A found Bible study - A Blast from the Past

As we begin Revelation 12, we see that the Apostle John gets to the history lesson

portion of the Book. Actually, he also kind of gets back to the future, too.

Verses 1-6 introduces the characters. The woman clothed with the sun, with

the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

The great fiery red dragon with seven heads, ten horns and seven crowns or

diadems who, with his tail, swept one third of the stars from heaven and

threw them down to the earth. And finally, the Male Child who was to rule all

nations with a rod of iron. Let's start with the woman.

Many Biblical scholars point to this woman as the Universal Church, and in

fact incorrectly connect her to the Whore Babylon or even the Bride

Church. A select few feel that the association is with the Nation of Israel

itself and back up the association with Genesis 37:9-10 (Then he dreamed

still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have

dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon and the eleven

stars bowed down to me." 10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and

his father rebuked him and said to him, "what is this dream that you have

dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow

down to the earth before you?"). This connection seems to point to the

Nation of Israel itself as being the Woman. The Sun, moon and garland of

stars seem to befuddle even the wisest of scholars and very few can agree

on what they may mean. The great majority, however somewhat agree that

the sun signifies glory or a glorious appearance; the moon under her feet

may signify the symbol of darkness becoming her footstool; and the twelve

stars can run the gamut on anything from the Twelve Patriarchs to the

Twelve Tribes of Israel to the Twelve Apostles. To me, the garland of stars

symbolizing the Twelve Tribes of Israel seems to be the logical choice. Since

we saw earlier in the Book that the 144,000 were named by name as being

representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, then the garland of stars,

by reason, would be representative of them. Don't know that for a fact, it's

just conjecture, but let's see if my point is well taken as we continue to

study.

 This woman, being with child, cries out in labor and in pain to give

birth. This birth stuff is no easy cakewalk, let me tell you. In a word, it

hurts, a lot! By the same token, Israel, who had become a nation and had the

promise of one of its sons becoming the Messiah, was experiencing pain

during the time of Christ's birth. It was held in sway by the Roman Empire and was taxed on everything. There was also a census that was taken on occasion, and if you have ever tried to herd up a family to go somewhere, especially a large family, you know the trials that come with it ... did I bring the baby's diaper bag and formula, does Betsy have her favorite doll, does Andrew have his favorite action figure, have we found Grandma's teeth yet, where's Grandpa's walking stick, the list goes on and on. Then there's Martha who is so pregnant that she is about to pop, she could give birth any second now. Oh, wait, she's in labor and they can hear her scream clean to Tucson! Ah, bunny trails ... don't you just love them?

Seriously, though, Israel was going through a lot prior to the birth of Christ.

Then, another character hits the stage and this one is not a happy camper.

Not only was he big, but he was fiery red, seven headed dragon with

ten horns to boot. This dude also has seven crowns to put on top of those

heads, possibly signifying the seven kingdoms and ten kings that are to come.

Well, his tail's a whippin’, in other words, he's in trouble and he's mad and he

wants some of his buddies to come along for the ride, so with his tail he

takes a third of the stars with him. These stars seem to be symbolic of the

third of the angels that Satan took with him, but I'm jumping ahead of

myself. This dragon is now waiting, drooling all over himself, for the woman

to give birth to this child. Satan, who does not have the capacity to read

minds and is not all knowing, has to rely on what he has on hand, namely

seers, sorcerers and the ancient writings and prophecies. Suffice it to say

that he hasn't a clue, really, where or when this child is to be born. If you

will remember the Nativity story in Luke, you will certainly recall that Herod

asked the three Wise Men where this child, the newborn king, had been born

so that he could go and worship him. God warned them that Herod only

meant harm and told them to go home in a different direction. This irritated

Herod so much that he had all of the children from two years old and

younger put to death.

The Woman, Israel, in verse five gives birth to a Male Child, who is to rule

all Nations with a rod of Iron. Now we know that iron is a very strong, sturdy

metal, the stuff of which we use to make buildings and weapons with. Iron is

difficult if not downright impossible to hurt. Needless to say, the rod with

which the Child will rule will be a strong rod, one that is not easily bent, and

all the Nations will be under His rule. Once this child is delivered He is

caught up to God and His Throne. We know, by Jesus' life, death, burial and

resurrection that He was caught up to Heaven where He sits at God's Right

Hand, giving intercession for the saints constantly.

 This coincides very nicely with verse five of Revelation 12. At the end of the passage, the Woman flees to the hiding place that God has prepared and hides out there for 1260 days, or three and one-half years, exactly one half of the Tribulation period. Which half it is remains to be seen.

Now, John jumps back to a war that has taken place in Heaven. Verse 7 says that a war broke out, and that Michael and his angels fought. Both statements are made in the past tense. This means that what this is describing is something that happened in the past and is not a coming attraction. Verse eight continues and says that the dragon did not prevail, basically, well, in a word, he lost and was kicked out of the neighborhood. No more paradise for Mr. Bad-dragon and his thugs. So, he was tossed out on his pointed head and he is called a bunch of names: Satan, The Devil and he is mad enough to lie about why he was kicked out. Not only that, all of the ninnies who were trying to fight Michael and his army, the Bible says that a third of the angels turned ninny , and now we have all of these bad guys here lying about what happened and trying to get us to take their sides so they don’t have to go to the ultimate time-out by themselves, the Lake of fire.

Now, in verse 10, the voices begin again. They announce to everyone that the Accuser of the Saints no longer has an audience with the King, that all his accusations were erased by the blood of the Lamb who sacrificed Himself to save mankind. Talk about dancing in the streets of Heaven! There is some major rejoicing and praise going on there. All of those who confessed their testimony and did not love their lives to the death, all of those who claim the blood of Christ are the ones who can be accused no longer. Satan has lost, Jesus has won, and now Satan is really mad. He now knows that his time is not long to short-circuit humanity. Time to watch your back, mankind!

Now comes the neat part!

Satan is so ticked off that he starts picking on the Nation of Israel, but the Woman, Israel is whisked away by the wings of a great…are you ready for this…this is really good…I can’t stand the suspense…Okay, I’ll tell you, Israel is swept away by a great eagle. An eagle, you say? So? What about it? I’m glad you asked. If you look at the great nations around the world you will see that some of the nations have an animal as a symbol of their nation. Not many do, but some do. Russia is symbolized with a bear, Canada with a beaver, Kuwait with a falcon, Israel with a lion, presumably representative of the Lion of Judah. China has the dragon as one of her many symbols and finally, the United States has the symbol of the bald eagle, the largest eagle in the

skies, in effect, a great eagle. Hmmm, you say ...

She is sent to the wilderness for a time, and times and half a time, which is the same thing as saying 1260 days or three and a half years. One must wonder if this is the same three and a half years spoken of in verse six. Anyway, she is nourished there,

basically, taken care of for this period of time and Satan hasn't a real clue as

to the whereabouts of this Woman.

Parenthetically speaking, it is said by some that the 144,000 will be the ones whisked away to a place that God has prepared by the

Air Force of the United States. Of course, this is not Biblical, but it sure is

an interesting supposition. The United States certainly has the capabilities

to airlift that many people to safety and to provide them with the needed

supplies for three and a half years, and we are Israel's allies.

Satan, who at this point is looking at his Timex and finding that time is

ticking away and soon he will have run out of time to stop God from proving

him wrong. Now he's as mad as a wet hen and tries to take out the 144,000 in

whatever way that he can. When he finds that he cannot destroy the sealed

ones in hiding, then he goes after the rest of the God's children to make war

with them and try to make them wish that they had never been born.