The Book of Revelation 

Chapter 12 (continued)

Continuing in Chapter 12 and still discussing this "woman":

Verse 6 tells us that he woman "fled" into the wilderness, and that she found a place of refuge there:

Revelation 12:6 "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."

It is quite interesting to note that we are not told who the "they" might be...."...that they should feed her there...".  It "could" be a country, their army, or a group of people sent to protect certain ones, and many have speculated that this is symbolic of the protection of the United States toward Israel especially when coupled with verse 14 and the reference to eagles' wings.  There are attempts to reference the U.S. here because the national symbol of the U.S. is of course, the eagle.  I find it a great leap of the imagination to do so, especially when we consider the bible, which by the way, interprets itself!  God himself said he delivered Israel from Egypt by eagles' wings:

Exodus 19:4 "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself."

When considering the rest of chapter 12, it becomes apparent that God will again move mightily and miraculously for Israel!

Revelation 12:16 "And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth."

There is much symbolism in chapter 12 and as I cover the dragon, I'll try to bring this all together in hope that it makes a bit more sense to you.

The Dragon

Revelation 12:3-4 "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born."

We read of a war between the dragon and Michael (reference Daniel 12:1) and we read that the dragon was cast out of heaven.  Verse 9 gives us the identity of the dragon:

Revelation 12:9 "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

There can be no doubt at all who this is.  This Satan; Lucifer; the Devil; the Adversary; the Wicked One.  (Genesis 3:1-11, 2 Corinthians 11:3, Matthew 4:1, John 8:44).  Since we know the tempter, the wicked one, Satan, the serpent, was already in the world in the beginning of Mankind, this is quite likely an allusion to an event that happened long ago while the earth was still in its beginning stages of history.  We know from Genesis chapter 6 that fallen angels were already present and from the words of Jesus in Luke 10:18  "And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.", we can know this is a past event.

Jesus didn't tell the Pharisee it was Satan who accused them, but Moses (John 5:45).  We read of Job's account in Job 1:6-12 in which Satan came also before the Lord.  It is critical to note that Satan was not called one of the Sons of God.  Examine Job 1:6:  "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them."    "...And Satan came also...."

When Satan was cast down, he (naturally) became angry and determined to destroy the "woman" (Israel) and the terminology used here is that of a flood going after her. 

Revelation 12:15 "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood."

I do not believe this is a literal flood because of the second part of that statement:  "...cause her to be carried away of the flood".  You must realize, Satan doesn't always want you to die, but he loves to keep those whom he traps, ensnares and captures in bondage!  I believe that is the meaning of the phrase "...cause her to be carried away of the flood."  With that in mind, we can understand we are not discussing water here, but rather a people, perhaps and most likely, the people of another nation who would invade Israel.

Verse 16 tells us the earth opened up to swallow up the flood.  This could be a literal earthquake in which men would fall into the crevices and depths of the earth, or it could be symbolic of something else, of which I cannot be certain.

Verse 17 concludes chapter 12:

Revelation 12:17 "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Is there any doubt who this "remnant" is?  Is it not the church?  Certainly it IS the church, and I believe specifically:  the church of the Gentiles!

I want to cover very briefly another issue that arises here and in other passages of scripture, including in the book of Daniel.  There is a continual reference throughout the scripture references to this time period of Revelation to 1,260 days or time, times, and half a time.   Many have attempted to claim this is an "uspecified period of time covering even several years (some say it is still ongoing).

The references here to time, times and half a time, forty and two months and to 1,260 days are all equal lengths of time.   With the references being in such agreement and with the time frames being not only exact, but specific, I cannot support the idea that 1260 days, forty and two months or time, times and half a times could equal some unspecified length of thousands of years.  These references are to specific times and are exactly what they claim to be.  months, days and "times".

When we reach Revelation 13, there are several topics to cover and the study of that chapter will be quite lengthy!  Let's begin chapter 13 on the next page.

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