Rev. Ch 12: Woman and the dragon
Rev.12:1-2: A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Woman is another important symbol in Revelation. In short, the virtuous woman represents God’s people. Even so Bible explains that woman represents a city,
(Rev.17:18: The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."),
it points only to the central location of their worship. During the time of Israel the center of their worship was in Jerusalem. For that reason Bible states:
Jer.6:1-2: "Flee for safety, ... Flee from Jerusalem! ... I will destroy the Daughter of Zion, so beautiful and delicate.
On the new earth the central place where people will worship God, will be the new Jerusalem. That is why new Jerusalem is compared to a bride.
Rev.21:2: I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
But the true bride are all God’s people who stayed faithful and true to God and Jesus Christ till the end.
Rev.19:7-8: Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
In Rev.12:1 this symbolic woman is composed from God’s people of both time periods - time period of the Israelites and the time period of the Gentiles. The moon under her feet stands for Israel’s observance of various ceremonies and festivals, because many of them were dependent on monthly moon cycles. Twelve stars on her head are compared to twelve tribes of Israel and or twelve apostles of Jesus. She is clothed with Christ’s righteousness, therefore she is portrayed as clothed with the sun.
Mal 4:2: But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.
During the time period of the Gentiles and also in present day, all people professing belief in Jesus Christ, call themselves Christians. They form various churches where they regularly meet and worship. In these days people do not go to Jerusalem or to any other city to worship God, instead they go to church. As in the Old Testament the woman symbolized city (Jerusalem), because all God’s people gathered there to worship God in His temple, so in the present day a woman symbolizes church because Christian believers gather there to worship God as well. For this reason in the time of the Gentiles and also in these last days woman is symbolic representation of church.
Woman symbolically portrays church
Virtuous woman is a church (believers) who stayed faithful and true to God and Jesus Christ.
Prostituted woman or as the Bible calls her a harlot is then a church (believers) who turned away from God.
Mat 15:8-9: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"
In the churches which turned away from God, most believers do not even realize, that they prefer to brake rather God’s commands then to turn away from following their own traditions and church rules. For this reason Bible calls them Idol worshipers. This great prostitute or harlot is portrayed closely in Revelation chapter 17. We will be investigating her in another study.
Here we are concentrating our attention on the virtuous woman (church). Jesus Christ is the cornerstone and the foundation of all church doctrines and beliefs. In a reversed metaphor Rev.12:2 portrays pregnant woman ready to give birth to Jesus, while in reality it was Jesus who made possible the birth of the church.
Rev.12:3-4: Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
Explanation of the dragon is given in verse 9:
Rev.12:9: The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The third of the stars are then the third of angels who sided with the devil in opposing God. Through Herod the king, Satan was prepared to destroy Jesus as soon as He was born.
Rev.12:5-6: She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Sometime after Jesus is taken to heaven, the woman (God’s true people) have to flee and hide in less populated places for 1260 symbolic days (1260 years) from oppression and persecution. Some claim that these 1260 years are understood to be the time period of “Dark Ages,” starting in 538 A.D. when church of Rome begun to exercise it’s power over Europe, all way to 1798 A.D., when the power of Papacy was finally broken. Others claim that it portrays Islamic influence over the last millennium.
Rev.12:7-9: And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
I do not know when exactly started the war in heaven, or how long it lasted. However, we do know that at the latest it ended in 1844 A.D., when Satan is finally hurled down and barred even from heavenly sanctuary, where He was previously constantly accusing God’s people.
Satan’s falling down to earth in stages was explained in “Revelation A to Z” Part L. Here only briefly: First time it was in the Garden of Eden. Second time, after Jesus’ victory on the cross and raising from death. The final hurling the dragon down to earth happened in 1844 A.D., when the first woe or the fifth trumpet started. It happened right after 2300 mornings and evenings expired . The 2300 years are counted from the date we are given to start measuring the time - 457 B.C. (See Part C - measuring the temple).
Rev.12:10-12: Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."
The Bible warns us that when the devil is hurled down the woe is coming on the earth and the sea as well. We have learned the same thing when we have studied the seven Trumpets. In the fifth trumpet when Satan has fallen to the earth, the first woe started. We know now that it started in 1844 and lasted five symbolic months (150 years) all way till 1994 A.D.
Notice also that when devil is hurled down, he becomes furious because he knows how short time he has left.
According to today’s attitude of not only some, but many Christian teachers (towards understanding God’s appointed plans, times and purposes) it would seem, that while God is in details informing his arch enemy about every intention, step and time, what He will make and when it will transpire, He is purposely leaving His people in ignorance of them!
The reason why it seems to us that Satan knows about God’s plans and appointed times so much more than we, does not indicate, that God would inform him better than us. Rather the opposite is true. He doesn’t inform Satan about anything. However, God is informing us about all his important activities. God announced them all, ahead of time, to His servants the prophets. They in turn wrote them down, and today they are available to us in the Bible, in the form of various coded and encrypted visions and prophecies.
The only problem is, that Satan is studying these encrypted visions and prophecies (which were in fact intended only for us) far more intensively than we do. That is why, he understands them better. He knows God’s appointed times and plans (of which, many believers are convinced that they are God’s secrets), and is prepared and able to plan intricate countermeasures. We are then supposed to be caught in his net (of complex deceptions and half truths), only because, we have not given enough attention and time to the study of God’s word - the Bible.
God will not protect us from the coming deceptions any other way, except that He would show us all important events that will be transpiring on this earth and in this time of the end. We have them all described in the Bible, and it is only up to us, if we will give them enough of our time and attention, as they would rightly deserve, or not.
Rev.12:13-16: When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
Some claim that in verse 13 to 16 John is returning to devil’s persecution of God’s church. They claim that those same 1260 years of persecution are expressed this time as time, times and half a time. In the later stages of his persecution of God’s people the devil is trying to destroy them by warring against them. Flood waters like a river symbolically signify war. (See Isa.8:6-7; Dan.11:10). Papacy was warring against Protestants. But the earth helped the woman. First it was England, and shortly after a new part of the world - the American continent has open its doors (the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth) and accepted all protestant believers escaping the persecution.
While all this may be true and apply to the symbolic three and half years- which correspond to 1260 actual years, it seems to me that these three and half years of devil’s persecution of the true church are also still before us. The time, times and the half a time must be viewed as actual three and half years as well. I believe they are the same three and half years mentioned in Rev.13:5:
Rev 13:5: The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.
Rev.12:17: Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring--those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Devil’s repeated failures to destroy the woman (God’s people) makes him very angry. During the first woe (150 years), he was preparing the world through the development of science and technology to war eventually against God and the remnant of His people. He went off to get ready to make war against the leftover of God’s people - those who obey God’s commandments and those who hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Notice the two distinctive features of God’s people. These two characteristics in the time of the end will separate them from all those who will be also professing to be Christians, but Bible refuses to acknowledge them as God’s people.
1) God’s people will be only those who will be obeying God’s commandments.
In “Part P” of “Revelation A to Z,” there were some who rose up against upholding God’s law. These deluded believers do not know God and are ignorant of the most fundamental principles and values governing God’s universe.
As Israel received temporal laws, which were applicable only until Jesus, then they became obsolete, so Israel received also eternal law, which expresses God’s character, principles and His values. That is how His universe is governed. God’s ten commandments are eternal expression of His government and anyone who will reside on the new earth with God and Jesus Christ will be in harmony with all of God’s principles and values. If not, then rebellion on the new earth would start all over again.
Since our God is God loving freedom, those not willing to bring themselves freely into harmony with these eternal principals and values, God will not force. They simply won’t be there. For this reason, in the time of the end, those who will be in harmony with God’s commandments will be called God’s people. The rest will be deluded with lies and will become God’s enemies.
2) God’s people will be only those who will hold to the testimony of Jesus.
What is the testimony of Jesus?
Rev.1:1-2: The revelation of Jesus Christ,... He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw--that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rev.19:10 For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
And the prophecy which Jesus gave us is this book of Revelation:
Rev.22:16 "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.
The book of Revelation is the testimony of Jesus.
Why it will be so vital to hold to the true understanding of Revelation?
Revelation exposes many deceptions of Satan. That is why he is doing his utmost to discourage people from studying it. His crowning counterfeit will be pretending to be Christ. Without understanding Revelation, nobody would recognize him as a fake. And precisely this will be the case with great many churchgoers. Because many will ignore understanding Revelation, they will accept lie as the truth. This will be the overwhelming deception mention in 2. Tesl.
2 Th 2:9-12: The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Revelation chapter 12 traces Satan’s efforts to liquidate the woman (God’s church or God’s people) right from Jesus’ time throughout the ages all way to present day. The next chapter in Revelation (chapter 13) pictures devil’s final effort to eradicate them from the earth. To accomplish it, he will be using all worldly resources and if possible all people. He will be using even those believing people who call themselves Christians but who have knowingly or unknowingly turned down God’s truth.
Revelation A to Z - Part U
Your friend in Jesus
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