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 12:7-9 – Part 2 – There Was War In Heaven

[Study Aired Dec 15, 2024]

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8  And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
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.

We paused our last study with the intent of contrasting the function of the archangel, Michael, who we are told wars against the adversary for us, with the function of another archangel, Gabriel. Both are called ‘archangel’ because both of these angels perform very important functions in fulfilling the plan and purpose of God as the Lord continues to “work all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11)

Here are the verses which reveal what the archangel, Michael, does in service to the Lord:

Dan 10:13  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Dan 10:21  But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.

Dan 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Jud 1:9  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

Here are some verses which reveal the function which the archangel, Gabriel, performs in service to the Lord:

Dan 8:8  Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
Dan 8:9  And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
Dan 8:10  And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.
Dan 8:11  Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
Dan 8:12  And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.
Dan 8:13  Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? [Rev 11:1-2]
Dan 8:14  And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
Dan 8:15  And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.
Dan 8:16  And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

Gabriel was sent to cause Daniel to understand the vision of the two-horned ram being attacked by the he-goat with one horn which horn was broken and replaced by four lesser horns out of which came a little horn which became great and caused the daily sacrifice to be taken away and cast down. Gabriel appears again in the next chapter of Daniel where he is again sent to “give Daniel skill and understanding of the vision of the seventy weeks prophecy” which leads again to the casting down of the daily sacrifice and to the same abomination of desolation. Gabriel causes Daniel to see that the visions “are one” (Gen 41:26).

Dan 9:21  Yea, whiles I [was] speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
Dan 9:22  And he informed [me], and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
Dan 9:23  At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

Those who are “greatly loved” are given to understand the mind and words of God. This is the function of the archangel, Gabriel.

We learn more about Gabriel’s function in the invisible realm of the spirit in Luk 1, where he is once more sent to make Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist to understand, “and show [Zacharias] glad tidings”.

Luk 1:18  And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
Luk 1:19  And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.

The last time Gabriel is mentioned is in this same first chapter of Luke where he is sent to inform Mary of the impending birth of Christ.

Luk 1:24  And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
Luk 1:25  Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on [me], to take away my reproach among men.
Luk 1:26  And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
Luk 1:27  To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Luk 1:28  And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

It is Gabriel who is sent to “give skill and understanding”, whereas Michael is the archangel who “stands up for [and fights for the Lord’s] Israel”. It would appear that both angels are very busy serving the Lord and His Christ.

Rev 12:8  And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

There is no doubt about the outcome of the battle for those who are called with Christ to partake in this war in the heavens.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [It is] God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

God’s elect are known only to Him, and His Son in whom we are all called. Nevertheless their victory in this war in the heavens is as sure as the rising of the sun, and was known to God and Christ before times eonian, or “before the world began”.

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

This is the comfort of the scriptures for those who are given to believe that they are of those who were “called with a holy calling which was given in Christ before the world began”. So Paul continues with this very comforting message for those who are given that calling.

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
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.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Satan is doomed to lose the war in our heavens:

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.

“The great dragon… that old serpent called the Devil and Satan”. Here we have another example of how often “the dream is one” is demonstrated to be true in scripture. This “war in heaven” was first revealed in Genesis, and the destruction of the dragon, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan was revealed right there at the beginning.

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.

“He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”, is Satan’s inevitable end in his war with the Lord’s saints. Just as the first Adam was created to be destroyed so, too, this great red dragon was created to be destroyed, and it is in the destruction of this great dragon that the principalities and powers in the heavens will be made to be at one with God through Christ, along with all things in the earth.

2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say,whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

As we have demonstrated so many times, “The day of the Lord” is “the day of judgment”, and the melting of the elements in fervent heat is the fiery trials of that “day of the Lord”. This is not in another age, if we are in Christ. It is ours, and it is now. We are the first to be judged and if we are judged first then we will have no part in the “great white throne judgment/ lake of fire/ second death”.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

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 ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

It is because it is here and now and it is ours, that we are told “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up”. The Lord comes “as a thief in the night” to us all. “All things… things present and things to come, are ours”. But there are some things which are ours first, never to be repeated, such as “the second death”. It is only after we have begun to be judged in this age that we can then live these words:

1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Truly, “The sum of thy Word is Truth”. (Psa 119:160)

“He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out [of heaven] with him” is the cleansing of the heavens referred to in this verse:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

What was it that cleansed “the patterns of the things in the heavens”? It was “the blood of bulls and goats”.

Heb 9:13  For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

What “holy places made without hands [did] Christ enter into”? Christ has entered into the consciousness of our hearts and minds to “purge it from dead works to serve the living God” instead of the dying flesh, which is the food of “our [first] father the devil”. It is into our conscience that Christ has entered and that is “the heavens themselves”, which have been purged and cleansed by the blood of Christ. It is our hearts and minds of which the carnal temple is a “pattern of the things in the heavens”, and that is where God’s throne is and where He dwells.

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?

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

We are also that “cloud of witnesses” which signified “receiving Christ out of the sight” of His yet carnal disciples.

Act 1:9  And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Where did Christ go when “a cloud received him out of their sight”? Christ tells us where He went and where He is at this very moment.

Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world [Greek, aion – age]. Amen.

In other words, Christ and His Father are very near us, and just as Christ Himself did not need to move one inch to be “in heaven… [we also are] seated with His Father on His Father’s throne”.

Deu 30:14  But the word [Christ] is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Isa 51:16  And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

Act 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

It is Christ and His words being in us, in our hearts and minds, which “places us in the heavens” which are within us.

Yes, it is true that the resurrection has not yet occurred outwardly, but it is also true at the same time that “in earnest”, in down payment form, we have been raised up with Christ to be seated with Him in the heavens, just as Christ was simultaneously in heaven and on this earth.

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

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

The word ‘places’ is in brackets because it is not in the original Greek manuscripts from which our modern translations come. We are now, at this very moment, seated with Christ in the heavens in earnest or in a spiritual, 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 [Greek, down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Here is the Old Testament prophecy of this “cleansing of our heavens” which is also called “the earnest [down payment] of our inheritance”.

Eze 36:25  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh [a new spirit].
Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Eze 36:28  And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Eze 36:29  I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
Eze 36:30  And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
Eze 36:31  Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

As those who have been cleansed, we will be physically nauseous of “our own evil ways … and our iniquities… and shall loath [them]selves in [their] own sight”.

Summary

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

We have seen in this study that this “war in heaven” is a life-long war, and that in spiritual terms “the sword will never depart” from our house. We have seen that this war begins in earnest when we are given to “eat the little book” which is the doctrines of Christ. What we have seen is that Christ’s Words and His doctrines are what produce this struggle within us, which is called in spiritual terms, a “war in heaven”. We have seen the scripture which defines our weapon of choice, and which calls God’s words “the sword of the spirit”,

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

It is the entering of this “sword of the spirit” into the very belly of our old man that becomes bitter when we finally realize what Christ meant when He said that He had not come to send peace but He had come to send a sword, and to make our enemies those of our own spiritual household.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

Who Is Michael?

We have seen that there really is a spiritual realm which is populated with spiritual hosts and multitudes and armies. We have seen and read the scriptures which reveal that these heavenly multitudes are governed by princes and captains, three of whom are the great red dragon, Michael and Gabriel. We saw that it is the function of the great red dragon to be that old serpent, the devil and Satan, to withstand God and the Lord’s words and to “deceive the whole world”.

We saw the scriptures which call Michael “the prince of thy people”, which tell us that it was Michael who came to help Christ who was being withstood by the Prince of Persia, and we see here in Rev 12:7, that it is Michael who “makes war with the dragon”.

We have also seen the scriptures which named Gabriel as an angel whose function it is to make us skilled in understanding visions and dreams, and who brings good tidings of both the coming of Elijah before Christ, as well as the coming of Christ Himself.

Rev 12:8  And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

We have seen that the expulsion from our heaven, and in due time from all heavens of all men, is as sure as the rising of the sun. What we saw is that “all things [really] are working together for good to them who love God and are called of God according to His purpose”, which purpose has been predestinated to be worked in “all things… after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11). We saw that this predestination was from “before the world began”, and that those who are given the calling to be in that “blessed and holy first resurrection” will not be hurt of the second death, and will be there by God’s own sovereign decree, and cannot be separated from the love that God has for those who are His “very elect”.

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.

We have seen that this “war in heaven” and this “casting out of the great red dragon and his angels” is the cleansing of our heavens from all of the lies and false doctrines, and character assassinations which are the words and doctrines of the great red dragon and his angels. Here is what this dragon does in our lives.

Dan 8:12  And an host was given him [the little horn] against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.

It is the lies of the dragon and his angels which have defiled our heavens, and which require that “the heavens themselves be cleansed” with better sacrifices than the blood of bulls and goats.

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

God has “planted the heavens” within us by making us eat the little book and placing His words in our mouths to “prophecy before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” within our own hearts and minds, before we will be either worthy or prepared to do so, before those without. That is what “plant the heavens” by “putting His words in our mouths” means.

Isa 51:16  And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

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.

Next week, Lord willing, we will see why the woman is not seated with Christ in His throne, along with the manchild she brings forth, and we will also see how those who make up that manchild win this war in heaven. We will then see that we have reason to rejoice that we have been given to see that “all things present and things to come are ours” here and now, and that we are blessed to have this war being fought here and now instead of later.

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.

Rev 12:7-9 – Part 1 – There Was War In Heaven

[Study Aired Dec 13, 2024]

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
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.

Introduction

Spiritual warfare is a way of life which has been being waged and lived out in the lives of the Lord’s elect since His death and resurrection. This 12^th chapter is, by design, placed between the introduction of the seventh trumpet in chapter 11 and the pouring out of the seven vials, which are that seventh trumpet in chapter 16.

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 16:1  And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

So war in heaven is not a one-time experience which is all done and over with in just a few days, weeks, months or years. The “war in the heavens” has been being waged in the lives of the Lord’s Christ for the past 2000+ years.

Here is Paul discussing the war we all wage against the great red dragon in every generation since Christ:

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;

“Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” reveals that this is a life long struggle against the “principalities and powers in the heavens”.

Eph 6:12 (ALT) Because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of the wickedness in the heavenlies [or heavenly  realms].

Eph 6:12 (BBE) For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers, against the world-rulers of this dark night, against the spirits of evil in the heavens.

Eph 6:12 (CEV) We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world.

We will be fighting this war in the heavens of our hearts and minds as long as we live in these “earthen vessels”. This ‘war’ is a struggle against all the lies of the rulers, and authorities, in the heavens of our hearts and minds. It is a war against the devil, and his angels in our heavens, until the day we die. That is why the seventh trumpet, which this chapter along with the next three chapters is preparing us to hear and receive, is introduced to us in this manner:

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.

It is “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel” that we are given the eyes that see and the ears that hear the words of this “little book”. The words of this “little book” are the doctrines and weapons with which we will win this war in the heavens of our hearts and minds. The words of this little book are the doctrines which are subscribed to by the “little flock”, who have been given the kingdom that was given to Christ. It was the kingdom of heaven.

Where is that kingdom?

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

Matthew uses the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” while Luke uses “the kingdom of God”. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God and both “[are] within you”.

Mat 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Luk 7:28 For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Whether we call it the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God, that kingdom is within us, and it has been given to us by the Father.

Luk 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Luk 22:29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;

This is where the war in heaven is being waged, and it is not against flesh and blood. Flesh and blood are subject to the powers of the heavenly spiritual realm. The war taking place in our heavens is against the powers in the heavens where the dragon and his messengers are warring against Michael and his angels:

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Yes, this verse in 1Pe 5:8 calls the devil our adversary, but we are all still His children, “of our Father the devil… the children of disobedience… walking according to the prince of the power of the air” long before we become children of God, simply because we must “live by every word…”

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 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.

It is we who are all “murderers from the beginning” and are first “children of disobedience… children of wrath, even as others”, meaning “others” may never in this age be given the grace we are given to wage this war in heaven.

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.

So all of the lying doctrines of Babylon notwithstanding, the scriptures teach that we are all first “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin”, and are “by nature children of wrath” who have all in time past walked in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind of the natural man.

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Flesh is “by nature… shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin”. All doctrines that say otherwise are but a part of the adversary’s “war in the heavens”. The Lord has given our flesh as food for the adversary:

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 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Is flesh itself sin? Besides Rom 7:18, what else do the scriptures teach about our flesh? Is all flesh really just “by nature… corruptible”? Are we really all “by nature children of wrath”? Here is what we are told:

1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

So all of the doctrines of Babylon, warring to the contrary against The Truth, the fact is that “the first man Adam” was not created as a perfected man. He was rather deliberately and by design created “corruptible… incapable of inheriting the kingdom of God and marred in the hand of the Potter Himself” (Jer 18:4), and this was all done for the express purpose of causing us all to participate in a war in which “the first man, Adam”, was predestined to be destroyed and replaced by a completely new and different man, who the scriptures call “the last Adam”.

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

So Adam and Eve were “sown a natural body… of the earth, earthy… incapable of inheriting the kingdom of God… marred in the hand of the Potter… corruption”, for the purpose of fighting a war which would culminate in being “buried with Christ by baptism into death, and raised in newness of life”.

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.

“Made it again” is in the Hebrew Qal stem, and should read ‘Is making it again’, because mankind is incomplete and is in the process of being completed.

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.

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

This seventh verse of Rev 12 is a theme of our entire walk in Christ. “The sword will never depart from our house” because that sword is God’s Word, and “the sword will never depart from your house” are words which we are, were and will be living, simply because Christ and His words are that sword which words tell us, “we all had our conversation in times past” “despising” God and His Word. Christ is that Word, and He did not come to send peace, but a sword. That is what “there was war in heaven” means. When His Words come into our heavens, this “war in the heavens” begins in earnest.

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.

We have all “taken the wife of Uriah”, because we have all despised Christ and His words. “The sword will never depart from our house”, and when that sword comes into our lives, then our enemies will also become “they of [our] own household” (Mat 10:36).

2Sa 12:11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

Christ came into this world to judge this world. In doing that He tells us that He “came to send a sword, and to make our foes “they of our own house.” But Christ will “begin the judgment” of this world within His elect “first”. He is now, right this very moment, judging us for despising Him and committing adultery against Him.

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

Mat 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

“A man’s foes shall be they of his own household”. Again, what did Nathan tell King David?

2Sa 12:11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

Like the woman at the well, we have all had many husbands, and we have all despised our own Lord, who should be our one and only husband who we are to honor and obey.

Joh 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
Joh 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
Joh 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

Five, as we have already seen, always infers a work of grace and faith.

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_five/

Having five husbands is an essential part of this spiritual warfare, which is also referred to as “chastening grace” (Tit 2:11-23 and Heb 12:6). This “war in heaven” must of necessity be taking place before we can be brought to surrender to our Lord, as both King David and as this Samaritan woman both did.

2Sa 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the [inward, spiritual, Rom 2:28-29] Jews.
Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Joh 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Joh 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
Joh 4:27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
Joh 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
Joh 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

“I that speak unto thee… am the Messiah… which is called Christ”. Christ is His Word, and when He finally does “speak to us”, then Jesus Christ becomes those in whom His Word rules.

Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Here is Christ in Joh 4 telling this Samaritan woman that true worshipers will not worship at physical Jerusalem, but will worship in spirit and in Truth. Here is Christ in Act 22 telling all Israel, through the apostle Paul, that you and I are Jesus of Nazareth. Until we are given this spiritual knowledge, the spiritual battle hasn’t even begun in our heavens, and we are still spiritually “at rest” in Babylon.

Dan 4:4 I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace [in Babylon]:
Dan 4:5 I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

You and I are Nebuchadnezzar, and there is no “war in heaven” until we are in some way “made afraid” and are spiritually “troubled”. No one goes to battle who is not apprehensive of losing his life in that war (Mat 10:39).

Here is what “made afraid and troubled” means. Here are those who are called to “come out of” Babylon, and to follow Christ in “this present time” (Rom 8:18):

1Sa 22:2 And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him [King David]; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

A captain leads his soldiers into battle, and Christ, our captain, like King David, is familiar with our distress, debts and being discontented.

Heb 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Those who are “at rest”, and are not “suffering”, are certainly not at war.

Who Is Michael?

“Michael and his angels fought…” Is Michael just another name for Christ, or are there various captains of the hosts of heaven, spiritual hosts which are just as real as the physical hosts of the armies of this earthly realm? Here is what we are told of how we are to understand the invisible spiritual realm.

Rom 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
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:

This “war in heaven” is an invisible world that is “clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made”. The armies of the nations of this world, have over them captains of their hosts, and there are spiritual principalities and authorities, and captains over the armies in the heavens of our hearts and minds. The scriptures refer to us as “soldier[s] of Jesus Christ”:

2Ti2:3  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2Ti2:4  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.

Michael is mentioned four times in scripture. Let’s look at those four sections of God’s Word and see if we can learn something about the battle which is taking place in the heavens within us.

Dan 10:5 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:
Dan 10:6 His body also [was] like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
Dan 10:7 And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.
Dan 10:8 Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.
Dan 10:9 Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground.
Dan 10:10 And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and [upon] the palms of my hands.
Dan 10:11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
Dan 10:12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
Dan 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Dan 10:14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.

We know from our study of Revelation one, that Christ is the man who is described in the first verses of this section of scripture. It is Christ who was being withstood by “the prince of Persia” for three weeks before “Michael, one of the chief princes” comes to help Christ. But there is more to learn about the invisible realm of the spirit and “one of its chief princes [named] Michael”.

Dan 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

So “Michael, one of the chief princes” comes to help Christ against the prince of Persia, in Dan 10, and here in Dan 12 Michael is referred to as “the great prince who stands for the children of your people”. What else can we learn about this “prince which stands for the children of thy people”?

Jud 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

Here Jude tells us that Michael is an “archangel” who uses the authority of the name of his captain, Christ, to rebuke the devil.

Finally we come to today’s verse in Rev 12:7, where Michael is once again “standing for the children of thy people at the time of the end”, just as Daniel had prophesied Michael would do. So Rev 12:7 is the end time fulfillment of Dan 12:1.

Dan 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels

But Christ told Daniel that Michael was just “one of the chief princes”. Is Michael the only angel whose name we are given? No, he is not. Another angel who is sent to reveal God’s will is named Gabriel.

We will pause our study at this point and learn about the function of another archangel named Gabriel in our next study. We will contrast Gabriel’s function as an archangel with the function of Michael, “the prince of thy people” who stands up for and fights for the Lord’s people:

Dan 10:13  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Dan 10:21  But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.

Dan 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

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.