Revelation 12: 1 – 17
Back To The Future
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” 13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Have you ever dreamed or thought that you would have loved to exist in a time in the past? There have been some popular movies dealing with a ‘Time Machine’ where you could go back in time. One such movie which produced three films dealing with this thought was titled ‘Back to the future’. If you could go back in time what period of man’s existence would you like to visit? I’ll give you two choices.
For me I would first want to go back to the time our Lord Jesus was here on earth. I want to slip in with His disciples and witness all the things we read about in the Gospels. For my second choice I would like to go back to the time of James Garfield. He was President of the US a little after Abraham Lincoln. Why would I select this time period? If you ever have the time read up on this time. If amazes me how our Precious Holy Spirit gave out wisdom to a lot of people at this time whose inventions change the course of history such as Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison among other great inventors.
So, today folks, strap on your seat belts for our Great Holy Spirit Is taking us back in time to help us see the future.
As we begin our study let us first take a look at the last verse in chapter 11.
And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
The relationship between Revelation 11:19 and 12:1 is a logical one. Having been instructed to prophesy against "many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings," John gives three reasons for God’s prophetic program against the living wicked earth-dwellers (peoples, nations, and tongues). First, they dishonored his house of worship. Second, they abused His holy city. The third reason involves the persecution of the righteous by the wicked.
The fourth reason John must prophesy again concerns the kings. Thus, in Revelation 12-13, the prophecy turns against the kings. John will focus on the kings who led the nations against the interests of God. The living wicked earth-dwellers refused to worship God, but chose to worship the Dragon and his beast-king who are God’s temporal enemies. The final outbreak of God’s wrath is justified against the living wicked earth-dwellers and their kings because they are guilty.
This is another informational chapter from the little book that John digested [Remember he had to eat the book]. This information is about Israel and her Messiah and Satan’s attempt to stop our Holy God’s plans.
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
Now we are to have unveiled before us even more details of what has previously been described, going back in history and going forward to the end. These few verses are setting the scene for the battle between good and evil.
Please remember that this is a symbol in a book of symbols, but the use of ‘great’ shows how important it is. In those days people were used to interpreting signs in the heavens. Thus it is seen as having great significance. It is one of three signs to be revealed in heaven, the second is the sign of the dragon in verse 3 and the third, the sign of the seven angels with the seven plagues in chapter 15 verse 1. These cover all aspects of history, the history of salvation, the history of rebellion against God, and the history of the judgments of God.
Please take another look at the verse, ‘A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars.’ One way that I found invaluable in figuring out what the Scripture means is the fact that our Blessed Holy Spirit Is not the Author of confusion. To find out what something means search the Scripture to find if what you are looking for is somewhere else in the Bible. The only place in Scripture where we find this combination of sun, moon and stars applied to man is in Genesis 37.9,
Gen 37: 9 “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?”
Because John plainly said this is a sign, we don't expect this woman to appear literally on the earth. God will use this sign to communicate something to John and to us. Women often represent religious systems in Revelation.
. Jezebel is associated with a religious system promoting false teaching (Revelation 2:20)
. The Great Harlot is associated with false religion (Revelation 17:2)
. The Bride is associated with the church (Revelation 19:7-8)
Throughout the Bible a pure ‘woman’ is a symbol of God’s true church while a harlot represents a corrupt church
This woman that John sees symbolized in heaven is Israel. It is the people that descended from Jacob (Israel) that have stayed faithful to Jehovah Elyon, The Lord Most High. John sees Israel symbolized in heaven as a woman. She is clothed with the sun and moon because those in her are descendants from Jacob and Rachel (The sun and moon in the Genesis passage above). Like their parents, the chosen tribes of Israel are clothed with special revelation (light) from God and reflect His glory. The crown with twelve stars that is on her head represents the twelve brethren from the twelve tribes of Israel that were chosen to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now for your help indentifying the various symbols you need to write down what certain things represents. They will continue to be the same throughout the book. They do not ever become something else. The woman represents Israel. Symbolic scripture in heaven is always interpreted by other scripture. Genesis explains who the sun, moon and stars represent in the verse above.
So, here are a few for your notes;
. The woman, representing Israel
. Stars represent angels
. The dragon, representing Satan
. The man-child, Is referring to our Lord Jesus
. The angel Michael, is the head of the angelic host
. The beast out of the sea represents the antichrist
. The beast out of the earth represents the false prophet who promotes the antichrist.
2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
The statement that she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth brings us to the point of delivery. Conception and pregnancy is not in focus. This indicates that our Holy Spirit’s interest in this story is summary in fashion.
First, the King must be born and must take possession of His kingdom. The Child from Israel that pained to be delivered was the promised Messiah that we know as Jesus.
Our Holy God has destined His people to suffer in carrying forward the history of salvation. He has chosen them as His means of salvation, but it was to be through much tribulation and anguish that it would be accomplished. The seed of the woman will smite the Serpent’s head, but He will be born through the woman’s travail as the book of Genesis chapter 3.15-16 teaches, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
The nation of Israel longs for deliverance and the pain associated with the ‘birth’ of them as a new nation. A significant part of this longing is for the birth of the Messiah through whom the nation will achieve its calling.
3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
This is the second sign in heaven.
Take a look again at the description of ‘A fiery red dragon.’ In ancient myths monsters were often seen as fighting with gods in a way that was thought to influence the world. Such ideas were taken up in the Old Testament to depict the enemies of Israel. In Isaiah 27.1 the prophet describes ‘the Leviathan, the swift serpent, the Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and --- the monster that is in the sea’, speaking of the swift river Tigris, the winding river Euphrates and Egypt, in depicting the punishment coming on Assyria and Egypt (this picture is taken from the Baal myths which speak of ‘Lotan the writhing serpent -- the twisted serpent, the accursed one with seven heads’. The monster is thus a great serpent-like creature).
Thus the terms signify awesome enemies of the people of God and are here taken up by John to depict the greatest Enemy of all – Satan.
A question to ask is why the difference in Satan’s appearance? We do see later Satan is described, so how come is he described this way? I believe it is done to distinguish the different time frames of history. We see here the general historical overview of Satan’s attempt to destroy our Lord Jesus when He came to earth in the flesh. Later, we see Satan in our present history causing problems at the end of time.
Again, we are reminded that this is a sign. The creature here was not literally a great, fiery red dragon, but the dragon represented his nature and character. His description "symbolically suggests his fierce power and murderous nature . . . a picture of the fullness of evil in all its hideous strength."
The seven diadems are probably in contrast with the crown of the woman. The former were worn by kings of the nations, the latter is the crown of the victor. However He Who is the Word of God will have many diadems for He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19.12 with 16). The crowns represent his presumptive claims of royal authority against the true King. He wants to be considered a king.
The dragon has seven heads because seven kingdoms had the primary satanically inspired intent to prevent the temporal reign of the Son of God. It is critical that we recognize this important detail. There are only seven kingdoms that constitute the satanically inspired conspiracy to destroy the Man-Child. All seven existed before the birth of the Child. Once the Child is born and caught up to heaven, the strategy to destroy Him at birth ends. The seven kingdoms of the dragon are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece and Rome.
Now what about the 10 horns? If you look back at chapter 12 you see that the dragon had seven head and seven diadems on the heads. The heads as just mentioned are kingdoms. A diadem is a crown with crowns on top of it. This means that these kingdoms had under them rulers from other nations, yet they were ruler’s over other rulers or nations. So, if we are interpreting who these 10 horns are then they are not the powerful empires but nations not as powerful. It is interesting if you look at the book of Joshua I think we find our answers who exactly these 10 horns are. In chapter 3 we read, “And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the[1] Canaanites and the [2] Hittites and the [3] Hivites and the [4] Perizzites and the [5] Girgashites and the [6] Amorites and the [7] Jebusites:
Well this list gives us seven nations. So, where are the other 3? Well, turn to the next book which is Judges chapter 3 for our answer, “1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan 2 (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), 3 namely, five lords of the [8] Philistines, all the [already mentioned] Canaanites, the [9] Sidonians, and the [already mentioned] Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. 4 And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.
I forgot to mention another nation listed in Joshua chapter 13, ““This is the land that yet remains: all the territory of the Philistines and all that of the [10] Geshurites,
Now some teachers have pointed out that the 7 heads and ten horns are what we see in he book of Daniel 7:7-8, that says, “The seven heads and ten horns refer to the original ten kingdoms of Europe which three were subdued by the little horn of Daniel 7:8, who is to be identified with the world ruler of the great tribulation who reigns over the revived Roman Empire." I do not agree and here is why. The Precious Holy Spirit is giving a quick overview of our Lord Jesus’ birth to death. We see in the next verse how Satan desires to kill the baby Jesus. So, this takes us back to that time in history, not hundreds and hundreds of years in the future when the Bishop of Rome takes over both the religious and political ruler ship of the Roman Empire.
4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
Stars are used as symbols for angels. This verse is talking about the fall of Satan and his angels. Satan apparently led a third of the angels in heaven in a rebellion against God. The earth may be the place in the universe where God choose to create beings made in his own image that would replace the fallen angels. Satan deceived Adam and Eve so that they sinned and became enslaved to him through sin and death. When Adam sinned and died the stewardship of the earth given to him was placed under the administration of angels until under God’s law a kinsman redeemer is found.
"God never made an evil being; but He made angels, principalities, and powers capacitated for mighty joys and distinctions in His glorious domain, yet with free will, implied in the very creation of moral beings. Many have remained faithful, such as, 'Michael and his angels.' But some abode not in the truth, but revolted against the rule of Heaven, and became unchanging enemies of God and His Kingdom."
The child the dragon was ready to devour as soon as He was born was our Lord Jesus. Satan tried to stop the “kinsman redeemer Messiah” from coming from the Adamic race. In this passage Satan is ready to devour the Messiah as soon as He was born. This occurred when King Herod sent out the order to kill all infants under two years old in Bethlehem. He did this because the wise men from the East told him the Messiah was prophesized to be born at Bethlehem at the time the star was seen.
Satan failed to stop the Messiah from fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies when Joseph was warned by an angel in a dream to flee to Egypt with the child. Later when the child was grown He directly appealed to the Father Himself and no one could take His life from Him. He freely laid down His life for us at the time appointed by the Father to pay the price for the salvation of mankind. The scriptures record several times that some did try to kill Him but they could not. Satan’s continual failure to thwart God’s plan allowed the Son of Man to pay the blood price as kinsman redeemer for the human race at the cross.
But Satan is revealed as the great destroyer to an even greater extent, and in his case the stars cast down are angels (12.9) who fell when he fell.
We read in the book of 2 Peter of other fallen angels where Peter speaks of God in chapter 2 verse 4 of not sparing ‘the angels who sinned’, casting them down to Tartarus ( a place of suffering) to be reserved for judgment, while Jude in verse 6 speaks of ‘the angels who did not keep their own sphere of activity, but left their proper habitation’. They are ‘kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day’. But these were exceptionally the angels who had tried to muscle in physically on human affairs in the time of Noah, crossing the forbidden boundary between physical and spiritual.
Please take note of the fact that the monster cannot devour the woman. We see here another example of God’s preserving power. God says, ‘thus far you may go and no further’. Why must he wait until the child is born? It is important to understand that the great red dragon exists before the birth of the child. The heads [ all the kingdoms ] must wait for the birth of the child before they can destroy it. Each dragon inspired empire attempted to destroy the Male-Son. This satanically inspired strategy dates back to the very beginning of Scripture.
The picture that follows does not pretend to be a detailed explanation of the life of Jesus, but to illustrate the important fact of His triumph in as few words as possible. The Lord Jesus' ministry is described by its earthly beginning and end so as not to divert attention away from the woman, and to centre attention on the battle in the heavens. John did not want attention to be turned aside from the main point, the woman’s career.
That attempt is looked on as summarizing all Satan’s later activities, his constant attempts to destroy The Lord Jesus, which ended in the cross. There he thought he had finally succeeded, but his total failure is clearly summed up in the fact that our Lord Jesus was carried up to His Father’s throne, a proof of His triumph and of the fact that He now reigns in Heaven.
An attempt is sometimes made to relate the male child directly to the church and not to Christ at all. But no over comer is to be borne up to God’s throne directly. Rather he shares Christ’s throne with Him and the difference in the two is made crystal clear elsewhere in Revelation 3.21. The over comer has this promise to ‘rule’ the nations precisely because he is in Christ and shares His throne, and not by any intrinsic right of his own. His authority is secondary. It is our Lord Jesus Christ Who has the primary authority because He shares His Father’s throne. The promise in Revelation 2.27 is an assurance that the over comer will be set above those who have previously persecuted him, but it does not make him the primary ruler of the nations. That is only true of our Great and Wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.
5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
She bore a male Child: The text says literally, a male son, which appears redundant and unnecessary. One cannot have a son without it being a male. The point seems to be that this is a special son.
This refers to Jesus' birth. The term “Rule all nations with a rod of iron’ refers to the triumphant return of The Lord Jesus. By stating the starting point and ending point of The Lord Jesus' earthly work, John alluded to all that stood in between.
All the nations as a biblical phrase have a long history throughout Scripture. It appears more than sixty times in the Old Testament. It occurs five times in the Revelation (12:5; 14:8; 15:4; 18:3, 23). The phrase may or may not include the Jews, but it always represents all the Gentiles nations of the known world. These nations will be under the control of the Son. This explains why the dragon will seek to keep the Son from His destiny. This Son will replace the dragon as king of the earth and will demand the submission of all earthly authority to Him.
Now some people want to make a big deal about the term ‘Was caught up’. They want to try to tie this into the description of the ‘Rapture’ but this isn’t correct in my opinion because the verb can mean simply ‘borne away unresistingly’.[Remember He Ascended into Heaven on a cloud] Thus it is used in Acts 8.39 of Philip being taken away by the Spirit having spoken with the Ethiopian eunuch and in 2 Corinthians 12.2 of Paul being taken up to the third heaven. It carries no special significance of urgency. It simply describes what happens as being the action of God from the throne.
Only one person will rule the world with a rod of iron according to scripture. That person is our Creator Lord Jesus (Rev 19:15 - Psalm 2:9).
As mentioned, some say the Church is also seen in this passage because we are the body of Christ and are raised up with Him to rule and reign with Him. The Church is not a man child, she is a woman. It should be clear the primary focus of this verse is the birth of King Jesus for without Him we would all be caught down to hell, not up to His throne.
6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
. Then the woman fled into the wilderness indicates that the safety of the Son in heaven is followed by the safety of the woman in the wilderness. This confirms that the Son was caught up from the earth. The wilderness has a rich tradition as a place of safety from trouble as well as a place of temptation and testing. Unlike Jesus who went to the wilderness to be tempted and Israel who went to the wilderness to be tested, the woman flees to the wilderness to be "saved." First, she will be saved physically and then spiritually, as with Elijah whom God protected and fed in the wilderness for three and a half years (1 Kings 17:1-7; 19:3-4).
The fleeing into the wilderness is similar to the ‘flee into the mountains’ of Matthew 24.16; Mark 13.14; Luke 21.21, advice from The Lord Jesus of what those in Judea should do when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies (Luke 21.20) and when the desolating abomination is set up (the image of the Emperor of Rome on the standards of the legions). John speaks with awareness that at that time the people of God did flee over the Jordan into the wilderness country.
According to the historian Eusebius the Jerusalem church fled to Pella beyond the Jordan, and many Jewish Christians in Judea and Galilee no doubt fled into the surrounding wilderness for safety under persecution from the local would be ‘Messiahs’ who sprang up and demanded a following, as well as seeking safety in the light of the Roman response to those Messiahs.
It appears that John is concerned with the symbolism of the wilderness, namely that it signified a time of testing and purifying (1 Kings 19.4, 15; Mark 1.12-13; Matthew 4.1; Luke 4.1). The connection with Elijah is especially important as it explains the mention of the one thousand two hundred and sixty days, which is three and a half years, for the idea of three and a half years is closely linked with Elijah as a God-appointed period in which he sought a place of refuge from the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel in places prepared by God, commencing in the wilderness ( 1 Kings 17.1 with 18.1; 17.3, 9; compare Luke 4.25; James 5.17).
John has a habit of taking incidents in the life of Elijah and giving them new meaning Compare the seven thousand killed in the earthquake (11.13) in contrast with the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19.18); The false fire that comes down from Heaven (13.13) representing an imitation Elijah; and the fact that the two witnesses can prevent rain from Heaven (11.6). So he sees a similarity between Elijah fleeing into the wilderness from the wrath of the king, and being sustained there by God, and the fleeing into the wilderness of the people of God where they too will be sustained.
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
This occurs before the flight into the wilderness (12.13). Do you remember the words of our Master and King, The Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke 10:18 said "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." So, Holy Lord while He was here on earth had seen this action.
Michael is the angelic Prince of the people of God and it is his duty to intervene directly because the people of God are going to be under attack, an attack which will eventually result in their fleeing into the wilderness (Daniel 12.1). Michael and his angels are a comfort to the people of God, for they indicate that the supernatural powers that have previously been described do not have it all their own way (Daniel 10). Behind the persecutions described in Acts and elsewhere are the activities of Satan seeking to destroy God’s remnant. So Michael goes into battle with him.
This battle commences even while Christ is on earth. This is a dramatic scene of battle between good angels and bad angels.- Faithful angels and fallen angels. This is truly a battle between equals. The dragon represents Satan (Revelation 12:9), and Satan is not the counterpart of God - God has no counterpart. If anyone, Satan is the counterpart of Michael, who seems to be the chief angel opposite this chief of fallen angels.
Through the power of Christ, (we learn here with the able assistance of Michael and his angels), the strong man is bound and his house ransacked (Matthew 12.29; Mark 3.27), Through His presence on earth, and His death and resurrection and exaltation to the throne, the principalities and powers are disarmed and led in a show of victory (Colossians 2.15). And now that Christ has won the victory over sin for His people the ‘Accuser’ has no place before God. He will, of course, carry on with his accusations but from a far weaker base.
This victory is of great importance for it prevents the direct access of Satan to God, which is a central thought in this passage. Because Michael triumphs through Christ’s strength (Jude 1.9), Satan no longer has direct entry to accuse God’s people as he did of old (verse 10; see Zechariah 3.1; Job 1 and 2). He will of course continue to accuse day and night, as he has always done, but he must do it indirectly. Along with that, of course, his final defeat is signaled, and his power is broken. There will be other battles but he is a defeated foe.
We must unquestionably link this victory of Michael with the fact that the woman’s son, the male child, has taken His place on the throne of God. Previously Michael himself has had to be wary in his dealings with Satan (Jude 1.9), saying “the Lord rebuke you”, but the presence of the Lord on earth, and His cross and resurrection, summed up in His sharing the throne of His Father in triumph, have broken Satan’s power. Incidentally, had He wanted them, these are some of the legions Jesus could have called on in His fatal hour (Matthew 26.53), but their intervention on earth would have prevented God’s plan being fulfilled. They may fight in Heaven but He must endure His suffering on earth, for sin had to be dealt with and Michael and his angels could do nothing about that.
The Bible describes four different falls of Satan.
. From glorified to profane (Ezekiel 28:14-16)
. From having access to heaven (Job 1:12, 1 Kings 22:21, Zechariah 3:1) to restriction to the earth (Revelation 12)
. From the earth to bondage in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years (Revelation 20)
. From the pit to the lake of fire (Revelation 20)
Some individuals and groups insist on saying that Michael is actually our Lord Jesus. This is wrong on every count. Here are some reasons;
1. Some say Michael must be Jesus, because he has his angels. But if Satan - a fallen angelic being - has his angels (Revelation 12:7), can't Michael - an angelic being - have angels under his authority?
2. Some say Michael must be Jesus, because his name means ‘One like God’. But if this were a title of Jesus, it could argue against His deity, not for it - because it would say that Jesus is like God, but not God. "There is also an unquestionable Godlikeness in all holy beings, which must be very exalted in those preeminent among the ministers of the throne."
3. Some say Michael must be Jesus, because he is called the archangel (Jude 9), which means leader or prince among the angels, and they say that only Jesus is the leader of the angels. But we know from Daniel 10:13, 10:20 and 10:21 that Michael is one angelic prince among others. Also, Paul refers to an archangel in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 in a way that presupposes other archangels.
4. . Some say that Michael must be Jesus, because Paul says that at the rapture, the Lord will call His people with the voice of an archangel (1 Thessalonians 4:16). But Jesus can use an angel to call out for His people without being that angel, just as much as God can use a trumpet to sound out a call without being the trumpet.
5. Jude 9 says that Michael would not rebuke or accuse Satan on His own authority, but only say "The Lord rebuke you." This shows that Michael isn't Jesus, because Jesus often rebuked Satan and demons in His own authority (Matthew 17:18, Mark 1:25, 9:25, Luke 4:8, 4:35).
As a result of the exaltation of the male child as the slain Lamb, the Devil and his angels have no further place in the heavens. Their activities there are no longer to be permitted. They are defeated. And while their presence on earth is not good news for the world, it is good news for Christians (v.10).
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
The Greek word for love here is agape, which speaks of a self-sacrificing, decision-based love. It is up to each one of us to choose: Will we love our lives to the death? Will our physical lives be the most precious thing to us, or will we find our life by losing it for Jesus?
Heaven rejoices at the eviction of Satan. But heaven's gain is not the same for the earth. Satan's power is real and terrifying, but not because he is triumphant, but because he knows he is beaten and has a short time left. He is like a wounded, cornered animal that fights ferociously.
Satan might give up his fight against God and humanity made in God's image, except for the fact that he is utterly depraved, and probably insane in some way; Satan may have deceived even himself into thinking that he has a chance. We need to remember that our rebellion against God makes even less sense than Satan's rebellion does.
Now the statement “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death:” tells us three keys to the saint's victory over Satan.
1. . They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb: The blood overcomes Satan's accusations. Those accusations mean nothing against us because Jesus has already paid the penalty our sins deserved. We may be even worse than Satan's accusations, but we are still made righteous by the work of Jesus on the cross (Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14, and Hebrews 9:14). The blood speaks to us of the real, physical death of Jesus Christ in our place, on our behalf, before God. That literal death in our place, and the literal judgment He bore on our behalf, is what saves us.
2. ‘By the blood’ emphasizes the death of our Lord Jesus. He did not only suffer, He died. ‘Of the Lamb’ emphasizes the substitutionary work of His death, because the Passover Lamb died as a substitute for others.
3. The blood of Jesus heals our troubled conscience, because we know that by His death our sin is atoned for (Hebrews 9:14).Knowing this fact should cause us to use the doctrine of atonement as a weapon to subdue our sin." How does the blood of the Lamb conquer Satan in the life of the believer? How does the death of Jesus on the cross as our substitute bring us victory? It works first because His victory is our victory. "First, you are to regard Satan this day as being already literally and truly overcome through the death of the Lord Jesus. Satan is already a vanquished enemy. By faith grasp your Lord's victory as your own; since he triumphed in your nature and on your behalf. It works because the work of Jesus on the cross for us is the ultimate demonstration of God's love and a constant remembrance of the blood of the Lamb assures us that every fear Satan whispers into our mind is a lie. It works because the death of Jesus on the cross as our substitute reveals the true nature of sin, and this makes us want to avoid sin. "Satan makes sin seem pleasurable, but the cross reveals its bitterness. The great preacher Spurgeon remarked “If Jesus died because of sin, men begin to see that sin must be a murderous thing." It works because the death of Jesus on the cross as our substitute purchases us as God's personal property, and this makes us want to live unto God
How do you feel about this statement, ‘Loving not their lives’? It says in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 3, ‘Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.” There are many people even in the world today that are losing their lives in not renouncing their faith in our Lord Jesus. As we see from this verse there will be many people who will renounce their faith so they will not be killed. Will you be willing to give your life also if necessary?
You see if you do not cling to your own earthly lives, then there really is no threat Satan can bring against you. If you believe to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21), then how can Satan's violence against you be effective?
So again these three things are required in order to be an over comer and are worth repeating, (1) the blood of the Lamb which cleanses from all sin and motivates their lives, (2) their witness to the truth of His word and to Him Who Is The Truth, which is all based on His word, and (3) their readiness to die for Christ. This is the encouragement John gives in the face of coming persecution.
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
So persecution comes from the fact that Satan is defeated. This persecution by the serpent begins in Acts with the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7), and continues on through the history of the early church in Jerusalem. The fleeing into the wilderness to be nourished does, as we have seen, parallel the experience of Elijah, and the period, three and a half years, is the same, but here it is stated in days to demonstrate God’s daily concern for His people. Especially in mind is the flight from Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee, from the persecutions of false ‘Messiahs’ and equally vicious Romans, at the time of the final destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.
14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
The idea of the wings of ‘the great eagle’ has in mind ‘the flying eagle’ in Revelation 4.7 which was one of the living creatures, referred to again in 8.13 as ‘a flying eagle’ with ‘a great voice’. This would suggest the participation of a living creature, one of the cherubim, in the protection of the woman, the faithful in Israel. The psalmist tells us of God that ‘he rode upon a cherub and did fly, yes, he flew on the wings of the wind’ (Psalm 18.10), and that is in mind here. The woman is privileged to ride, as it were, to safety on a cherub. In other words she has God’s special protection as she flees.
It is also connected with Exodus 19.4 where God says to Israel “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”, i.e. to Mount Sinai in the wilderness, the place of God’s revelation of Himself and the making of the covenant. So her flight is seen as a precursor to later enjoyment of ‘the Promised Land’.
The description of the eagle as ‘a great eagle’ goes beyond just this, however, and suggests, as we have seen, the participation of the living creature. We can recognize from Exodus 19.4 that the woman was not borne away from God in her flight, but was borne to Him. It was not a loss but a gain.
Compare how God was borne to the people of Israel in exile on the wings of the cherubim (Ezekiel 1). There His people had been forcibly taken away, but when they reached their destination they found God was there with them. (The greatest eagle of all is found in Deuteronomy 32.11, where the eagle who bore Israel is God Himself, but that was from the wilderness, not to it. God will not leave His people in the wilderness permanently).
The water like a river coming from the dragon’s mouth can, in the first place, be compared with the fire from the locust’s mouths (9.18). It is something spiritually destructive. An ironic contrast may be intended between believers from whose innermost being flow rivers of living water (John 7.38), and the Temple from which flowed the water of life (Ezekiel 47), and Satan from whose mouth flows a river of destructive waters. Thus it may refer to a flood of ‘false ideas’ seeking to turn God’s people from their faith, a flood which was somehow diverted ‘by God’.
Remember we have just read how believers did not love their lives unto death. Behind the real physical threats of losing your lives by martyrdom is Satan and his cronies giving off mental attacks.
At the time when large numbers of Jews were preparing to take up arms against the Romans tremendous pressure was being put on fellow Jews to participate in the insurrection. Christian Jews who had fled into the wilderness might indeed have been sought out to persuade them to participate, and John may even have known of a particularly nasty situation where this was prevented by some natural occurrence such as an earthquake, or by assistance from non-Christians giving them refuge. ‘The earth’, in contrast to Heaven, may represent such people - for in Revelation non-Christians are ‘those who dwell on earth’. (The methods used to gain support were sometimes particularly nasty for those who were obdurate. Men can easily lose control when patriotism and religious feeling go hand in hand).
Alternatively, in Isaiah 43.2 waters and rivers are pictures of tribulation and hardship that will come on the people of God, and there He promises, ‘I will be with you --- they shall not overflow you’ (compare Psalm 66.12). Thus this may refer to the waters of persecution which Satan tried to bring on those whom God was protecting. The earth is then seen as opening up to protect His people in fulfillment of His promise. Again there may be in mind non-Christian sympathetic assistance, ‘swallowing them up’ and enabling them to avoid pursuers.
John clearly has in mind in this description (how could he not?) the fact that the woman’s flight parallels the previous flight by the people of Israel into the wilderness for safety from the threat of Pharaoh (Exodus 14.5), where they also were fed by God. Then it was Pharaoh who sent his armies after them to his own destruction.
In Jeremiah 46.8 these armies of Egypt are in fact likened to ‘waters like rivers’ that cover the earth. ‘Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers, and he says “I will rise up, I will cover the earth, I will destroy the city and its inhabitants”.’ So Egypt and its armies are visualized in terms of the Nile whose waters like rivers seek to destroy, like a great river sweeping over the land. This picture John now takes up.
The river of Satan being likened to ‘the river of Egypt’, and seeking to overwhelm the fleeing ‘Israel’ as at the Exodus. The earth opening up may then be referring to some natural phenomenon that diverted the soldiers from their grim duty, as the waters of the red sea swallowed up Pharaoh’s host.
Indeed all three ideas may have been in John’s mind, the river depicting satanic attack from all sources.
Whichever is in the mind of John the important fact is that Satan did his worst and God protected His people.
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
[ 13.1a] and he stood on the sand of the sea.’
The anger of the dragon, unable to snatch his prey, is now turned against ‘the rest of her seed’, i.e. the remainder other than ‘the son, the male child’. This refers to those who have become part of the children of Israel by submission to Christ. They ‘keep the commandments of God’ thus demonstrating that they have been brought within the covenant of grace of Sinai.
Combined with keeping His commandments these ‘children’ of the Israel also ‘hold the testimony of Jesus’, declaring their loyalty to Him because of what He has done for them as well as obeying His commandments. As they are the seed of the woman they are ‘true’ children of Israel.
‘And he stood on the sand of the sea’. Now is to be outlined the beast’s activity against the people of God through those who dwell on earth. He has failed in the wilderness sands, which proved his enemy and swallowed up his wrath, for the wilderness is never his friend and, as the place of solitude and waiting on God, always protects the people of God. So now he will attack from another position. Now he stands on the sandy shore of the great sea to see emerge from there the instruments of his wrath.
The sand and sea together can be seen as representing the nations and peoples of the world in tumult and as threatening the people of God.
