The Conflict
(Revelation 12) The
last chapter concluded with the downfall and utter
destruction of the oppressors of the Christians.
From the conflict we learned that God is
longsuffering and willing to allow His children to
undergo horrific persecution in order to give all
mankind the opportunity to come to repentance. We
have also seen that God will not infringe upon man's
free will choice to choose his own destiny.
Horrible things happened to the Roman Empire as a
result of their evil lifestyles, but when it is all
said and done and they stand in judgment, none of
them will be able to claim they never had the chance
to repent. They killed the Christians and the
Christians did what they could to save them from
their fate. What an incredible irony it is to
contemplate this. The enemies of the Christians
were bent upon their destruction, using all manner
of earthly means to inflict pain and suffering upon
them. Whatever atrocities their minds could
conceive of was implemented against the Christians
in full measure. And what did the Christians have
to fight back with? Their weapons were taken from
the word of God, their only armor was the sword of
the Spirit, love, compassion and concern for the
wellbeing of all mankind. The world was determined
to kill them and their mission was to save their
enemies from the eternal consequences of their
actions. Imagine if you will, a war today with an
army of soldiers armed with only the weapons of
righteousness against an army of seasoned worldly
soldiers with all manner of engines of warfare. The
worldly soldiers could mow the other army down by
the multitudes with the soldiers being slaughtered
trying to save the souls of those who were killing
them. The entire concept boggles the mind, however,
not only did the Christians prevail in a real world
example of this, they triumphed over their enemies
in the end.
Chapter 12 of Revelation
starts back with the coming of righteousness which
we earlier saw in the beginning of chapter six with
the introduction of the white horse. The entire
vision which illustrated the coming of Jesus, then
the coming of Satan and his allies all the way up
through the persecution and ending with the total
destruction of the enemies of righteousness and the
ultimate victory of the saints over them is about to
be replayed in its entirety. The difference in this
episode is that we are going to be given a lot more
information that was left out of the earlier
account. the beast that was only mentioned in
passing in Revelation 11:7 will be described in
detail. We will meet his ally and they both will be
positively identified in the replay of the vision.
The enemies of the Christians will also be
positively identified and we will learn a great deal
more about them than was previously mentioned. The
horrors of the persecutions as well as the
attributes of the enemies of righteousness are more
graphic in their descriptions.
One cannot help but wonder
why God would choose to reveal the events
represented in the Revelation in two parts. There
are a number of possible explanations for this.
First, God always revealed His will with figurative
language during times of distress upon His
children. When the Israelites were in captivity,
the prophets wrote using symbolic language. The
reason for this is clear in that the message was
intended only for whom it was given and was written
in a language style only they would be able to
understand. The style of writing in Revelation is
no different than what was used by God in the past
during oppressive times for His children. It should
come as no surprise to anybody and it makes perfect
sense. God had no intention of educating the
enemies of His people as to His purpose and their
fate if they refused to seek His righteousness.
God says He is a rewarder of them who diligently
seek Him. This implies that diligent seeking is
required in order to receive the rewards. It can be
reasonably be stated that nobody on earth who knows
nothing of the one true and living God is going to
pick up a copy of Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel or the
Revelation and read through it casually and
understand it. Long before any worldly enemy of the
Christians ever made it to the second half of the
book, they would be utterly lost in a quagmire of
figurative language for which they would be utterly
helpless to figure out. The work would be dismissed
as senseless letter belonging to a group of
superstitious zealots. There would be no perception
of danger to the enemies of the Christians who would
inevitably come into possession of it at some time.
The entire Revelation is revealed in stages that
build on each other. The evil earthly characters in
the Revelation are not positively identified until
later on for a good reason. The enemies of God's
people are going to have to read a significant way
through the letter in order to get these important
clues that identify them as the ones who are going
to be the ultimate losers in the conflict.
Another possible reason is
so that the Christians who first read the Revelation
will see early on that they are going to be
victorious if they overcome and remain faithful. It
is good to see quickly that one is going to win the
conflict so that the following details are a little
easier to absorb. God plants the seed of hope early
in the minds of the first readers before they get to
see all the forthcoming details. Revelation is a
message of hope and perseverance to the people of
God, but it also contains evidence of the suffering
they will undergo as the events unfold before them.
A third possible
explanation is to demonstrate to the readership that
the events described in the book are not played out
in chronological order in a step by step progression
over the Roman Empire. We learned in the first
half of the book that God used natural disasters in
order to administer His divine retribution on the
the enemies of righteousness. Specifically,
earthquakes and burning mountains were mentioned and
history records such things either before the
Revelation was written or at least contemporary with
the writing. For example, Mount Vesuvius erupted
completely obliterating the cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum in AD 79. Likewise in 17 AD a massive
earthquake destroyed Sardis and ten other cities
several years before the crucifixion of Christ. The
events described in Revelation were already being
carried out to some degree so we know the events
therein cannot be consecutive, rather they occurred
concurrently and diversely having been spread out
across the empire over a period of many years. The
eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of
the cities in Asia Minor were only two of many major
natural calamities which struck the Empire and on a
scale of magnitude only a fraction as devastating in
terms of loss of life as those yet to come.
And the fourth reason for
the two stage revealing of the Revelation is that
the first series of visions serves as an
introduction to the second. When the reader
realizes the second series of visions are a
re-enactment of the first, it serves to help keep
the focus on what it really is and avoid going off
in wild tangents thinking it is some kind of
description of events associated with the end of the
world. Scripture is plain in other writings that
the end of the world is going to come like a thief
in the night during a time when people think there
is peace and safety for all (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3,
2 Peter 3:10, Matthew 24:44). Those who contrive
the Millennialists doctrine from the pages of the
Revelation believe in periods of tribulation either
before or after the return of Jesus. And they have
Jesus reigning on earth from Jerusalem for a
thousand years which can not happen according to the
Bible. God swore that no seed of Jeconiah would
rule from David's throne in Judah ever again
(Jeremiah 22:30). Jesus Christ was a direct
descendant of Jeconiah from both Mary's side and
Joseph's. God didn't leave any doubt there at all.
So the entire rapture and millennial reign of Christ
on earth is a contrived doctrine most of which comes
from the last half of Revelation and does not find
support in the rest of what the Bible has to say
about the end of the earth. With the first series
of visions used as an introduction and compliment to
the second series, it becomes quite clear what the
second series is all about. It was written to the
same group of people and carries the same message of
hope and perseverance, it has the same list of
characters both good and evil, the conflict
described therein is the same and the outcome is the
same. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will
give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).
The contents of the little book which John was told
to take and eat is being developed now and is the
subject of the following series of visions.
Revelation 12:1
"And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman
arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars"
The two sides in conflict in Revelation are good and
evil. The characters are God and His children in
the corner of righteousness and Satan and his
followers in the corner of evil. The rules are
simple. The evil characters will use whatever
earthly means are at their disposal to destroy God's
children and God's children will use only the
spiritual weapons described in the word of God.
Those on the side of evil are going to perish
forever and while they are trying to destroy those
on the side of good, the children of God are trying
to save them from their eternal fate.
"A woman arrayed with
the sun".
The sun is our primary source of light and God is
our spiritual source of light. The woman
illustrates the relationship between God and His
faithful children. In this case, the remnant of the
faithful from the nation of Israel is in view,
described as a woman is representative as the bride
of God in much the same fashion as the church today
is the bride of Christ (Romans 7:4).
"and the moon under her
feet"
The moon is representative of lesser figures of
authority so it being under the feet of the woman
places the leaders of the world in subjection to the
faithful Israelites.
"and upon
her head a crown of twelve stars"
Stars are representative of individuals so the crown
of twelve stars will represent the twelve sons of
Jacob who then became the patriarchs of the
Israelite nation. The overall picture here of the
radiant woman is the remnant of the faithful
children of Israel, with God as her head and with
the world at her feet.
Revelation 12:2
"and she was with child; and she crieth out,
travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered."
The child about to be delivered is none other than
Jesus Christ, the promised messiah. The children of
Israel who remained faithful to God were certainly
in misery and were crying out for the coming of
Christ. The stage is now set. The time period for
the starting point of this vision is before the
birth of Christ on earth. We have now been
introduced to the righteous characters in this
conflict. We have God represented as the sun, the
faithful children of Israel and the Son of God about
to be delivered on the scene. Now it is time to
meet the evil force.
Revelation 12:3
"And there was seen another sign in heaven: and
behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and
ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems."
And now we meet Satan who is represented by a
dragon. The figure of the dragon always represents
Satan in the Revelation and is positively identified
in the ninth verse of this chapter. The
characteristics used here to describe him are
"great" which is representative of his power and
"red" which represents his murderous, bloody
character. He is pictured with seven heads which is
a figure for perfect. In this instance it means the
perfect embodiment of an evil mastermind dedicated
to deceit and treachery. He is pictured with ten
horns which means he has complete power within his
realm of operation. Obviously Satan does not have
complete unrestricted power or our lives would be
unbearable on earth. Consider what happened to Job
when God allowed Satan a little more freedom to
afflict than was normally issued. Imagine if you
can what our lives would be like if the same entity
were granted unrestricted access to us on earth.
Upon Satan's head were pictured seven
diadems. This is not the same as the crowns
worn by the righteous which is the "stephanos"
crown of the victor. Satan never wins any permanent
victories and he is going to be utterly defeated in
the end so he only wears a diadem and is never
pictured wearing the victory crown.
Revelation 12:4
"And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of
heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the
dragon standeth before the woman that is about to be
delivered, that when she is delivered he may devour
her child."
The dragon's tail drawing a third part of the stars
of heaven points to Satan's rebellion against God
when he led many angels with him and they were cast
down and bound in the hadean realm in chains of
darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, (2 Peter
2:4, Jude 6). It is possible that the rebellious
angels explains the presence of the evil spirits on
earth during the time of Christ on earth. We know
from scripture that the time of evil spirits on
earth was temporary because in Zechariah 13:1-2 it
was prophesied that the evil spirits would be caused
to pass from the land during the period of time when
Christ walked the earth. Statements made by the
evil spirits to Jesus during their confrontations
seem to support the idea of their presence on earth
being a temporary arrangement (Matthew 8:29).
The third part of the stars
of heaven is a similar figure to the first four
trumpet announcements when a third part of each
realm was affected. The figure represents more a
significant percentage rather than a literal part of
the whole. Certainly it can not be concluded that
an exact third of God's angels sinned and were cast
out of heaven, but, the fraction given certainly
suggests a vast number. We don't know how many
angels God created but Revelation 5:11 gives a
hint. The angels numbered with the rest of the
righteous around the throne of God were numbered as
"ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of
thousands". The Hebrew writer simply called
them an "innumerable company of angels"
(Hebrews 12:22). Obviously the number of defecting
angels was significant. One cannot help but wonder
why they would do such a thing after being in Heaven
and seeing the power of God firsthand. This
certainly speaks volumes to the persuasive and
deceitful nature of Satan to be able to deceive and
lead astray such a vast host of heaven's
messengers.
"and the dragon standeth
before the woman that is about to be delivered, that
when she is delivered he may devour her child"
Satan is pictured standing in front of the
radiant women who is about to bring forth Jesus
Christ on earth. Obviously Satan knows what is
forthcoming and intends to waste no name in trying
to destroy Jesus Christ as soon as He is born.
Satan working through Herod sought the child's life
right after He was born to the extent that His
parents had to flee with him to Egypt in order to
protect Him (Matthew 2:13). It should also be
noted that this is not the only time Satan, acting
through earthly agents tried to destroy God's plan
of bringing the Messiah forth from the seed of
Israel. The Egyptians, Haman in Esther 3:13 and
Antiochus Epiphanes were all agents of Satan who
tried to destroy Israel. Satan standing before the
radiant woman of Israel was not a one time event
that suddenly happened as Jesus was about to be
born, rather this conflict had been going on for
centuries. Satan has always stood in opposition to
the plan of God.
Revelation 12:5
"And she was delivered of a son, a man child, who
is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and
her child was caught up unto God, and unto his
throne."
This is a picture of the entire life, ministry,
death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
No need to elaborate here, the Christians who would
be reading this were fully aware of all the details
surrounding the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus has
ascended to the Father and is ruling all the nations
of the earth from His throne in Heaven (Acts
2:33-35, Hebrews 10:12-13).
Revelation 12:6
"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where
she hath a place prepared of God, that there they
may nourish her a thousand two hundred and
threescore days."
After Jesus ascension back to Heaven to reign from
the Father's side, the faithful became the spiritual
kingdom that Jesus ruled over. This spiritual
kingdom, also known as the church, began in
Jerusalem on Pentecost following Jesus' crucifixion
as revealed in Acts chapter 2. The church in
Jerusalem grew in leaps and bounds in the first
years after its establishment. In Acts 8 we see the
beginning of a great persecution. This persecution
was primarily from the Jews who rejected Jesus
Christ as the Messiah. In Acts 8:1 we see that
because of the persecution of the Jews, the
Christians "were all scattered abroad throughout
the regions of Judaea and Samaria" and in verse
4, "they that were scattered abroad went every
where preaching the word." To understand what
the wilderness is in this context, one must look at
it through the eyes of the people that were living
it. These Christians were displaced from their
homes and driven out into the unknown to seek new
places to live. In their perspective, they were
driven out into the wilderness. And we see that
they found places prepared for them by God. God in
His providential care made sure the Christians had a
place to go and "They" were nourishing the
church. This is God, His Spirit and Jesus providing
the nourishment from heaven and the food in view
here is in the form of both spiritual and
providential. And under the care of the Godhood the
church prospered and grew.
Revelation 12:7
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his
angels (going forth) to war with the dragon; and the
dragon warred and his angels"
One thing we need to keep in mind when interpreting
figurative statements is they never suggest a
meaning opposite the figurative statement.
Therefore it can be concluded that "war" cannot mean
"no war". The elements in the statement may be
figurative but the activities cannot be. For
instance when we were faced with the locusts, it was
the activities and the results that helped to define
what the locusts represented. In this statement,
the activity is a conflict. Inspiration calls it a
war. There is a conflict mentioned here so it
cannot be denied that a conflict existed. Many able
scholars hold to the belief that this and the next
two verses describe an invasion attempt by Satan
against the throne of God after they were expelled
from heaven in verse 4.
Scripture is clear that
there were angels who sinned and were cast out of
heaven, "For if God spared not angels when they
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed
them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto
judgment" (2 Peter 2:4). But notice two things
in this context. First the immediate text says they
were cast down to hell which in the original
language is tartaroo or tartarus which is the
tormented side of the hadean realm and there
awaiting the day of the Lord and the final
judgment. See 2 Peter 2:9 for additional
explanation. Notice that Peter did not mention a
stopping place of earth along the way. What we do
learn here is that there was a time when angels
sinned and were cast out of heaven. Jude 6 reveals
what these angels did that was sinful, "And the
angels which kept not their first estate, but left
their own habitation, he hath reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day" (Jude 6). So the angels that
sinned and were cast out of heaven down to the place
of punishment because they disobeyed God and left
their own habitation.
So it stands to reason that
at some point in time the angels left heaven and
came to earth and then were denied access back to
heaven. This is a possible explanation for the
existence of the evil spirits on earth during the
time of Christ. The evil spirits existed and were
on earth and they had to come from somewhere.
However this presents a difficulty in that the
timeframe for the war in heaven is now at the time
of Christ on earth. Most of the scholars agree that
the fall of Satan occurred at the time either before
or shortly after the creation of earth. We must
also acknowledge that inspiration places Satan in a
conversation with God on two occasions in the book
of Job. One would think a two way conversation
would require that both be in each other's company,
so it is not unreasonable to conclude that Satan was
in the presence of God and the context suggests a
host of the "Sons of God" presenting
themselves to the Lord. So the question arises, did
this meeting happen in heaven? Nowhere else in
scripture were angels referred to as "sons of God".
The true meaning of "Sons of God" is found in
Romans 8:14. They are followers and worshippers of
God; and so were those mentioned in Job. So Satan
having access to heaven is not supported in Job.
There is plenty of information in scripture that
supports a pre-incarnate form of Jesus Christ on
earth and this is a possible explanation for how the
Sons of God presented themselves before the Lord
without being in heaven. Also it should be noted
that in the account of Job, Satan had to acquire
permission before he could afflict Job on both
occasions and he was forbidden to kill him and Satan
obeyed those divine directives. Satan was bound at
this time and this fact will come into play later on
in this study.
We must also give some
consideration to the vision in Zechariah 3 where
Satan was seen at the side of Joshua as an
adversary. Many commentators use this account to
demonstrate that Satan had access to the presence of
God. If this were true, then so did Joshua.
Furthermore the text in Zechariah states that the
event was in the company of the "angel of Jehovah".
So we can easily dismiss this verse as supporting
the claim that Satan had access to the throne of
heaven which is used by some to support that the war
in heaven happened all at once during the time of
Christ on earth.
During Christ's ministry on
earth, He sent seventy disciples out to preach the
gospel in neighboring towns. Before He sent them
out, He gave them the power to cast out evil
spirits. upon their return they declared to Jesus
that even the evil spirits were subject to them
though His name. Jesus reply to them was, "I
beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven"
(Luke 10:18). Those who support the war in heaven
during the time of Christ point to this verse of
scripture every time and if the heaven Jesus
mentions here is actually heaven, then Satan has to
have been there in order to fall from it. However
in the absence of any supporting scripture that
places Satan in heaven itself, it is difficult to
place him physically there in the presence of God.
It appears that Jesus is in fact saying He can see
the the power and influence of Satan falling from a
very lofty vantage point. It was not Satan that the
disciples cast out, it was the evil spirits, and
none of them were said to have been cast out of
Heaven, rather, they were cast out of living people
on earth. The evil spirits being cast out of the
people did not cause Satan to be cast out of
heaven. It is also significant to note that when
Jesus said He beheld Satan falling, the evil spirits
were already on earth and had been for some time. If
there was a war going in heaven at that time, then
why were the evil spirits still on the earth? It
seems more consistent to think of this as the
influence of Satan on earth weakening dramatically
as a result of the power given to the disciples
through Jesus.
There is no support for a
literal war in heaven during the time of Christ in
the rest of scripture that cannot be reasonably
explained away. Did a conflict happen where Satan
and those angels who sinned were expelled from
heaven? Absolutely yes. Satan and his angels, as
they are referred to in Revelation 12:9 have been
cast out of heaven, they are forbidden to return and
they are all bound in chains of darkness reserved
for the judgment (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6), and 2 Peter
2:9 makes it clear that this period of imprisonment
is not pleasant. It is clear from the text that
when Satan and his angels left heaven, it was not
under peaceful conditions. But there is no
conclusive evidence to support the belief of some
that Satan led an army of angels in an attempted
invasion and overthrow of heaven. In fact, it is
quite evident from an observance of the way in which
the evil spirits on earth acted towards Jesus upon
their encounters that they obviously knew who He
was, and they always obeyed His directives without
rebellion.
It is very logical to
conclude that if the forces of evil were going to
lead a revolt against heaven while Jesus Christ was
on earth, they would have started it off by slaying
Jesus Christ or at least attempting to. It does
not make any sense to think that Satan and his
angels who were already forced to operate under
constraints on earth would even have the barest
chance for a victory in heaven. Why would they have
any better chance to overcome God in heaven than
they did to overcome Jesus as a man on earth? They
couldn't touch Him and they well knew it and the
inspired accounts which tell of their encounters
reveal only that when Jesus Christ gave them an
order, they obeyed it. While on earth, Jesus Christ
was a man. He had to have food in order to live,
when He was cut, he bled just like any man would, He
could and did suffer . Jesus Christ was as human in
his existence on earth as any of us and as such
would be an easy target for any angel to outright
destroy in an unrestrained confrontation. Satan had
to have divine permission to even touch Job and the
divine permissions were obeyed. Clearly something
is in place which forces the evil entities to obey
the divine directives. It would be foolish and
naive to think that the evil spirits obeyed Jesus
out of any desire on their part to do so. Clearly
their were restrictions on the activities of Satan
and the evil spirits or Jesus would have perished
the instant He was born.
So the question becomes not
"was there a war in heaven?" rather, "when was the
war in heaven?". That there was a rebellion in
heaven which resulted in the defeat and expulsion of
Satan and "his angels" is beyond question.
We do not know anything about this ill conceived and
foolish confrontation other than the fact that Satan
and His allies did not prevail and the outcome was
unpleasant for them in the extreme. The most
logical explanation of this and the following three
verses is that an ongoing spiritual warfare, which
had been going on from the beginning of the
creation, reached its climax at the final triumph of
Jesus over death.
Revelation 12:8
"And they prevailed not, neither was their place
found any more in heaven."
Satan and an obviously large host of angels couldn't
overcome God's throne, the Roman Empire didn't stand
a chance. God's throne and purpose stand inviolate
and unconquerable against any and all opposition.
Nothing can stand in the way of God's will. Satan
and his foolish followers, at some point in history,
found themselves booted out of heaven forever.
Revelation 12:9
"And the great dragon was cast down, the old
serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the
deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the
earth, and his angels were cast down with him."
And this is the climax of a conflict that had been
ongoing since before Satan deceived Adam and Eve in
the garden of Eden. Looking at this through the
eyes of the first readers, it is easy to see this as
the final ultimate defeat of Satan once and for all
which was evidenced in Jesus' triumph over death.
Satan and his angels may have thought they had won
when Jesus died on that cross. They were not alone
in that either. Jesus' disciples were in a state of
confusion and indecision. Their champion had died
on that cross and they thought Satan had won. It
was no secret that Jesus was suppose to arise
because the Jewish leaders had guards placed at His
tomb, but the shock of His death was more than the
disciples could handle. Jesus' shocked and
demoralized disciples scattered and left. If they
had been absolutely confident of Jesus'
resurrection, one would think they would have set up
a vigil outside His tomb in anticipation of His
resurrection. Notwithstanding, Jesus did arise and
when He did the power of Satan over mankind was
crushed forever.
Revelation 12:10
"And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now
is come the salvation, and the power, and the
kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ:
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who
accuseth them before our God day and night."
We see in this part of the vision, the eternal
purpose of God in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on
the cross of Calvary. God's righteous nature
demands the punishment of death for sin. Satan and
the sinful angels well knew this and it is obvious
here that God was reminded of this by Satan
continually. Satan is demanding man suffer the same
punishment for sin that he received. Mankind sinned
and Satan is right there accusing mankind of this
and wanting to know why God hasn't given them the
same treatment He got. When Jesus Christ died at
the hand of man for the sins of man, the penalty of
death which God's righteous nature demanded was paid
in full by Jesus Christ who was one of the three
persons of the Godhood. In effect, God paid the
penalty of death for man's sin in man's place.
Satan did not know what God's plan was until it
unfolded and when it did, and the debt was paid for
the sins of mankind, Satan had no more complaint
against man with God. Until Jesus paid the death
penalty for man's sin, Satan had a valid argument.
God's righteous nature demanded death for
disobedience and Satan never let God forget it.
Satan hates God and He is
powerless to harm God. The only way Satan can hurt
God is to drag mankind whom God loves through the
muck and mire of sin and then cast it in God's
teeth. Of course Satan's hatred is especially
focused on God's faithful and it is the faithful he
wants most to bring down. He knows that when he
brings down one of God's own, God suffers for it.
Old Testament scripture reveals that it was God's
faithful who were the targets of Satan's
accusations. Satan tried to say that Job was only
faithful because of the goodness God showed him.
When that failed to be true, Satan said Job would
curse God to His face if God would allow him to
afflict Job directly and Job prevailed and
prospered. In Zechariah 3:1 we see a picture of
Satan resisting Joshua who was standing sinful in
the sight of God and God clothed Joshua in clean
garments. There is no evidence in scripture
anywhere of Satan opposing unbelievers so from this
we can conclude that Satan's primary attention was
directed towards God's faithful children.
Now that Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, has paid the penalty for the sins of
mankind, all faithful children of God can stand
before Him justified of their sins. Because of the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, faithful children of God
can no longer be accused by Satan. Satan cannot
accuse God's faithful children of sin anymore
because God provided them a way of appearing sinless
before Him by suffering the death He demanded for
man's sin, Himself. In today's language we can
illustrate this thusly: "Satan, you demanded the
same penalty for your sin be inflicted on sinful
man, so I went down there and died for them in their
place. I suffered the death you demanded of them
myself, now stop accusing them and get out of my
sight."
With the death of Jesus and
the coming of the Christian age, there was a
justification of sin, never before known. The
Hebrew writer taught that the blood of bulls and
goats could never take away sin (Hebrews 10:4) and
that the transgressions under the first covenant
were forgiven (Hebrews 9:15). All who lived before
the cross and who will live after can have the
complete and total forgiveness of sin. It was at
this time that salvation for man had come, and the
power of God had been revealed and the spiritual
kingdom of God was established. This part of the
vision is the coming of the church of Christ.
Revelation 12:11
"And they overcame him because of the blood of
the Lamb, and because of the word of their
testimony; and they loved not their life even unto
death."
And this is a vision of those who overcame and
triumphed over Satan. There are three conditions
here for the overcomers. There was the blood of
Jesus which served as the perfect sacrifice, the
will of God revealed in the New Testament and
faithfulness to the terms of the covenant even to
the point of death. Without any one of these, there
is no salvation.
Revelation 12:12
"Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell
in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea: because
the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath,
knowing that he hath but a short time."
Through the sacrifice of Christ, we have a "better
covenant, which was established upon better promises"
(Hebrews 8:6). We have every reason to rejoice
because now we can stand justified in the sight of
God, something never before known to the children of
God. Satan can no longer accuse the faithful in
God's sight for past sins. All that is left for him
now is to deceive the nations and try and lead as
many astray as he can. Satan knows now that there
will be people who live in God's presence forever.
He knows what his fate is and knows there will be no
escape for him so his mission now is to take as many
with him as possible. This is the only avenue left
open for him to oppose God and cause Him suffering.
Satan knows the only way he can hurt God now is to
hurt those he loved so much and he can do this by
deceiving them and leading them astray away from the
shelter of His church. Satan's time is short and he
knows it, so his efforts towards this end are
reinforced.
Revelation 12:13
"And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to
the earth, he persecuted the woman that brought
forth the man (child)."
When Satan realized he could no longer accuse the
righteous, he set out to try and destroy the
faithful children of God. This is the beginning of
the great persecution.
Revelation 12:14
"And there were given to the woman the two wings
of the great eagle, that she might fly into the
wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the
face of the serpent."
Looking at this through the eyes of first century
Christians, this is likely one or both of two events
being in view here. In Acts 8:1, we read of the
first great persecution of the Christians by the
Jews: "Saul was consenting unto his death. And
at that time there was a great persecution against
the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all
scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea
and Samaria, except the apostles." These
Christians left their homes and fled Jerusalem out
into the unknown and scattered all over the Roman
Empire preaching the gospel (Acts 8:4). From the
perspective of the Christians who fled, they were
going out into the wilderness away from their
homes. The apostles stayed behind in Jerusalem when
the first Christians fled. The next great event
happened in 70 AD when Titus destroyed Jerusalem and
burned the temple. The Christians living in
Jerusalem then had been warned by Jesus as recorded
in Matthew 24 to leave Jerusalem before this
happened. History has no records of any Christians
dying in the destruction of Jerusalem so the general
belief is that they all escaped. They too would
have been scattered across the empire wherever they
could find a place to live. To them, when leaving
their homes, fleeing for their lives, it doubtless
looked to them like they were heading out into the
wilderness much like the children of Israel did when
they left Egypt.
The "time and times and
half a time" is three and a half years,
representing an indefinite period of time, which is
the same time period as seen in verse 6. The
nourishment for the faithful Christians during this
time could be the miraculous gifts of the Holy
Spirit providing them with the word of God which was
their spiritual food. The providential care of God
can be said to be included in this as well. It is
obvious from the content of the letter of Revelation
itself that God was extremely concerned for the well
being of His children and He made sure they knew He
was with them and in control of the situation.
Revelation 12:15
"And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the
woman water as a river, that he might cause her to
be carried away by the stream."
Water as a river is a familiar old testament picture
of a flood of oppression against God's people. "And
Jehovah spake unto me yet again, saying, forasmuch
as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah
that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's
son; now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up
upon them the waters of the River, strong and many,
(even) the king of Assyria and all his glory: and it
shall come up over all its channels, and go over all
its banks; and it shall sweep onward into Judah; it
shall overflow and pass through; it shall reach even
to the neck; and the stretching out of its wings
shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel"
(Isaiah 8:5-8). Similar examples of water being
pictured as oppression against God's people are
found in Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 144:7 and Psalm 32:6.
The serpent sending a flood
from his mouth is a figure for the amount of
oppression he will send forth upon the children of
God. Pagan worship with all the lusts associated
with that, lies, deceit, false philosophies, false
teachings and false accusations against the church
were just a part of the river of persecution that
Satan spewed forth against the saints. Christianity
became illegal in the Roman Empire before it was all
over and the persecution came in all forms up to and
including death.
Revelation 12:16
"And the earth helped the woman, and the earth
opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which
the dragon cast out of his mouth."
This is a picture of God's providential care for His
people. Looking back to an earlier vision, God made
it plain that His retribution upon the people of the
earth was held back in favor of God's children.
Earthquakes, floods, famines, diseases and other
natural disasters hampered and weakened the
instruments of Satan's wrath and he was unable to
completely destroy God's people from the face of the
earth.
Revelation 12:17
"And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and
went away to make war with the rest of her seed,
that keep the commandments of God, and hold the
testimony of Jesus"
Satan is angry because he cannot destroy Christians
from the face of the earth so he is going to
entrench himself and continue his war with God's
people for the rest of the time available to him.
This part of the vision is prophetic past the final
destruction of the Roman Empire. Satan is still at
war with Christians and those who "keep the
commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus"
are still fighting the battle between good and
evil. It is a worldwide battle and the stakes are
the souls of mankind, both saved and unsaved. The
world is filled with false gods and false worship.
Those who claim Christ as their savior are divided
into thousands of different denominations.
Satan is still waging his
war against righteousness and will continue to do so
until the end. The persecution is still life and
death in some areas of the world and in others it is
religious deception. Billions of people on earth
claim Christ as their savior in thousands of
different denominations in the face of scripture
that commands unity. The advent of salvation by
faith only is destroying more souls than the Roman
Empire ever thought of and billions of people are
going to their judgments only to be saddened because
they believed Satan's deceptions.
Summary
This was the introduction to the bittersweet
contents of the little book John was told to take
and eat. Revelation chapter 12 is a overview of the
whole coming of Jesus Christ from the Israelite
nation. The vision portrays the birth and ascension
of Jesus to the throne of God in Heaven. In this
vision we see the fall of Satan and his angels and
his rage over his defeat by Jesus Christ. Satan
finds himself cast out of heaven and powerless
against the heavenly host so he turns his malicious
hatred upon those who God loves still on the earth.
Bent upon their destruction, he goes about trying
every method of temptation and deceit he can think
of to bring about the destruction of God's faithful
children from the earth.
The introductions to the
characters in the little book have been made, the
setting for the vision has been set and now
following will be the details of the battle between
good and evil specific to the minds and experiences
of those Christians living in the first century and
following up until the downfall of the Roman
Empire. And in the end of this series of visions,
we see death itself and all those who chose that as
their destiny, forever cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 12 Paraphrase
Then in my next vision, I
witnessed an event of great significance. I saw the
faithful remnant of the Israelites like a bride
irradiated with the brightness of God, with the
nations of the world beneath her feet and the
likeness of the twelve sons of Israel on her head.
She was about to being forth the promised Messiah
and she was in great distress and torment from the
world while awaiting His birth.
Then I saw another event
that happened in heaven. I saw Satan who was like a
great red dragon with total hatred for mankind and
great power and wearing headpieces like the wicked
kings of the earth wore. He had deceived a great
number of angels and they had all been cast from
heaven onto the earth. And Satan who had opposed
God stood on the earth in front of the faithful
children of God awaiting the arrival of the Messiah
so that he could destroy Him as soon as he was
born.
And then Jesus Christ, the
promised messiah who would rule all the nations
triumphed over death and ascended up unto God and to
His throne. And God's children fled into the
wilderness to escape the wrath of Satan and where
they were nourished by God and His word for a space
of time. And the war between good and evil waxed
hot and Satan and His angels were finally defeated
and thrown down and there was found no more place
for them in the heavens. Satan, the deceiver of the
whole earth and his followers were at last cast
out.
And then I heard a loud
voice in heaven saying, "Now salvation has come, and
strength, and the spiritual kingdom of our God under
the authority of His Son. And the adversary Satan
has at last been defeated and his constant
accusations before God are now ended."
And the saints overcame
Satan by the blood of Jesus, and by faithfulness to
Jesus Christ's word, and by patience and
perseverance even unto death. Therefore rejoice all
ye who remained faithful unto death and dwell in
paradise. But Woe to those who yet live upon the
earth for Satan has come to persecute you and he is
angry because he knows he has lost and has only a
short time left to hurt mankind.
And Satan persecuted the
children of God and to them were given the wings of
eagles so they could escape into all the earth where
God cared for them and fed them and protected them
from the face of the evil one. And Satan brought
upon God's children a flood of persecutions from
worldly enemies in an effort to destroy them but the
earth rose up against them and helped the faithful
children of God. And Satan was angry with the
Christians and went to make war with the remnant of
the faithful who keep the commandments of God and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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