Chapter 17: Revelation 12
Revelation 12 is massive. In this one chapter, we have the whole scenario panned out before our eyes. We see the inception of the Christ through Israel, the catching up of that Messiah to the right hand of God, the end time persecution of Israel, Israel’s flight into the wilderness, the refuge that God provides for Israel, the reaction of Satan to that refuge, and finally the cosmic redemption that comes through the Church out of Zion. This has become one of the most important chapters in all of Scripture for me.
“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.” This sounds reminiscent of Joseph’s dream in Genesis 39. The sun was his father Israel, the moon his mother Rachel, and there were eleven stars bowing down to Joseph. Here, John sees instead twelve stars, and they all consist in the description of the woman. It is an obvious reference to Israel and the twelve tribes. This is also made obvious when she gives birth to the Messiah. We know it is the Messiah because this child is caught up to God.
“She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 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 he child the moment it was born.” Where have we seen this dragon before? Does it not sound reminiscent of the fourth beast in Daniel 7? And, in Daniel 8:10, the Antichrist casts down some of the starry hosts and tramples upon them. These stars are not demonic powers that were manipulated into following Satan in rebellion. Instead, these are the saints of God. As it is written in Daniel 12:3, “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens,” and again in Philippians 2:15, “You shine bright like stars in the universe.” Why would Satan trample upon his minions?
“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.” Here we have a reference to Psalm 2:9, that Jesus is installed upon the holy hill of Zion as king to dash the nations to pieces with an iron scepter. Also, we find a similar phrase used in reference to the ruler that is supposed to come out of Judah: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience is his”.{cdlxxxi}
“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.” The King James is the only modern version that actually renders the Greek correctly in this verse. That last part should read, “and they will take care of her…” The translators read that word “they”, and it doesn’t make sense, unless, of course, you understand the mystery being expressed here. It is our primary call as the Church of Christ to take in Israel during her time of need and to witness to her through it. We read earlier in Ezekiel 20:33-35 where it says that God will gather Israel into the wilderness where He will then meet with them face to face. How does God meet with them face to face? It sounds like a reiteration of Sinai. In fact, it is. Just as Jesus had a symbolic pattern in His life to reiterate the exodus and coming into the Promised Land, the final flight of Israel through the wilderness is a perfect reflection of a second exodus.
In the life of Jacob, after he had wrestled with God, Jacob calls the place Peniel, which means “face of God.” The statement is made, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared”.{cdlxxxii} The interesting thing about this is that the Hebrews had an incredible sense that you cannot see God face-to-face and live. This was spoken to Moses after Jacob. How does Jacob have this sense? Whatever it might have been that would cause Jacob to believe that you cannot see the face of God and live, the reality is that this same belief runs deep. It is still embraced today.
Both Jewish and Christian theologians hold to the notion that you cannot see God face-to-face and live. Yet, I believe that just as Jacob wrestled with God and was renamed Israel, so too shall the Jacob people that call themselves “Israel” wrestle God in the wilderness. They too must struggle with God. It is after that struggle that they will look back and proclaim the same words as their father Jacob, “I have seen God face to face and yet my life was spared…” It is in the wilderness, both for the patriarch Jacob and also for Israel corporately, that they see God face to face. He came down upon Sinai to interact with them personally, but they cried out in fear for Moses to speak to Him. They will not have that option during this final struggle.
“Very well, then. With foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people.”{cdlxxxiii} Of those that escape the city Jerusalem and flee Judea, the promise is given, “Those who survive the sword shall find favor in the desert.”{cdlxxxiv} “Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return.”{cdlxxxv}
Jesus asked the question, “Who is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?” Because this is found in Matthew 24:45, and the larger context of Matthew 24 and 25 are about the end times, I must assume that this question is pertaining to Israel. Who is this servant that will provide food to Israel at the proper time? Isn’t that an interesting question? Certainly the disciples wouldn’t have understood what Jesus was saying at that moment. The question went beyond them to our day where a church is filled with mostly Gentiles instead of Jews. This Gentile Church, which is the foreign lips Isaiah prophesied of, will be the instrument of God. We humble ourselves to serving them.
This is our charge as the elder brother Japheth: enter the tent of Shem. That is symbolic language of our salvation (being grafted into their root), but also has a literal significance when we take seriously the end times. We are to enter our brother’s tent to be servant to him. Even of Esau the charge was given that the elder shall serve the younger. This is the plan and intention of God. But if that elder brother wants to stand outside and bitch and moan about how he has never even gotten a goat, then by what means can we honestly call ourselves children of God? It is the child of God that takes up the things of God.
God has chosen the wilderness as His place of refuge for His people. Throughout all of the Scripture, the wilderness is a place of safety. Notice that David finds solace from Saul there. John the Baptist lives in the wilderness, eating locusts and honey. Moses was on the backside of the desert for 40 years before the burning bush experience. Elijah flees from Jezebel 40 days into the wilderness to arrive at Mount Horeb (also known as Sinai). Jesus is baptized and immediately is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
There is a lot of rich symbolism in the wilderness. It is a place of testing, a place of refuge, a place of destruction, and a place of building. God works some of His greatest miracles in the lives of those that flee into the wilderness. For Israel to be called out into the wilderness places is a call out of the system that Egypt represents, and out of Babylon – that Satanic kingdom that rules the world – to again find her God. The wilderness is a frightening place, but it is the place where God restores order. It is from that restoration of order that Israel will be brought to a place where they are able to accept their Messiah when He finally returns.
They are broken down; slowly their pride ebbed away, until that final moment when the revelation of Christ coming in the clouds should be displayed throughout the earth. That chiseling comes in two forms. The wilderness itself is a place that will cause for the people Israel to be chiseled, but the second form is through Gentile believers that shine like the angels. When they behold in our faces, even our Black, Hispanic, Asian, Anglo-Saxon, and/or Indian faces, the glory of God, they will be moved to jealousy. We are currently moving to a showdown between religions. The Jewish people have held to a view of God that is inadequate. They will find themselves being provided for by the very people that they least expected it from.
That will not be comfortable for anyone. I think I need to give a bit of warning. This isn’t easy. This isn’t something that we can join hands together in and sing “Kumbaya.” They will be frightened, uncomfortable, cast out of their lives of luxury and into devastation, and all these factors will be enough to cause them to be rude, crude, and probably even malicious. It will take us to task to be able to show them mercy, because they are the enemies of the Gospel for our sakes.{cdlxxxvi} Not only are they the enemies of the Gospel, but we will be enduring them at their worst. This isn’t something that we can partake in because we have prayed a little bit and we have an affection for the Jewish people. It requires ultimate submission and ultimate love.
We continue in Revelations 12, “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.” When does this war take place? There is one other place in Scripture that speaks of Michael the angel. The only other book in the Bible that says anything about Michael is the book of Daniel. One time in chapter 10, Michael comes to help Gabriel. Then, in chapter 12, Gabriel tells Daniel, “At that time Michael, the great prince of your people, will arise.”{cdlxxxvii}
What time does Michael arise? It is halfway through the Tribulation, for the verse continues, “There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.” Michael stands up halfway through the Tribulation, and then there comes unequalled distress. How do we know that this is the same event? Revelations 12 continues, “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 the brethren, who accuses them before God day and night, has been hurled down.’” The devil is cast down during the middle of the week, and we know that because it says now has come salvation and power and the kingdom of our God. It is once Satan has been cast to the earth that the end is here.
Now, in Luke 10:18 there is a statement out of the mouth of Jesus about Satan being cast down like lightning. Jesus said that He saw, past tense, Satan being cast down. If Jesus saw it, does that mean that we put Revelation 12:7-9 in the past with Jesus? Not necessarily. It is possible that Satan has been cast out of the place where God dwells, but still occupies some intermediary place where he is allowed to accuse the brothers. It says in Job 1 that Satan approached God to accuse Job. So, if we were to say that Luke 10:18 implies a past casting down at the fall, how do we fit Job into the picture? The whole point of Revelation 12:7-9 is that the devil can no longer accuse the brethren.
The progression of Revelations shows us that now that Satan has been cast down to the earth, in Revelation 13 we see him standing on the shore of the sea. Then, the Antichrist comes out of the sea and is established – given the throne of Satan to rule over all the nations. The direct result of Satan being cast down is the establishment of the Antichrist, and then in Revelation 12:13, the woman is pursued. Revelation 12:13-17 is an expansion of verse 6. So, at the time that Satan is cast down, we find the persecution of Israel, and we find the establishment of the Antichrist. This is halfway through the Tribulation.
“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.” Who are these that overcame him? Well, one answer would be that it is Michael and his angels. I’ve always heard it spoken that this is speaking of the saints, though. We are not of this world. Though we are technically in it, we are not ruled and governed by it. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:13, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the Son of Man, who is in heaven.”
Jesus makes the claim that He not only has been in heaven, but that while He was on the earth speaking to Nicodemus, He was also in heaven. This man claims to be in two places at once. But that is just it. Heaven is not a place outside of this universe. It is here and now, all around us. We don’t need to leave this universe in order to go to heaven, but instead be brought into that heavenly dimension through the blood of Christ Jesus. The saints are currently in heaven.{cdlxxxviii} Therefore, rejoice you heavens and you who dwell in them! You who overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony – do not fear. You have already overcome. Even if he is given the power and authority to kill the saints, what is that to you? He kills you, and then you get to go and be with Christ. Oh, the horror…
When the devil is cast down to the earth, it is at this time that we find the Antichrist to be established in Revelation 13. There is a ruler that has been acting in a certain manner up to this point, during the first three and a half years, but it is technically in the middle of the three and a half years when he establishes the abomination of desolation that he is given the title of the Antichrist in Scripture.{cdlxxxix} It is at this time that he sets up the demonic dragon statue mentioned in Revelation 13:14 and takes his seat in God’s temple as mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
“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.” This goes back to Revelation 12:6. When does Revelation 12:6 take place? It is after the dragon is cast down. Revelation 12 has two parts. There is a short summary, and then it goes into the details leading up to and covering verse 6. These aren’t two separate flights, but the same one being described. Notice the repetition of the “time, times, and half a time” that we saw in the book of Daniel.
“Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a food, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing up the flood that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 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.”
Where have we heard this flood language before? In Daniel 9:26, we’re told that the end will “come like a flood.” We also considered the parable in Matthew 7:24-27 about the wise and foolish builders. The rains came and the floods rose and beat against both houses. To those that build their house upon the sand, the flood carried it away. But those who built their houses upon the rock, their homes remained. We can liken this also to the parable in Matthew 24:36-41. Jesus says that the last days will be like the days of Noah. The wicked continued to eat and drink, marry and be given in marriage, and continue their lives as if nothing was coming. The flood came and took away all of the wicked. Likewise, two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other will be left. Notice that the one being taken is actually a bad thing. It is the one who remains that is considered blessed. This passage is not about rapture; if we took it as that, we’d have to say the rapture is being taken out of the world to be thrown directly into the lake of fire.
There are a people on the earth who swallow the water. Why do I say a people? The text states that the earth swallows the flood. The result of the earth swallowing the flood is that the dragon then makes war with the saints. Obviously, this is in reaction to the Church taking Israel in and providing for her. Because the dragon is not able to destroy Israel, he seeks to destroy the rest of her offspring: those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Why is this the reaction? It is because we took upon ourselves the full force of the persecution that was supposed to overtake and destroy Israel. We will take upon ourselves the vehemence that was intended for them.