A
quick summary of chapter 12
1. Jesus born and caught up to the throne at
baptism.
2. Jesus feeds the woman in the
wilderness for 1260 days, ministry.
3. Now salvation comes= is the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
4. Satan kicked out of heaven= defeated
by the blood of Jesus and he purses the woman.
5. The woman is fed for a time, times and
half (1239 days by Hebrew calendar) by the apostles.
6. Then Satan tries to wash the woman
away with a flood of water (army-peoples nations) 70 AD.
7. earth saves woman= Time of war of 70
AD shortened or none would survive. Woman dispersed throughout the nations of
the earth insuring her survival as a people.
8. The dragon goes after those that
believes in the Son= persecution of the Christians.
9. The dragon stands on the
seashore watching the first beast coming out of the sea, his weapon for the end
days against the woman (natural Israel and also the children that keep the
testimony of her Son).
In Revelation, as with
Daniel's visions,
God shows us events in different "views" from beginning to end. This
is one view going from the birth of Jesus Christ until his death and
resurrection and ascension into heaven, and continues as one time-line
until the resurrection/rapture and Armageddon at the end of chapter 14.
Rev 12: 1 A
GREAT sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under
her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars
This is ethnic Israel with 12 stars (Tribes)
Rev 12: 2 and she was with child; and she cried
out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. 3; Then another sign appeared in
heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on
his heads were seven diadems. 4; And his tail swept away a third of the stars
of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman
who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her
child. 5; And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the
nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His
throne.
Jesus is the male Son. Satan, the dragon (who will sweep 1/3 of the angels
down to earth with him, as we will see in the next part of the time-line),
tries to devour the child. This is when Herod had all the babies killed. He
failed. Jesus at the end of His ministry was caught up into Heaven where He
will rule the earth with a rod of iron during the 1000 years. So this is a very
short view but covers a lot of Jesus' history.
That is the end of that time-line view.
In the next part of the time-line (all of Rev 12:6 through 14 is an on going
time-line.)
Rev 12: 6 Then the woman fled into the
wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be
nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
These 1,260
days would have been the time of Jesus' ministry on earth. Jesus'
Baptism until His crucifixion. The first half of Daniel's 70th week (see Dan 9)
40 days being tempted in the desert and then
1260 days of preaching the New Covenant. ministered to Israel in the
wilderness.
He preached to the Jews not gentiles
during this time, in a place prepared
for her (Israel). We have some powerful symbolism here because it shows that
the woman, Israel, is not being nourished by those of the Temple, nor any
synagogue. Not being nourished by the Old covenant but by the New Covenant,
which was not approved of, nor supported by, the religious community of
Jerusalem. Jesus preached outside the city and all through the Galilee area.
This is called the wilderness and the people came out to the wilderness to hear
Him teach. The 5,000 came out to the wilderness and they didn't want to leave,
so they ran out of food and Jesus fed them there in the wilderness.
Rev 12: 7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war
with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,
During this 1,260 days of Jesus ministry, the
war in heaven was being waged. At one point during His ministry Jesus sent out
70 people to prepare the way for Him and when they returned they expressed of a
vision he had had:
Luk 10:17 And the seventy
returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us
through thy name. :18 And he said unto them, I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
I believe the word fall here means the
process of falling had begun by the power of the name of Jesus because the next
few verses tell us what caused the final boot to be given to satan and the
fallen angels fighting with him.
Rev 12: 8 and they were not
strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. .
Why did satan and his army not prevail? Because
of the death and resurrection of Jesus, as we see in the next verses.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown
down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the
whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down
with him.
Satan stood before the throne accusing man up
until this point. But then Jesus entered heaven as
the slain Lamb and stands between us and the throne. Which means
that there was no more place in heaven for satan as the accuser of the brethren
because of sin.
Rev 12: 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, Now is come salvation,
WHEN DID SALVATION COME ON THE EARTH? Your answer has to be....when Jesus was crucified and
resurrected.
Salvation
came through the death and resurrection of Christ. So if salvation has NOW come, then Satan would no longer have a place in
Heaven. His place was accusing the people of the earth before God. Jesus' blood
covers the sins of the believers, so satan is without a job in heaven any
longer.
Rev 12: 10 and strength, and the kingdom of our
God, and the
power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
accused them before our God day and night.11; And they overcame him
because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their
testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
Satan was cast out by the blood of the
Lamb when salvation came to the world. There was no longer a place found for
him. Is there ever another event in history, or yet to come, that will
bring salvation to man? NO.
People want to say that salvation finally
comes at the time of the last 7 years, or last 3 1/2 years, and that is when
satan is cast out. Is this when salvation finally comes to the world? In the
midst of the last 7 years? I think not. If so then no one was saved for these
last almost 2000 years.
(Christians will do the last
part of the verse)
Rev 12: 12 For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in
them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you,
having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. 13; And when the
dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who
gave birth to the male child.
Satan only had a short time left to deceive
the Jews. So when he saw he was cast down to the earth he was intent on
persecuting the woman. But the woman was being protected by God from satan as
we see in the next verse.
Rev :14; But the two wings of the great eagle were given
to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she
was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of
the serpent.
This of course is symbolism,
which we need to remember, the wings represent God's protection until her time
is up.
The time, times and half time
would be the amount of time the Jews had left of the 490 year in Daniel' 9
prophecy after the Resurrection of Jesus. She is being fed, by means of
the apostles, testifying of His Son's resurrection, and the New Covenant
being offered to all who would believe. When the time for the Jewish
nation was up (490 years) they sealed their fate by killing Stephen, the apostle
of the Lord. I set a “time” as one Hebrew year of 354 days in a
regular year, times 3, plus a half. So 1239 days. Why I do this is because in
Dan 7 and Daniel 12 a Time, times, a half time is the time when the end days
beast is given authority to act, and in Rev 13 the authority to act is 42
months or 42 new moon cycles, so both of these times are 1239 days long. I
am not saying this time, times and half time in Rev 12 are that same 42 months
given over to the beast. God repeats "Tie and numbers many times in
the Bible. I am just saying that a time, times and half time can only mean one
amount of time and it has to be consistent throughout.
Rev 12:15; And the serpent poured water like a
river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept
away with the flood.
:16 But the earth helped
the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the
dragon poured out of his mouth.
This represents the destruction of 70
AD. Satan had hopes of totally destroying the woman but the earth
swallowed the water saving the woman. God shortens this time. I believe
the earth saving her, as a people, took place when those survivors where
carried into the nations of the earth. The Diaspora. They would not be returned
to Jerusalem until the time of the Gentiles in Jerusalem is complete, which was
1967.
Note: Jerusalem is the harlot city mystically
called Babylon. here or her Holy city wouldn't have been totally destroyed
until not one stood upon another.
Rev 12: 17 So
the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest
of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of
Jesus.
Satan then begins an earnest persecution
of the church. All those who follow Jesus, both Jews and Gentile.
Now John is being shown who the beast of
the end days is going to be. Which Empire that will be given authority for the
last 42 months of this age.
Rev 13:1 And the dragon stood on the
shore of the sea.
Satan watches as his beast for the end
days comes up out of the sea.
At this point please read the Beast of Rev
13 to continue this time-line.
But there is
another place we hear of this woman, Israel, in John's visions
The
Harlot riding the Beast
The key to understanding this woman comes
from understanding what country she symbolically represents.
Rev 17: 1 "Come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot that
sits on many waters."
The angel is only making a reference here
to a woman that John saw sitting on many waters, or many nations, and peoples, and tongues. John
is NOT seeing the woman on the water in this part of his vision but is going to
be shown what God will use to bring judgment on her for her acts of Harlotry
against Him.
In verse 15, the angel says, "And the water that you
saw". So we know
that even though the angel is just making reference to to the woman in this
part of the revelation given to John we know that John saw the water for
himself at some point in his visions.
We have to go back through the visions to
find out where John saw this water where the woman sat.
The only place John saw a woman and water was
in chapter 12.
We might not have remembered, but John
remembers. He doesn't even question this reference the angel makes to the woman
sitting on the water. So at some point the water that the dragon poured out to
sweep her away, caused her to look as if she were sitting in or on the water.
John
is then taken in the vision to see her judgment in chapter 17.
Continue to
chapter 13