Our Father, we are so grateful that you
have seen fit to take us into your
confidence as your friends and reveal to us
that plan and program that you have laid
out that will eventuate in the reign of
the one who will bear the name of
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
As we look out on a world that
is in conflict and turmoil, chaos and change,
we are thankful that we have a God
who knows the end from the beginning, who
is working all things according to the counsel
of his own will, that one day peace
might rule and righteousness might cover this earth
as the waters cover the sea.
As we look into a portion of your
word, we pray that the Spirit of God
shall instruct us in what is written, that
we might know the scriptures and that the
scriptures might possess us and control us in
all of our conduct.
We pray this for your glory in Jesus'
name.
Amen.
We're taking up our study tonight in the
eleventh chapter of the book of the Revelation.
We looked last time in chapters 10 and
the first 14 verses of chapter 11, in
which John is recording for us events in
the parenthesis between the sixth and the seventh
trumpet.
We pointed out before, you will recall, that
in the parenthesis that interrupts a program of
judgment, God is revealing what he is doing
in grace at the same time that the
judgments are unfolding.
And the principal thing we would point out
from chapter 11 is that while these awesome
judgments that cover the last three and a
half years of the tribulation period are unfolding,
God is sending two prophets to his people
Israel to call them to repentance the same
way John the Baptist called his generation to
repentance, and forewarning them of the approach, the
advent of the judge.
As a result of this, many in the
nation Israel will turn in faith to Jesus
Christ and will be awaiting his coming.
Now when we come to 11 15, we
have the blowing of the seventh trumpet, which
is the climax of this series of judgments
revealed through the blowing of trumpets.
And what we find in verse 15 is
that this seventh trumpet, or the final judgment
in this series, is the second advent of
Jesus Christ back to this earth, at which
time, according to Zechariah 14.4, his feet
will touch down on the Mount of Olives.
Now this surprises many people when I share
this with them, because if we think of
the coming of Christ in relationship to the
church, how do we think of it?
Well, what I'm thinking of that Paul writes
in Titus is called a comforting hope, or,
I'm sorry, a blessed hope.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, he refers to it
as the comforting hope.
In 1 John 3, 3 and 4, it's
a purifying hope.
Those are all associated with blessings, but when
Christ comes back to the earth the second
time, he comes not first of all as
the blesser, but as the judge.
So that as awesome and awful as the
judgments under the blowing of the trumpets were,
the severest of all the judgments is the
appearance of Christ, because the world is going
to be brought under judgment by the returning
King.
Now, what we have here in verses 16
to 19 is a telescopic view of the
prophetic program.
John will record for us events that follow
the second advent of Christ that will involve
the world and become a part of God's
prophetic program.
Now, let me just say that many of
the things from verse 15 to verse 19
will be explained in detail later in the
book.
That's why I say John is just telescoping
and surveying major events that he will develop
in detail later.
So we have the second advent with the
blowing of the seventh trumpet, and then verse
15.
The first thing that happens is that the
kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of
our Lord and his Christ, and he shall
reign forever and ever.
Christ is coming back to this earth the
second time to establish the kingdom that God
promised to David in 2 Samuel 7.16.
Remember, God said that one of David's sons
would sit on David's throne and rule over
David's kingdom.
This is the kingdom and the king that
Israel had been waiting for throughout the Old
Testament.
Now, how can Christ set up a kingdom
here on this earth?
When Christ returns, this earth is ruled by
kings and kingdoms that are all in open
rebellion against Jesus Christ.
The only way that Jesus Christ can set
up a kingdom is to subjugate those kings
and those kingdoms to himself.
Now, this was anticipated in the Old Testament.
I'd go back to Psalm 2, and God
said to the son there in verse 6
that he was going to set his king
upon his holy hill of Zion.
Then he said that that king would smite
the nations with the rod of his mouth
and dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel.
That's a graphic description of subjugating nations to
the authority of Christ.
Or some of you went with us through
Daniel's prophecy, and you remember in Daniel chapter
2, Daniel interpreted to Nebuchadnezzar the vision, the
dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of this great image
with four different parts represented by four metals.
The head of gold represented Babylon.
The shoulders of silver represented Medo-Persia.
The belly and thighs of bronze represented Greece.
The legs of iron represented Rome.
Those were four empires that would subjugate the
people and the land of Israel to their
authority so that Israel would not exist as
an independent nation under their own king.
Christ referred to that extended period that has
already lasted 2,500 years as the times
of the Gentiles.
But then the significant, or the most significant
part, of Nebuchadnezzar's dream was that Nebuchadnezzar saw
stone cut out of the mountain without human
hands, and it hit that image and reduced
the image to dust, and the wind came
and blew the dust away.
And then that stone began to grow and
grow and grow until it became, as Daniel
interprets, a great kingdom that dominated the whole
world.
Now, what did that dream of Nebuchadnezzar tell
us?
That before Jesus Christ could set up his
kingdom in fulfillment of God's promises and covenants,
he had to subjugate all the nations of
the earth to himself.
Now, you see, it's that whole line of
prophecy that's gathered together in this one statement.
The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
They become his by subjugating them to his
authority as a demonstration of his power.
I'm reminded that during the course of Christ's
earthly ministry, the great majority of his miracles
were performed in the demonic realm, delivering men
who may have been blinded by demons, or
deafened by demons, or made dumb by demons,
or made sick by demons.
And that's significant, because if Jesus Christ is
to set up his kingdom, he will have
to defeat and conquer or control the king
who ruled over the nation.
And every miracle in the demonic realm is
a demonstration that Christ has greater power and
authority than Satan, and he can subdue Satan's
kingdom and all of those kings who are
a part of Satan's kingdom to himself so
that he can rule as king of kings
and Lord of lords.
Now, that title doesn't come up until chapter
19, but it's anticipating that time when prophecy
will be fulfilled and the nations are subjugated
to the authority of Christ.
Now, we're going to see when we get
on later in the book how Christ is
going to do this, because they're going to
be great military movements in what we refer
to from chapter 16 as the campaign of
Armageddon.
And we're going to have Russia on one
hand, we're going to have the European nations
that united together on the other hand, we're
going to have the Arab nations also, then
we're going to have the oriental powers all
congregating there in the Middle East, and their
purpose is to present the return of Jesus
Christ back to this earth as though all
organized humanity had greater power than Jesus Christ
has.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, and it'll be
described in chapter 19, is just going to
speak a word and all those mighty armies
are consumed away.
You see, it's part of the program of
subduing all things to the authority of Christ
so that he can rule in peace and
righteousness over all of creation.
What I want you to see in that
one statement, we have a large body of
prophecy that goes way, way back into the
Old Testament brought to bear, and it's just
a simple statement.
He is going to subdue all things to
himself.
The second thing that verse 15 says is
that he shall reign.
He will actually exercise the authority of a
king, and then I'm dropping down in verse
18.
The nations were angry, but thy wrath is
come, and that's looking back to verse 15,
smiting the nations.
You could put Psalm 2 verse 1.
Why do the nations rage and the people
imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth had taken counsel
together against the Lord and against his anointed,
saying, we will not have this man to
reign over us.
That is a repudiation of God's right to
have anything to do with the affairs of
man.
If I could make just a little aside,
that seems to be the philosophy of our
supreme court that says we've got to so
separate God from from the state that you
can't have anything to do that looks like
religion in politics or in school.
That's a separation of church and state.
Let me say to you that idea is
a devilish concept.
When you separate God from daily life, you
inevitably lead to lawlessness and anarchy and rebellion.
But the nations are declaring themselves independent of
God, and God says, I'm not going to
let that go by.
You see, God can get angry.
Now, there is sinful anger, but there is
also, well, let me put it this way.
There are times when not to get angry
is sinful, and for God not to respond
to rebellion and repudiation of his right to
rule would be a violation of God's holiness
and God's justice.
So that when Jesus Christ comes, he isn't
coming as the meek and gentle Jesus, as
the my lamb.
He's coming in wrath to judge those who
have repudiated his right to rule.
And I'm putting verse 18 along with verse
15, the time of thy wrath has come.
Then another thing, the time of the dead
that they should be judged.
Now, I take it that the dead here
is a reference to the believers during the
tribulation period who will be martyred for their
faith.
We'll get into this in chapter 13, and
later, when Antichrist is controlling the economy, one
who does not submit to his authority will
not be able to buy or sell.
There will be an active attempt to kill
every believer by Antichrist, who is Satan's representative.
But those martyrs are to be resurrected, and
I'm looking ahead into chapter 20, and it
says there in verse 4, I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them.
Judgment was given unto them, and I saw
the souls of them that were beheaded for
the witness of Jesus and for the word
of God, and which had not worshipped the
beast, neither his image, neither received his mark
upon their foreheads or in their head, and
they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand
years.
The end of verse 5.
This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part
in this first resurrection.
Now, it's that whole doctrine of resurrection that
will be brought to its fulfillment in verse
18 of chapter 11.
When Jesus Christ comes, he's coming to resurrect.
Now, I would remind you that those who
have died in Christ of this church age
had been resurrected some seven years previously at
the time of the rapture.
But at the rapture, Old Testament saints are
not resurrected.
They're still in their graves.
But at the second advent of Christ, there
are two parts of the resurrection program.
First, there's the resurrection of all the Old
Testament saints, and when Christ's feet touch down
on the Mount of Olives, those Old Testament
saints, no matter where their bodies return to
dust, will be resurrected.
This so gripped the thinking of Israel that
throughout the Old Testament and through subsequent ages,
it was the goal of Judah being buried
as close to Jerusalem as possible.
And that's why, when you take your trip
over there to stand on the Mount of
Olives and look across to Jerusalem, you're looking
across a vast, vast cemetery, because they wanted
to be buried there because they thought when
the Lord's feet touched down on the Mount
of Olives, the resurrection will be just like
dropping a stone into a mill pond.
There will be extending circles.
So, the first ones to be resurrected will
be those on the slopes of the Mount
of Olives, and then those in Jerusalem, and
then those someplace in Palestine, and then those
someplace else.
But they had this idea that resurrection of
the believers from the Old Testament took place
at the time that Christ's feet touched down
on the Mount of Olives.
But then there's the second part of the
resurrection at this time, and that's the resurrection
of all those who were martyred for their
faith in Christ, all the believers of the
tribulation period who died.
That's going to be a vast resurrection.
Now, you see, the Old Testament saints were
promised they would have part in Messiah's kingdom,
and Abraham looked forward to that.
All the Old Testament saints knew that when
Messiah set up his kingdom, they would be
in it.
They couldn't explain it because the details weren't
given, but that was their hope.
And what verse 18 of chapter 11 is
telling us?
That that hope will be realized when the
Lord Jesus Christ comes.
He will subdue nations to himself, he will
pour out his anger upon those nations that
are rebelling against himself, he will set up
his throne and institute his reign, and he'll
speak a word.
And all these Old Testament saints and tribulation
saints will be resurrected to share with him
in the glory of his kingdom.
Remember, in John chapter 5, verses 26, 27,
and 28, Christ said two spheres of authority
were given to him by his Father.
First, the right to resurrect, and second, the
right to judge.
And here at the second advent, he's doing
both of those things.
He's judging wicked, and he's also resurrecting believers.
Now, along with that, all of those who
are called God's servants, the prophets, the saints,
will be given a reward.
Now, my mind goes back to our Lord's
teaching.
In his parables, he told of an individual
who distributed his wealth among his servants, and
he gave one ten talents, another five talents,
another one talent.
And the one who was faithful with the
ten talents, the Lord said, Well done, enter
and enjoy thy Lord.
You've been faithful, and now you have authority
over ten cities.
The one that had been given five and
was faithful was given authority over five cities.
You see, this is dealing something with the
structure of the administration of the government in
our Lord's earthly kingdom.
He'll be the king.
David is called the prince over Israel, and
under David the twelve apostles will have subordinate
positions under David, ruling over the twelve tribes.
Then under each one of the apostles and
any one of the tribes, there'll be rulers
over ten cities and rulers over five cities.
Do you get the idea of delegated authority?
Well, that's what I see here in verse
18, that the servants, the prophets, the saints,
those that fear thy name will have a
reward, and those rewards will be positions of
authority to rule with him when he sets
up his earthly kingdom.
Now, it's amazing to me how much John
telescopes into these few verses, of gathering together
the whole prophetic program.
But, as I said, it's going to be
explained to us in considerable detail in subsequent
chapters as we go on through this book.
This is just a little thumbnail sketch as
to what will happen at the second advent.
Now I'd rather go into chapter 12, and
I want to take you back to chapter
10 and verse 11 to remind you that
John was told as he came to the
conclusion of these judgments that spanned the seven
years of the tribulation period, thou must prophesy
again.
And I'm reading it this way, thou must
prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and
tongues and kings.
The second advent brings us to the end
of the seven years of tribulation period.
After the end of the tribulation period, our
Lord's earthly millennial reign will be introduced, so
that we might have expected a description of
the millennial kingdom in chapter 12.
Chronologically, that would fit.
But we don't get a description of the
millennial kingdom, the throne set up, until we
come to chapter 20, so that there is
a lot of material from chapter 12 through
chapter 19.
Why is it there?
You will notice that John is not trying
to give us a chronology of prophecy, but
what 10.11 tells us is that John
must go back and cover the seven years
of the tribulation period a second time from
a different viewpoint.
We pointed this out last time, but I
am emphasizing it again because the rain and
flu and perhaps overeating or some other things
kept some of you away last time.
But 10.11 is crucial in understanding how
this book fits together, so that from chapter
12 through chapter 19, we're going to have
a description of some of the principal actors
and movements that play a significant role during
the years of the tribulation period.
So, we're not looking primarily for judgments as
we go through the second time.
We're looking for individuals, actors, movements, nations that
play a significant role.
Now, we're introduced to the first actress in
12.1 and 2, and I have to
use the feminine rather than the masculine, because
John saw a woman, a woman that is
pregnant, and the time of her delivery has
come.
He gives us a description of this woman.
It looks as though she is clothed with
the sun.
In other words, she is seen reflecting the
Shekinah, the glory of God.
You go back to chapter 1 of Revelation,
Rezekiel chapter 1, where the glory of God
is described and it's described as being a
brightness greater than the brightness of the noonday
sun.
That's what Saul of Tarsus saw on the
Damascus road, you'll remember.
It's what Stephen saw when he looked up
into heaven and saw the glory of God
in Acts chapter 7.
Now, this woman is robed in light, and
is seen in dazzling brilliance.
Now, she is standing on the moon, and
around her head a crown of 12 stars.
So, I want you to get the imagery
here.
This woman standing on the moon, and the
circle of stars around her head, and she
is suffering labor pain, traveling in birth, pained
to be delivered.
Now, I want to drop down to verse
5, because the pregnancy is terminated.
It says, "...a woman brought forth a man
-child who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron."
Now, that phrase gives us a clue as
to the identity of the child, because that
is a direct quotation from Psalm 2 that
we referred to a few minutes earlier, where
God the Father said to God the Son,
"...you will rule all nations with a rod
of iron."
Now, to no one else was the right
to rule over all nations ever given.
Jesus Christ holds that right exclusively, so there
can be no question as to the identity
of the child.
It has to be the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, then that takes us back to verse
1 and 2.
Who is the woman?
I'm hearing some people say Israel.
Why don't you say Mary?
Wasn't she the mother of Jesus?
Remember in one of my earlier visits to
Mexico for ministry, when my brother was there
as a missionary, we were next to a
city, he said, I want to take you
to the church.
He said, as you look at that altar,
I think you'll get a better concept of
Roman doctrine than any book that you can
read.
So, he took me into a very old
part of the city, and took me into
this old, old building, but there was an
altar that was overlaid with gold, as was
true in so many of the churches in
that old country.
But there was a painting, and it was
a very large representation of the sun, it
was this golden orb with all the flames
leaping out, so you could tell it was
the representation of the sun, and Mary was
painted in the center of that sun.
Then she was standing on the moon, and
the face of Jesus Christ was painted on
the moon.
Then there were 12 stars around her head,
and a portrait of each one of the
12 apostles painted into those stars.
So, that was teaching visually that Mary is
preeminent, Christ is subject to her authority, and
the apostles were bowing down to do her
will.
Now, they get that right out of chapter
12 of the book of the Revelation, and
relate this to Mary.
However, the things that happened to this woman
never happened to Mary, so that Mary cannot
be the one that is portrayed in this
symbolism.
Rather than referring to this as the mother
who conceived and bore Christ, it is a
reference to the nation from which Christ came
according to the flesh.
And as Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 says,
he was of the seed of Abraham, the
seed of David.
Or, the woman here is a symbolism for
the nation in which Christ came, and through
which Christ came.
Now, that will introduce us to the second
person, and that's in verse 3.
And the one presented to us here is
represented as a great red dragon, having seven
heads, ten horns, seven crowns upon his head.
These heads and horns and crowns, we shall
see from chapter 13, represent authority, political authority,
or the right to rule that is assumed
by the one that is presented as having
these heads and these crowns.
He's likened to a great red dragon.
Now, the influence of this one goes beyond
just the earth, because his tail drew the
third part of the stars of heaven, so
that he has an influence into heaven itself.
Now, through the Old Testament, angels are often
referred to as stars.
Job will say at the time of creation
of this earth, the morning stars sang together.
The stars don't sing, but if you see
that in the scripture the stars are viewed
as residents of the angels, then the angels
can sing and worship God as they see
God's power displayed in creation.
Well, this is going back, I believe, to
what is given to us in Isaiah 14
and Ezekiel 28, where before the formation of
this earth, when the only creation that existed
was the angelic creation, the hives of the
created angelic beings who had the name Lucifer,
that means the light bearer, rebelled against God,
refused to submit to God's authority.
He wanted to elevate himself above God and
elevate his throne above the throne of God,
so that God took orders from him.
And a multitude of created angelic beings followed
him in his rebellion and gave to Lucifer
the right to rule that belongs to God.
Now, I think that verse 4 in Revelation
12 gives us a clue as to the
extent of this original rebellion.
It involved one-third of the innumerable created
angelic hosts.
So, here is an individual represented by a
dragon who extended his authority into the heavens
and led a third of the angelic creation
after himself.
Now, this individual seeks to extend his authority
over all the earth because he attacks the
woman and the man-child, and his purpose
is to destroy the man-child.
Not the woman, but the man-child.
Now, why the special attack against the man
-child?
Because he is the one who has been
given the right to rule, and if he
can subjugate the man-child to himself, then
he has taken over the authority that God
has assigned to her child.
So, the attack is against the dragon.
Verse 4, "...stood before the woman which was
ready to be delivered to devour her child
as soon as it was born."
Now, you will see this is looking back
in history.
When did Satan make an attack against Christ?
At the time of his birth, through Herod.
Herod sent out the edict to kill all
the bait.
Why that?
Who originated that idea?
Satan did.
What was the purpose?
To prevent Christ from coming to rule, because
he knew that if Christ ruled, then Christ
would execute judgment upon him and his angels,
and he would have to give up the
authority that Adam had given to him.
He'd have to surrender his right to rule.
So, who is this red dragon?
Well, drop down to verse 9, and we're
not left to any speculation, because we're told,
"...the great dragon is that old
serpent," that's whole world.
He deceived the world in the Garden of
Eden, and he has operated as a deceiver
down through the ages.
His deception, as referred to here in chapter
12, is that if the world will follow
him, he will set up a kingdom, peace
and righteousness and prosperity and plenty, and they
won't have to submit to God in order
to get the benefits of his rule.
Just submit to him.
So we have Israel, the first actor.
We have Christ, the man-child, the second
actor.
We have Satan, the third actor.
Well, let's back up a little bit to
verse 5.
When the man-child was born, who was
to rule all nations but out of iron,
her child was caught up unto God and
to his throne.
Going back in history, what's referred to in
that statement?
The ascension.
At the cross, it looked as though Satan
had brought Jesus into subjection to himself.
He had exerted his will on Christ.
What's the resurrection and the ascension say?
Well, Christ can say, "...all power is given
unto me, both in heaven and in earth."
The resurrection of Christ is the demonstration, the
announcement of Christ's victory over the rebel, the
deceiver, the liar, the one who has usurped
the right to rule, but whose rule will
be terminated.
Okay, what next?
Verse 6.
The woman fled into the wilderness.
Well, what's all this?
Since Satan could not defeat Christ and attack
Christ, he seeks to defeat the program of
God by attacking the people over whom Christ
will rule.
Let me say that again, so I make
sure you get it.
Since Satan cannot attack Christ, since he's the
right hand of the Father, he attacks that
nation, that people, over whom Christ will rule
when he returns to the earth a second
time.
See, here's Satan's philosophy, that if I can't
keep Christ in bondage to death, I will
try to kill every descendant of Abraham, for
if there are no Jews alive, Christ promised
to regather the nation and defeat their enemies
and bring them peace and blessing can never
come to fulfillment.
So that what we refer to as anti
-Semitism is more than an ethnic conflict, it
is the outworking of Satan's attempt to continue
his rule on this earth by eliminating those
who will be the subject of Christ's rule
and Christ's reign when he returns.
So he's going to describe here the attack
of Satan against the people of Israel, but
in verse 7 we find that God sends
angelic hosts to defend Israel.
War in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.
The dragon fought and his angels against Michael,
but the dragon and his angels were not
able to prevail against Michael.
In the Old Testament, one of the favorite
names for God was Jehovah Sabaoth.
How's your Hebrew?
Do you know what that means?
Yeah?
Lord of hosts?
Or I would expand it a little bit
more.
You're right, but I put it this way
to make it a little more graphic.
He's the Lord of the armies of heaven.
When God wanted to protect Israel, when the
Assyrians were coming and they came with an
army of 185,000 men, how many legions
of angels did God send to protect Jerusalem?
He just sent one angel.
One angel could take care of 185,000
Assyrian soldiers.
God is Lord of the armies of heaven,
and what I see here is that all
of the power of heaven is dispatched to
preserve and protect the people of the covenant,
so that Satan's purpose to exterminate them can
never come to fulfillment.
Verse 10.
As a result of God's protection, the announcement
can be made, Now has come salvation and
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and
the power of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brethren is cast
down, which accused them before God day and
night.
Think the best illustration of this is to
go back to the first chapter of the
book of Job.
Nobody could find a flaw in Job's character
or conduct, but that didn't keep Satan from
coming to accuse Job into the presence of
God.
He was the accuser of the brethren.
1 John 2, 1-2, that while any
man is sinning, we have an advocate, and
that's the Old English word for what we
refer to today as a defense attorney.
While any man is sinning, we have a
defense attorney, and that defense attorney is none
other than Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now, while we are sinning, why do we
need a defense attorney?
Because there's a prosecuting attorney who's charging us
before God.
Who's the prosecuting attorney?
Satan.
And he points out to what I'm doing.
He says, God, look at that one that
you said was your child.
Look at what he's doing.
Now, God, you said the soul that sin
of it shall die, that the wages of
sin is death, and I demand you turn
him over to me.
You see, that's when I need a defense
attorney, because Satan is the accuser of the
brethren, and my defense attorney is none other
than Jesus Christ the righteous, and he comes
to my defense.
Now, that's just a little part of this
concept that Satan has called him the accuser
of our brethren.
But when John writes that in verse 10,
he is looking not at Satan accusing believers
of this present day, the presence of God,
he's looking at Satan accusing the people of
Israel of their infidelity, their apostasy, their idolatry.
And so he is saying to God, God,
how can you fulfill your covenants and promises?
How can you send a Messiah to a
people as godless and as lawless and as
unbelieving as that?
And you see, that is a valid accusation,
because the nation is not in faith.
They are in unbelief, and Israel is going
to need a defense attorney.
And that brings us to the defense attorney,
and that's in verse 11.
Verse 11.
The nation that is being accused of being
unworthy of God's blessings overcomes the accuser how?
By the blood of the Lamb.
What's their plea?
Lord, we admit we're not worthy, but we
base our acceptance on the fact that Jesus
Christ died for us.
And that is enough to silence the accusation
that the accuser makes.
Now, the response of Satan, verse 12.
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and
of the sea, for the devil has come
down unto you having great wrath, because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Satan's whole program must be fulfilled within the
seven years of the tribulation period.
If he is to defeat the Messiah, if
he is to exterminate Israel, it will have
to be done in that span of seven
years.
I think this outpouring of the wrath of
Satan begins in the middle of the tribulation
period and stretches over the last three and
a half years, and what we have in
verse 13-17 is the wrath of Satan
against the nation Israel.
When the dragon saw that he was cast
into the earth, he persecuted the woman.
Now, earlier we noted that he had tried
to devour the man-child, but the man
-child is in heaven and can't be touched.
But God's program is to be fulfilled through
the nation Israel, and so Israel will undergo
the most severe persecution that they have ever
known in all their history.
Now, it's almost painful for me to say
that when we think back as to what
Israel has suffered in the past, but we
find that in the tribulation period all of
the wrath of Satan will be vented against
that nation, but God provides deliverance.
The woman will be given two wings of
a great eagle that she might fly into
the wilderness, into her place, where she is
protected for time, times and half-times.
Time is one, times is three, plus one
is three, adds that to the half, and
that's why I say I take it that
this is in the middle of the seven
years of the tribulation period, where the last
three and a half years will be the
period of Satan's reign.
Now, there's been a lot of speculation on
where the woman is going, and a lot
of people believe that Israel is going to
flee to that place down in southern Jordan
known as Petra, that rock city that is
the area from which Herod came.
Now, somebody told me once he was so
convinced that the Jews were going to flee
down there that he was arranging to have
copies of Things to Come hidden in those
caves so that when the Jews got down
there, they would read of the whole prophetic
program and would understand what was happening.
I told him, save his money.
The wilderness in the Old Testament is often
used as a reference to Gentiles or Gentile
nations, and for this reason.
God had said he would pour out showers
of blessing upon his people.
You never sing it anymore, do you?
But you used to sing, there shall be
showers of blessing.
Well, the showers were the symbol for God's
blessing.
Those showers were to be poured out upon
Jerusalem so that Jerusalem would get the showers
of the rain, and the further you got
from Jerusalem, the less rain, less blessing.
And the concept was that if you were
in Jerusalem, you would be blessed, but if
you were in a Gentile nation, there would
be no showers of blessing, no spiritual privileges,
so that would be a spiritual wilderness or
a spiritual desert.
Quite a graphic way of picturing the lack
of privilege that the Gentiles had.
Well, when it says that the woman would
fly into the wilderness, I think that it
is saying that the nation Israel that would
be in the land at the beginning of
the tribulation period would undergo such persecution that
they would have to flee out of their
land, and the land would be emptied essentially
of its Jewish inhabitants.
Now, the reason I don't think that this
is Petra, but is a reference to Gentile
nations, is that in Matthew 24-31, when
Christ comes the second time, he's going to
regather his people Israel, not from Petra, which
would mean about a five-hour bus trip
back to Jerusalem.
He's going to regather them from the four
corners of the earth, so that the nation
is viewed as scattered all over the world.
So then, what happens is that when Satan
seeks to exterminate the Jews who are living
in the land of Israel, Gentile nations will
open their borders and will allow the people
to get out of the land of Israel
and find refuge in their different homelands.
The serpent seeks to destroy the nation.
He pours out of his mouth water as
a flood.
Now, he doesn't say that there would be
a flood, but it would be like a
flood, have the same devastating results.
But his purpose is to destroy the nation,
but the earth helped the woman, and the
term the earth here could refer to the
nations of the earth open their mouth and
protected Israel from this satanic attack.
Now, this exodus will take place in approximately
the middle of the tribulation period.
I can't go into it this evening.
We're going to go into it when we
get into chapter 13, begin in chapter 16,
that as a result of the military invasions
in what we refer to as the campaign
of Armageddon, Israel will no longer be able
to maintain their identity as a nation, protect
themselves.
They will flee out of the land, hide
themselves among the nations of the earth.
But that does not terminate Satan's wrath, because
in verse 17, the dragon was wroth with
the woman and went to make war with
the remnant of her seed which keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of
Jesus.
Now, you notice in verses 13 to 16,
it was an attack against the nation as
a whole.
But in verse 17, it's an attack against
a portion of the nation, the believers, so
that if Satan cannot destroy the nation, he
will try to put to death every believer
who has turned to Christ who came from
the nation Israel.
Now, what chapter 12 tells us is that
these important actors are going to play significant
roles.
Israel, Christ, the nation of Israel, Satan, the
Gentile nations of the earth are all going
to play their distinctive roles in the unfolding
of this drama.
Now, again, John is almost telescoping prophecy, and
when we get on, as we will next
time, we're going to get into the person
and the work of that individual that we
nickname Antichrist.
And John is going to give us many
important, significant revelations concerning this person.
Many people are much engrossed with the study
of Antichrist, his person, his ministry.
And I say to you, it's far more
important to know something about the person of
Christ than about the Antichrist.
He will play a significant role, but we're
not waiting for the coming of Antichrist, but
for the coming of the person of Jesus
Christ.
And we can join in saying, as John
wrote at the close of his book, even
so come, Lord Jesus.
Father, thank you for the privilege of giving
ourselves in this hour to this important part
of this book.
We have to bring together so many lines
of prophecy and so much revelation of biblical
truth, and we pray that the Spirit of
God may help us to understand what is
written, not just to satisfy our curiosity, but
to quicken our expectation that the Lord Jesus
Christ could come at any moment to translate
us into his presence.
Thank you for that hope that is given
to us, and we thank you in Jesus'
name.
Amen.