Revelation 12:1-17 Sign of the Woman – Man Child – Red Dragon

The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

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.

Satan Thrown Out of Heaven

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."

The Woman Persecuted

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.

NKJV

Facts Revealed;

The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

V 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. [Revelation 12:1]

² This is the first mention of a sign representing symbolism.

² The sign is in Heaven yet the happening is on the earth.

² The Woman represents the nation of Israel.

² Sun, Moon, and 12 Stars present the likeness interpreted by Jacob himself:

with the Sun being the mother, the moon being himself the father, and the twelve Stars being the twelve Children (fathers of the tribes) of Israel. [Genesis 37:9-10]

V Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. [Revelation 12:2]

² This is in agreement with the End-time mention of the woman giving birth spoken of by Micah the prophet. [Micah 5:3]

² This speaks of Israel being given up (blinded) until the time of restoration. [John 12:37-41, Romans 11:7-10, 2 Corinthians 3:12-16, 4:3-4, Isaiah 49:5-6, Jeremiah 30:16-20, Nahum 2:1-2, Zephaniah 3:8-13, 9:11-17, Matthew 17:11, Acts 3:21]

V And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. [Revelation 12:3]

² The Dragon is clearly identified as Satan the devil. [Revelation 12:9]

V 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. [Revelation 12:4]

² Here we learn that when Satan rebelled against the authority of God, a third of the angels followed him in his rebellion.

² Satan desires to destroy this specific child of the woman.

V 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. [Revelation 12:5]

² He Who rules the nations with a rod of Iron is Jesus Himself, and the Saints who are overcomers. [Psalm 2:6-9, Revelation 2:26-27, 5:8-10, 12:5, 19:11-16, 2 Timothy 2:11-12]

² Jesus Himself was not caught up to God and His throne at the time of his birth, though Satan did his best to destroy him.

² Also the timing was wrong, because the Man Child caught up to God is part of the End-Time scenario connected with the Great Tribulation.

² It is possible that the Church which is the body of Christ may be the one caught up to God and His Throne, which may then be a reference to the catching up of the Saints to escape the Wrath of God. [1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Matthew 24:31, 36-44, Luke 17:34-36, 21:36, Zephaniah 2:3, Malachi 3:16-17, Romans 5:9, 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 5:4-9, 2 Peter 2:9, Revelation 3:10]

² The Church was not caught up to God and His Throne at the time of its birth one the Day of Pentecost, but it will be caught up to God at the time of the Rapture to escape the Wrath of the Great Tribulation.

² Satan attempted to destroy the Church from its start.

² If this is a reference to the catching up of the Church, then it would perfectly agree with the rest of the references to the Saints in the book of Revelation and the timing will be connected with escaping the Wrath of God.

² From the catching up of the Church, the Church is waiting patiently for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and to return with Messiah to the Battle of Armageddon. [Revelation 19:6-21]

² The fact that this scene is given after the Seventh Trumpet is sounded, does not necessarily indicate that this is the time of the catching up of the Saints, but may be given only to bring the reader to understand the connection with the time for Israel and the Church in the last three and half years, when the Antichrist is revealed.

² The Church is the offspring of Israel because it came through them to the world as the Gospel message spread first to the Jews and then to the Gentile world by the ministry of the Apostles, the early believers and the Holy Spirit.

² If the Church is caught up before the Great Tribulation begins, it will still fit well in understanding the relationship between Satan, Israel, and the Church during the last three and half years.

² Therefore, perceiving the Woman as Israel, the Man Child as the Saints caught up, and the Tribulation Saints as the remnant of the seed of the Woman who keep the commandments of God and have a testimony of Jesus, then all things fit perfectly into the time frame and descriptions of the things that happen to them.

² These Tribulation Saints will be those who were not taken in the catching away of the Church because they were left behind, not perceived to be worthy to escape the things coming on the earth and will face the Antichrist and False Prophet and the Mark of the Beast. [Luke 21:36]

² However, because they faced the Great Tribulation, Antichrist, False Prophet, keeping the commandments of God and maintaining their testimony of Jesus, and refused the Mark of the Beast to the point of being beheaded, they will receive the greatest reward in the Kingdom. [Revelation 12:17, 20]

V 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. [Revelation 12:6]

² God has a place in the wilderness where the remnant of Israel will be protected and sustained for the last three and half years (1,260 days, 42 months, time and times and half a time). [Revelation 12:6, 14]

² Israel will be protected from the plagues of the Great Tribulation and from the attacks of Satan.

² Those of Israel to be protected are those written in a book. [Daniel 12:1]

Satan Thrown Out of Heaven

V And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 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. [Revelation 12:7-9]

² When we reach the last three and a half years, is the time when Satan will finally be cast out of Heaven,

² Until then, Satan has access to heaven as the accuser of the brethren. [Revelation 12:10]

² Satan's access to the world has been to deceive the population of the earth.

² When Satan is thrown out of Heaven, all his angels are cast out with him.

² Michael and his angels are the ones who fight Satan and his angels and defeat them.

² However, when contending over the body of Moses, Michael only said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you." [Jude 1:9]

V 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. [Revelation 12:10]

² The appointed time for the Kingdom of God and of Christ has arrived and is connected with the removal of Satan and his angels.

² Satan has been standing before God in Heaven as the accuser of the Saints, but he will no longer be heard in that role.

² From this point on, Satan will be confined to his influence on the earth.

V 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. [Revelation 12:11]

² There are three parts for the Saint of God in overcoming the influence of Satan.

² The blood of the Lamb was provided by God for the sins of the world. [Ephesians 2:8]

² The other two parts are the responsibility of the Saints as they demonstrate their faith by the word of their testimony, and their commitment to maintain their faith to the death.

² Faith that is not evident in the lives of believers is dead faith. [James 2:14-26]

² Total commitment to the death, is required for overcoming faith. [Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, 17:33]

² This is the ultimate time of fulfillment for this requirement of commitment on the part of the Saints.

V 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." [Revelation 12:12]

² The absence of the devil is cause for great rejoicing.

² From this time on, the believers will be under the greatest onslaught from Satan that will ever occur on this earth as the very core of the believer is tested to the fullest.

² Satan knows that his time is running out and he only has three and a half years left.

² Satan's wrath will be totally focused against the Saints of God.

The Woman and her Offspring Persecuted

V Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. [Revelation 12:13]

V 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 (three and a half years), from the presence of the serpent.

² God Himself will enable the remnant of Israel to be hidden and protected in the wilderness from the reach of Satan.

V 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. 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. [Revelation 12:15-16]

² Satan will do his best to totally destroy Israel, but God will supernaturally protect her.

V 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. [Revelation 12:17]

² Satan gives up on destroying Israel and turns his attention against the Christians who are called the rest of her offspring.

² It is clear that the rest of the Woman's offspring are Christians, because of their obedience to the commandments of God, and the fact that they have a testimony of Jesus Christ.

² These are Christians who put their lives on the line for the sake of their faith in God through His Son Jesus the Messiah.

² This total commitment merits for them the greatest of the rewards in the Kingdom age. [Revelation 7:9-17, 20:4-6]

² They face the time when the enemies of God will have power to totally overcome the Saints in fulfillment of the prophecy which said:

Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished. [Dan 12:7]

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Taken from: http://delrifkah.homestead.com/Revelation_12_1-17.htm

The Beloved Daniel and Saint John Are Alike



Taken from: http://www.wacriswell.org/PrintTranscript.cfm/SID/1858.cfm



DANIEL AND REVELATION

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Our Lord loved and read and studied and knew the Book of Daniel. I picked out six times where the Lord referred to the Book of Daniel. And, by name in the apocalyptic chapter, Matthew 24, where He refers to the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, the prophet; speaking of him by name. When the apostle Paul was in his last incarceration, just before he died, in the fourth chapter of 2 Timothy, he referred to being delivered out of the mouth of the lion, such as was Daniel. In the list of heroes, the heroes of the faith in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, Daniel is mentioned: “Who by faith stopped the mouths of lions.” But upon all of those who followed after Daniel was the influence of the prophet not greater than upon John the seer, to whom God gave the vision of the Revelation. You will find so much of Daniel in the Revelation. And without an understanding of Daniel, you cannot understand the Revelation.

Now the Revelation, the Apocalypse, was an unveiling that God gave to Jesus, and through Him and the angel to the apostle John, to us here in the Bible. But from the heavenly point of view, the same One that revealed the vision to Daniel revealed the vision to John. And, of course, much of the nomenclature, the language, the thought, the truth, the revelation would be the same because the same Author did it. But from the earthly point of view, the Book of Daniel is so much in Revelation. And as you read Daniel, you will find it in the Revelation, and that’s why the comparison of the two books in the introductory message this morning.

First, we shall compare the two men. They were favored of heaven. They were loved of God, of men and of angels. Three times Daniel is referred to as “O man, greatly beloved.” And five times in the Gospel of John is John referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Favored of God, both men were given the privilege of seeing the sweep of history until the consummation of the age. Again, both men wrote apocalyptically. Daniel is unique among the authors of the Old Testament. John is unique among the authors of the New Testament, for both men wrote apocalyptically. Daniel is the apocalypse of the Old Testament; and the Revelation is the apocalypse of the New Testament. Apocalyptic writing is a vehicle by which the message of God unfolding the future is presented in visions and in signs and in symbols. And the things we read in the Book have a great meaning beyond themselves. We shall illustrate that in a moment.

Now, a third thing about the men: they both wrote and saw their visions in exile. Daniel was an exile in Babylon. And John was an exile on the lonely Isle of Patmos. And, while both men were exiled away from home, God showed them those marvelous visions of what the Lord purposes for His people in the future. The saints shall inherit the earth: so Daniel; so says John.

All right, a fourth thing; the books the men wrote are books of prophecy, and that is all-important in our study and in our remembrance. They are books of prophecy. For example, five times in the Revelation is the book referred to as a book of prophecy. Look at this, in the third verse you just read: “Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy” [Revelation 1:3]. That is, the things in them have a meaning beyond themselves. The books are books of prophecy. And when I study the book, when I read it, I am to remember that God has a message in it beyond what is in the syllable or sentence itself. In the Revelation, for example, the Lord sends messages to the seven churches of Asia. Were there just seven churches in Asia? Why, no. There are far, far more churches than seven in Asia, the Roman province of Asia. Right across the Lycus River from Laodicea was one of the famous churches of all time, the church at Hierapolis. The pastor of it was Papias, a disciple of John and a friend of Polycarp, who was the pastor at Smyrna. But Hierapolis is not named, nor dozens of others.

Well, why those seven? Because they are vehicles of a great revelation from God; they are prophetic. They are prophetic churches. They are used and they stand for something meaningful and significant far beyond their own day and hour. And in the case of the seven churches of Asia, they represent this prophetic unfoldings of the future. There is an Ephesian period in the history of the church. There is a Smyrnan period. There is a Pergamean period. There is a Thyatiran period. There is a Sardinian period. There is a Philadelphian period. There is a Laodicean period of the church. And, beyond what you read, is a great meaning and message from God. John was so given to that.

In the Gospel of John, for example, John never uses the word “miracle”—para dunamis—never. Always it was the semeion, “signs.” That is, what he saw Jesus do represented something far beyond the thing itself. When He turned the water into wine, there were foot tubs there made out of stone, and they were filled according to the law. They were filled, then they drew out and took to the governor of the feast. That is, Jesus fulfilled the old Law, all of it, and now, in liberty, in grace, “for the Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” [John 1:17]. This is a new love. It’s a new freedom. It’s a new dedication. It’s a new revelation. This is the Christian faith. It is not legal, that was filled. Ah, we have a new religion and a new life in Christ. John saw that in the miracle, and he calls it a semeion: a sign. Opening the eyes of the blind: a gracious deed; but all beyond, Jesus is the light of the world. Or the raising of Lazarus from the dead: a man resuscitated, yes, but that’s incidental. The great thing is the semeion, the sign. He is the resurrection and the life. Now, when I read then the book of prophecy, I am to understand that beyond the page, beyond the actual thing itself, there is a great revelation of God, a prophetic overtone. Now, when I turn to the Book of Daniel, beyond what I read, I am to see, I am to understand, I am to sense the great profound meaning that God is speaking to our hearts and revealing to us.

Now, the Book of Daniel is divided in two. The first six chapters are historical. The last six chapters are prophecies as such. But remember, all of it is a book of prophecy. Like the Revelation, the first part of it to the churches of Asia, but that is a prophecy; the second part, the tribulation period, but that a prophecy. So it is in the Book of Daniel. The first six chapters: historical. They are prophetic as well as the last six chapters. So, when I look at the Book of Daniel and turn to the first chapter, here is the captivity of Daniel and his friends. It is a picture of the diaspora, the captivity, the scattering abroad of God’s people.

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Looking Beyond: John's Gospel and the Sacraments (TBT Version)



Lighthouse Catholic Youth

Presented by Lighthouse Catholic Youth: Dr. John Bergsma, Associate Professor of Biblical Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, unpacks and unlocks the Gospel of John in this fascinating talk given to a group of college students. In Dr. Bergma’s humorous and deeply He shows that John’s use of the word “signs” for Jesus’ miracles is no accident. In fact, these signs actually point to the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church. As Dr. Bergsma makes his case, it becomes more and more clear that the similarities between sign and sacrament are no coincidence, and that the Gospel of John is a deeply Catholic book.

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Taken from: http://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/looking-beyond-john-s-gospel-and-the-sacraments-tbt-version

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