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Revelation 12:13-17: Pursued and protected.

^“13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. ¹⁴ The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the snake’s reach. ¹⁵ Then from his mouth the snake spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. ¹⁷ Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring – those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” NIV

Jesus said: ‘’If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first…If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also…They will treat you this way because of my name’’ (John 15:18, 20,21). It is important to remember that any persecution the church suffers comes because of the great cosmic battle between Christ and Satan.

As we have seen in recent days, we face an enigma here: the church is both pursued and protected. It’s a paradoxical situation in which we find both a protected and a persecuted church. The protection is real, but believers are here prepared to die for their faith, and, indeed, some of them do so (11b). There is something of a parallel with the Exodus story, in which the people of Israel were pursued and protected. God cared for them, and provided for them in ‘’the desert’’. But that wilderness was a difficult and dangerous place.

The main point to note is the spiritual protection of believers in the face of all that Satan throws at them.

A summarising comment by Tom Hale, regarding chapter 12, is helpful, I think:

‘…the events described can refer both to events which have already taken place and also to events that will take place at the end of the world. First, the vision can be interpreted as a commentary on the past: Christ has already been born, and has defeated Satan on the cross; and Satan, ever since, has been persecuting Christ’s church. Second, the vision can be interpreted as a commentary on the future: at the end of the world, the final struggle between Satan and God will take place, and at that time Satan will again be hurled out of heaven to earth, where he will fiercely persecute Christ’s church for the short time remaining to him before he is finally destroyed forever.’ ‘The Applied New Testament Commentary’, p.981.

Satan is a mortally wounded beast. His time is short (12), and he knows it. But a mortally wounded animal can be dangerous. Never forget, though, that the overcoming and casting-out of the devil is a major theme of this Book.

Revelation 12:7-12: Teamwork.

Tom Wright tells a story about a football match in which the ball was crossed into the penalty box, and two players went for it. It seems they both got a touch, and the ball ended up in the back of the net. Later, in the dressing room, there was playful banter between the two men as to who had really scored. The coach came up to them and said, ‘Well, arguably I was responsible for the victory, because I prepared you – and the rest of the team – for this game!’

Revelation 12 describes a triumph over Satan won in heaven. Yet it is also won on earth by believers:

• Who overcome ‘’the accuser’’ by trusting in Christ’s blood. (No charge against them can stick because of the atoning work of Jesus);
• Who testify to Jesus, and
• Who are willing to pay the ultimate price for their witness.

This victory is ultimately God’s, but Christians get to play a very real part. In a sense we can see that teamwork is involved.

Revelation 12:10: Critic.

¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

No-one likes a critic. Not really. That person who is always fault-finding – you don’t find them easy company, do you?. You sense they have one finger permanently pointed at you, stuck in your face (and, in fact, at most people other than themselves). Whatever you do for them, you know you will never measure up. There will always be grounds for criticism.

Well, the devil is the arch-critic. He’s always on your case: accusing you to God; accusing you to yourself, and accusing you to others. He’s not nice at all. The fact then that Someone greater has grabbed him and hurled him down is cause for ‘’loud’’ rejoicing.

Of course, he may well have a point in much that he says, but because you are trusting in ‘’the blood of the Lamb’’ (11), you overcome him. The record of your sins has been done away with. You are clean in the sight of Heaven.

Revelation 12:6-17: The final score

The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.⁷ Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. ⁸ But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. ⁹ The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

¹³ When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. ¹⁴ The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the snake’s reach. ¹⁵ Then from his mouth the snake spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. ¹⁷ Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring – those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. NIV

This chapter speaks of:

• A decisive victory; and
• An on-going struggle.

As I wrote yesterday, these are truths we have to ‘hold in tension’ because they threaten to pull apart. They are paradoxical truths – seeming contradictions.

We can thank God for the decisive victory. This is reflected in the repeated statement that the devil and his minions were ‘’hurled down’’ (see 9, 10, 13; also Luke 10:18). ‘Hurl’ is a strong word. Satan has not been dealt with gently. This points to a decisive victory.

But look where he has been ‘’hurled’’ to – ‘’the earth’’ (9,13). The paradox is that although the devil is a defeated foe, he is also an active one. In the mystery of the divine purposes, he is still permitted to move ‘’around like a roaring lion’’ here in this world. He has a ravenous appetite for blood; he causes mischief and mayhem. He attacks the church. So there is the further paradoxical truth to wrestle with that, although the church is protected, she is also pursued.

 In it all, we need to remember that the devil is ‘God’s devil’, as Martin Luther put it. He is on a long chain, but he is on a chain, and he can only do as God permits. Such is the mystery. But we have read to the end of the Book. We have seen how it all ends. We have heard the final score. We know the devil is the ultimate loser. He won’t be lifting any trophies. He’s not on the winning team.

PRAYER: May this truth sink deeply into my heart, Lord, that the enemy has been ‘’hurled down’’. Although we still have to live in the middle of the great conflict, I pray we will be clear in our thinking that the victory has been won. All glory be to God.

Revelation 12:9: Deceiver.

⁹ The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. NIV

The devil is pictured as both a ‘’dragon’’ and a ‘’serpent’’, and, truthfully, I wouldn’t want to get to close to either!

Mention of the ‘’serpent’’ takes us back to the beginning, and the garden of Eden, and the very origin of sin (Genesis 3). In 2 Corinthians 11:2,3, the apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth: ‘’I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.’’ It is that deceiving activity which gets highlighted in this ninth verse of Revelation 12. Satan ‘’leads the whole world astray.’’ That caused my mind to leapfrog back to 1 John 5:19: ‘’the whole world is under the control of the evil one.’’

 Satan’s key activities include leading astray and deceiving (Mark 13:22). He tells as many lies and half-truths as he has to, in order to steal people’s hearts from Christ, or to keep their hearts from Him.

It’s great to know that Genesis 3, in introducing us to the ‘’serpent’’, and exposing some of his wiles, also prophesies his ultimate downfall at the Hands of Christ (3:15). Nevertheless, he is still a wily character who has very real power in this world, as this chapter shows. We need to hold these two truths in balance (and also in tension) that the devil is a defeated enemy, but he is still allowed to be active in this world, and will be until the end. That there is ‘war on the saints’ should not surprise us – not if we understand ‘Revelation’, and the whole of the Bible!

Revelation 12:7-8: Not strong enough.

Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. ⁸ But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.NIV

It strikes me that these central chapters in Revelation offer a rich seam, and we may spend some time mining here.

One thing we come to understand from reading ‘Revelation’, and the book of Daniel (its Old Testament counterpart: e.g. Dan.9:20-11:1), is that there is a great cosmic battle being fought in the invisible realm of spiritual reality. It’s a raging war we often feel even though we may not see it. Now although this war has been won, it’s still fierce and there are yet casualties. ‘D Day’ was the day Jesus died on the Cross. That’s when the decisive battle was fought and won. But we’re still in the mopping-up operation, and that can be extremely messy. As Warren Wiersbe has said, we are not fighting for victory; we are fighting from victory. That is so true. But we are still fighting

Every believer knows for sure that he/she has a strong foe; much stronger than him or her. But although the devil is strong, he is ‘’not strong enough’’ to ultimately win.

‘Jesus is stronger than Satan and sin,

Satan to Jesus must bow.’

Prayer: Lord, I know I can’t stand up against the devil in my own strength. I’d be foolish to even imagine it. But thank you that I can be strong in you and in your mighty power, and put on all the armour you so generously supply. Help me to do this, I pray, in Jesus’ Name.

Revelation 12:1-6: Further thoughts.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. ² She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. ³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. ⁴ Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. ⁵ She gave birth to a son, a male child, who ‘will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.’ And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. ⁶ The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.NIV

Here are just a few more thoughts on the passage we started to look at yesterday:

1441. Since the seven trumpets followed on from the opening of the seven seals, it would be natural now to expect the outpouring of the seven bowls of wrath, to complete the story. However, what we have is a lengthy parenthesis from 12:1-14:20, and it shows the nature of the conflict Christ will bring to an end at His appearing. ‘’The ‘parenthesis’ thus lies at the heart of the book, in significance as well as position. It covers the whole Messianic period from the birth of Christ to the consummation.’ G.R.Beasley-Murray: ‘New Bible Commentary’’, p.1441. ‘’The dark secret is revealed; the real problem is identified; the curtain has risen on the drama-within-the-drama, the central action which forms now, the central scene in the whole book. The woman and her child are carrying the purposes of God for the world. The dragon is doing his best to snuff out those purposes before they can get under way.’’ Tom Wright: ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.108.
1442. As we saw yesterday, the ‘’woman’’ represents the ‘Mother’ of the Messianic community i.e. the believing people of God through all ages – the ‘church’ in both Testaments. But as Tom Wright points out, Eve may also lie behind this figure, because she was told that her ‘’seed’’ would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).
1443. Verse 6 accords with the teaching of 7:1-7 and 11:1,2. The church is kept safe from the wiles of the devil during the antichrist’s reign. There is seemingly another allusion to the Exodus story here. The people of Israel escaped from the tyrant Pharaoh by going off into the wilderness, although there they would have other challenges to face. (See also verse 13ff). ‘’The church needs to know that its present struggles and sufferings are not a sign that God has gone to sleep on the job. They are the sign that a great, cosmic drama is being staged, in which they are being given a vital though terrible role to play.’’ Tom Wright, pp.109/110.

Revelation 12:1-6: The great battle.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. ² She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. ³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. ⁴ Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. ⁵ She gave birth to a son, a male child, who ‘will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.’And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. ⁶ The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.” NIV

Tom Wright tells of being at the funeral of a well-known cricketer. He says that, as many of the great man’s former colleagues and opponents piled in to the church, he had the frustrating feeling that he should known who they were. But they had changed so much from how they looked as younger men. Quite a few others at the funeral agreed with his thought that it would have been good if they’d worn labels on their heads to identify themselves!

Wright says we often feel like this as we read ‘Revelation’. There are so many symbolic figures, and we can’t always tell who they are with any ease. But there can be no doubt as to who is the central figure in this passage (5). It is obviously Jesus (Psalm 2:6-9). Similarly, with the ‘’dragon’’; we know this is Satan (9). From the beginning, the devil wanted to destroy Christ (see, e.g. Matthew 2:13, 16), but he was unable to succeed. Even though Jesus died some years after the initial attempt on His life, He was raised from death to be enthroned at the right Hand of God (5). His death could not happen outside of the Father’s purpose and timing.

The woman probably represents Israel or the church – possibly both. The ‘’twelve stars’’ no doubt represent the twelve tribes or twelve apostles, or, again, maybe both. Once more, this book speaks of the protection of the church (6). God is in control although the battle rages, and it is fierce. This message comes repeatedly in the book of ‘Revelation’. We now know, however, that God’s protection does not mean that believers will never suffer. But it does mean, that like Jesus, they can never be destroyed.

Revelation 11:15-19: The future has become the present.

¹⁵ The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

¹⁶ And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God, ¹⁷ saying:

¹⁹ Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.” NIV

I have found a comment from Tom Wright on these verses to be particularly helpful: ‘This climactic and decisive moment could well have come, one might suppose, towards the very end of the book. Indeed, parts of chapter 19 resemble what we have here. But this reminds us that we are not dealing, in Revelation, with a single sequence of events, in which the seals come first, then the trumpets, then all the material in chapters 12-14, culminating in the bowls of wrath, and so on. What we are dealing with is several different angles of vision on the one single great reality: that through the awful turmoil and trouble of the world, God is establishing through Jesus a people who, following the lamb, are to bear witness to God’s kingdom through their own suffering…’’ ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.103.

I have deliberately put in italics what, for me, are the key words in this very significant quote. I appreciate that different Christians interpret this book in differing ways. I’m not dogmatically asserting that my viewpoint is correct. But this is certainly how I see it now, at this moment in time.

In verse 17 we read: ‘’We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who was and is…’’ Take a moment to compare that with 1:4: ‘’…him who is, and who was, and who is to come…’’ I’m sure you will immediately see the difference. By the time we reach 11:17, He’s come! The future is now the present.

In verse 18 we hear echoes of Psalm 2:1,2:’’Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against His Anointed One.’’ What we are seeing in Revelation 11 is the fulfilment of Psalm 2, as God’s Son-King comes to rule. The psalmist says that man’s best course of action in the circumstances is to submit, to sue for peace.

Do you ever feel insignificant and overlooked? Well, being ‘’small’’ (18b) won’t keep you from God rewarding (or judging!) you.