The Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number Six- Part 2, Incomplete Mankind

[Study Aired January 18, 2026]

We paused our study with the statement that the number six is connected to the body of Christ.

The multiple of any number in God’s word will show us something about the original number but on a magnified scale. For instance, 12 represents our foundation, Christ, however (12 X 12) X (10 X 10 X 10) = 144,000, showing us that the 144,000 which represents the elect in the book of Revelation have their foundation in Christ as a witness (2), that is to say two twelves multiplied by each other and then multiplied by (3) tens that represent process and the perfection of the flesh adds up to 144,000.

The number for witness is 2, and there are 2 Adams which complete this witness that God is showing us in the flesh of man.

The first Adam in sinful flesh witnesses to us that mankind is incapable of obeying God without the Holy Spirit and that we are marred in the hand of the potter as the book of Jeremiah declares. Whatever obedience we have is based on the law for the lawless and not the spirit of Christ at first.

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

The second Adam in sinful flesh is Jesus Christ, and He witnesses to us the very same thing; that flesh is incapable of obeying God without the Holy Spirit. We are marred in the hand of the potter as the book of Jeremiah declares.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make [it].

Christ did not come to earth to boast about His sinful flesh. Rather, He made Himself of no reputation and became obedient unto death, and He knew there is none good but one, and that is God, the Father. Christ is coming to reveal the Father and show us what is possible in our own flesh once we have been given the power to overcome as He did.

Php 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

If we are losing our life, the life of the first Adam, and finding the life of the second Adam by way of having the comforter in us, then this free gift will be the work of grace and faith spoken of in Ephesians 2:8. This enables us to endure until the end and become as Christ is both now in earnest and when we go onto perfection as Christ himself did on the third day, which is the number that represents the resurrection and judgment and destruction of the flesh.

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

The resurrected and glorified creation God is forming is founded upon these two Adams. Christ is the first and the second Adam, the Alpha and the Omega, and everything in between. It is through Him that all this process is being accomplished, and without a resurrected life of Christ as our high priest we would be yet in our sins and unable to be found in Him at the resurrection.

Rom 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Christ is the power of the resurrection just as He is the power with which the physical creation was formed in an instant (the first Adam). In like manner the resurrected body of Christ will happen in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye (the then perfected second Adam).

Joh 11:25  Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed [From the first Adam to the second or last Adam].

Simply stated, 2 X 6 = 12 the witness of two Adams is needed to bring about the new man who is formed in righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.  That is how the number six is connected to the body of Christ. Christ is “the first and the last”:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Rev 22:13  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Both Adams must go through this process of witness. Mankind must first witness against themselves by our destructive and carnal nature which can only be changed by the true witness, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, dwelling within us.

We live every word of God, and so we must start off as that first beast which does not know Christ, and then in God’s perfect timing, we take on the new man, the second Adam, and go through a process which is founded on the foundation of Jesus Christ (12), and is only completed when we are judged and resurrected, or resurrected and judged depending on which resurrection God has preordained for anyone.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [the first resurrection, (Rev 20:5-6)]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920: ‘krisis’, judgment, the great white throne judgment, (Rev 20:11-15)].

Act 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty [and] two months.

An interesting side note is that 42 divided by 6 = 7, showing us that the complete process for the flesh is found with 42 months of witnessing for Christ, and being witnessed against as well. Our 42 months are lived in the court, which is not measured, and then, if we are called and chosen and faithful and given the power to endure to the end, we witness to His power for 42 months, or three and a half years of which the two witnesses of Revelation 11 are a type.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

Verse 1 of Revelation 11 talks about the measuring of the temple of God by a reed like unto a rod.

Rev 11:1  And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

Isa 42:3  A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgement unto truth.

Christ is the one whom God uses to bring forth judgment unto truth, and Christ is represented by the number twelve which is the foundational measure by which all mankind must eventually be measured. The reed spoken of in Isaiah 42:3 is in fact Jesus Christ who is working within the elect of God and fashioning them as a master potter so that they can become a new creation which reflects the mind of Christ. As such they will be able to judge the nations without because they themselves have been given to judge the nations within themselves first, or going back to the first paragraph of this article, we are the first fruits after Christ, to be given dominion over all the beasts of the land within and without.

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves [now, in this age], we should not be judged [at the great white throne judgment, (Rev 20:11-15)].
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Jas 1:18  Of his own will [Not our will but His] begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

For further clarification on the number (12) please see the article on this subject at:

The Number Twelve, along with this article which talks about the measuring of the temple as well at Rev 21:13-17

Christ’s Flesh was Judged as Well as His Body Which We Are

Christ was 33 when he died, and there was a process of judgment upon Christ’s flesh as the number 33 signifies. He did learn obedience by the things which He suffered and had to overcome His sinful flesh being tempted in all diverse manner as we are yet without sin.

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

The number 33 could be looked at as two 3’s adding up to 6, the mark of man, and because there are two 3’s, we are shown that a witness is at hand as well as a process. The true and faithful witness, Jesus Christ, is going through a process of judgment on our behalf so we have a Savior who is not unfamiliar with our experience in this corruptible flesh.

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Contrary to the false and damnable doctrine of a substitutionary atonement, it is now given to us to suffer with Christ on His behalf to fill up what is lacking of His afflictions:

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Instead of being ‘substitutionary’ Christ’s sufferings are rather exemplary and a pattern for us to follow.

1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: [“Fill up what is behind of His afflictions for His body’s sake, which is the church”, (Col 1:24)]

We don’t want to know Christ after the flesh, but rather as our faithful High Priest who, as the author and finisher of our faith, is now able to purify and comfort us with the same comfort which He received when He was a man.

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

2Co 1:4  who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Heb 2:3  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

Heb 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The purification process

This purification process, which leads to salvation or the finishing of our faith, is demonstrated in the type and shadow of the man child and the maid child in the book of Leviticus chapter 12:1-8.

Lev 12:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 12:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
Lev 12:3  And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Lev 12:4  And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.

Having given birth to a man child, the woman must go through the blood of her purifying for 33 days. The man child is represented as Christ and those who have Christ in them (i.e. the first fruits unto God).

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

The purifying of blood is tied to the word of God

John tells us that the word of God is likened to Christ’s flesh and blood, and if Christ is in us, those words are purified within our earthen vessel seven times as we are saved by grace and faith, which are free gifts from God.

Joh 6:53  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Joh 6:54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:58  This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Psa 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

The number 33 shows us that with Christ within us, there is a witness of judgment upon our flesh if we are the man child with Christ in us (2 threes).

Therefore Christ as the man child (the second Adam) finishes His earthly ministry at 33, and the first Adam who is a type of Christ must also as a potential man child be subject to the same vanity of flesh which we all must go through as part of this process of purifying us to become eternal sons and daughters of God.

Ecc 9:2  All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

The purifying that occurs with the first Adam is symbolic of the greater baptisms of fire which occur with Christ cleansing the temple within us, which temple we are. That which is natural is first and afterwards that which is spiritual. We have a natural judgment that comes upon our flesh by way of the law which is for the lawless, but until the judgment of Christ comes upon us in the spirit, we are only half way there so to speak. Both the man child and maid child are cleansed, there is one event to both of them (Ecc 9:2), but the man child (the elect and Christ) represents those who are judged now, and the maid child (the Church in the wilderness) will be judged, but their judgment takes twice as long, and the order of the judgment is different.

This does not mean that the man child does not have to experience living under the law, but rather it is by God’s plan and purpose that a few will experience judgment in this age by being dragged out of the maid child (Babylon) to become the man child that will one day be used to judge the world as the first-fruit kings and priests who are by God’s grace and faith reconciled so they may be saviors to the maid child (Babylon and the rest of humanity). Those who show mercy in judging the rest of mankind in the second resurrection are being saved now by this purification process of having God’s word cleanse them of all of the lies of Babylon.

Please see this article which clearly explains these points.

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/what-is-meaning-of-the-law-birth-purification/

The ‘maidchild’ signifies all who are not ‘the manchild’. The doubling of the time to be purified when a maid child is born signifies the doubling of the time needed to purify all those who are not the man child and who are not in “the resurrection of life.”

Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [“the first resurrection”, (Rev 20:6)]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920:’krisis’, judgment, the great white throne judgment].

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed [signified by the maidchild], that through your mercy [the mercy of the manchild] they also may obtain mercy.

If we add 33+33 we get 66 and can see that there is a witness therefore to the flesh telling us that Christ has to finish this process of redeeming the first Adam by taking on the Adamic flesh with the holy spirit within Himself and without measure as a man, and then saving mankind in God’s order by the hope of glory within us, which hope is Christ in us.

Christ is not just reconciling us unto God by His death, but also, being raised as our High Priest, He purifies us so we can become the second Adam as well.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Joh 3:34  For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him [unto Christ].

1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Co 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Now if we consider the second part of this verse, we can see more clearly why the purification was 66 days for the maid child and only 33 days for the man child.

We will pause again at this point and find out what the one week plus 33 days for the purification of a manchild versus the two weeks plus 66 days for the purification of a maidchild signifies in our next and last study on the spiritual significance of the number six.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/rev-1214-17-part-2-the-earth-helped-the-woman/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rev-1214-17-part-2-the-earth-helped-the-woman Sun, 29 Dec 2024 05:08:24 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=31705 Audio Download

Rev 12:14-17 – Part 2 – The Earth Helped the Woman

[Study Aired Dec 29, 2024]

In this study we will seek to understand the spiritual significance of the statement… “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the flood which the dragon cast out of its mouth…” in this verse:

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17  And 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 Christ.

Christ tells us that when His words spoken through us are rejected by this world it is the same as rejecting Him and His words. That is also the way it is with the adversary and those who speak for him. Therefore when we are told, “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the flood which the dragon cast out of its mouth”, what we are being told is that the woman is accepting of the words coming out of the mouth of the dragon via all of His ministers.

The Pharaoh [of the book of Exodus] attempting to destroy all the male new born of Israel, typifies the dragon’s desire to devour the man child as soon as he is born. Pharaoh typifies the beast and his spiritual father within us all. The scriptures reveal that when we serve ourselves and do what we want to do without regard to the admonitions of scripture, we are treating ourselves as if we are god, but at the same time we are unwittingly “worshiping the dragon”. It matters not that we are “Abraham’s seed”. The only thing that matters is if we ‘do the things’ Christ and His Word tell us to do.

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

Anger toward God’s messenger, Moses, is exactly what “the woman in the wilderness”, Israel, felt as she watched the armies of Egypt approaching, and that is exactly how we feel when we see that no one else in the world sees or agrees with the things which have led us to begin to come out of Babylon. We are God’s Israel, and like Jeremiah and Israel, we too, slowly come to see just how much we must sacrifice to remain faithful to the calling we have been given. This is Jeremiah, and this is each of us.

Jer 20:7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Jer 20:8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
Jer 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
Jer 20:10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

We will never understand any of the symbols of scripture if we are not careful to retain their Biblical meaning instead of the meaning arbitrarily given them by the false prophets in the temples of Babylon. Pharaoh’s armies are a type and a shadow of the legions of evil spirits which darken the Sun and the air, which want to destroy God’s witnesses and which keep us from seeing the light of the Sun. A ‘woman’ in scripture is always the wife of God, either as a harlot or as a faithful wife. It is to preserve this ‘harlot woman who brought forth a man child’ that “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of His mouth”. This ‘woman’ is signified in scripture by the harlot Hosea was told to marry to typify how Israel has treated her own faithful husband, Christ:

Hos 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
Hos 1:3  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
Hos 1:4  And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

Jezreel was born of a harlot and yet the Lord “avenge[d] the blood of Jezreel” just as He will avenge the blood of Christ upon the kingdom of our old man.

It is with good reason that we are told that this flood comes forth of the dragon’s mouth. It is given to us in these words based upon this principle:

Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Mat 15:11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

This “flood out of the dragon’s mouth” is also called “locusts upon the earth” in Rev 9.

Rev 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev 9:16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

200 million witnesses to the lies of Babylon stand in sharp contrast to God’s “two witnesses”. It is few who are willing to stand up to such odds. Here is another way of saying the same thing, but because we see the number three, we know that some form of progression is in view:

Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

These are not three separate sources. The dragon empowers both the beast and the false prophet, but He does so in a certain predestined order of progression.

We certainly are not able to withstand the odds of ‘200 million to two’ as we first begin our exodus from either Egypt or Babylon. The earth swallowing the flood that comes out of the mouth of the dragon will be lost on us if we fail to notice that this woman cannot yet be caught up to God and to His throne, and if we forget what we have learned is the symbolism of “the earth”.

Here is what “the earth” means in scripture:

Jer 22:2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

The earth was swallowing up the flood of lies which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

“Thy people that enter by these gates” is the symbol of God’s own rebellious and backslid people who were more than eager to believe the lies of the adversary. Now look at how the holy spirit addresses those who know God and then turn their back on Him and His doctrines, here in this same 22nd chapter of Jeremiah.

Jer 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

This explains why Israel wished they had never left Egypt when they saw the armies of Egypt, and this explains why they immediately blamed their own savior for their apparent dilemma.

Exo 14:12 Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

So “the woman” cannot be caught up to God and to His throne, because she is no better off spiritually than Pharaoh at this stage of her walk. This woman in Rev 12 is saved by the earth swallowing up what comes out of the Dragon’s mouth because this woman is the earth, and she is on the same page that dragon is on. Only her man child, who has been separated from her, is “caught up to God and to His throne”, while she flees into the wilderness where her rebellions continue unabated as typified by unfaithful Israel’s actions:

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

While we are told that Pharaoh’s armies were destroyed by the waters of the Red Sea, that is interpreted as “the earth swallowed them”.

Exo 15:4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.
Exo 15:5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.
Exo 15:6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
Exo 15:7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
Exo 15:8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
Exo 15:9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
Exo 15:10 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
Exo 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Exo 15:12 Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.

But how do the armies of Egypt being destroyed in the sea apply to our lives? Here is one example of what a flood is in spiritual, scriptural terms:

Isa 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

The lies of the adversary are signified by “a flood” from his mouth. That is the negative application of the word ‘flood’. The positive application refers to the words of Truth from the Lord, from His mouth and from the mouths of His elect:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Luk 6:45  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

The Lord tells us that His Truthful words are spirit (Joh 6:63), and it is His words of Truth which are our refuge and our defence, which are “lifted up as a standard” against all the lies of “the enemy”. Every soldier of the armies of Egypt and Babylon are a symbol of the lies of the Adversary. Every ‘soldier of Christ’ speaks only His Truths:

2Ti 2:3  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2Ti 2:4  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
2Ti 2:5  And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

‘Striving lawfully’ for Christ requires that the soldier of Christ “endure hardness”. It requires that we “resist not evil: but… turn the other cheek also”:

Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Enduring that kind of ‘hardness’ infuriates the adversary:

Rev 12:17 And 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 Christ.

Once we are made to see this woman is “in the wilderness” and we see her as being on the same page with the serpent in seeking to destroy God’s elect, then we will begin to understand why the dragon makes war, not with her, but “with the remnant of her seed…” Only then will we begin to understand why her seed is prophesied to always be at war with the seed of the serpent. Now we can understand why the seed of the serpent is prophesied, from the very beginning, to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, while her seed is prophesied to bruise the head of the serpent.

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Israel is both a type of God’s elect on the one hand, and she is also a type of God’s harlot wife who wants to kill the Christ and His Christ in another instance. Only when we see that the first Adam is a figure of the last Adam, and the first Pharaoh in the story of Joseph typifies the Father, while the Pharaoh of Moses’ day typifies the beast as the seed of the serpent, will we understand how the woman of Rev 12 can be described in such glowing terms and still be “in the wilderness” and completely unqualified to be with Christ on His throne. It is because the woman of Rev 12, who is not caught up to God and to His throne, is the same as the woman of Rev 17-18, with the same sins as the seven churches who have in them the Nicolaitans, and who also suffer “that woman Jezebel to teach”, and yet thinks she is “rich and increased with good and has need of nothing” in Revelation chapters 2-3.

Rev 2:15  So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans [Greek ‘rule the  laity’], which thing I hate.
Rev 2:16  Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Rev 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet [are] like fine brass;
Rev 2:19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last [to be] more than the first.
Rev 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Like the church in Thyatira, there are many good things to be said about the woman who brings forth the man child. She is “clothed with the sun and the moon is under her feet”. She is filled with “gold, silver, and precious stones”, the necessary materials for the true temple of God.

Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

But they are not yet “tried in fire”, which is essential to the gold, silver and precious stones that make up the true temple of God. The churches of Revelation 2-3 have the same self-satisfied spirit we find in the harlot of Revelation 17-18:

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

That “trying fire” is the words concerning God’s wrath and his judgments upon our ungodliness that these chapters 12-15 are leading up to and are introducing. This is all “the days when the seventh angel begins to sound”. Chapters 12-15 are the ‘bitterness in the belly’ which these judgments produce in our lives when we eat the little book in the angel’s hand:

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

We have seen that the woman of Rev 12 is the same woman found in the seven churches of chapters 2-3, thinking so highly of herself, when she is nothing more than a “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked… whore”. She is the same “great harlot” found in chapters 17-18. What we have learned is that the man child who comes out of this woman is also the true bride of Christ, and that this woman in Rev 12, for all the glowing words used to describe her, is still the same harlot woman of chapters 17-18:

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

This woman of Revelation 12 is completely unqualified to ascend up to God and to His throne as the true bride of Christ, which is what the man child, who comes out of this woman, signifies and is found worthy to do.

I once had a prominent Concordant minister condescendingly tell me… “Mike you can’t be ‘wife’ and a ‘son’ at the same time”. I asked him… “Why then does Paul tell us that we “are the sons of God” in Romans, and “I have espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” in 2 Corinthians?

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

That minister had absolutely no response and yet his pride would not permit him acknowledge that Paul calls us both “sons of God” and “a chaste virgin presented to one husband… Christ”.

We have seen that God refers his work of bringing this woman into the wilderness as “bearing her on eagles’ wings”, the same words used to tell us how He had brought Israel to Himself in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. We have seen that “a time, and times and half a time” is the same as 1260 days or 42 months, and we saw once again that this is the symbol for the time we spend both receiving God’s witness while we are yet “under the law”, while we are “in our place prepared for us of God” to be nourished with bread which will “bring us to Christ”, but which is not itself the true bread of life.

Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

We saw that this same period of time also symbolizes the time we spend witnessing for the Lord to those who are still under the schoolmaster and under the bondage of the law of Moses.

Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

We have seen that the flood that comes out of the mouth of the dragon is the lies that always come from his mouth, and we saw that those lies were well received of the woman, serving to deflect the wrath of the dragon off of the woman and onto “the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”. In other words, what we saw is that the woman who is being carried on eagles’ wings, is all the while on the same page with the great dragon who blames God and His messengers for bringing her into the wilderness to die. Both she and the dragon want to destroy her own seed, the “man child”, who also happens to be the symbol of the true bride of Christ, who is qualified and worthy to sit with Him on His throne in the heavens.

Finally we have seen the scriptures, which demonstrate that the earth and this harlot woman who is not qualified to sit with Christ on His throne, are spiritually and scripturally one and the same.

In our next study, if the Lord wills, we will begin to see how our worshiping of the beast is revealed to be “and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority”, us worshiping the great red dragon.

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion:ear

Rev 12:14-17 – Part 1 – The Earth Helped the Woman

[Study Aired Dec 27, 2024]

Rev 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17 And 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 Christ.

All the symbols of scripture are taken from previous verses. The two witnesses are explained in Zechariah 4 as those who speak “the Word of the Lord” according to Zec 4:6. The ‘woman’ of this chapter, and the 17^th and 18^th chapters signifies the harlot of Isa 1:21.

Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: butIsrael doth not know,my [apostate] people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

If we hope to understand the meaning of this “signified” revealing of Jesus Christ within us, and if we have any hope of understanding how we are to “keep the things written therein”, then we must always go back to the Old Testament to discover what the “two wings of a great eagle… a flood… [and] the earth opened it mouth ” means.

Mat 13:52  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new [Testament] and old [Testament].

When we do that then we will discover that it was the same ‘woman’ in the Old Testament, who was “carried into the wilderness” upon these same ‘eagle’s wings’ that were used here in the New Testament to “fly Israel into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished… [and kept safe] from the face of the serpent” even as she continues to rebel against her own Savior:

Exo 19:3  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them,so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

We will also discover there in that Old Testament story of the Lord’s sad relationship with His own people when He delivered them from the bondage of Egypt what is meant by “the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman”, and we will see how “the earth opened up her mouth and swallowed up the flood…”

Finally, if we want to be “instructed unto the kingdom of heaven”, we will also have to use “things old”, things in the Old Testament, to determine who are those who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17  And 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 Christ.

Here is where “the wings of an eagle” are first mentioned in scripture. It is while Israel, the Lord’s own people are “in the wilderness”, at Mount Sinai, at the giving of the law of Moses to Israel.

Exo 19:3  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

But where is Israel when God is telling them these words? Like this woman who brings forth this man child, Israel is “in the wilderness”, at the base of Mount Sinai, just before Israel turns her back on God and makes the golden calf whom she then claims as her God who brought her up out of Egypt. They are yet to rebel against Him ten times.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Israel herself, is rebelling against the Lord even as He is in the process of delivering her from her own bondage. Yet this is how the Lord provided for Israel while they were “the church [“the woman”] in the wilderness”:

Exo 16:4  Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Israel, the ‘woman’ who brought forth the man child, rebelled against the Lord even as He nourished her with symbolic “bread from heaven”. But it wasn’t “the True Bread From Heaven”:

Joh 6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

The law of Moses signifies the manna which was “not that [True] Bread From Heaven”. The law of Moses signifies the “land of milk and honey” which is for carnal babes in Christ who cannot yet receive the ‘strong meat’ which is “the True Bread From Heaven”. The law of Moses signifies the basic principles of the doctrine of Christ which will retard out spiritual growth if we do not go beyond those basic principles:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

This ‘woman’ who brings forth this mature ‘man child’, is taken into the wilderness on “two wings of a great eagle”. The only other place in scripture where a ‘woman’ is taken into the wilderness “on eagles’ wings” is:

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself [in the wilderness].

Why isn’t this ‘woman’ caught up unto the Lord and to His throne with the man child that comes out of her? The reason this ‘woman’ is taken into the wilderness where she has a place prepared of God is given us is these verses:

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

“The woman” who brought forth “a man child” is “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

If we are “in Christ” then we are at this very moment “seated with Christ in the heavens”:

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

If we are “in Christ Jesus” then we are the “man child” who was “caught up to God and His throne”, even while being “the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”:

Rev 12:17  And 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 Christ.

In our next study we will see how the scriptures reveal that the “manchild” is both in heaven and at the same time is on this earth as “the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.

Nevertheless, we are told that this time we spend in rebellion against our own husband and as a part of a great harlot worshipping a golden calf is all an integral part of God “bringing us to Himself”:

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself [in the wilderness].

Rev 12, 13, 14 and 15 all chronicle us as those who are being judged for our unfaithfulness in this present time leading up to the pouring out of God’s wrath upon our own unrighteousnesses, and this is what we are told twice about all of these things revealed in these chapters.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the beast and the dragon], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9  If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

“All that dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast”, is followed by “Here is the patience and faith of the saints”. We will encounter this same apparent contradiction in the 14^th chapter where we will again be told that those who worship the beast will be tormented day and night and “the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever”, immediately followed by the same apparent contradiction we read in chapter 12:

Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

To get the full impact of these counterintuitive verses let’s read them in their full context:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The few who are given eyes that see and ears that hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God will acknowledge that “fire [and brimstone] shall try every man’s works of what sort they are”:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire [and brimstone, Rev 14:10]; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work [in “this present time”, Rom 8:18] abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work [in “this present time”] shall be burned , he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

It is enduring these trials and tribulations and enduring the pouring out of God’s wrath on all of our ungodlinesses, in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) which “is the patience and faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10). “Blessed are they that read, and hear, and keep the things written therein, for the time is at hand…” to keep all these sections of scripture. It must be so because, after all, exactly how many men receive the mark of the beast?

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

How could we have missed seeing this plain statement except we were blinded by the One who came to blind all who claim that they do see?

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say,We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

The natural man reads this verse here in Rev 12 and concludes that this woman is at variance with the dragon. After all we are told that she “is nourished… from the face of the serpent.” But does “nourished… from the face of the serpent” mean that the woman is at odds with the doctrine of the serpent? Absolutely not! Israel worshipped a golden calf even as the Lord was dragging her out of Egypt. If the woman were really at odds with the doctrine of the serpent, then she too would have been caught up to God and to His throne with the man child she brought forth. Instead we see her, just as we see Israel at the time of her exodus from Egypt, fleeing into the wilderness, all the while seeking the destruction of God’s typical “man child”, Moses.

Exo 17:4  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

Israel, the type of the “woman [who] brought forth a man child”, is to be found “in the wilderness… nourished… from the face of the serpent”, yet wanting to “return to Egypt”, and siding with the adversary against their God and His messenger, Moses. That is the spiritual state of this “woman” who has “flown into the wilderness where she is nourished… from the face of the serpent”. It is only our lack of knowledge of the scriptures which keeps us from getting the point that is being made.

Again, how are we told she was taken there?

Exo 19:3  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

If this verse were not here along with Rev 12:14, we would not know that God considers our time in the wilderness to be given to us by the agency of “the wings of a great eagle”, an unclean bird. The very fact that this statement is given to Israel at the base of Mount Sinai, “which answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, tells us that God considers our time in the wilderness as well as our time in Babylon, as an integral part of His “bringing us to Himself”.

Here is what the holy spirit has inspired to be written concerning this woman at Mount Sinai, in the book of Galatians:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him [that was born] after the Spirit, even so [it is] now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman [“Jersalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”] and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we [Gentile Galatians] are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

“The desolate has many more children than she which has a husband”? How is that possible? That is definitely not a natural statement. The natural man sees the words “born after… the freewoman” and just naturally thinks of Sarah’s natural children in physical Jerusalem. But as is always the case, the things of the spirit are hidden and counterintuitive to the natural man. So we are told that life comes only through death, sight comes only through blindness, peace comes only through sending a sword, and Sarah’s natural children have become “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, while Hagar and her Gentile children, are now brought near to God by the cross of Christ. These words here in Gal 4 are seen and read, but they are not perceived by the natural man because:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So it is with this “woman… in the wilderness.” Only those who are given the gift of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” will understand how Sarah’s physical seed has become “the [spiritual] children of the bondmaid”, while the Gentiles who accept Christ, even if they are physical Galatians or the physical seed of Hagar, have now become “the children of the freewoman… through the faith of Christ”.

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Because this is so easily missed, for those who are given to see this, here it is again:

Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren [Gentile Galatians], as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son [physical Jerusalem, and physical Jews]: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman [Gentiles who are in Christ].
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we [Gentiles in Christ] are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Notice, it was both Pharaoh and Israel who wanted Moses dead. Nevertheless, Pharaoh, the agent of the serpent with a serpent upon his head in all the sculptures and coffins of the Pharaohs, sought to destroy the “seed of the woman [who was] the mother of all living”.

Gen 3:20  And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

We have seen that being “nourished for a time, and times and half a time” is the same as “forty and two months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days”. They are all the same symbol of both the time we are witnessed to by God’s elect while we are yet of our father the devil, as well as the time we spend as God’s witnesses to those who are still “the seed of the serpent”. Here we are as those who are being witnessed to by God’s “two witnesses”:

Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

And here we are first as unconverted ‘Gentiles’, and later as God’s two witnesses to the woman in the wilderness, also know as “that great city wherein our Lord was crucified”.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,where also our Lord was crucified.

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

Here in Exo 14 is the Old Testament type of this “woman [who] brought forth a man child” and who is then pursued by the serpent who “casts out of his mouth water as a flood… that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood”. Here in Exo 14 we also see how both this woman and the serpent feel about Moses, who in this case is the symbol of “the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”:

Exo 14:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 14:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.
Exo 14:3  For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They [are] entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
Exo 14:4  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
Exo 14:5  And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
Exo 14:6  And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him:
Exo 14:7  And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
Exo 14:8  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand.
Exo 14:9  But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.
Exo 14:10  And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Exo 14:11  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

Israel, the shadow of the woman in the wilderness, is on board with Pharaoh in seeking to destroy God’s elect who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”. In a very real sense, “the serpent was wroth [‘along with the woman’ as well as] with her seed”.

We will pause our study at this point and in our next study we will seek to understand the spiritual significance of the flood which the dragon cast out of His mouth by which he hoped to carry away the woman and the remnant of her seed.

Rev 12:10-13 – Part 2 – Now Is Come The Kingdom

[Study Aired Dec 22, 2024]

Rev 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

True to its “is, was and will be” nature, in this verse we again see ourselves both as those who “dwell in the heavens” as well as those who were once “inhabiters of the earth and of the sea… unbelievers, abiding in God’s wrath”. Paul makes clear that both parts of this verse are ours in Eph 2.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:

… the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

By whom does the Lord try and tempt mankind?

Jas 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him.
Jas 1:13  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man:
Jas 1:14  but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. (ASV)

“Enticed” by whom? Who incites man to lust after the things which the Lord has forbidden? We need not guess.

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Gen 3:2  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Gen 3:3  But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

By whom did the Lord try Job?

Job 1:6  Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7  And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8  And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9  Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

“Put forth Thine hand” shows us that Satan is nothing more or less than a tool of our Lord to “create evil”, and to “work all things after the counsel of His own will.” Satan could not touch Job without the Lord’s direction to do so. Do we think this is an exception to the rule? It is not. This is the rule of Him “of whom are all things”, all the good and all the evil.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and [there is] none else.
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Who was “the Lord’s” instrument to tempt King David? It is in “the sum of God’s word [that we will find the] Truth”. When we add up “the sum of God’s word” in these two verses we find that the Lord used the same adversary to tempt King David that He used to tempt Adam and Eve and Job.

2Sa 24:1  And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

1Ch 21:1  And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

The result of this provocation was that 70,000 men died as “the anger of the Lord” was poured out on Israel through the agency of Satan, who, as “an evil angel, was sent among them” to tempt King David to number Israel.

Who was sent to tempt our Lord?

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

If we are “as He is in this world” would not we also be tempted by “the tempter… the devil?

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

How are the seven last plagues of God’s fierce wrath administered upon us all in our own time? Is it not the same for all? Here are the verses that answer both of those questions respectively:

Psa 78:49  He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

Ecc 9:2  All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

What does “All things come alike to all” mean? What that means is that “there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked”, that is what that means. That “one event” includes the seven last plagues of God’s wrath being pour out on the wicked and on the righteous alike, in the day when we are all “made wicked for the day of evil” which comes to us all alike, and in the day when mankind will live by those words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God.

Satan comes to us with great wrath, but as we have seen in Job, Satan is nothing more than “thy hand”, and like all of us, Satan has no wrath except as it is given Him from God:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Let’s summarize what we have seen here: “the Lord Himself tempts no man…” Satan is specifically called “the tempter”, is called “God’s hand”, and God ‘casts the fierceness of His anger, wrath and indignation and trouble, by sending evil angels among us’. What does it all mean? What it all means is “… the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time”. That is why this chapter is placed between the introduction of the seventh trumpet in Rev 11, and the revelation that the seven plagues of the seventh trumpet fill up the wrath of God against our ungodliness and unrighteousness in chapter 16.

… because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

The scriptures reveal that the time of our trials really is nothing more than “a small moment” and “a little wrath”. I know from experience that what God calls “a small moment” seems like an eternity when it is being endured, but as the example of our Lord demonstrates, it is only after God has forsaken us for that “small moment” that we will be raised up to sit with Him in the heavens as He has been raised to sit with His Father in His throne in the heavens.

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:

Rev 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

Have you and I ever lived these “words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God [in this] revelation of Jesus Christ”?

Who among us has not felt defrauded, lied to, played for a fool and robbed of the fruit of our efforts by men who at best were deceived and in many cases were proven charlatans. And who among us has not to some degree been embittered when we discovered that all our lives have been wasted by a woman who is nothing more than a great harlot, who despises her true Husband and despises His words. Here is what Satan does in us to “the woman” at that moment, with the power he gives to the beast in the horns upon that beast:

Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

What we are being told here is that this woman who is bringing forth this manchild here in chapter 12, is the same harlot woman we discover here in chapter 17. Do you doubt that God’s “man child” comes out of “the woman which… is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth”? Here is the scripture which tells us from whence come the Lord’s people. Speaking of this same woman, we read this:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

As redundant as it is to do so, we must remind ourselves that the only way to avoid death is to first die, the only way to see is to first be blind, and the only way to be healed of our sickness is to first be sick.

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

In like manner, if there is anything we should be learning about living by every word of God, all things being ours, and keeping the things written in this prophecy, is that the only way to come out of Babylon, is to be in Babylon. The only way to avoid partaking of her sins is to confess that we ourselves have been the chief of sinners, and the only way to avoid receiving of her plagues is to fulfill within ourselves the seven plagues of the seven angels.

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

It is because the spirit of Babylon is still in us that we, as the ten horns on the beast, turn on the woman and “burn her with the fiery” words of God of which we, as carnal babes in Christ, have only recently become aware.

It is we who persecute the woman who brought forth the man child, and we do so as we are coming out of her, because the ten horns that burn her with fire are us as “carnal… babes in Christ” who, in our immaturity, are bitter toward a woman who has deceived us and has taken advantage of our ignorance.

Where do the beast and his ten horns get their power?

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who [is] like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

By giving the beast his power, it can rightly be said “when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child”.

Summary

We have seen that this twelfth chapter, as well as chapters 13, 14 and 15, are all introductory and preparatory chapters to the revelation of the seven plagues of the seventh trumpet, which was first mentioned in chapter 10.

Rev 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

We have seen once again that when “the mystery of God is finished” we will finally realize that “all things come alike to all, that all things are ours, things present and things to come”, and that it is we who are instructed to “keep the things written in this book”. So we have seen that we are first the woman who brings forth this man child before we are made to become this man child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

We have seen that “all the nations” within us must be subdued to the mind and thoughts of our Lord, before we will be found worthy to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection. We must “bring every thought into subjection to God” before we will be entrusted to rule the nations of this outward world or judge angels in the lake of fire.

We saw that our “strength and salvation” comes through our recognition that Christ died for our own sins, and through our testimony to that effect, and our willingness to die to the things of this world to obtain life in the next age.

We have seen that the “war in heaven” of this chapter is the same “warfare” spoken of by the apostle Paul in 2Co 10:4-5, and the “casting down of the accuser of our brothers” is nothing more or less than “the casting down of imaginations and every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” spoken of by Paul in these same verses.

2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

That is the “casting down of the accuser of our brothers.”

We saw the three different verses in the New Testament which specifically speak of “our Lord and His Christ”, and we saw that we are our Lord’s Christ, and the salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ is NOW. It is in down payment form through “the spirit of promise”, but nevertheless the salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God is ours here and now.

We saw that the strength we are given gives us power and dominion over the power of the dragon who gives our beast his power over us with all his sinful desires within us. We have seen that sin no longer has dominion over us, because God, through Christ in us, no longer imputes sin to us because we have “suffered in the flesh” with Him.

We have seen that the short time given the dragon to persecute the woman is the time he spends trying us, because we saw where Job reveals that Satan is nothing more or less than God’s own hand, to create the wicked man for the day of evil.

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now [Lord], and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

We also saw that the wrath given to Satan to persecute the woman is the same wrath God gives Satan to pour out “the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels” among us because “these things are all ours”.

Psa 78:49  He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

Finally we saw that the dragon’s persecution of the woman is accomplished through us, as the ten horns who agree to give their power to the beast we are at that time and upon which the ten horns are found. We do this at the time we, as carnal babes in Christ, are coming out of Babylon, because we are not yet mature enough to appreciate the fact that all the lies and all the hypocrites of Babylon are nothing less than an integral part of “His wonderful works to the children of men”.

Next week, Lord willing we will finish this twelfth chapter and we will see what it means for this woman to be in the wilderness, and we will learn how the dragon goes about “casting water as a flood out of His mouth, to cause the woman to be carried away of the waters.” We will also see how the earth can help the woman by swallowing up the flood, and we will see what happens when the dragon is “wroth with the woman”.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17  And 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 Christ.

Rev 12:10-13 – Part 1 – Now Is Come The Kingdom

[Study Aired Dec 20, 2024]

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is 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 our God day and night.
Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Rev 12:12  Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Rev 12:13  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man [child].

This carnal physical realm was created to be the enemy of God and God is a worthy opponent of this realm of corruption:

Exo 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Remember as we begin this study, that chapters 12-15 are all interjected, with good reason, between the introduction of the seventh trumpet and the revelation of what that seventh trumpet is. The reason these chapters follow the introduction of the seventh trumpet in:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

…The reason is the seventh trumpet is the pouring out of the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God upon all of our ungodliness and sins, “and no man can enter into the temple of God until the seven plagues of the seven angels is being fulfilled” in that man’s life. Let us never forget that it is the overcomers who will “keep the things written in this book”. Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15, are one and all concerned with and are an integral part of the seventh trumpet:

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

These are called “the seven last plagues” because they fill up the wrath of God against all unrighteousness and ungodliness within each of us.

It is not given to the multitudes of Christianity to see and understand these mysteries of the kingdom of God. Keeping those mysteries hidden from the multitudes of Christianity is the very function of all of Christ’s parables:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them [the multitudes] in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

How few it is who are given to see and understand that ‘all things come alike to all… all things present and to come are ours, and all of ‘man[kind] shall’… live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

In these verses concerning the woman and the manchild here in Revelation 12, the Lord is showing us to ourselves as we are when we first begin to realize that Babylon is not the true body of Christ as we were once led to believe it was. It is in these verses that we learn both to hate the doctrines of Babylon as the doctrines of the great harlot, and it is in these verses that we also come to realize that Babylon with all her false doctrines is still an essential and integral part of coming to be a part of the true body of Christ. But just as the law of Moses is so often mistaken for the law of God, so too, those who subscribe to that law of bondage are easily mistaken for the body of Christ. The Truth is that when we were in Babylon we hated the doctrines that Christ taught, doctrines like… “love thine enemies… turn the other cheek… resist not evil”, etc.

Here is a section of scripture which comes as a bombshell for anyone who is not aware that the titles of ‘believer’ and ‘disciple’ are not necessarily referring of a true ‘believer’ nor a true ‘disciple’ any more than the words ‘bread from heaven’ refers to the “true bread from heaven”.

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed [‘We are Christians’], and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.[We reject His Doctrine]

Joh 6:30  They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
Joh 6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

So chapters 12-15 are interjected between the introduction of the seventh trump and the revelation of the pouring out of the seven vials or bowls of God’s wrath, which are that seventh trumpet, in chapter 16, because we, as carnal babes in Christ, abide in God’s wrath as long as we “believe not” and as long as we act in any manner which demonstrates our lack of faith. These chapters show us what we are as we are shedding these vessels of clay through the process of decreasing our old man as Christ in us increases. This twelfth chapter also concerns the revelation of a great red dragon who is identified as our first spiritual father (Joh 8:44), “that old serpent the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world”:

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye [Jews who believe on Me but do not do the things I say, Luk 6:46] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

This chapter is also concerned with the woman who “brings forth a manchild who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron”. Therefore this chapter will involve both of those parts of our walk. We will see behind us that part of our walk which finds us as this woman, out of whom God’s elect, pictured by this “man child” must come, and then, Lord willing, we will see ourselves as this “man child” who is seated in the heavens in Christ.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Is this ‘man child’ speaking of Christ Himself? Inasmuch as it is He who does the overcoming, and the ruling with a rod of iron through us… Yes. This “man child” signifies all of the Lord’s people who all “come out of her”… come out of Babylon.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

But the emphasis here is on “Our Lord AND His Christ, because we are Christ’s Christ, and the word ‘Christ’ means ‘anointed’:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

2Co 1:21  Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

There are two verses which specifically tell us that we ‘uihos’, adult sons, who are presently seated with Christ in the heavens, and we will be “sitting with Christ in His throne”:

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

It is very instructive that even though we are told that the dragon seeks to devour the ‘man child… as soon as He is born’(Rev 12:4), the Greek word translated ‘child’ in Rev 12:5, is ‘uihos’, meaning a mature son, as opposed to the Greek word ‘nepios’, which means an infant or a toddler. This “man child” signifies the Lord’s elect who have matured to the point of being prepared to “rule all nations with a rod of iron”.

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child [G5207. ‘uihos’], who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Here is who this ‘man child’ signifies:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

We saw last week that the man child who comes out of the woman is “caught up to God and to His throne, while the woman herself, who brings Him forth, flees into the wilderness where she has a place “prepared of God” where she is “fed of God” for 1,260 days, or three and one half years. Those who are not “seated with Christ in the heavens” (Eph 2:6), are of necessity being “fed of God” in a “place prepared for them” with “manna from heaven” which is “not that true bread from heaven”, but is rather bread from God which does not give life, but which does produce “carnal… babes in Christ”:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The Lord loves and provides for both the righteous and the wicked:

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Here is why the woman who brought forth the man child is not caught up unto God and to His throne with the manchild who came out of her:

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

This ‘woman’ signifies the unfaithful wife of our Lord and this is what she does within us even as He is in the process of delivering us from our own bondage to sin:

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

The woman being taken to the wilderness signifies us as we rebel against our husband, Christ. Yet that rebellious part of our walk is as much a work of God as our coming out of her and becoming her man child and being caught up to God and to His throne.

“All things are of God”:

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Four times in the first four verses of 1Co 3, we are taught that there is such a thing as “carnal… babes in Christ” and as always, these are words which we each must be the first to live and keep, before we are capable of becoming mature sons of God, a man child [G5207, ‘uihos’, a mature son]. No one who is “under the law” is a spiritually mature son:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [G3516, ‘nepios’, an immature toddler], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

There is only one set of “statutes… and judgments” given by God to Israel in the Old Testament, and according to Christ they were not “the true bread from heaven” (Joh 6:32). Peter calls those statutes and judgments “a yoke which neither we nor our parents could bear”.

Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Paul in the very next verse of Galatian 4 is so bold as to call them “bondage under the [weak and beggarly, vrs 9-10] elements of the world”

Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

It is with good reason that the woman is not “caught up to God and to His throne.” There is a very big difference between being in the wilderness, in “a place prepared of God”, and being seated with Christ in the heavens. The story of Israel coming up out of Egypt is a forerunner of us coming up out of Babylon, thinking that being Abraham’s spiritual seed makes us immediate spiritual adults, while in reality we are still spiritually “children… in bondage under the elements of the world”. Here is what we all first do according to Hosea, and here is what we must do according to the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Hos 11:1  When Israel [was] a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  [As] they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

Rev 12:5  And she [the carnal “church in the wilderness”, Act 7:38] brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

None of this will ever make any sense to us until we learn that it “is all ours, things present and things to come… every word… of the things written therein”. It is our own “old man” who is consumed by God’s wrath, and it is our infidelity and forsaking of our God as our rightful husband, which made us the harlot we once were, while we were still “in the wilderness”. It is while we are “in the wilderness” that we are still struggling against all the false doctrines instilled in us while we were in Egypt, the forerunner of Babylon. While this wilderness experience is where we learn how to approach God and how to worship Him, it is also where we rebel against Him ten times, and it is “in the wilderness” that we “abide in His wrath”and we begin to experience the pouring out of His wrath upon our sins and our “ten rebellions”.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Num 14:23  Surely they [our own ‘old man’] shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

Exo 32:10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

2Ki 22:17  Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.

We are in no condition to be fighting a “war in the heavens” while we are yet in the wilderness. This is all given us, in type, in the account of Israel’s rebellions against God even as He was calling them out of Egypt.

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

The only child who has never rebelled against His Father is Christ:

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The adversary makes certain that the Lord is aware of this fact:

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is 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 our God day and night.

In this verse we have gone past God’s wrath and we no longer abide in it (Joh 3:36). This is one of three verses in the New Testament where we see this phrase “the Lord and His Christ”.

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is 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 our God day and night.

“The casting down of the accuser of our brothers which accused them day and night” signifies that we have at long last been given the dominion over sin in our lives.

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

But as the story of King David demonstrates, the ‘sword’ of the Lord’s chastening grace will always be in our house. After being given the throne of Israel, King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and murdered her husband to cover up his adultery and the Lord chastened and scourged him all “for our admonition” (1Co 10:11). That all happened to King David “and it is written for our admonition”, to show us that His chastening hand will minister to us, even as those who are seated with Christ on His throne in heaven (Eph 2:6). When we need God’s chastening, it will always be there, and the pain of that chastening will always bless us. It is because He loves us that the sword of His word will never depart from us even after we are no longer “abiding in His wrath”.

2Sa 12:10  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

Psa 118:23  This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Until we can see ourselves as “chief of sinners”, no better than a Pharisee who looks down on the publican, we will never understand what the Lord meant by telling us that “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4). The few chosen will be those who acknowledge that even after being placed on the throne of Israel, they can and will commit sins which will demonstrate that “all things are theirs, things present and things to come, all are theirs” (1Co 3:21).

But in this verse of Rev 12 we have gone beyond abiding in God’s wrath, and have been given salvation, strength and a kingdom. The “inheritance… of the purchased possession” is yet to come, but we are already an older son, and we have been granted strength and have been given dominion over sin in our lives.

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

What does “free from sin” mean? Does it mean we are no longer in corruptible flesh? Absolutely not, and yet we can truly claim that “sin no longer has dominion” over us because:

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

That is what “ceased from sin” means, and the Lord knows those who have “suffered in the flesh… for His name’s sake”. That is those who are always being “accused by the accuser of our brothers”, the great red dragon. It is out of their heavens that the great dragon has been expelled, and they are now free to serve their God and to suffer with their Lord as He carries on “His wonderful works to the children of men”.

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

The “they” of this verse is the Lord’s Christ, and the “him” of this verse is the great red dragon, that old serpent called the devil and Satan.

This has nothing at all to do with physical warfare, and all who take up a physical sword have at that moment lost any hope of overcoming their enemy. The weapons of the Lord’s Christ are not carnal, but are powerful to the “pulling down of strong holds” which no physical sword can reach.

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

“The power of the Christ of our God” by which they overcome the great red dragon and cast him out of heaven is “by the word of their testimony”, and by the fact that they value spiritual life over this physical life. “They loved not their lives unto death” tells us that Christ’s Christ is willing to die with Him instead of spitting on His doctrine while claiming to be fighting for Him.

Mat 26:51 And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

“All they that take the [physical] sword shall perish with the sword”, which proceeds from the mouth of the Lamb.

Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

This is the sword that will outlive and destroy every other sword which comes against it. This is the weapon of choice of our Lord with which He wages war.

Exo 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

We will pause here and continue our study of the spiritual significance of this woman and her man child son in our next study.

Rev 12:1-6 Part 2, The Woman and The Manchild – The Heir With Christ

[Study Aired Dec 6, 2024]

We paused our last study after demonstrating that “the manchild” brought forth by the woman who fled into the wilderness from the face of the dragon is the same as the son of the freewoman of Galatians 4, who is also a “joint heir with Christ” in the coming kingdom of God which will bear rule over all the kingdoms of this world:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

We continue with the goal of demonstrating that being an heir with Christ refers only to the inheritance of the kingdom during the thousand-year reign, with the subsequent added blessing of “judging angels” at the great white throne judgment which follows that inherited kingdom reign.

Our Savior is “the heir” of the throne of King David, the king of Israel, and in Him we, too, are “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ of that kingdom rulershship, if we suffer with Him”.

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

It is this suffering with Him “that we may be glorified together” with Him, which this seventh trumpet is all about. It is dying with Christ daily, as God’s wrath is being poured out upon our sinful flesh, until the day that we give up on this life and are “crucified with him”.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

1Pe 4:3  For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

None of which is meant to imply we have the fullness of the spirit while we are still in corruptible flesh and blood, but it all does imply that if we are suffering with Christ, we have “ceased from sin” in the sense “sin no longer has dominion over us”, and we are not now “abiding in wrath”.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

The inference is that being ‘under the law’ signifies the fact that sin still dominates our lives, and we are not yet under grace.

Who is this “great red dragon”?

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

This verse confirms Christ’s statement that we are all first “of our father the devil.” Here is who we are in the next chapter:

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Truly we are first “of [our] father the devil, with our seven heads and our ten horns and the name of blasphemy upon those seven heads, even though we profess Christ:

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

You Are of Your Father the Devil

Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye [“Jews which believe on Me”, Vs 30] cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye [“Jews which believe on Me”, vs 30] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

This “great red dragon” is none other than “that old serpent the devil, and Satan”, as we are told in this very chapter.

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

As is the case throughout scripture, there are many symbols which all signify the same thing. “The dream is one” we are told about Pharaoh’s dreams of cows and corn, both of which were speaking of one thing, a period of abundance followed by an impending famine. Likewise this “great red dragon” is “that old serpent… our [first] father the devil.” He has always been on the same page with our first mother, the bondwoman.

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

As blasphemous and evil as is this old serpent, the devil, he is an integral part of this revelation of Jesus Christ within us.

Why just a third part of the stars of heaven?

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

“A third part of the stars of heaven” has nothing to do with the percentage of the stars of heaven. What it is telling us, as is always the case when we encounter the number ‘three’, is the process of judgment being carried out as we “keep the things written… in the words of this prophecy” (Rev 1:3, Rev 22:7).

We have covered the dragon “standing before the woman… to devour her child as soon as it was born” in our discussion of verse two. We saw the shadow of this in the story of Joseph, and we can also see its shadow in the story of Cain and Abel.

Gen 4:1  And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Gen 4:2  And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Gen 4:3  And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:4  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Gen 4:5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
Gen 4:9  And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: [Am] I my brother’s keeper?
Gen 4:10  And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Gen 4:11  And now [art] thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;

Cain, as Adam’s first son, typifies our first Adam, as “a man from the Lord.” Being a tiller of the ground, his offering is “of the fruit of the ground” and not a blood offering “of the firstlings of the flock.” Thus Cain’s offering typifies our efforts to improve this doomed world apart from the blood of Christ. In killing his brother who was favored by the Lord, Cain demonstrates that he is truly “of his father the devil… a murderer from the beginning.”

Who “rules the nations”?

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

It is generally understood that this manchild is the church and not Christ Himself. What is certainly not generally understood, is the degree to which Christ identifies with you and me as being He himself. We have already seen how He calls us by His own titles. He tells us that He is the light of the world and then He tells us ”ye are the light of the world.”

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

We are told that Christ is the bread from heaven, and we are told that we are one loaf.

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

1Co 10:17  For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

As Christ suffered for the church, we, too, are expected to do the same.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Young’s Literal Translation, has the article ‘the’ before the word ‘Christ’, as we see in the King James elsewhere, as the holy spirit refers to us as “the Christ.”

Col 1:24  I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly, (YLT)

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is 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 our God day and night.

Here, in no uncertain terms, is this manchild who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron:

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

That is this manchild. It is “he that overcomes and keeps Christ’s works unto the end.” That is no small task, but it is possible “through Christ.”

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Christ considers this manchild to be “as He [Himself] is in this world”.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

How are we “caught up to God and to His throne”?

If we really are this manchild, then we should be able to demonstrate that we, too, are “caught up to God and to His throne as soon as we are born” of Christ. Is there any such verse of scripture? As a matter of fact there is just such a verse of scripture, which, along with this verse here in Revelation 12, confirms the truth of this statement that the dragon is intent upon devouring this manchild “as soon as he is born.” Here is this truth as it is inspired to be revealed to us:

Eph 2:6 and He raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenlies [or heavenly realms] in Christ Jesus, (ALT)

Here is Rotherham’s version of this verse:

Eph 2:6 And raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenlies, in Christ: (REV)

As is always the case, we are “in the wilderness” before we are “caught up to God and to His throne”.

What takes place while we are “in the wilderness”?

Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Our “resurrection in newness of life” is our birth out of this woman, and it is at this point that the great red dragon stands poised to devour us. It is at this same point that we, in Christ, are “caught up to God and to His throne” while our mother goes into the wilderness to be nourished by God, just as rebellious Israel was nourished of God in the wilderness for forty years as she rebelled against him “ten times”.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

With what are we nourish while we are being tried in the wilderness? We are nourished with a “bread from heaven” which does not impart life and which is “not the true bread from heaven”.

Exo 16:4  Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

However, this “bread from heaven, even though it is from “the Lord”, is “not the true bread” which will give us life.

Joh 6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Joh 6:34  Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

While we are in the wilderness we think we are eating “bread from heaven”. After all, the Lord Himself said it was so. But it was “Not… the true bread from heaven”, and it could not give life.

Why does the dragon have seven crowns on seven heads while the beast has ten crowns on ten horns?

This is a detail we need to understand, so the first thing we need to do is to establish what the spiritual significance of the two words ‘horns’ and ’10’ are. What does the word ‘horns’ signify in scripture? What does the number ’10’ signify in scripture? To answer these questions we must, as always, remember that Christ is “the Word” of God (Joh 1:1), and “The words I speak to you are spirit” (Joh 6:63), meaning they are not seen or heard by anyone without the spirit of God.

Those who are given that spirit are given to see and hear “the things of the spirit”, which are foolishness to the natural man who cannot understand spiritual matters and who does not know that all scripture is spiritual in nature.

1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So this entire book of Revelation is being taught us by the holy spirit which “teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” It concerns “the things freely given us of God… which the natural man cannot receive or know because they are foolishness to him.”

What do ‘horns’ signify spiritually? Their positive spiritual meaning is the strength and power of the spirit of God. Notice how this relates to the Lamb Himself and to His elect:

Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

We will pause here having demonstrated that both the beast and the Lamb are presented to us with “seven horns”, and we will resume our study by demonstrating the spiritual significance of the words ‘seven’ and ‘horns’.

Rev 12:1-6, Part 1 – The Woman And The Manchild

[Study Aired Nov 17, 2024]

As we continue our study we must remember that chapters 11-16 are all part of the work of the seventh trumpet within our lives, which work begins to finish within us the mystery of God:

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

The seventh angel begins to sound in:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

The words “art, was, and art to come” and the words “hast reigned” are all in the aorist tense signifying that what follows has begun to happen in our lives in every generation of the lives of the Lord’s elect:

Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

The hail shall wipe away the refuge of [all the] lies of our Babylonian past and it is a traumatic earthquake in our lives when this seventh trumpet “begins to sound”:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Isa 28:18  And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

We are commissioned to “read, hear, and keep the things written in the prophesy of this book” (Rev 1:3), because we are this “manchild”, and we are “the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God, and [who] have the testimony of Jesus Christ”:

Rev 12:17  And 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 Christ. [‘The man child’, God’s elect].

The Lord and His Christ both are “in heaven” even while being on this earth:

Joh 3:13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down [Greek, aorist tense] from heaven, even the Son of man which is [Greek, present tense] in heaven.

The “appearance” of the woman, and the “appearance” of the “great red dragon”, are both in the Greek aorist tense, signifying the ongoing fulfillment of this prophecy in every generation since Christ. The pain of the woman and the casting of the stars of heaven to the earth, are also both in the aorist tense and are being fulfilled in this very generation in the heavens of the hearts and minds of the Lord’s Christ:

Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days.

Introduction

Chapter 11 deals with those who bear witness to this revelation of Jesus Christ within each of God’s elect. It details, in signs and symbols, the experience our Lord foretold us we would have as those who bear witness to His Words. So the hatred and death of those witnesses is nothing less than fulfilling of Christ’s prophecy that we “shall be hated of all men for my names sake…”

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

This “hatred of all men” is signified and symbolized by these words:

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

This rejection by all of our families and friends and “all men” is “they of the people and kindreds and tongues, and nations”. It is this rejection of all men which the scriptures refer to as being ‘dead and crucified with our Lord’, and “lying dead in the streets of the great city… where also our Lord was crucified”. This symbolic ‘death’ is central to the revealing of our Lord within us thoughout the New Testament:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Gal 2:19  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Both phrases, “I… am dead to the law”, and “that I might live unto Christ” are in the aorist tense, signifying that this is taking place in every generation of the Lord and His Christ since the death and resurrection of Christ.

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

All those verses describe the “life” we have when we “fall into the ground and die”. All those verses and many others reveal that life comes only “through death”. All these verses reveal the blessing of being found “dead in the streets of that great city… where also our Lord was crucified”:

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

It is after this symbolic death and crucifixion “in the streets of that great city” that we are raised up from the dead just at the time “when the seventh angels begins to sound his trumpet”. This is what Paul was speaking of when he wrote: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live… [when] the seventh angel sounded”. This is a process that takes many “days”.

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14  The second woe is past; [and], behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

It is after we are told that the seventh angel sounded that we find this twelfth chapter, with all that is revealed in it. It is followed by chapter thirteen, which deals with the beast in all of his manifestations, followed by the fourteenth chapter dealing with the revelation of the 144,000 firstfruits of God, followed by another grand introduction in chapter 15 of the seven angels who are given seven vials, or bowls, in which are filled up the wrath of God under which we are all born and live our entire lives, until we are brought to cry out to the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the face of the lamb.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Col 3:4  When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

In other words, we have a complete summary of story of Adam before we are introduced to the actual event that is this seventh trumpet in chapter 16.

When is this chapter fulfilled?

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

The woman, the manchild and the great red dragon, are the three main principles in this twelfth chapter of Revelation. This is a chapter which we will see makes very clear the absolute necessity of God’s elect “keeping of the things written therein” in every generation since Christ. This woman is the same woman who says:

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

This is the same woman who says of herself:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

This is the great harlot of Revelation 17 and 18. Christ was born of this harlot, and each of us “come out of her”:

Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

It is this seventh trumpet which is fulfilling this verse in the lives of God’s 144,000 firstfruit elect who are:

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

When we forget this admonition, we inevitably are forced to apply these words to someone else at some time other than “the time [which] is at hand”.

“Another wonder in heaven” means another miraculous revelation of what it means for Christ to be revealed in our heavens. The point is that this is just one part of an ongoing process that is being read, heard and kept by those to whom it is addressed.

The spiritual meaning of the woman, the sun and the moon in this verse is explained to us in the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis, where a woman and the sun and the moon are all mentioned. Let’s let the scriptures themselves show us what these symbols signify.

Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6  And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7  For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

While it is true that there is no indication that Jacob or Rachel ever hated Joseph, they are nevertheless used in this instance as the types of “your father the devil” and of our mother when we were “the children of the bondwoman”. What we are told in this story of Joseph’s relations with his own family members is that we too, “shall be hated of all men”, especially of our own flesh and blood and especially by those of our own household, and we will, in the end, bear rule over our own flesh and over all those of our own household.

Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

The ‘sun’ is Jacob, and the ‘moon’ is Rachel. These are Joseph’s physical parents, just as the the devil and his doctrines and the bondwoman and her doctrines are our first physical parents in this world.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Sinai, where the law was given, “answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”. Who was the apostle Paul before he was struck down on the road to Damascus? He was Saul of Tarsus, the son of the bondwoman, persecuting Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the freewoman, the manchild who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord [son of the freewoman], went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

Hagar and her son, Esau, “answers to [physical] Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”. Saul of Tarsus, spiritually speaking, was ‘of the son of the bondwoman’, before he became the ‘son of the free woman’. We all have to fall into the ground and die before we can be “resurrected in newness of life” as “the son of the freewoman”, and before we can say that, we “were in time past children of wrath, even as others.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

But just as the last Adam is of the first Adam, and just as the eighth is of the seven, so also does Saul of Tarsus, this manchild, and all who are in Christ, come first through this woman who is first a harlot before she is destroyed and is resurrected with Christ to become the bride of Christ, and “Jerusalem above, the mother of us all”. The church is her doctrines, more than she is those who are in her. The reason those who are in her are there, is because they believe her doctrines. Abraham had two wives, and it is true that we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free. But when we are granted to understand that there is one event to all men (Ecc 9:2), that mankind must all live by every word of God (Mat 4:4), that this generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled (Mat 24:34-35), and that all things are ours, life and death, the world, and things present and things to come (1Co 3:21-22), only then we will understand that we are the “manchild who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron”, and we are the children of the freewoman only because we were first “in bondage” with our old mother as “the children of the bondwoman”.

What this all tells us is that “I, and your mother and your brothers” in Gen 37:10, are the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and that even that the ‘sun’ and ‘stars’ of Rev 12:1 are symbols of our first parents, who we once considered to be the source of all light and sight and understanding and knowledge. We now see them revealed as nothing less than our first father, the devil, and his wife, the bondwoman, and now even he, along with our bondwoman mother and our first physical brothers in Christ, are now all bowing down to us and being made subject to us. This must all be done within before it will be seen without.

That we are all first “carnal… in Christ” is made clear in these verses:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I [am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Who is the woman, the twelve stars, and the manchild?

Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Who is this woman and who are these 12 stars? They are of course, primarily within us, and secondarily they are round about us in the form of all who are the “first man Adam”. They are primarily each of us as we sit in the temple of God, proclaiming ourselves to be God, and demanding the complete and total dedication of our flesh to the service of the pleasures of our flesh. That is why her manchild son is caught up to God’s throne, while the woman herself goes into the wilderness. Here is another symbol of this woman and her sons who will bow down to Joseph as the symbol of God’s elect.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

We have already demonstrated with the scriptures that each of us is that “temple of God”, and each of us is that “man of sin [who] sits in the temple of God showing ourselves to be God”.

The “woman clothed with the sun” signifies the church out of which the manchild must come:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

The ‘sun’ signifies the light of the fading law of Moses. The Pharisees in that sense were “clothed with the sun”:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

The twelve stars signify Joseph and his brothers who one and all signify outward Christians claiming to be the “one seed… the [spiritual] seed of Abraham” even as they hate God’s elect just like Joseph’s brothers who hated their own brother, Joseph, and wanted to kill him. The hatred of Joseph by his brothers signifes the Old Testament shadow of these verses:

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

The woman’s ‘child’ signifies “the Lord and His Christ”. Here is this spiritual truth in the form of its old Testament shadow:

Gen 37:18  And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
Gen 37:19  And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
Gen 37:20  Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

They certainly were right about the “evil beast” part, but not as they meant those words.

Christ Himself “was made of a woman, made under the law”, and just as Christ came out of “the church in the wilderness”, so we also, must we come out of the church that is in the wilderness, where she is fed by God for the exact same period of time that we spent in the wilderness wanting our Lord and His doctrines dead.

Act 7:38  This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it [she was “clothed with the sun”]; but now murderers.

Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

We will pause our study at this point and resume it in our next gathering.

Rev 11:15-19, Part 2 – The Seventh Trumpet

Now Is Come Salvation

[Study Aired Nov 15, 2024]

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great;   and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

In our last study we took note of the fact that the seventh trumpet is the only event among all the seven seals, all the seven trumpets, and all seven vials, which does not immediately describe the actions which this trumpet produces. Notice how this seventh trumpet, unlike any of the other six trumpets, is first alluded to in chapter 10:

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

We are told that this trumpet eventually fulfills the mystery of God, but the same verse 7 of chapter 10 also reveals that this seventh trumpet is a process which requires a certain number of days to be fulfilled.

In chapter 11 we are actually given the fruit which is produced by this seventh trumpet… “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ”, but before the kingdoms of this world can become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, it is revealed that a “manchild”, who was “to rule the nations with a rod of iron” must first be born of a harlot woman, which ‘woman’ was to spend “a thousand two hundred and sixty days in the wilderness, while her “manchild” was caught up unto God and His throne”.

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

But before that manchild can become mature he must first come to see himself as the beast of Revelation 13, which arises up out of the sea of all flesh. He then matures into “a second beast with two horns like a lamb, but which speaks as a dragon:

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

“The earth and them that dwell therein” includes you and me and all the rest of mankind:

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Three sixes is not the number of “a man”. There is no article in the Greek. The Greek simply reads…”it is the number of anthropos…” and ‘anthropos’ is the Greek word for ‘mankind’. Mankind’s creation began on the sixth day along with all the rest of the beasts of this earth. Consequently ‘mankind’ has been branded with the number six, signifying his incomplete state ever since the beginning of his creation:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Being ‘incomplete’, which is the spiritual significance of the number ‘6’, mankind is universally afflicted with the false doctrine of “free will”. Mankind is therefore incapable of understanding that he must be brought to “cease from his own works as God did from His”, before he can “enter into the Lord’s rest” and thereby become complete, which is the spiritual significance of the number seven:

Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

The thirteenth chapter of Revelation reveals that the Lord’s Christ must come to see himself as an incomplete and hopeless beast before he can enter into the Lord’s rest and be complete in the Lord, who is in the process of making man in His image. But there is chapters 14 and 15 still to be revealed to the Lord’s elect before he can enter into His rest.

Revelation 14 begins with a snapshot of the completed product, 144,000, of “the firstfruits unto God and the  Lamb:

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault [they are the complete and finished product] before the throne of God.

However, mankind cannot be completed by the work of this all important seventh trumpet, until he has been judged, because God’s judgments, whether in this age or in the great white throne judgment, always teach men to become righteous:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

To that end, Revelation 14 tells us of the work of the three angels ‘flying in the midst of our heavens’. ‘Three’ signifies the process of being judged.

These three spirits are working our judgment in our heavens. The first angel brings the gospel to us. That good news includes the fact that “the hour of His judgment is come” upon us. The second angel destroys the very foundations of Babylon in our lives, and the third angel’s work is to pour out the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God upon us, and to torment the Lord’s very elect with the fire and brimstone which is His Word and His doctrines. That torment and judgment takes place “in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of The Lamb”. The work of this third angel causes the smoke of our torment to ascend up for the eons of the eons giving us no rest day nor night while there is any tendency at all to worship the beast and his image within us:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, [Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:]
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

The work of the third and final angel concludes with these words, which let us know exactly to whom these words are addressed:

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

The point that is being made is the imminence of the work of this seventh trumpet. “NOW is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ”.

This inheritance is all ours even now but only in down payment form.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest [the downpayment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

For all who are “found worthy” to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection, this kingdom and this reign is now. “Now is 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 our God day and night.” (Rev 12:10)

The judgment of Revelation 14 is the judgment of “the very elect” and it is the product of the pouring out of the seven last plagues of the Lord’s wrath upon the kingdom of the beast within the Lord’s elect which is described in great detail in Revelation 15-16. That ‘wrath of God’ is His judgment which transforms the beast within the Lord’s elect into the four beasts and the four and twenty elders of Revelation four and five.

Where are the four and twenty elders?

Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,

When we know what the four beasts and the four and twenty elders symbolize, we need not to even ask that question, because the four beasts and the four and twenty elders symbolize one and the same thing. Asking ‘where are the four beasts’ is like asking ‘what happened to the seven cows’ of Pharaoh’s dream, while discussing the the seven ears of corn. The cows and the corn are both symbols of the one point that is being made. There will be seven years of plenty, to be followed by seven years of famine.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

So too, the beasts and the elders are one. The seven angels and the seven priests are one, and in this entire prophecy God is showing us what the Lord is about to do.

Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

And what is God about to do? It is the very next verse, and it is to be “read… heard… and kept, for the time is at hand”.

Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Christ has “given us a kingdom” just as His Father has given Him a kingdom, and like Him we are to “reign on the earth… for the time is at hand.” “Every creature in heaven and on earth” will worship God, and the four beasts do so continually.

Rev 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

Those who have been given “eyes within” know that the four beasts are always worshiping God

Rev 19:4  And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.

But when is this worship emphasized and made especially evident? It is especially evident at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when the kingdoms of this world “within” is seen by those who are “full of eyes within” to fall and “become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ”.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

What a wonderful day that is when the conquering king takes control of His own rightful kingdom which has been in the hands of wicked husbandmen for so long. Everyone will, in their own time, bow their knee and confess that our Lord is Lord over the man of sin “to the glory of God”.

Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Php 2:10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

Every part of our being rejoices at the time of this great event.

Rev 5:13  And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

God’s wrath is, was, and will come before the dead are judged

Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

How few it is that realize that they are born and live their lives under the wrath of God until the day they believe on Christ. If “the time of the dead that they should be judged” means the resurrection that immediately precedes the millennium, and you do not experience the death and resurrection which is the revelation of Jesus Christ here and now, then you will not be in that resurrection that immediately precedes the millennium, and you will not be one of the priests and kings who will rule with Christ over the kingdoms of this world.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

This truth is demonstrated with two verses of scripture. It is a rare person who even sees the apparent contradiction between these two verses of God’s Word.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

It is “in judgment” that God pours out His wrath upon all of our ungodliness and unrighteousness. Let’s read it again: “keep the things that are written therein, for the time is at hand… and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged…” (Rev 11:18).

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Death must precede judgment. Only those who are “full of eyes within” can even begin to see that those who “are appointed once to die and then be judged” are us. It is we who are the first to die to our old man through the judgment of our old man, and that dying and that judgment has begun at the house of God and we must “die daily” and be crucified with Christ daily:

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

It is we who are “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), and it is we who are “buried with Him in baptism” (Rom 6:3-4), even as we live and are being judged in these dying “earthen vessels”.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The ‘world’ that is within us and the ‘world’ that is without us are both bent on the destruction of “the seed of the woman”,  (Rev 12:5). There are many other titles given to the “seed of the woman” who is also called “a manchild who is to rule the world with a rod of iron”, but they are all titles of “the very elect” of God.

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

While God is in the process of destroying our old Adam by replacing him with a “New Adam” who is called “the last Adam”, it is not our prerogative to “destroy the earth”. That is a task that has been delegated to those who are called ‘the seed of the serpent’ and are said by our Lord to be “of their Father the devil”.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Who is it that our Lord says will bruise His heel? Who is it that seeks to destroy the manchild as soon as he is born? It is each of us when we are “those Jews which believe on Christ, but are still “of our Father the devil”.

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

This is us when we were “of our father the devil”, even as we thought we “believed on Christ”. This is us when our “man of sin” is standing in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. This is us as the wrath of God is being poured out upon our ungodliness and unrighteousness and we are made to admit that “I am the man” (2Sa 12:7). This is us when we come to see that “Them that destroy the earth” are those who are seeking the life of our Lord Himself.

Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

What is found within the ark of His covenant?

Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

These are the closing words of the introduction of the seventh trumpet. “The temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of His testament.”

What was in the ark in the temple of God? Here is the first and the last account of the contents of what “was seen in His temple [in] the ark of His testament”.

Deu 10:5  And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me.

1Ki 8:9  There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

Within the ark of the covenant was the law of God. That was the basis upon which the covenant was contracted. Israel contracted with God to keep His laws, and our Lord agreed to be their God. That is the same way we are married to our Lord today. That is how we become His bride. We agree to “do the things He says… and fulfill the law of Christ”. If we don’t do the things He says, then we are not His wife, and He is not our Lord.

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

That is what is meant by “there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament”. If we have our Lord living within us, then we will be doing the things He says and we will be doing “the will of our Father which is in heaven”. It is “the things which He says” which are the “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake”. It is “the things which He says” which are the “great hail” which will “sweep away the refuge of lies”.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Summary

We have seen that “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” is primarily to be understood as first happening within, as the image we are is destroyed by Christ as we decrease daily and He increases daily within us.

We have seen that “our Lord and His Christ” is speaking of us as those who are anointed of and are sent out by Christ, just as He was anointed of and sent out by His Father to save this world.

We have demonstrated that the four beasts and the four and twenty elders are one and the same symbol of God’s elect, just as the cows and corn both meant the same thing in Pharaoh’s dreams. Thus, when we are told that the four and twenty elders fall down and worship God when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, we are being told that the four beasts also fall down and worship our Lord and our God.

We have seen that it is God’s Word which is the fire of His wrath which is, was and will be poured out upon all of our ungodliness and unrighteousness, and we saw that this is all being announced and being done even as we are beginning to take the land away from the giants who have for so long dominated our land. This is the significance of the imminent judgment in every generation which is this seventh trumpet, which has already begun to take the kingdom of this world and “by little and by little” transform it into the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ.

Finally, we saw that this is all accomplished by the Words of our Lord being within us and destroying by its great ‘heat’ all that can be burned out of us, as we learn to “do the things that our Lord says”.

Next week, Lord willing, we will begin to see what we are given to understand in the first of the four chapters which separate this introduction of this seventh trumpet from the chapter which reveals to us the exact nature of the judgments of the seven last plagues of this seventh trumpet. It will be the beginning of chapter twelve, concerning the woman, the manchild she is prophesied to bring forth, and the dragon who is right there seeking to destroy that manchild.

1Ki 2:1-11 “I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man.”

[Study Aired July 8, 2021]

1Ki 2:1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, 
1Ki 2:2  I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; 
1Ki 2:3  And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself: 
1Ki 2:4  That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel. 
1Ki 2:5  Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet. 
1Ki 2:6  Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace. 
1Ki 2:7  But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother. 
1Ki 2:8  And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. 
1Ki 2:9  Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood. 
1Ki 2:10  So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. 
1Ki 2:11  And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. 

David’s death is very significant as it signifies that time in Christ’s life when he said “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” of John 16:7.

Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

David is charging his son Solomon at this juncture in his life to keep the charge of the Lord thy God by walking “in his ways” while keeping his “statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments“. These statutes, commandments and judgments are types and shadows of “the law of Christ” which we keep when we are doers of the word who bear each other’s burdens (Gal 6:2-3).

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Gal 6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

[We deceive ourselves when we think our righteousness is something when it is less than nothing to God who is reminding us day after day as we die daily that only Christ can be Christ (1Co 1:30, Php 3:9)]

It takes the comforter, the power of the holy spirit within us, to be able to keep “the law of Christ”, and the function of that spirit is being explained to us in type and shadow via David who goes on to describe those who must die in order to avenge his life. The very next two verses in the book of John (Joh 16:7-8) explain the inward application of what David was charging Solomon to do and how we are avenged through God’s holy spirit which gives us the victory over our flesh as our enemies within are destroyed because Christ has gone the way of all flesh as a seed that dies (Joh 12:24), making it possible for the holy spirit to be sent so that we can be more than conquerors through him (Rom 8:36-37) who can now bring forth much fruit that “should remain” (Joh 16:7-8).

Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Joh 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin [1Jn 2:16, Tit 2:12], and of righteousness, and of judgment:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die [Christ and Christ in His elect as our hope of glory (Gal 3:16, Col 1:27)], it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit [Joh 15:16].

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

This section of Kings is very much an admonition to God’s elect ‘to be strong and show yourself a man’, which we will learn is only possible through “the man Christ Jesus” (Isa 33:22, Psa 18:17, Joh 8:36, 1Ti 2:5.

Isa 33:22  For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. 

Psa 18:17  He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me [Rev 13:4]. 

Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

The Lord is showing us in this section of scripture the process from start to finish that God has ordained for his children so that we can go “the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man” through Christ our hope of glory within (Col 1:27).

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

1Ki 2:1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
1Ki 2:2  I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
1Ki 2:3  And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:

As we die daily, we are getting our spiritual house in order, as David typified, by going to Solomon and telling him “be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies.” Christ is our strength who tells us also to “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” so we can be as He is in this world (1Jn 4:17-18). Our strength will come about as a result of His judgments in our life which will nourish us (Num 14:9) as they teach us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts by putting off our flesh. His love will be perfected in us because of those judgments within our earth (Eph 6:10, Jer 22:29).

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. [1 John 4:17 explains what 1 Kings 2:2-3 is telling us typically in our day of judgment (1Pe 4:17)]
1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Num 14:9  Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. 

The fruit of obeying God’s commandments comes about as a result of our committing all our ways unto the Lord as unto a faithful Creator (1Pe 4:19) who gives us that increase after we have watered and planted (1Co 3:6-7) so “that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself“. All the increase is of the Lord along with the desire and drive to water and plant in the first place as well (1Co 15:10, Php 2:12-13).

1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 
1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 

1Co 15:10  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

1Ki 2:4  That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.

The symbolic meaning of these words which follow on the heels of our being made aware that our strength comes to us as a result of having God’s holy spirit within us, is that it is through God’s holy spirit that the word of God will continue to prevail through the ages and the gates of hell will not prevail against it within the church (Mat 16:18).

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [“there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel“]

These words “That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel” can be summarized with these verses in the new covenant: (Joh 17:20-21, Joh 13:35, Joh 8:32, Jer 29:13).

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; [“That the LORD may continue his word“]
Joh 17:21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 

Joh 13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another [1Co 10:17].

Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [We are made free because where the spirit of the Lord is, which quickens or empowers us, we are made free (Joh 6:63, 2Co 3:17)]

Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart [“with all their heart and with all their soul“].

Will Christ find faith when he returns to the earth? Yes, but it will be as small as a grain of mustard seed which represents the kingdom of God that is currently within us in earnest (Luk 17:21) and will one day be the greatest of all trees (Mat 13:32). God has determined (Joh 15:1) who will be prepared and made ready from the foundation of the world as a royal priesthood (1Pe 2:9), and that promise is typified by this statement: “there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.”

Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Mat 13:32  Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. 

1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: [Luk 17:10]

1Ki 2:5  Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet. 
1Ki 2:6  Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace. 

If ever there was a statement in the bible that showed that David is yet carnal it’s these found in 1 Kings. On the other hand, the reason we know this is symbolic language is because God tells us they were ministering to us, meaning those who have God’s holy spirit within them making it possible for us to love our enemies as we are commanded to do (Mat 5:44). The enemy therefore within us is being typically represented by these men who did various things to David throughout his life (1Co 10:11, 1Pe 1:12, 1Co 2:12-14). There is no love toward the enemy in these statements that typify how we must overcome our sinful nature at all cost and destroy everything that breathes (Jer 17:9). It also demonstrates that what these men sowed in their appointed time was going to reap a prophesied result. King David is telling us that we also will see this destruction of our old man within us if God is working with us in this age at this appointed time (Rom 8:37).

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.  

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

This story about king David saying “let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace” is a way of instructing us to keep fighting a good fight of faith until our last breath against our old man, represented by what “Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet“. What we wrestle against is constantly trying to take away our peace and “shed the blood of war in peace” (Eph 6:12). However, God’s peace given to us through Jesus Christ passes all understanding, giving us victory over the enemy against which we wrestle, being blessed to keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Php 4:7).

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

Putting “the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet” sounds very much like what Christ will do in the positive sense to these powers and principalities that once had dominion over us, keeping us enslaved by a power represented by “the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet” which we could not overcome until… (Rev 19:13-16, Rev 1:13).

Rev 19:13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 
Rev 19:14  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 
Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 
Rev 19:16  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 

Rev 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 
Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
Rev 1:14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; [the positive hoary head that destroys the first Adam that has seven heads and ten horns (Rev 12:3, Rev 13:1, Rev 17:3)]
Rev 1:15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

Joab represent powers and principalities within ourselves and others, that, for the time being, took away our peace, but now with the mind of Christ we are girded with truth, and having done all, can stand against these enemies of the cross both within and without ourselves (Act 20:31-32). There are three names named in this verse, showing the process of overcoming, and scripture often says “the son of” to remind us that we were all of our father the devil at our appointed time, ‘the son of…’. In this case Joab^H3097 “Jehovah is father” the son of Zeruiah^H6870 “balsam/wounded” murdering Abnar^H7 “my father is a lamp” son of
Ner^H7 “lamp” and
Amasa^H6021 “burden” son of
Jether^H3500 “abundance”.

Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. 
Act 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. 

1Ki 2:7  But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother. 

These sons of Barzillai^H1271 “my iron” really represent those who have shown themselves as strong men who were willing to lay down their life for their king: “I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man“.

Iron can be both positive and negative in the scripture, but in this case the “iron-hearted” sons of Barzillai represent the positive expression of iron. The reward God’s elect receive when we fight a good fight of faith is “let them be of those that eat at thy table” (Heb 13:10), that table representing the meat for which we labor that does not perish (Joh 6:27).

This story reminds us that God is faithful to reward those who diligently seek him (Heb 11:6), and that we must “be thou strong” and confident in our hearts (Jos 1:9, Heb 10:35-37) and must be about our Father’s business (Luk 2:49) knowing He will provide the meat for us to endure whatever we have to endure in His service (Php 1:6, Joh 4:32, 1Jn 4:17) that is being accomplished not by might or power but by His holy spirit, the choice oil that comes from the “choice olive” (Zec 4:6). These sons of Barzillai came to David’s help when he was fleeing from “Absalom thy brother”, which also reminds us that, at the appointed time in our trials and temptations if God is saving us in this age, He will deliver us through Christ and “not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (Jas 1:12, Heb 10:37, 1Co 10:13).

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 

Joh 4:32  But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 

Jas 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 

Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 
Heb 10:39  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; [confidence in their flesh (Heb 6:6)] but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. [“I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man” (no confidence in our flesh Php 3:3)]

H1271
barzillay
bar-zil-lah’ee

From H1270; iron hearted; Barzillai, the name of three Israelites: – Barzillai.

H1270
barzel
bar-zel’

Perhaps from the root of H1269; iron (as cutting); by extension an iron implement: – (ax) head, iron.

H1269 – Definition: Birzavith or Birzath = in leanness: choice olive

a descendant of Asher

1Ki 2:8  And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. 
1Ki 2:9  Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.

It is “Shimei^H8096 the son of Gera^H1617, a Benjamite^H1145 of Bahurim^{H4480 H980}” who brings this grievous curse on David in the day that he “went to Mahanaim^H4266“. The names along with the locations to which David went when he received this curse should help us understand what the holy spirit was causing to happen for our sakes upon whom the end of the ages have come (1Co 10:11, 2Pe 1:21).

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 

2Pe 1:21  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

H8096
shim‛ı̂y
shim-ee’

From H8088; famous; Shimi, the name of twenty Israelites: – Shimeah [from the margin], Shimei, Shimhi, Shimi.

Shimei is renowned or famous in the earth, and reminds us of the two hundred and fifty men of renown in Numbers 16:2 (Luk 6:26), and his father’s name confirms this, which means “grain”: Gera^H1617. The grain needs to die in each of us in order for the new man to be born (Joh 12:24), and Shimei was still alive at this point before David’s death. Our old man is “six Israelites”, Gera^H1617, and the new man working in us is Christ [#8] who brings about that completion [#7] of the new creation. That process of destroying the six Israelites within us is what brings about the completed new man in fullness, represented by the number eight, and this is accomplished through the judgment which begins at the house of God, and then the rest of the world will be judged (1Pe 4:17, Rev 17:11, Joh 7:37) at the great white throne judgment (Rev 20:11-15). As well, God is showing us what He is doing with our sinful nature with these confirming verses that relate to the “twenty Israelites [Shimei]” (Num 32:11, Exo 30:13-14).

Rev 17:11  And the beast [#6] that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition [#7, #8].

Num 32:11  Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: [The negative example of twenty years and above.]

Exo 30:13  This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. 
Exo 30:14  Every one that passeth among them that are numbered (Eph 2:8), from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD [positive example of twenty years and above].

H1617
gêrâ’
gay-raw’

Perhaps from H1626; a grain; Gera, the name of six Israelites: – Gera.

This grievous curse toward David happened at Mahanaim [“two camps” = double minded (Jas 1:8)], from one whose name [Shimei] means [“renowned” = in the earth (Num 16:2, Num 16:32)],  and so it is no wonder that it was at the Jordan where David would say “sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword” just as John the Baptist who said “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” at the Jordan, which would witness to the double-mindedness having been put away if such fruit would manifest (Mat 3:8). Time had transpired however, and in 1Kings 2:19 David saw that no fruit of repentance had been borne in the life of “Shimei” and therefore he says: “Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood“(Luk 13:8, Luk 13:25, Rev 3:7, Rev 22:11).

Luk 13:8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 
Luk 13:9  And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down [“but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood“].

Luk 13:25  When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

Rev 3:7  And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

Rev 22:11  He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 

1Ki 2:10  So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

We are called to rest in the Lord, and that rest comes about as a result of the putting to death of our enemies within, as David did for us typically in the verses we have looked at tonight (Heb 4:11, 1Ti 6:12).

Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 

1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

To be “buried in the city of David” is typical of our dying daily and being raised into heavenly places represented by “the city of David“.

1Ki 2:11  And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron^{H2275 H2267}, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem^H3389.

This last verse of our study speaks to us of the days that we live in our flesh, until we “go the way of all the earth” represented by seven years that David reigned in Hebron representing our time in Babylon, where we were under the spell of earthly charmers having our seat of association in the earth and not in heavenly places, and then, if we are called and chosen and faithful to the end of this life in Christ, it will require that each of God’s elect “be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man” through Christ, for “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act 4:12).

Hebron
H2275 chebrôn
kheb-rone’

From H2267; seat of association; Chebron, a place in Palestine, also the name of two Israelites: – Hebron.

H2267
cheber
kheh’-ber

From H2266; a society; also a spell: –  + charmer (-ing), company, enchantment, X wide.

H2266châbar
khaw-bar’

A primitive root; to join (literally or figuratively); specifically (by means of spells) to fascinate: – charm (-er), be compact, couple (together), have fellowship with, heap up, join (self, together), league.

That strength to be saved is something that comes about as we are nourished through our trials which judgment will bring with it as we are raised in heavenly places above (Jerusalem above) symbolically stated this way: “thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem^H3389“. That time is the symbolic number of times Christ must rule and reign in our hearts to give us power over the beast which mankind is 3+3=6. (Ecc 3:18, Rev 13:18, Rev 11:3). It is Christ’s peace that passes all understanding that can only come from Jerusalem above.  His peace in us, just like the word “Jerusalem” shows us, is an ongoing (Qal) work that is “to be complete, be finished, be ended” and that will be accomplished by the author and finisher of our salvation Jesus Christ (Gal 4:26, Jas 1:17, Heb 12:2-5, Php 1:6). The world will try to take away our peace, but through Christ we can resist those spiritual attacks unto the shedding of blood as were granted his faith (1Jn 5:4).

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 

Jas 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 
Heb 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Heb 10:35  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.  

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (Rom 3:27, 1Co 1:26)

Jerusalem
H3389 yerûshâlaim  yerûshâlayim
yer-oo-shaw-lah’-im, yer-oo-shaw-lah’-yim

A dual (in allusion to its two main hills (the true pointing, at least of the former reading, seems to be that of H3390)); probably from (the passive participle of) H3384 and H7999; founded peaceful; Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of Palestine: – Jerusalem.

H3384 yaw-raw’, yaw-raw’

A primitive root; properly to flow as water (that is, to rain); transitively to lay or throw (especially an arrow, that is, to shoot); figuratively to point out (as if by aiming the finger), to teach: –  (+) archer, cast, direct, inform, instruct, lay, shew, shoot, teach (-er, -ing), through.

H7999 shâlam shaw-lam’

A primitive root; to be safe (in mind, body or estate); figuratively to be (causatively make) completed; by implication to be friendly; by extension to reciprocate (in various applications): – make amends, (make an) end, finish, full, give again, make good, (re-) pay (again), (make) (to) (be at) peace (-able), that is perfect, perform, (make) prosper (-ous), recompense, render, requite, make restitution, restore, reward, X surely.

– Transliteration: Shalam
– Phonetic: shaw-lam’
– Definition: 

to be in a covenant of peace, be at peace
(Qal)
to be at peace
peaceful one (participle)
(Pual) one in covenant of peace (participle)
(Hiphil)
to make peace with
to cause to be at peace
(Hophal) to live in peace
to be complete, be sound
(Qal)
to be complete, be finished, be ended
to be sound, be uninjured
(Piel)
to complete, finish
to make safe
to make whole or good, restore, make compensation
to make good, pay
to requite, recompense, reward
(Pual)
to be performed
to be repaid, be requited
(Hiphil)
to complete, perform
to make an end of

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts [Isa 59:8]. 

Rev 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

David reigned over Hebron and Jerusalem for forty years symbolizes that it is through much tribulation (40) that we will enter into the kingdom of God (Act 14:22).

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 

God’s elect must “go the way of all the earth” which is to die; the difference being we die daily (1Co 15:31), and that death is precious unto God (Psa 116:15). If we are granted to endure until the end, the symbolic ten days in this flesh, which is a prison or pit we are in (Rev 2:10), God will receive all the glory for giving us that victory through Jesus Christ so we can “shew yourself a man“, a manchild (Gal 3:28, Rev 12:5).

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation [40] ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 

Greetings,

Thank you so much, and I really enjoyed your writings…… and you are truly gifted!

The thought of all people being saved, the Jews and the Gentiles, thrilled my heart! My only question is regarding those that are mentioned as the seed of Satan. And, Jesus said that Judas (the betrayer) was a devil. How did Satan get seed?

I know you are busy, swamped, and any comment would be great! If not, I understand!

I pray for a hedge of protection over you and your family! May God bless you indeed!

In Christ’s mighty Name, I pray, Amen!

Thank you,

C____

Hi again C____,

The “seed of the serpent” and “of your father the devil” are spiritual statements which have nothing to do with spirits having sex with women. All men are “in Adam.”

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Eve is the mother of “all living.”

Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Being the “seed of the serpent” has to do with “who you yield yourselves to obey.” Christ admits that the Jews of His day were “Abraham’s seed,” yet in the same breath, He tells them that “Ye are of your father the Devil.”

Joh 8:30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

There is a world of difference between “believing on Christ” and “continuing in His Word.” As it is to this day, it is “those… which believe on Christ” who still seek to kill God’s elect. As you become aware of God’s Truth, as you stand for God’s Truth, you will find that you, too, will be persecuted for doing good:

2Ti 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Now let’s continue on with what Christ said of “those Jews which believed on Him:“

Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [ even] God.
Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye can not hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

What makes one a son of the devil has nothing to do with physical begetting or physical birth. It was “Abraham’s seed” who Christ says are “of their father the devil.” What made them “of their father the devil? “Ye do the deeds of your father.” And again: “the lusts of your father ye will do.” That is what constitutes the “seed of the serpent” and makes one “of your father the devil.” Being “the seed of the woman” or “of Abraham” likewise has to do with “doing the works of Abraham.” It is all spiritual. It has nothing to do with physical descent. All are of Adam, and Eve is the mother of all living.

Be sure to read the letter already posted entitled Fallen Angels, Spirits In Prison, and The Woman And Manchild of Rev 12.

And another letter on this subject is entitled Why Cain’s Offering Was Not Accepted.

I hope this answers your question.

Mike