Revelation Chapter 12: 13-17

“Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 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. 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. 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.”

Wow! I keep getting some challenging questions from these articles. Thank you and keep them coming. It makes me have to research more. I began reading the book of Job for the umpteenth time again today. It is a reminder that Satan is truly our enemy, always looking for ways to get to us. He observes us very closely and is always looking for ways to attack us, trip us up, and shake us up to see if we will curse God.

Far too often there has not been systematic teaching in the Lord’s churches about the kingdom of darkness. But all through the Bible, beginning with the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, there has been a systematic fight against God and His Word. Not to glorify Satan, but he is a skilled and highly intelligent angel, one who has vast power, is able to amass armies, and even call fire down from Heaven (see in Job 1); and he can cause disease in your bodies and mine (see Job 2).

Satan can only go as far as God will allow; and as intelligent as he is, he does not know the future. He did not know that Job would behave the way he did and become a champion to the downtrodden and spiritually afflicted for the last 4,000 years. If he did, he would never have asked for the fight with Job. What he intended for evil, God intended for good.

Sadly, many do not understand that we are in a very vicious fight. Yes, angels may not be able to be killed and die, but many human servants of the Lord, like Job, have lost people, things and health in the fight. It is real. It is violent and it is way beyond what we mere humans could handle were it not for the grace, power and protection of the Loving God that we serve.

When we ended the last article, Satan had been permanently evicted from Heaven by Michael, one of the Arch Angels, and was now confined to the earth. This must be a slap in the face when this happens. Satan will know for sure that his end is near. Maybe he can feel the flames of Hell burning already, and in his wrath, he turns on the Jews.

Over the past 2,000 or so years since Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, Satan has launched many attacks on the Jews using various characters in history. Beginning with the Romans in 70 AD when they sacked the city of Jerusalem and scattered the Jews to the very corners of the known world; in 1492 all Jews were expelled from Spain; and under the Tsars of Russia in the 1880s, the Jews lived under great peril and in fear of their lives There is a prophecy from Moses in the Torah that says this:

“Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart” (Deuteronomy 28:65).

This has been proven to be true. In the countries where the Jews have had relative peace, like in the UK and then now in the West like Canada and the USA, there is still anti-Semitism. They are safe for the most part but still at times subject to ridicule and even death as we saw just a few weeks ago.

Satan has hunted the Jews for a long time; and as he is evicted from heaven, he sees a settled nation with millions of Jews looking like sitting ducks. But, as usual, he cannot see the Great God, even though he knows God is ready to defend them and kill their adversaries. There are none so blind as those who choose not to see. Satan is the ‘poster boy’ for these people.

Israel, the woman who gave birth to the Son, Jesus (Revelation 12:13)

A few weeks ago when we began to look at this chapter, someone asked me if the ‘Child’ mentioned in the early verses could refer to the New Testament church. I think we can clearly say no to that. Here we are specifically told that Satan persecutes the woman who gave birth to the “male Child,” obviously a reference to Jesus.

Satan is evicted from entering Heaven, and he immediately turns his wrath on the nation of Israel and the Chosen People who are living there. We are in the very middle of the Tribulation, and this persecution, this war on Israel, is going to last for 3.5 years. In this passage, Satan is called the dragon, the serpent (vs. 15), and earlier he is called Devil and Satan.

Each name offers a different look at the nature of Satan. As the Devil, the root meaning is accuser – he is always accusing the saints; as Satan, meaning one who plots against or opposes; as the Dragon, he is a dangerous and fierce adversary; and as the Serpent, he is sly and cunning. This is why we are warned to be vigilant when dealing with evil. We are to avoid it whenever possible and to be fully armed and prepared spiritually in the event that we have to fight it.

Satan, the Dragon, launches an attack or series of very aggressive attacks on the nation of Israel. The root meaning of persecute is to oppress and also to hunt down. Satan is going to do both here. He will oppress Israel but he will also hunt them down.

He hates Israel; they are the earthly vessel that brought salvation to the world. The birth, life, ministry, death and the resurrection of Jesus, followed by the empowerment that He gave to the New Testament Jews to evangelize the world, has been a pain in the posterior of Satan since the days of Abraham. If he could just eradicate Israel, just wipe them out and stop the redemptive plan of God, then maybe, just maybe there was hope for him, Satan, to win.

Unfortunately for Satan, Israel has God as their protector; He has protected them in Egypt, in an amongst the various peoples who have tried to kill them in the Old Testament, He preserved them in Assyria and Babylon, He protected them under the Romans, found a way to preserve them under Hitler and kept enough of them hidden around the world to repopulate the nation once it was re-established in May 1948. Since you cannot beat God, it is impossible to beat Israel. Those who love the Lord God understand this; those who worship Satan will never get it.

God rescues Israel, as usual, Revelation 12:14-15

I have heard some say that the eagle’s wings may represent a military rescue for the nation of Israel. A few have inferred that the USA may be the help that comes, as the eagle is a symbol of the USA. Surely God can use the military of any nation if He chooses. He sent the armies of Babylon to punish the Southern Kingdom, He sent the Medes to destroy Babylon and resettle the Jews in Israel, He used the Roman government and their meticulous record-taking as well as their professional soldiers to sacrifice Jesus, and then used the roads built for the military to export the Gospel as far as the shores of modern western Europe. God has anything and anyone at His disposal. But in Exodus 19:4 we see this verse,

“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”

God did not need a military, whether from the USA or otherwise to deliver Israel from Egypt, and it is unlikely that He will need one now. God knows how to deliver His people. He has resources that we have not even thought of yet with which to make it clear to the nation of Israel – she who is now disillusioned with the rebellious and defiant anti-Christ – that it is Yahweh who delivers them as He has from their very birth at the end of Genesis 11.

God has been and always will be the eagle’s wings for Israel. The final betrayal by the anti-Christ, his desecration of the Temple, and his war against them will finally take the scales from their eyes; and they will long for their true Messiah. God will show up to rescue them. He will hide them in the wilderness, and there He will nourish them; does this sound familiar?

Go and read the books of 1 & 2 Chronicles and see the amazing ways that God used to destroy the enemies of Israel. He used light reflecting off water to confuse an invading army, He once sent hail stones, and He even used the woods around the nation of Israel to help kill off invading armies. Sometimes God just sends a death angel to kill them off while they sleep. Other times He just turns them on each other, and they kill each other. No matter what way He uses, God has ways to kill the enemies of Israel that even the most cunning and shrewd military minds on earth have not come up with yet. God does not need our ‘two-cents’ input to defend Israel.

On August 3^rd, 2014, this quote was published in the magazine, Israel Today:

“We do aim [our rockets], but their God changes their path in mid-air,” a Hamas commander was said to have told someone who wondered why Gaza-based militants can’t seem to hit their targets.

Even the enemies of Israel know that God fights for them. There is simply no other explanation. Sadly, due to their disobedience and spiritual adultery, God has allowed His Jews to be hurt and killed in horrendous ways, but never to the point of extinction.

Satan will send some kind of flood, and God will absorb it.

Isaiah 59:19 “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.”

Kill them all, Revelation 12:6-17

With this attack thwarted, Satan turns on the rest of the world. Satan cannot annihilate Israel so he turns to her offspring. These could be other Jews who are not in Israel or these could also be those who have turned to God in the Tribulation. All believers are the offspring of Israel. Abraham, we are told in Romans 4, is the father of those who believe. Paul calls us a wild olive branch that is grafted into the original vine (Romans 11:17).

The New Testament church is not here at this time; it has been raptured, so the people that Satan attacks are Jews from all around the world and with them those Gentiles that will not submit to the anti-Christ. They will not accept his ‘lordship’ or that he is anything more than just a mere man, not a God to be worshipped. Satan, now filled with rage, will begin to exterminate the redeemed of the Tribulation age. We see in Revelation 6:9-11 and 7:9-17 vast assemblies of those that had been killed in the Tribulation period for not obeying the anti-Christ, and they worshipped the Lord God.

The death toll will be extensive. Satan will execute a vast attempt at the extinction of those that still believe in the God of Israel. This will be a bloodbath probably not ever witnessed by the world before. The loss of life will be extensive and the cost of faith in the Lord will be paid with your life.

We live in a time when the tides are turning on Christianity; there is an ever-broadening hatred for THE TRUTH. People just don’t want to hear it anymore; it is offensive to those who deny the existence of God and defy His absolutes. But we have not seen anything yet. The coming Tribulation will literally be the bloodiest time that Christians have ever walked on the earth, and this is taking into account the death at the hands of the Catholic church over many centuries.

A quote from The Trail of Blood by Dr. J.M Carroll:

“Cardinal Hosius (Catholic, 1524), President of the Council of Trent: ‘Were it not that the Baptists have been grievously tormented and cut off with the knife during the past twelve hundred years, they would swarm in greater number than all the Reformers.” (Hosius, Letters, Apud Opera, pp. 112, 113.)

Today is the day of Salvation. Come to Jesus and be saved. He is the only Way of Salvation that the Bible tells us is available to all men. The Day of the Lord is soon upon us. Even now, obedience to the Lord will cost you a job, soon maybe imprisonment, maybe your family and then your life. Even with the risks, death in this life is nothing compared to an eternity without Jesus.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

 

Revelation Chapter 12: 7-12

“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. 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.

“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. 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.”

I had some great questions come to me concerning the last post. One was about the wars between the angels, and the other was asking if the ‘child’ born to the woman could actually be the New Testament church. Thanks for the questions; they make me think and ask questions myself. I was sent some information that was a good read, and it made me think.

Let me say that I am still of the mind that the ‘child’ is Jesus. He was born, Satan was trying to kill Him from birth, and He did ascend into Heaven.

As far as the angels fighting, the dear brother asked what the point was basically since they don’t die and there is no bloodshed. But we do see that these battles do go on. Satan and Michael fought over Moses’ body we are told in Jude. In Daniel 10 we are told that the Messenger angel sent to interpret dreams to Daniel was ‘held up’ for 21 days by the ‘Prince of Persia’ (referring to the demon behind the king of Persia) until Michael came and rescued him.

There is a definite battle between the angels of God and of Satan. They do not kill each other as far as we can tell, but Satan’s minions are able to slow down things like the answers to prayers. This is why an essential quality of a mature and/or maturing Christian is forbearance – patience in our modern words. It is not that God has not sent an answer, but that the answer is slowed by the agents of Satan. But if you wait, just like Daniel, the answer will come and you will be emboldened.

War in Heaven, Revelation 12:7-9

When we think of Heaven, we do not get the idea of war. But we are clearly told that there is going to be a war in Heaven. Satan will try to usurp his power by attacking the Kingdom, a kingdom where he has been cordially entertained for the past 6,000 years. Just a take a quick read of Job 1-2: God addresses him and asks him of his endeavors. God even entertains him in an experiment that includes the faithful man, Job.

When he tempts Jesus in Matthew 4, Jesus talks to him in a very nice tone. Jesus is patient with him and obeys God while never losing His temper with the rebellious angel. Jesus was even gracious when encountering some 1,000 demons in a young man, and upon their request, allowed them to enter some pigs nearby. God, while knowing the final end of Satan, has allowed him a long leash with which to rule his dark kingdom. It is one thing to engage God on earth or in the air or in the bodies of sinful and unredeemed men, but to attack God in His Heaven, His place – this cannot be tolerated; and so Satan and his fallen angels are banished to earth for the remainder of the Tribulation.

I want to look at a phrase that to me makes me cringe and think. In Revelation 12:9 we see this phrase, “who deceives the whole world,” and it immediately makes me think. Now we know that in the Tribulation there will be strong delusions, and people will believe whatever lie is concocted to explain the Rapture and the apparent colossal loss of life. People will fall for the promise of peace now that the Christians are gone, and they will accept the antichrist as the saviour of the world. But even before we get to the Tribulation, we see that even now Satan is the one “who deceives the whole world.”

As we look around us and see the turmoil that is overtaking the world; and especially in North America, one of the last bastions of free speech in the world, we can see that the deception of the Devil is upon a lost and dying world. From the deception of climate change to the deception that a man can be a woman and vice-versa, there is deception at every level. From our political leaders down to the average person on the street, we see a complete rebellion against the boundaries set by the Lord God for our protection.

The deliberate and persistent persecution of Christians in North America, from a pastor being arrested for sharing the Gospel at a mall in Minneapolis, to comedians calling us ignorant, to men and women losing their jobs because they live out their faith in Jesus and accept that wrong and right are absolutes, to a recent and ongoing battle to force churches to hire homosexual and sexually deviant as staff, is a culmination of the lies of tolerance. The world system is tolerant of everyone except Christians.

They cannot and will not force a Muslim mosque to hire a homosexual nor force them to have female imams as a submission to women`s rights. This is an attack on Christianity and Jesus. This lie that we are not tolerant because we speak the truth in love, or that we are not inclusive because we believe in boundaries and limits as prescribed by God, is believed by many and will lend to the collective sigh of relief when we are raptured; those intolerant and divisive Christians are gone; good riddance.

The god of lies is working overtime in these, the last days, as he prepares for his very, very temporary assent to the throne of earth. This is the only throne he will ever sit on. He has wanted the throne of Heaven, but that seat is taken forever and cannot ever be vacated. But for a short, short time Satan will have a brief stay at the top as he is cast from Heaven to earth; and he, ever the optimist, will take what power he is allowed and begin to rule earth.

The Fallen Accuser, Revelation 12:10-11

Satan is a multitasker. He is lying to the whole world, and at the same time, he is constantly accusing you and me before the Lord in Heaven. He brings to mind every sin and failure on our part. He is non-stop. Look, he is described as accusing the brethren “day and night.” Sadly, too many of us give him fodder for his accusations as we sin and fail our Lord time and time again. But his end begins when his welcome mat is pulled out and he is cast out of heaven to earth. No more accusing and no more lying in heaven about us.

Thankfully, Jesus our defender is always making intercession for us according to Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25; and 1 John 2:1 calls Him our advocate. An intercessor is defined as one who intervenes on behalf of another. We know of intercessory prayer where we intervene to God on behalf of another. An advocate is defined as one who publicly supports another.

Wow! What an awesome picture we have here of Jesus. He not only intercedes for us with regard to our failures and the constant accusations made about us by Satan to God; He actually publicly stands with us. He never abandons us; HE is our advocate. The prince of darkness rails against us, and the King of Light stands for us, unwavering in His support for the redeemed for whom He paid a great price.

This is an awesome look at how God sees us even in our great failures. We look at the Hebrews 11 chapter and we read of men who were adulterers, murders, rebellious, some were not good fathers, some were weak in many areas, liars, tricksters and the like; and yet God called them His servants. He called David a “man after His own heart.” How is this possible? We all know what David did. What knits these men and women together is that they are Loyal to God no matter what. No matter the cost, no matter how they failed, no matter how they lost or prospered, God was their God.

God loves loyalty because He is a Loyal God. Satan can barely spell loyalty. He turned his back on His Lord and Master. In the end it is he who will fall and we who will be elevated in Jesus, by His blood and saving power.

Notice that these saints, in Revelation 12:11, did not even value their lives. I have never had my life threatened for the cause of Christ. I have not had my job threatened. I have not had one day of danger in my life because of the Gospel. I fear that the next few years will change that tune. But these men and women were and are heroes of the faith. They did not even think that their lives were precious. They were Loyal to the end to their Lord and Master.

What is it that we value more than Jesus? Money, kids, family, freedom, friends or fame? Make no mistake; this will be required of you. Nothing can stand between you and God. He expects total Loyalty.

His Days are Numbered, Revelation 12:12

It took 6,000 years, but finally Satan realizes that he is not going to win. He will never be God. He will never be like the Highest; and in fact, all his dreams and aspirations are dashed as he is kicked out of Heaven. You see, how can you ascend to the throne of Heaven when you can’t even get past the security at the front gate? All that is left is earth; and even then it is for a short time because Jesus will soon come to take that away, and then he gets to be the king of nothing. This is the plight of all who wish to defy God and challenge His rightful place as Ruler of the Universe.

We live in such a time. We live in a time where mere humans, emboldened by their sinful pride nature, willingly defy God. They act as if they will never have to answer to Him or be called to account for their deeds, and they simply do not fear God. What a shock it will be when they see Satan, their god, debased and bowing before Jesus. When they come to understand that they have fallen for the lie of the ages— that someone other than God can be God.

God has never cheated us, He has never short changed us, and He never will. He has given us all He has determined that we need and certainly more than we deserve. His goodness is endless.

Satan is mad; he is about to pour out his wrath on the people of earth. The very persons that hailed him as their god will now understand that he never has and never will love them. They will see that they were simply the means to an end – an end that, maybe for the first time, he understands cannot ever happen.

I find it amazing that, in the end, Satan truly believed his own lies. He has told the lie so often that he thought that he could oppose God and win. For 6,000 years, all the while in complete control, God had allowed Satan to have some leeway. In the meantime, God set about a plan to redeem man, to redeem the earth and to provide a sinless man to carry out the commands given to the first Adam, to have dominion over the earth. Jesus will fulfill that command.

Now that the time has come, Satan’s usefulness is up and his end is sure. He realizes that he has no options, no recourse, and there is no redemption for him; and for all his scheming, the pit of Hell is all he has to look forward to for eternity. God has outplayed him and outwitted him. Simply brilliant!

There is none so blind as they who refuse to see, and Satan certainly falls into this category.

Like the Heavens, we should begin to rejoice that Satan is defeated. We know more than he does right now. He is still fighting to win. We know that he has been and will be forever defeated. Rejoice, celebrate, be merry and bask in the glory of our mighty God. He has won, He is winning, and He will win the most decisive victory ever in the history of war. We get to enjoy the spoils of war because we have put our complete faith in Jesus and He alone for salvation. Rejoice in these beautiful words about Satan’s fate from the prophet Isaiah, in 14: 9-15,

“Hell, from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca