Revelation 12

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Ariel82

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everyone should read this...bookmarking it for myself

oldhermit said:
By Oldhermit

The “Mystery of God” in microcosm
A. The woman with child, 1-2 – Israel as an appointed nation.

1. “A great sign appeared inheaven: woman clothed with the sun, and the moonunder her feet,” This is the nation of Israel who has always been portrayedas the bride of Jehovah clothed in splendor. “Then I passed by you and sawyou, and behold, you were at the time for love; so, I spread My skirt over youand covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenantwith you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord God. Then I bathed youwith water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I alsoclothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on yourfeet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adornedyou with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around yourneck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautifulcrown on your head. Thus, you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dresswas of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey andoil; so, you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Then your famewent forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfectbecause of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel16:8-14.
2. “Andon her head a crown of twelve stars;” The nation was comprised of the 12tribes represented here by 12 stars.
3.Israel's struggle to bring forth Messiah, “And she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.”

B. Theattempt by Satan to destroy the child, 3-4

1. “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.” We are told in versenine that the dragon is Satan but the seven heads and seven diadems arerepresentative of the nation of Rome. So, it is through Rome that Satan exercisedhis power against the woman. This beast is the fourth beast mentioned inDaniel's vision in Daniel 7:7-8. “After this I kept looking in the nightvisions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremelystrong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled downthe remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that werebefore it, and it had ten horns. “While I was contemplating the horns, behold,another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first hornswere pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyeslike the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.” Daniel does notmention the seven heads but focuses rather on the ten horns which were tenkings.

a.Seven heads – “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are sevenmountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen,one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a littlewhile,” 17:9-10.Thus, the seven heads are the seven hills of Romewhich had become the symbol of the imperial city. The woman is Jerusalem.
b. Theten horns – “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yetreceived a kingdom, but they receive authority AS kings withthe beast for one hour. “These have one purpose, and they give their power andauthority to the beast,” 17:12-13. (100 men serve as emperor of Rome fromAugustus in 67BC to Maurice in 602AD so, why are only ten horns mentioned? Isit because the fulfilment of these events would be in the days of the tenthhorn?)

*These ten horns are Roman tributary kings for none of them have received akingdom and they derive their authority from the beast.
* Thetime of their power is limited as they receive authority “for one hour.” Inother words, for a short period of time.
*These kings serve Rome for they “give their power and authority to thebeast,”

2. “Andhis tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.” Their power has been takenaway. This suggests the power of the Roman empire over the nations and over their tributaries.
3. “Andthe dragon stood before the woman (Israel) who was aboutto give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour herchild.” Satanattempted to kill Jesus at his birth. This was aprophesied event. “Thus, says the Lord, "A voice is heard in Ramah,lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refusesto be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Jeremiah32:15. Matthew records in Matthew 2:16-18 that Jeremiah's words were fulfilledin the attempt to kill Jesus after his birth. “Then when Herod (one ofthe horns – a tributary king of Rome) saw that he had been tricked by themagi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who werein Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according tothe time which he had determined from the magi. Then what had been spokenthrough Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weepingand great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and she refused to becomforted, because they were no more.” In Daniel 7:24 we are also told thatthese ten horns are ten kings of the sea beast. “As for the ten horns, outof this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and hewill be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.”

C. Thebirth of Messiah, 5-6

1.“And she gave birth to a son, a male child, (Not the Churchwhich is always represented in the feminine) who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; This canonly be Jesus. He is theone who was to rule with the nations with therod of iron.

a.Psalms 2:9, “You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter themlike earthenware.”
b. Revelation2:27, “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of thepotter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father.”
c. Revelation 19:15, “From His mouth comes asharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rulethem with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath ofGod, the Almighty.”

2.“And her child was caught up to God and to His throne.” Thisis the resurrection and ascension of Jesus which was seen by Daniel 7:13-14, “Ikept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven Onelike a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and waspresented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, thatall the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. Hisdominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdomis one which will not be destroyed.” Persecution was the method by whichSatan attempted to destroy this kingdom.
3. “Thenthe woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, sothat there she would be nourished for one thousandtwo hundred and sixty days.” The Christians fled to the mountains of Pelaas the Lord had warned them to do during the persecution of Jewish Christiansin the time of Israel's judgment, Matthew 24:16 and Luke 21:21.

D. Thedefeat of Satan, 7-12

1. “Andthere was war in heaven”
Thisis notnecessarily speaking of the unseen celestial world, nor is thiswar necessarily one that was waged in the unseen world. As a symbol, heaven isused in Revelation to represent governments and authorities.
2. Twoopposing forces of good and evil – Michael and his angels vs the dragon andhis angels.

a.Michael and Satan are historic enemies. Jude 9 tells us of the dispute betweenMichael and Satan over the body of Moses.
b.Michael is the defender of the saints while Satan is the power behind theenemies of Christianity. This war was the fulfillment of Daniel 12:1, "Nowat that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of yourpeople, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurredsince there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people,everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.” Notice,Michael is the guardian of the people of God. He was to arise in the time ofgreat distress to rescue the saints out of that time of distress.
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3.The war
“Michaeland his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and hisangels waged war.” Angels representconfederate forces. The angels who where with Michael were the saints. Theangels who were with the Dragon were the powers of Rome.
4. Thepower of the dragon is defeated. This is not talking about Satan's expulsionfrom heaven. This is talking about his defeat in his war against the saints. Hecould not overcome them. “Andthere was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon wasthrown 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. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven,saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God andthe authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of ourbrethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day andnight.” The power of this governmenthas collapsed. Hence the expression “thrown down to the earth.” This isthe same imagery we saw in 9:1 with the star in heaven that had fallen to theearth representing a removal of authority or a fall of power. Not only is Satana defeated power but his angels (the powers of Rome) are a defeated power. Thisdoes not necessarily suggest a destruction of the nation of Rome or its armies.This in not what the scene is about. This is revealing the fact that Satan andthe persecuting powers of Rome have been defeated by the saints. The saintscould not be overcome by the powers of persecution. Rather, they had overcomethe persecutors even in their deaths. "And theyovercame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of theword of their testimony, and they did not love their life evenwhen faced with death (Victorious martyrs). "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth (Israel)and the sea (Rome), because the devil has come down to you, havinggreat wrath, knowing that he has only a short time,”11-12.The antecedent of 'they' is Michael and his angels. They were able to overcomeby the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. Testimony – preaching of thegospel is their angelic function. They are the messengers of the gospel. Theirphysical fate was their confrontation with death. The length of time allottedto the Devil is the 1260 days, the 42 months, the 3 and one-half years.



E. Theremnant is preserved from the judgment of Israel, 13-17.
The war against the nation of Israel is represented in two fronts;the war against unbelieving Israel and the war against the faithful remnant. “And when the dragonsaw that he was thrown down to the earth, (The destruction of Satan's power, Hebrews 2:14) he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Butthe two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, sothat she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where shewas nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (Delivered from the destruction ofJerusalem). And the serpent poured water like ariver out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be sweptaway with the flood. (Flood of persecution by Rome). But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouthand drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. 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 thetestimony of Jesus.” (Christians)
 
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