Today, we have the privilege of working through Revelation 12. This chapter is going to have a different feel, than much of what we've read so far. We've gotten used to working with symbols, and images, and not taking things literally. And that hasn't changed. But what's different today, is the "when." We've gotten used to the idea that Revelation explains the present, and the future. But Revelation 12 begins by describing the very distant past. We will find ourselves traveling backward in time, thousands of years. And this past, revolves around four main entities: God, God's people, Satan, and Jesus. Eventually, we will find ourselves talking about the present, and the future. But it will be a process. And that process basically answers one question: "How did God's people find themselves here, loved by God, attacked by Satan?"
Let's start by reading 12:1:
(1) and a great sign appeared in heaven:
a woman clothed with the sun (like God; Psalm 104:2; h/t Koester),
and the moon under her feet (Revelation 3:9; 10:2; 22:8; Matt 22:44; Ps 8:7; h/t Koester)
and upon her head a crown of 12 stars (sort of an adaptation of Genesis 37:7-11?),
John begins chapter 12 by telling us that he saw a sign in heaven. This tells us what we are about to read, is some type of symbol. A sign, by itself, is not the main thing. A sign points to something else, in symbolic language. My hope is that at this point in the book, reading symbolically has become second nature. But at any rate, this is a sign, and not something to try to press literally.
The sign that John sees, is a woman. But this is no ordinary woman. She's magnificent. She's clothed with the sun, a bit like God. The moon under her feet suggests cosmic dominion, and authority. And the crown on her head, with 12 stars, suggests something along the same lines.
Now, this combo of the moon under her feet, and 12 stars, probably makes us think about Genesis 37:5-11. Let's turn there (NRSV updated no reason):
5 Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.
9 He had another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” 11 So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
What John sees, and what Joseph dreamed, are not quite the same thing. But the links steer us to understanding who the woman is.
She sounds a lot like an ideal version of Israel. 12 tribes, cosmic authority, glorious, powerful.
Now, we read this, and we kind of pause. We know that this is not often what Israel ended up looking like. This is maybe Israel, on her very best day. But this picture, is how God wants Israel to look. Or, just maybe, this is how God sees Israel, despite her flaws. We will just have to keep reading, and see :) So the woman is Israel. And I say this, sincerely. But I also say this, baiting you, and messing with you :)
Verse 2:
(2) and in her womb having [=pregnant, "in her womb is focused in Greek],
and she is crying out (Isaiah 26:17; Isaiah 66:7-8; Jeremiah 4:31; Micah 4:9-10),
having birth pains,
and being tortured/tormented to give birth,
What we see here, is that the woman, Israel, is in labor.
And this symbolism, of Israel being a woman in labor, is a common one in the OT. We read this, and it reassures us that we are on the right track. I put several OT verses in the translation, but let's read just two of them. The first, is Micah 4:9-10 (NRSV updated no reason):
Micah 4:9-10:
Now why do you cry aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?
10 Writhe and groan,[a] O daughter Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go forth from the city
and camp in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
The second is from Isaiah 66:5-13:
Hear the word of the LORD,
you who tremble at his word:
Your own people who hate you [not all "Israel" is "Israel"]
and reject you for my name’s sake
have said, “Let the LORD be glorified,
so that we may see your joy,”
but it is they who shall be put to shame.
6 Listen, a roar from the city!
A voice from the temple!
The voice of the LORD,
dealing retribution to his enemies!
7 Before she was in labor
she gave birth;
before her pain came upon her
she delivered a son.
8 Who has heard of such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall a nation be delivered in one moment?
Yet as soon as Zion was in labor
she delivered her children.
9 Shall I open the womb and not deliver?
says the LORD;
shall I, the one who delivers, shut the womb?
says your God.
10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
all you who mourn over her—
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast,
that you may drink deeply with delight
from her glorious bosom.
12 For thus says the LORD:
I will extend prosperity to her like a river
and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream,
and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm
and bounced on her knees.
13 As a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
I don't know that I would argue that either Micah 4 or Isaiah 66 is a direct prophecy or link to Revelation 12 (Isaiah 66:7 is awkward, for one thing, and that's really not the way that Revelation uses the OT. It reimages, and adapts, the OT.). But these passages show that the language of Israel as woman, wife, and mother is a common one in the OT.
So we find ourselves feeling pretty confident about this, and I'm only trying to mess with you a tiny bit. The woman is Israel. And she's pregnant, and in tortuous labor. So she's a glorious woman, powerful, and authoritative-- but she's also, at this moment, vulnerable.
Verse 3:
(3) and another sign appeared in heaven [this one a lesser sign, not "great"],
and LOOK! A great fiery red dragon,
having seven heads (Psalm 74:14; Testament of Abraham (Rescension A) 17:14; 19:7; Odes of Solomon 22:5;
signifies death),
and ten horns,
and upon its head seven crowns,
(4) and its tail dragged away (used of fish in John 21:8) a third of the stars of heaven (Rev. 8:12),
and it threw them toward the earth (1 Enoch 21:3-6; 86:1-3; Genesis 6?),
and the dragon stood before the woman-- the one about to give birth--
in order that, whenever she gave birth to her child, he would eat/consume [it],
Dragons are not just the stuff of fairy tales. They're found throughout the OT, especially in the Greek translation of the OT (Septuagint). [Koester, Revelation, 544, points to Psalm 74:13-14 [73:13-14 LXX], Job 7:12; 26:13; 41:1; Ezekiel 32:2 LXX; Jeremiah 51:34 [28:34 LXX]; Isaiah 27:1). Let's turn to Psalm 74:12-14 (NRSV updated, probably the translation here matters):
Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food[c] for the creatures of the wilderness.
Now let's turn to Isaiah 27:1:
27 On that day the LORD with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
In the OT, dragons are very real threats, who need to be kept in place and guarded by God (Job 7:12). And Isaiah prophesies that one day, God will kill the dragon in the sea.
So when we turn back to Revelation 12, what do we see? We see a ridiculously powerful, scary dragon. Like the woman, he has crowns. He has 10; she has 12. So both have great authority. And that's awkward. The dragon and the woman are apparently enemies. And the dragon is planning to use the woman's vulnerability, not to eat her, but to eat her baby.
How can a pregnant woman, in the act of giving birth, protect her child from a seven-headed dragon who is powerful, and who patiently waits for the baby to be born?
And with this, the scene in Revelation 12 is set. We have a pregnant, glorious woman, and we have this great red dragon.
Actually, before we move on, let's reread the first part of verse 4:
(4) and its tail dragged away (used of fish in John 21:8) a third of the stars of heaven (Rev. 8:12),
and it threw them toward the earth (1 Enoch 21:3-6; 86:1-3; Genesis 6?),
It's tempting to identify the stars here as fallen angels, but I think it's better to identify the stars as literal stars here. The dragon, like God, disrupts the cosmos, and damages a third of the stars. The dragon isn't maybe quite God's equal, but he has cosmic power. And we will just have to see, in the battle of strength, who comes out on top.
Verse 5:
(5) and she gave birth to a son-- a male child--
who is going to shepherd/rule all the nations with an iron rod (Psalm 2:8),
and her child was snatched away to God,
and to his throne,
What we see, in verse 5, is the woman giving birth to Jesus. This is, without question, Jesus. Jesus is the total fulfillment of Psalm 2, destined to rule the nations.
But what we see in verse 5, is that the entirety of Jesus' earthly ministry is compressed down into a single half verse. Jesus is born, and he's snatched away to God, and to his throne in heaven [It's often pointed out that part of the reason this is so compressed, is because John here is adapting a well-known story from Roman/Greek mythology that involved a great red dragon trying to eat a baby. But I'm just going to pass over that].
So the dragon loses. Right? The dragon patiently waited for the Messiah to be born, was ready for the child-- and somehow failed. The woman's son ascended to God, and to his throne.
So now we have three pictures of beings with authority, who rule: the woman, the dragon, and the child.
Verse 6:
(6) and the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she had there a place having been prepared by God [like Hagar, Israel, and Elijah],
in order that, there, they could feed her 1,260 days [the time of the church-- the witnesses, and the
trampling of the temple],
So Jesus has ascended to heaven. He's with God. The woman is not. She's still on earth, and the dragon is still on the loose. So she runs into the wilderness.
Now, some of us enjoy visiting the wilderness. We like driving to really rustic, remote parts of the country. We enjoy getting away from everything. But we do so, ideally, with full coolers, and a camping site with hard walls that protect us from bears. The other part about spending time in the wilderness, that makes it enjoyable, is that it has a clear end date. Most of us have bosses that weirdly expect us to work, to get a paycheck. So eventually, you run out of vacation time and have to leave the wilderness.
Wilderness areas, by definition, are hard places to live. You can visit. But they are not a place where you willingly try to make a living. If you live in the wilderness, it's because your enemy has pushed you there, and his power is greater than yours.
When we turn back to verse 6 with all of this, what do we see? The woman flees from the dragon, into the wilderness. But God has prepared a place for her there, and He provides for her. The woman is like Hagar in Genesis 16, or like Elijah in 1 Kings 17. She will be okay. And she will be okay, for the entirety of her stay in the wilderness-- all 1,260 days.
Now, this is a number we've seen twice so far. This is the length of time that the Gentiles trample the outer courtyard in Revelation 11. And it's the length of time that the two witnesses-- the church-- tells the world about Jesus.
So who is this woman? You can still call her "Israel," if you'd like. That's fair, and accurate (Galatians 6:16). But you can only call her Israel, if you understand that you are Israelites. Israel is God's people, across every tongue and tribe and skin color and nation.
So what we see in this verse, is the church. We see ourselves. The dragon failed to consume Jesus. Jesus is safely at God's right hand. But we, Israel, the church, God's people, are still here. And the dragon, is still here. But we are kept safe from the dragon out here, in the wilderness.
Now, we maybe don't find this wilderness very breathtaking, or romantic. But this wilderness we are in, is in its own way beautiful. How so?
I find myself thinking about Jeremiah 2 (NRSV updated):
2 The word of the LORD came to me, saying: 2 Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD:
I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the LORD,
the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it were held guilty;
disaster came upon them,
says the LORD.
When you are in the wilderness with God, it's obvious that your life is in God's hands. You live, because God protects you. He leads you on good paths; He protects you from every danger (Jeremiah 2:6). And when you live with that as your reality, you tend to be like a young bride-- devoted, faithful. When you leave the wilderness, it's easy to lose sight of that (and God goes on to complain about that in the rest of Jeremiah 2).
In the western church, we maybe don't think about ourselves as living in the wilderness with God. We maybe don't understand that we live, only because God provides for us, and protects us from the dragon. Maybe we've lost sight of that, because the physical place we live in, is in many ways a good land (Jeremiah 2:7). But we are in the wilderness. And that's where we will be, for the entirety of the time from Christ's ascension, up to his return-- all 1,260 days (following Koester, Revelation, 547).
With this, we come to verses 7-9. Understanding how these verses fit with what we just read, is probably the hardest part of the whole chapter.
Let's reread verse 6:
(6) and the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she had there a place having been prepared by God [like Hagar and Israel],
in order that, there, they could feed her 1,260 days [the time of the church-- the witnesses, and the
trampling of the temple],
Now let's hop down to verse 14:
(14) and it was given to the woman, the two wings of the great eagle, [Exodus 19:4; Deut. 32:10-12; Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 103:5],
in order that she could fly to/into the wilderness,
to/into her place where she feeds there for a time, times, and half a time from the face/presence of the
serpent [again, the time of the church; like Hagar [Genesis 16:1-13], Israel [Exodus 16], and Eliljah [1 Kings
17:1-7]],
In verses 6, and 14, we have the same woman, fleeing into the same wilderness, for the same period of time, for the same reason. Verses 6 and 14 are both a picture of the church-- of us. The dragon is angry with us, and angry that he lost, and he tries to take out that anger on us. But we are enabled, by God, to run away and hide in a safe place from the dragon. God keeps the church safe.
So what this shows, is that we can't read all of Revelation 12 as being in chronological sequence. Starting in verse 7, Revelation reloops back on itself in time. It presents the same events as verses 1-6, but with more of a focus on heaven. Eventually, it ends by refocusing on the earth, and the church. But overall, it's more about heaven. [What makes this so hard, is that it's not obvious that this is what's happening in verse 7. It's really only when we get to verse 14 that we (=Garrett, lol) realize we've completely lost track of what's going on, and are super confused.] And if any of you are still trying to hang on to a chronologically ordered, literal numbering, just see here that this is the fourth (of eventually five) 3 1/2 year period that Revelation describes. [So discussions about pre-, mid-, and post-trib rapture should really be pre-, early-mid, mid, late-mid, or post-trib rapture.]
So, verse 7-9:
(7) and a war happened in heaven-- Michael and his angels, to make war with the dragon,
and the dragon made war-- [with] also his angels--
(8) and they weren't strong [enough],
nor was a place found for them still in heaven,
(9) and he was thrown down--
the dragon-- the great one--,
the serpent-- the ancient one--
the one called "devil"
and "the satan/adversary"
the one deceiving the whole world--
he was thrown down to the earth,
and his angels with him were thrown down [Runge thinks "with him" is focused; not sure],
So Jesus has ascended to heaven, to God and to "his" throne. The dragon lost that fight. And then God initiates a war in heaven. He sends the archangel Michael, along with his angels, to fight the dragon.
And for what purpose?
The goal of this battle, isn't the death of the dragon. This is not the final battle. The goal of this battle, is to force the dragon out of heaven.
Why is that a big deal?
We see in verse 9 that the dragon has many names. One of them, is "the satan." Or, in Hebrew, we'd probably translate that as "The adversary." One of the dragon's main jobs in the OT, is to serve as something like a prosecuting attorney in God's divine council (assuming a lot here of people). His job, basically, is to point out people's sin, accusing them of wrongdoing. We see this in the book of Job, where the satan argues that Job only obeys because God is so good to him. But the clearest picture of this is in Zechariah 3:1-5 (NRSV updated):
3 Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD and the accuser[a] standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to the accuser,[b] “The LORD rebuke you, O accuser![c] The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was wearing filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel[d] said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And to him he said, “See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel.” 5 And he said,[e] “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with apparel, and the angel of the LORD was standing by.
"The satan" here points out every flaw, all of the sin, of the high priest Joshua. And that's what the dragon does, in the OT, to all of God's people.
But now, that's no longer true. Michael and his angels have defeated the satan, and kicked him out of heaven. So there's no longer anyone in God's presence, whose mission revolves around pointing out your sin. Someone else has taken his place (Revelation 5:6)-- the Lion-Lamb, whose blood cleanses us from sin.
So we've talked a lot about what Jesus has accomplished through his death, and resurrection, and ascension. But we can add something else to this list. What Jesus has done, has made it so there is no place, no role, for the dragon in heaven. He has nothing to do there.
And so what we've seen, so far, is that satan is a two-time loser. He wasn't strong enough to deal with a pregnant woman, and keep the Messiah from ascending to heaven. And he wasn't strong enough to fight Michael. Despite all his heads, and crowns, and power, he's suffered two crushing defeats.
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Craig R. Koester, Revelation: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, ed. John J. Collins, vol. 38A, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2014), 551, notes the huge difference in interpretation that dispensationalists make here. They think Satan isn't forced out of heaven until the literal 7 year tribulation, and that he continues to have access to heaven and the throne, accusing Christians to this day.
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Verse 10-11:
(10) and I heard a great voice in heaven saying,
"Now has come the salvation and the power (different word from verse 8) and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority/power of his Christ/Messiah,
because the accuser of our brothers was thrown down-- the one accusing them before our God day and
night--
(11) and they conquered him
through the blood of the Lamb
and through the word of their testimony,
and they didn't love their lives (literally, "souls," but "souls" means "lives") up to death.
This moment, when satan was thrown down out of heaven, is a huge event. It marks a significant advance for God's kingdom. It's a moment of triumph, and victory, in heaven.
At the same time, we find in verse 11 that this is our victory as well. Christ's conquest over satan, is something we share in. We, as God's people Israel, don't look like the high priest Joshua. Satan would love to point his finger at us, accusing us of guilt. But (1) he's no longer has access to God, and (2) we are now clean, and forgiven, through Christ's blood. And this cleanness, is not just a forensic, judicial cleanliness. It's reality. We are not sinners saved by grace, who live in bondage to sin. We are not a church who drags ourselves into this building every Sunday, feeling low, and dirty, and hopelessly weak. We are saints-- God's holy ones, who live committed lives to our Lord and Savior. So we have conquered through the blood of Jesus.
Verse 11 tells us that we have conquered in a second way. We have conquered satan through the word of our testimony. The idea here, is evangelism. We are the two witnesses, who go around telling people about what Jesus has accomplished through his death, resurrection, and ascension (Revelation 11). We invite people to join God's kingdom, and be forgiven of their sins. And we do this, knowing it might cost us everything. We might lose our lives, telling people about Jesus. And we accept this, and do it anyway. It's a sweet and sour gospel we share, and we accept the sour (Revelation 10).
Verse 12:
(12) For this reason rejoice, heavens and the ones in them dwelling!
Woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has descended to you,
having great anger,
knowing that little time he has ["little time" is focused],
So heaven rejoices at what Christ has accomplished. This is reason to sing. But the devil is not yet killed. He's kicked out of heaven, and now he works only on the earth, and in the sea. He's here.
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Koester, Revelation, 552:
“But woe to the earth and sea, because the devil has come down to you with great anger. Previous woes warned of God’s wrath, which is provoked by evil and directed at those who destroy the earth (8:13; 11:18). Here, woe comes because of the devil’s fury, which is provoked by the frustration of his plans and is directed against those who live on the earth. The devil will use beasts from the sea and land to promote false worship and the whore to draw those on the earth and in the sea into a web of violence, greed, and idolatry (13:1–18; 17:2; 18:17, 19, 24). If the proper response to God’s wrath is repentance and faith, the right response to the devil’s fury is resistance (6:17; 13:10). For the faithful, the devil’s fury means the woe of persecution, and for the ungodly, it means being seduced into alliances with evil that will bring woe when the powers of evil destroy themselves (17:16; 18:10, 16, 19).
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Verses 13-14:
(13) and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to earth, he pursued/persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child,
(14) and it was given to the woman, the two wings of the great eagle, [Exodus 19:4; Deut. 32:10-12; Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 103:5],
in order that she could fly to/into the wilderness,
to/into her place where she feeds there for a time, times, and half a time from the face/presence of the
serpent [again, the time of the church; like Hagar [Genesis 16:1-13], Israel [Exodus 16], and Eliljah [1 Kings 17:1-7]],
Why does satan try to harm the church? Because he's a two-time loser. He's taking out his anger, and frustration, on the church.
But he fails at this, as well. God gives (a divine passive) the church an eagle's wings, so that she can fly into the wilderness, and hide from the serpent. The idea here is not a literal one. We are not monks (or Essenes), who live in remote deserts, and hide from civilization. The idea is more symbolic. We are like Hagar, on the run from Abraham and Sarah. We are like Elijah, on the run from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. We are like Israel, in that time and place between our salvation from Egypt, and our entrance into the promised land. We are a people who don't yet have all that God has promised. But in the meantime, we, the church, are kept safe as a whole from Satan.
Satan finds himself unable to attack the church head-on, and destroy her. So it turns out, satan is a three-time loser.
Verses 15-16:
(15) and the serpent threw from its mouth after the woman water like a river (Psalm 18:4; h/t ,
in order that, her, swept away by a river he would make ["her" is the topic, Position 1; "swept away by a river" is
focused, position 2],
(16) and the earth helped the woman,
and the earth opened its mouth [Genesis 4:11; Exodus 15:12; Numbers 16:32-34],
and it swallowed the river
which the dragon threw from its mouth,
What we see in these verses, is the earth choosing sides. The earth chooses to fight with God, and Michael, and the angels, against the serpent. The earth works in harmony with its creator, to protect God's people.
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Probably cut this part out:
Some of you, depending on your Bibles, have a book called the Wisdom of Solomon in it. It's usually not considered part of our canon, but it's a Jewish writing that has many useful similarities, and dissimilarities, to the other parts of the Bible. Let me read something from Wisdom of Solomon 19:6-12, because this section basically describes the earth working the same way for Israel in the wilderness (It describes Numbers 11:1-35):
6 For the whole creation in its nature was fashioned anew,
complying with your commands,
so that your children might be kept unharmed.
7 The cloud was seen overshadowing the camp,
and dry land emerging where water had stood before,
an unhindered way out of the Red Sea,
and a grassy plain out of the raging waves,
8 where those protected by your hand passed through as one nation,
after gazing on marvelous wonders.
9 For they ranged like horses,
and leaped like lambs,
praising you, O Lord, who delivered them.
10 For they still recalled the events of their sojourn,
how instead of producing animals the earth brought forth gnats,
and instead of fish the river spewed out vast numbers of frogs.
11 Afterward they saw also a new kind of birds,
when desire led them to ask for luxurious food;
12 for, to give them relief, quails came up from the sea.
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Koester points to two other verses in Wisdom 16:17, 24:
17 For—most incredible of all—in water, which quenches all things,
the fire had still greater effect,
for the universe defends the righteous.
24 For creation, serving you who made it,
exerts itself to punish the unrighteous,
and in kindness relaxes on behalf of those who trust in you.
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If we read these verses at something like a partially symbolic level, we see that the earth itself is not our enemy (this is M. Eugene Boring's approach, and probably Craig Koester's). It works with God, and for God. There are times when it doesn't feel this way-- when we get record-breaking snowfalls, or we don't get enough rain, or we struggle with some type of noxious disease. But the earth itself is not our enemy; it is our ally.
I think that this is true, and helpful for us to hear, especially those of us who had to tough out a rough winter, and are finally getting back into our fields. But I think the symbolism goes deeper than this. Let's turn to Psalm 18:1-6. I'll read from the NLT (mostly because it translates the key word as "floods" rather than "torrents":
1 I love you, LORD;
you are my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
3 I called on the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and he saved me from my enemies.
Verse 4 is the key one for us:
4 The ropes of death entangled me;
floods of destruction swept over me.
5 The grave[a] wrapped its ropes around me;
death laid a trap in my path.
6 But in my distress I cried out to the LORD;
yes, I prayed to my God for help.
He heard me from his sanctuary;
my cry to him reached his ears.
Floodwaters are a common way to speak about evil in the OT. When you are being overwhelmed by an enemy, it's like a flood coming against you. And Psalm 18 goes on to describe how God rescued him from the floodwaters of his enemy, and it praises God for that.
If we bring Psalm 18 back to Revelation, we can read it (more) symbolically. Satan tries to overwhelm the church as a whole with different kinds of evil, coming at the church like a flood. I imagine that he uses deceit, and lies, and violence. But he fails. The earth somehow rescues us from that, and satan loses again.
One more verse, and then we'll just cut our story short for today:
(17) and the dragon was angry with the woman,
and it left to make war with the rest of her children-- the ones keeping the commands of God and holding/having the testimony about Jesus-- [=us],
Here is a clear clue, that tells us how to read the chapter. And this clue, makes it a great place to stop for today.
The woman is the church. Her children, are the ones who obey God, and who tell people about Jesus. We-- Christians-- are her children.
So the dragon is angry with the church, but he's unable to destroy it. We hear this, and think about other places we've heard this type of language. The church--the temple-- was measured in Revelation 11 to protect it. The two witnesses were protected, until their testimony was completed. And even though they died, that wasn't the end of the story-- death is not their final end. And we also think about being sealed on our foreheads, as protection.
Verse 17 fits in nicely with all of that, but it perhaps adds something new. The church as a whole is protected. But individual Christians, are not. Any single one of us, who obey God's commands and testify to others about Jesus, can find ourselves in a battle with the dragon. What that battle looks like, is the thread we will pick up next week. The dragon has allies, and minions, who fight for him. But we are in a battle.
And why are we in this battle? Why does life on earth look like it does?
Because satan has lost. He's mad, because he's a four-time loser:
(1) He lost his place as Adversary in God's divine council-- a position he held for thousands of years.
(2) He was kicked out heaven entirely.
(3) He was defeated by another angel-- it didn't even take God, to kick him out.
(4) And he's been defeated by us, as well. We have conquered satan by the blood of Jesus, by our testimony about Jesus, and by our willingness to die for our Lord and Savior. He'd like to take out his frustration on the church, and he's tried. But he fails at that, as well. Every Sunday morning, across most of the globe, the church openly, publicly, meets. On a daily basis, we openly acknowledge Jesus as our Messiah. None of this is a secret. Right?
And yet, at the same time, we are in the remote wilderness, hidden in a safe place from satan. But that wilderness place, looks like this. And satan is powerless to simply wipe out a church that's cleansed itself from sin, and is boldly, openly, confessing Jesus. He isn't strong enough to conquer Jesus, or Michael, or the earth, or the church.
So we understand that satan is a dangerous opponent. Truly, he's a great, seven-headed, ten-crowned, dragon, and on our own, we'd be doomed. But we have friends in high places. God is our high tower. God is our provider, as we travel as Israel through this wilderness. So be encouraged by this :)
Let me leave you with one last thought, about the church. It's easy to look around at the church on Sunday morning, at least some mornings, and get discouraged. For the size of our city, we seem small, and insignificant. It seems like we aren't making much of a ripple. One of the things God encourages us to do in Revelation 12, is view the church from his perspective. God shows John, how God sees the church. We, the church, are a beautiful, radiant, powerful, dominating, woman. This beauty doesn't come from wealth, or worldly status (I think John is very careful how he describes the church, actually, so people don't get the wrong idea). This beauty comes as a gift from God. If we are dressed like God, clothed in the clouds, it's because God gave us that. If we have dominion over the moon, it's because God put that moon under our feet. If we have crowns, it's because God made us to rule over the world. Everything we have, that makes us glorious, is from God, through Christ.
So let's leave today, as an incredibly good-looking, glorious church. Let's leave, as conquerors. This week, as we pass through this wilderness, let's walk clean lives, washing our robes in Christ's blood. Let's be bold, in telling people about Jesus. And let's brace ourselves, to suffer whatever consequences come from that.
