Rev. # 40~12:1-9 ~WAR BETWEEN GODS ANGELS AND DEMONS ~ 1-30-10
Well today we’ll continue to think on the angelic war in this 12th chapter between Gods angels and Satan’s angels, let me say once again, that the angels that belong to Satan are the 1/3rd that was cast out of heaven with him when he thought he could take over Gods throne, that’s how Lucifer became Satan.
He illustrates what a convincing liar he is as he causes 1/3rd of the angels to believe that he could actually take over Gods Throne.
God created him an angel, a powerful angel, he was the most beautiful in all of heaven, he had the most prestigious and powerful position in heaven as he was over all the angels, God had made him the anointed cherub.
There is so much here in chapter 12: and we must not be in a big hurry, let us learn about Satan and his evil ways.
At one time there were no fallen angels, all of the angels were faithful to God. Lucifer had the honored position of being in charge of all the angels, but because of pride and the desire to have Gods position of being worshipped he became sinful. Remember, he was created , how can something created be more powerful than the Creator?
We have already read about Lucifer in Isaiah 14: 12- 15-- EZK. 28: 13-17
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Ø Listen as I read from Revelation Chapter 12:
1And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
The image of the sun, moon, and twelve stars seems to be an allusion to Joseph’s dream in Gen.37:9-11 where the sun and moon are identified as Joseph’s parents and the 12 stars represent the twelve sons of Jacob (and ultimately the 12 tribes).
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2And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
I’ve already pointed out that “the woman” is Israel.
We see here in verse 2 that the woman is pregnant and cried out as she was about to give birth. The child (Jesus Christ) was born before she travails. The ‘woman" Israel’s travail will occur during the tribulation, the tribulation is her travail.
Isa.66:7-8 Before she** travailed,{before the tribulation time} she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?
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3And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
He is called “great”, this points to the magnitude of Satan’s power and activity in the world.
Ø “Red” emphasizes his murderous and bloodthirsty character and behavior all throughout history.
Ø “Dragon” pictures his ferocious and intensely cruel nature.
Ø “Having seven heads ”
Let’s read the verse again and try to stay in context;
3And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Well we can clearly see that the main subject in this verse is the “great red dragon” and that he was adorned with “seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”
Sometimes it’s hard to determine when a passage is speaking about the king or the kingdom since the kingdom often represents a king from whom it gets its character.
The “seven heads” are seven historic Gentile kingdoms, which are represented by seven kings or rulers.—These 7 refer to the major world empires up to the time of Rome and which also were connected with the nation of Israel and her enslavements.
(1) Egypt--(2) Assyria:-- 3) Babylon--4) Medo-Persia:-- 5) Greece:-- (6) Rome--(7) and the seventh head is really a future kingdom although it has historical roots in the sixth kingdom.{ROME}—THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE.
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The “10 horns”
This points to the ten-nation confederation of the revived Roman Empire, the system of the beast.
Ø Seven crowns upon his heads in verse 3
“Seven crowns” speaks of his ruling power, and also the power and authority which was given him, he has and will have great power especially in the last days.
Today he often appears as an angel of light; he hides his true identity, but in the Tribulation he will be seen for what he really is.
Ephesians 2:1-2 tells us that he is the prince and power of the air.
2nd cor. 4:4 we read that Satan is the god of this age, the happenings in the world.
4In whom the god of this world {age} hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,--
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4And 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.
Let me remind us that the devil knows what’s in this Bible, he had not forgotten what God told him in Gen. 3:15, that the Seed of the woman would crush his head.
He was on the look out for this Seed of the woman.
Only God knows how long Satan was on this earth before mankind was ever created, remember him and his angels were cast out of heaven, it’s all speculation for any one to say, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of years, Satan was there when God created Adam & Eve, he heard what God told Adam in Gen.1:
God commanded Adam to subdue the earth. That means, to tread upon. This implies a degree of sovereignty, and control.
With the fall of man in chapter 3 came a curse upon the ground and the animal kingdom; thus, man’s control is not what Adam’s was before his sin.
In Gen. 2:15 God put Adam in the garden and commanded him to dress it and to keep it. From the very beginning it was God’s plan that man work and be a fully responsible steward of God’s creation.
Gen.1:26- let them have dominion indicates that from the moment of his creation man was fully capable of exercising control over his environment. Man was created with dominion over all living creatures (vs. 26)
Certainly, the devil is using the snake.
I Tim 2:13–14 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression”
1st Peter 3:7 says the woman is the weaker vessel, and II Corinthians 11:3 says the serpent beguiling Eve through his subtlety.
Subtlety …” With the first words of the serpent it becomes apparent that an enemy of God is speaking; for he says, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
The words form a question, which was designed to cast doubt upon God’s goodness and yet, at the same time, seems to imply that if the serpent is misinformed, he is willing to be instructed in the matter. Notice how coning he is to keep Eve at ease.
Instead of turning away, the woman engages in dialogue with the serpent, thereby revealing that she did not really realize that the serpent was her enemy.
That’s the way he operates, he tries to make sin appear really not all that bad after all, but
Romans 6;23 says- For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Because of the fall of man there in Eden Satan now rules the kingdoms of this world. If you’ll recall he told the Lord Jesus there in
Matt.4:8-9 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
So the devil had not forgotten what God told him in Gen.3:15—that the Seed of the woman would crush his head, so he had his eye on the woman Israel, he knew what God had declared would come to pass.
4-and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Now this “woman” here in this verse is talking about Israel, but let me say that when the woman Eve brought forth her 1st born son the devil set out to kill the Promised Seed.
Gen. 4:1-2 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. ----
--- 8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
Just think of it, the very 1st human being born into this world was the 1st murderer.
The devil tried all down through the years to wipe out the Promised Seed, he used people, he directed certain people to kill children stabbing at the Promised Seed, even at the time of Jesus birth the devil influenced King Herod to kill all the children 2 years old and younger, but the angel of the Lord had already told Joseph in a dream to flee into Egypt until he was told to return, and at the death of Herod Gabriel visited Joseph again and told him to return.
Satan did every thing he could to keep Jesus from going to the cross and pay the sin debt, don’t you ever think that Satan was glad to see Jesus die on the cross, oh no.
Jesus said in
John 12:31-32 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince**{Satan} of this world be cast out. 32And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me
All men will in deed stand before Him at the judgment.
When Jesus died on the cross in our place Satan knew that his doom was sealed, and so now his goal is to damn as many souls to hell as he can, he hates God, he hates every thing that God loves,-- --he causes wars among nations, any thing to kill men, he knows most of the troops that die are not saved and he don’t want them to have the opportunity to be saved, and he is working behind the scene in causing these young mothers to have an abortion, to kill Gods children.
Don’t you be so naive as to think that things are going to get better, on the contrary, things are going to become worse and worse, with each passing day.
2 Timothy 3:1 & 13 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.---
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
Satan is the root cause of every evil thing you can think of. But you and I that are saved and know the truth are to tell it far and near.
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5And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:// and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
You that might be looking at your Bible, if you will notice the {:} after the word “iron” realize that this takes in the life span of the Lord Jesus, His 33 years on earth are ended at this point as He goes to the Cross and then ascends up into heaven.
--and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
This verse takes in the death of Jesus on the cross and also His resurrection as He ascends to heaven, His death, burial and resurrection was a must in order to defeat Satan, this shows us that He was resurrected by His ascension
Acts 1:9-11 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Heb.2:14 tells us
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;--
Col.2:15
15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.**—in His death and resurrection.
>>>>12:6 is a fore view of what will be described in 12:13-17.<<<<
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6And 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.—3 ½ years, the last half of the Tribulation.
John saw Israel as having fled into the wilderness where God protected her 1,260 days (three-and-a-half years) during the second half of the tribulation period.
The verb “prepared” suggests that God, and perhaps angels and even the 144000 will care for the Jews at this time, this could be who the “they” might be in vs.6.
“prepared” means its already taken care of.
God has preserved His people in both the past and present and will continue to do so in the future.
We believe that this place is “PETRA” in Jordan. I know that now days air planes can fly over places and drop bombs, but I personally believe God will be working in this situation and no planes will fly over Petra, one reason will be that 5/6th of Russia and Iran and the rest of the Gog and Magog-- coalition will be destroyed by God Himself on the mountains of Israel according to Ezekiel 38: and 39:. As that one sided battle is at the middle of the tribulation.
So we believe that this is a reference to Israel fleeing to the rock fortress of Petra, there in Jordan where she’ll be safe for the last half of the seven-year Tribulation.
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