have begun. As God’s people, the Jews, are being chased out of Jerusalem by Antichrist below, God Almighty is going to make his own move on Satan to cast him out of Heaven!. He will unexpectedly issue the command for Satan to be removed from Heaven ... permanently! Again, may I say to you, my how God loves his covenant people. Because of their awful plight at Antichrist's hands on Earth below, God will retaliate tit for tat with Satan the the realm above.
Now, it is important to understand that Satan and his demons presently have access to Heaven. We read here in our passage that up there they constantly accuse the brethren before our God day and night. Right now in Heaven, Satan and his demons are at work tattling on the people of God and laying out endless accusations against them. Did you know that your name is being brought up before God in Heaven by demons? Our sins, our defeats, our weaknesses and failures, and who knows what else is constantly being rehashed before God by Satan's bunch. Don’t think he doesn’t watch you, dear saint. But thanks be to God, we have an Advocate, Jesus the Righteous One, standing up for us up there! As you have it in First John 2:1...
"My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
And, again in Hebrews 7:25-26...
"Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;"
Satan has access to Heaven today, just as he has had all throughout history. Job’s story is proof of that fact. We learn here from Rev.12:9-10 however, that there is a day coming when our God will no longer tolerate his presence and his scurrilous accusations. There will come a day when he and his are going to be tossed bodily out of Heaven! When the Judean Jews are fleeing Satan’s man on Earth, Satan will suddenly find himself in hand to hand combat with God’s archangel, Michael, in Heaven. Our text says this will precipitate war in Heaven. Can you imagine such a thing? I picture it unfolding something like this. God, having observed his people fleeing from Antichrist down on Earth, suddenly says to Michael, "Put Satan out." Satan says, "What!" God says, "Michael, throw him out, and all of his demons with him". Satan says, "Michael???? ... you must be kidding! Why, I'm so much greater than Michael that he didn’t even dare make an accusation against me when we disputed over Moses’ body, remember that?!! (Jude 9). He will never see the day he can take me! I was above him from the beginning. I’m Lucifer, Son of the Morning!". What a scene that will be, and we're going to be there to see it, by the way! It says here that war broke out in Heaven. Fighting raged for every inch of ground, but Michael, who is like God, will live up to his name on that day. He will prove to be more of a match than Satan has bargained for. The war continued, our text says, until no place was found for them in Heaven any longer. "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him". Satan has always thought of himself as greater than all the angelic beings and even equal to God himself. It is going to be quite a shock when he discovers that he's not even Michael's equal when, at that great Archangel's hand, he is unceremoniously tossed out of Heaven. Isaiah called it right when he prophesied...
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit." Isaiah 14:12-15
12:10-12
Immediately upon Satan’s expulsion, John heard a loud voice saying, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ has come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down". This cleansing of Heaven is another giant step in the establishment of Christ’s righteous kingdom and another proof that, because of the sounding of the seventh Trumpet, Christ's train has truly left the station and is on an unstoppable course.
After Satan was removed from Heaven, a great celebration commenced. The voice continued, and they overcame him by::
"That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
"... that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Romans 8:33-34
Then John heard a loud voice say, "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the Devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time". You can bet that after this event has taken place, Satan will be livid. Therefore, John’s attention is drawn back now to Earth where the Judean Jews are still fleeing for their lives. Down there, Satan, filled with wrath from being tossed out of Heaven, has just arrived. That will not bode well for those fleeing Jews, would you say?
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Rev 12:13 -17
"Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, (Hebrew idiom for three and a half years) from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus [NU omits "Christ"].
Click here to see "The Winged Woman 'Israel'" picture
12:13-14
When Satan arrives on Earth, still licking his wounds from being expelled from Heaven, our text says he will come down with great anger and will turn his wrath toward Israel. We read, "when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child." Satan will throw his full weight behind Antichrist's forces as they pursue the Judean Jews who will be fleeing for their lives. But, we read, "the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time..." Exactly what is meant here by the wings of a great eagle is not clear. However, Isaiah 40:31 comes to mind, does it not?
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
Although this passage from Isaiah is speaking figuratively, it has, in fact, been fulfilled literally on several occasions. For example, when Elijah tirelessly out-ran Ahab's galloping chariot all the way from Mount Carmel to Jezreel, a distance of around 30 miles (First Kings18:46), and in the life of Sampson (Judges 14-16) and others. Apparently, there will be a similar literal fulfillment of Isaiah 40:31 when God helps Israel flee from Antichrist in that future day. Perhaps they will be given the supernatural strength to run as Elijah ran! In any case they will receive two wings of a great eagle, the great eagle, I believe, being an illusion to their great God. Truly, as you have it in Romans 8:31b...
"If God be for us, who can be against?"
12:15-16
In a way, I envy the fleeing Jews of that future day. They are in for an unbelievable experience at the great, omnipotent delivering hand of their God. It will come about in the same manner that Moses and the ancient Israelites who fled before Pharaoh experienced. Just as it was with those ancient counterparts, once again there will be a pursuing enemy behind and a seemingly insurmountable water obstacle before which will appear to seal their doom. As the Red Sea blocked ancient Israel’s way to safety from Pharaoh during the exodus, a supernatural flood from Satan will confront the fleeing Judean Jews of the Great Tribulation. Daniel 9:26 also alludes to this.
"And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince who is to come (Antichrist) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it (the entire event) shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war (against believing Jews) desolations are determined."
But ... God will once again intervene on behalf of his people. His people will have to cross the Jordan river to reach the place of safety in the wilderness beyond. Satan knowing this, will supernaturally cause a tremendous flood to stop them and hold them so that Antichrist's armies can destroy them on the banks of the river. Most likely, he will cause a torrential rain in the terrain above where they will be attempting to cross. I would suspect that it will be like no other flood that the Jordan basin has ever experienced. We can only imagine how terrifying that will be to the Jews who will be fleeing for their lives from Antichrist's soldiers. But God, (I love that phrase, don't you?) ... but God ... the same God who divided the Red Sea of old and delivered his people from Pharaoh will intervene once again. Our text says, "But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood". An earthquake ... the earth cracks open ... and Satan’s flood goes cascading into the bowels of the Earth in a great cataract while God's people, once again, cross over on dry ground! Wouldn’t you love to be there to see that!? The great promise of Isaiah 43:1-3a will be literally fulfilled on that day.
"But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; "
Also, the prophesy of Psalm 124 will be fulfilled on that day...
"If it had not been the LORD who was
on our side, Let Israel now say; 'If it had not been the LORD who was on our
side, when men rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against
us; then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone
over our soul; Then the swollen waters would have gone over our
soul. Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; The snare is
broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth."
Isn't the Bible amazing!
12:17
Once again, Satan will be forced to turn away in defeat. But, as he goes, he will be vowing bloody war on the rest of the people of God. Our text says he goes to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. After these defeats, Satan will turn away in rage and go after the remainder of the Jews who know Christ which includes the 144,000. This, I believe, will begin the days of the systematic slaughter of the people of God on Earth. Thus the chapter ends.
We have been given a great deal of important information here. Our Lord has given us a panoramic view of his purpose for the Jew from the time when he came into the world through them, all the way down to their flight out of Jerusalem during the opening days of the Great Tribulation. We have read about two key players in the coming Great Tribulation, Satan and the Jews. We have learned about two key events, the fleeing of the Jews from Antichrist on Earth and the expulsion of Satan from Heaven. These characters and events, rightly understood, add greatly to our understanding of the Great Tribulation. This chapter also gives further weight to the fact that the Tribulation is primarily about God's program for his covenant people, the Jews.
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