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May 22, 2025 |
| War in Heaven | ||
This study is about a prophesied war in Heaven. The idea of such a war has captured the attention of many, including some artists who have tried to draw it. You can see one of those drawings here.
The problem with drawing this war is that we can't understand such a war. What would angels use for weapons? How do you hurt a spirit being or force him to submit to you? We don't know that.
Really, though, we aren't as interested in the war as in what happens after the war. The war comes at a turning point in prophecy. From that time on, the world will be a difficult place to live in … but that won't last long. There will only be a handful of years before the Second Coming.
We are going to look at an entire chapter in the book of Revelation, chapter 12. Thankfully, it is a short chapter, with only 17 verses. As short as it is, though, it still isn't the shortest chapter in Revelation. Its claim to uniqueness comes instead from a unique event it describes - a war in Heaven.
Despite being a short chapter, it is very important. The events described in this chapter occur at the middle of the Tribulation period, which is the beginning of a period of time called the Great Tribulation. Although the words Great Tribulation are not used in the verses, this important change into the Great Tribulation period is the point of the chapter.
This change is mentioned in other prophecies. Therefore this chapter connects with a lot of other prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments. Some of those prophecies talk about the same events and thus reinforce what we'll see here. Other connected prophecies talk about different events that happen in the same timeframe. Because of these connections, this study started to grow and get out of control as I worked on it. So, I had to cut out some things I would have liked to have included.
This chapter describes a war that occurs in Heaven between the forces of God and the forces of Satan. But this war is described in the context of 2 different stories, one about a symbolic woman and the other about a symbolic dragon, who is Satan. These stories are intertwined, which makes them hard to tell. Though they are focused on the mid-tribulation period, it is necessary to include events from earlier times to pull out the details we need to understand. Because of this, the Bible's telling of the story is hard to follow. The description jumps back and forth in time, and back and forth between the woman and the dragon. God, the teller of the story, even finds it necessary to repeat parts to help us stay on track.
So, this study will take some thinking. The effort of understanding the stories is rewarded by a deeper understanding of the events that lead into the Great Tribulation.
The first character we see is a woman. This is Revelation, where almost everything is symbolic, so she symbolizes something else. For now, I'll say that she symbolizes Israel. The meaning is deeper than that, and we'll talk about that later.
The next character is the Dragon. It won't take a moment to figure out who is symbolized by this. It's odd though. Usually Satan is symbolized as a serpent. Why do we need a new symbol? We'll talk about that too.
This chapter has the first mention of a Dragon in the Book of Revelation. A Dragon reference to Satan doesn't exist anywhere else in the New Testament. But in Revelation, it is mentioned 14 times. If you're doing the math, that's 7 * 2. Revelation is well known for using words in multiples of 7, like using a word 7 times, 14 times, 21 times, and so on.
In the Old Testament, the word "dragon" appears a few times, but none of them are clearly references to Satan.
As I said, the Dragon is a reference to or another name for Satan … as though he didn't already have enough. In fact, this chapter has a short list of those names for Satan.
The last character is the serpent, and now we have a problem. The serpent is a very common name for Satan. So why do we have two characters who are Satan? There is a difference between them. Though most people don't realize it, the serpent represents the combination of a being with Satan. We'll talk about that more later.
There are many references to the serpent in the Bible. So it's not a surprise here in Revelation. This is, however, the first mention in Revelation. So this chapter contains both the first mentions of the serpent and the Dragon. That's also related to the difference between the two. We'll get to that.
As mentioned already, these 3 characters are intertwined into a complicated story that includes a war in Heaven. It also includes the story of the escape of Israel to a safe place.
I want us to start with an overview of this chapter because there is a lot going on that is all connected, and you need to understand it all as one piece. I'll make a few points on some of these, but I'll go into more depth later, as we go through the verses.
This chapter begins with the description of a woman. At first, we don't know that she symbolizes an idealized Israel (in Heaven), but as the description goes on, we understand who she is. The woman is described symbolically as glowing with the glory of God, controlling Satan, and having 12 great ones. With a little thought, we can figure out that these 12 are the sons of Jacob.
The woman is described in three events or time periods. This can be very confusing, but it is common for Revelation, and prophecy in general, to jump around in time, even within the same verse. I believe it is done because one description serves to identify her from historical events and to describe future events.
In the first time period, she is described as a pregnant woman who is about to give birth and then gives birth. The baby is Jesus, but we'll see it's more than that. He is snatched away to God. We know Jesus was born around 6 BC to 4 BC and ascended around 32 AD. So we know when this time period happens.
In the second time period, the woman is described as fleeing to a place of protection. This is an event Jesus and some prophets refer to, and therefore we know it happens 3.5 years before the Second Coming, and obviously in our future. These 3.5 years are the Great Tribulation, so we are going to see it again and again.
Continuing immediately after that, the woman is described as being protected for 3.5 years in the place of protection that she fled to. This covers the entire time until just days before the Second Coming.
Intertwined with the story of the woman, we see that Satan is described as a dragon who is connected to the beast kingdom. The study before this one has some common aspects with this study. It discussed the beginning of this beast kingdom. Its organizational structure changes after that, and the description we see in our verses is from a later stage in the beast kingdom.
The dragon is described in five events or time periods. As with the woman, this can be confusing, but it needs to be understood to completely understand this chapter of Revelation.
In the first time period, his description is made symbolically through the tail of the Dragon sweeping stars from the sky onto Earth. As with the woman, stars are part of the description, but for Satan, the great ones they represent are angels, whom Satan deceived into following him. This shows him as the one who deceived 1/3 of the angels into following him. Most people agree that this occurred shortly after creation, though the Bible is silent on the subject.
Then, in the next time period, we see Satan as having waited to devour Jesus at his birth. That is probably a reference to King Herod's attempt to kill Jesus and all the future attempts to test Jesus and get him to fail. As mentioned above, Jesus' birth was around 6 BC to 4 BC
Then, in the next time period, we see Satan at war in Heaven. This is in our future and will happen a little before the beginning of the Great Tribulation.
Then, in the next time period, we see Satan, on Earth, persecuting and trying to destroy Israel as she flees. This will begin the Great Tribulation, which will happen 3.5 years before the Second Coming.
Then, in the last time period, we see Satan raging against Israel and warring against Jesus' followers. This will be going on for the last 3.5 years before the Second Coming.
A war is depicted as occurring in Heaven. This will happen a little more than 3.5 years before the Second Coming.
The Bible doesn't directly tell us the cause of this war. The previous study I mentioned gives us some guidance. It's very possible this chapter does give us the reason, and we'll look at that more later. There is also the question of how long this war will last and whether there will be an observable aspect of it for those of us who may be on Earth.
The battle is between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. God doesn't enter into the fray, into the fight. It's entirely angel-on-angel.
The Dragon and his forces are driven out of Heaven and cast down to Earth. We don't have a good way of understanding what this will look like to people on Earth, if it will be visible at all..
That battle ends with the Dragon and his forces on Earth. We see there is a celebration in Heaven. They are happy to be rid of Satan and his angels. Satan has assumed a role in Heaven. Whatever function he had at the start, he does not do that. Instead, he accuses Jesus' followers night and day, which means he points out every flaw and failing in God's people. In fact the name Satan is actually Ha Satan, and is not a name at all. It is a description that means The Accuser
A very important statement is made about the dragon. He knows he has little time. He knows the end is 3.5 years away at that point, and he knows that includes his end. That previous study I've mentioned repeatedly deals with the question of why Satan would go along with a plan that results in a bad end for him.
Lastly, we see more detailed descriptions of some events that we discussed above when discussing the woman. The Dragon persecutes the woman, who is idealized Israel, and she flees to a safe place. As she flees, the Serpent tries to catch her, but fails. Once in her safe place, she becomes untouchable to the Serpent. So, having nothing better to do, the Dragon sets out to deceive and destroy Christians.
We are finally ready to begin looking at the verses in Chapter 12.
And a great sign appeared in Heaven: a woman who was wearing the Sun, and the Moon was under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head (Revelation 12:1)
The verse talks about a sign that is a woman. As a sign, it symbolically describes something else. The other aspects of Sun, Moon, and stars describe other characteristics of her.
Prophecy commonly refers to God's people as a woman, whether that is Jews, Christians, or even fallen Christians. In this case, the woman is God's chosen people, Israel. We'll see more description of her later that will make that clear.
The verse says the woman-sign "appeared in Heaven". The intent seems to be to make clear that the sign is not seen on Earth.
The verse talks about the Sun, Moon, and stars. Prophecy, including Revelation, uses that symbology in various places, but not always to refer to the same things. Generally, it represents a great one, a lesser one, and a number of much lesser ones.
In this case, the Sun is God, the Moon is Satan, who is shown underfoot, indicating control, and the stars are the founders, the sons of Jacob. Seeing that she has Satan underfoot shows us this is an idealized sign. God has always wanted Israel to be this way, but never has all of Israel had Satan underfoot, though there were a few at times.
But they will. One outcome of all of these prophesied events is that a select group of Israel will finally be true to God. They will have Satan underfoot and will be that idealized Israel, the woman describes.
And she was pregnant and she cried out and was in labor; she was also in anguish to give birth. (Revelation 12:2)
The woman, idealized Israel, is about to give birth. She strongly desires this, but the labor is a great struggle for her.
Most people say she is about to give birth to Jesus, but more than that, she is about to give birth to Christianity through Jesus. Symbolic, idealized Israel is going to give birth to symbolic Christianity through Jesus.
Her labor began with John the Baptist and ended with the ascension of Jesus. The Gospels show us what a struggle the birth was. Despite John the Baptist preparing them, and despite all the prophecies that said this change was coming, the less-than-ideal Israel was not prepared for this. Most of them were faithless with hearts of stone, and they fought against it. Yet, God's idealized Israel converted to Christianity, so they gave birth to Christianity. As the Bible says, the gospel message went out first to the Jews.
And another sign appeared in Heaven and, behold, a great fiery Dragon that has seven heads and 10 horns, and upon its heads seven diadems. (Revelation 12:3)
The "dragon" is a symbolic description of Satan and only Satan. We'll see more details later that will confirm this. The "fiery" aspect likely represents danger. This would relate to the uncontrolled nature of natural fire. For the people of Jesus' time, fire was an ever-present part of their lives, and it was also an ever-present danger of injury or loss and a symbol of destruction by death.
Once again, we see the phrase "appeared in Heaven" and again we see an idealized depiction, one that is unseeable by the people on earth. This is idealized from the perspective of Satan, I think. Anyone else would not consider this ideal.
The seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadems are a description of the organizational structure of the world government or kingdom of the beast, of the anti-Christ. This empire, which the Bible refers to symbolically as a beast, consists of seven countries, symbolized by heads, with ten rulers, symbolized as horns. This same symbolism is first used in Daniel. There, the kingdom is organized a little differently at first and then changes, and here we see it has changed a little again. This is the kingdom of the beast at a late stage in its development. Later in Revelation, it looks a little different again.
What's interesting is that the idealized description of the dragon has the same description as the kingdom of the beast, at a late stage. From the perspective of the people on Earth, the anti-Christ is just a man who has brought the world's governments together. Here we see that Satan has been behind it all along. Not only that, but it has gotten to the ideal stage for him.
Most translations use the word "diadem", just as this translation does. It's important to understand that a diadem is a lesser crown. Physically, it is simpler and not as valuable as a king's crown. It was a crown given to a subordinate king, a king who had a king over him. So it doesn't indicate true kingship.
The word "diadem" only appears in Revelation and only 3 times, verse 12:3, which is here, verse 13:1, which is another reference to the beast kingdom, and in verse 19:2, a reference to the many subordinate kings that Jesus sets up to rule the Earth.
Verse 4 tells us more that helps us identify the Dragon. It gives us some of his history and some of what he is working on. We'll look at the history part of the verse first.
And its tail dragged the third of the stars that are in the Heavens and cast them on Earth (Revelation 12:4)
We only see the word stars here, but we know it is part of the sun, moon, and stars symbology that we talked about before. For the woman, the stars were on her head; here, the stars are in Heaven. They represent great ones, again, but the great ones are angels, in this case.
The verse says the Dragon's "tail dragged" the stars out of their position. As a symbol, the tail speaks to the influence the dragon wields. As for dragging them out of their position, Jude expresses the same idea in Jude 1:6, saying, "And those Angels who kept not their Principality … (or sovereignty), but abandoned their own way of life, he has kept to the great Day of Judgment." We aren't as familiar with the words principality or sovereignty. Jude means the angels are sovereign, or in charge of things, but some angels gave up that sovereignty and followed Satan.
The verse also tells us that it was "one third" of the stars. Nowhere else does the Bible say how many angels followed Satan. This shows the proportion: 1/3 of the angels followed Satan. Most people agree that this dragging occurred shortly after creation, though the Bible is silent on the timing.
The verse then says these stars were "cast on Earth." It is making the same point we make when we say, "How the mighty have fallen". Stars of Heaven that were cast on Earth. But that casting onto earth happens much later than the tail dragging, or at least, is complete much later. The completion happens a few verses from now, in the war in Heaven, which is still a future event for us.
You'll have to get used to this jumping around in time that the verses do, even within a verse.
Now we look at the end of that verse to see something the Dragon has been up to.
… and the Dragon was standing before the woman who was ready to give birth, that when she had delivered, it would devour her Son. (Revelation 12:4)
So what was Satan up to here? Remember, we said that the woman was about to give birth to Christianity through Jesus. The dragon was present for the labor and delivery and was waiting to destroy (or devour) Christianity.
We now have enough information about the "dragon" that we can say it is a description of Satan. We know this because he first sweeps stars (deceives angels) from Heaven to become fallen angels. Now we see him trying to destroy Christianity at its birth. The dragon couldn't be anyone else but Satan.
I also need to say that the dragon not only represents Satan, but it represents him as Satan only, not in combination with anything else. That may seem like an odd distinction, but I'll explain why that clarification is necessary in a while, when we see the serpent mentioned.
What does the Bible tell us that Satan did to devour Christianity at its delivery? The first thing was King Herod's attempt to kill Jesus. After that, there were other attempts to kill and harm Jesus. There was also the testing of Jesus in the wilderness, where Satan tried to get Jesus to worship him.
From this context, we can say the verses are speaking about events that began around 6 BC to 0 BC, when Jesus was born. This is the beginning of the woman's delivery of Christianity.
And now comes the woman's delivery.
And she delivered the Son, the male who was to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron. And her Son was caught up to God and to his throne. (Revelation 12:4)
"male" - It was necessary for Jesus to be a firstborn male. This helps distinguish between Jesus and Christianity, which were both being born by the woman. There are other reasons, but I'm not going to go into them in this study.
With the words "shepherd the nations with a rod of iron", we finally have enough evidence to be certain this is Jesus. Knowing this is Jesus then proves the woman is Israel because the Bible says salvation will come from the Jews, and we know the name Yeshua means "God's salvation".
The words "Shepherd" and "rod of iron" are a quote from Psalm 2:9. In Jesus' time, this verse was understood to be a prophecy about the Messiah, and we know Jesus was the Messiah.
The verse says she delivered the son, and the son was caught up to God. It sounds like she gave birth to Jesus, who immediately went to God. We know that isn't what happened. Remember, she is giving birth to Christianity, led by Jesus. So the delivery doesn't only include the son. It includes the birth of Christianity. We know that took years. The delivery began with John the Baptist and ended with the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (Feast of Weeks).
When the verse says the son was caught up to Heaven, we know it is talking about Jesus' ascension near Bethany, which his disciples watched. Jesus ascended around 30 AD to 32 AD, so that means the delivery process took between 32 and 38 years.
The focus of this chapter changes back to the woman. The previous verse was talking about the woman, but it was all in the context of the Dragon who was waiting for the woman to give birth.
And the woman fled to the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God where she would be sustained 1260 days. (Revelation 12:6)
At this point in the chapter, we have no idea why she is fleeing and only a guess at what she is fleeing from. We'll get that information later. This will be the third time this chapter has told us something that we had to accept until a later verse that explained it. We also don't see in this verse that, with the change of focus to the woman, there was a sudden leap forward in time. In the previous verse, we were in Jesus' time; now the verse jumps into our future.
The verse that explains the woman fleeing is verse 14, … 8 verses from where we are. I want to bring some of that understanding in now so we can put this fleeing event into its chronological place.
The woman is fleeing because Satan is … well … the verse says persecuting her, but other books, and even the Islamic Koran, make it clear this is an effort to kill Jews and take the remnant to faraway countries. The goal is to depopulate Israel of Jews.
This fleeing occurs 1260 days before the Second Coming. We'll talk about that number later on.
I hate to give out spoilers for what is coming, but it is necessary here. After the war in Heaven, Satan will be cast out of Heaven and down to Earth. From there, he will attempt this persecution of Israel. Some of Israel, who know their Bible prophecy, will flee. They will be the idealized woman of that time.
She flees to a place "prepared by God." I'd like to spend more time on this place because other verses in the Bible talk about it. But this chapter only says she flees to this place. So it's really out of scope to go further than that.
This fleeing event is a major event in God's eyes. Jesus speaks about it, and the Old Testament refers to it. It is a little odd that Jesus would mention it because it is a warning to Jews … who … don't read the New Testament much, … or at all. But I won't go there.
What Jesus says is recorded in 3 of the gospels, in Mark 13, Matthew 24, and in Luke 21. This is what Mark says:
But whenever you see the unclean sign of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (he who reads, let him perceive) then those who are in Judea should flee to the mountains. 15 Whoever is on the rooftop should not come down and should not enter to take anything from his house. 16 And whoever is in the field should not turn to go back to take up his garment. 17 But woe to the pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days. 18 Pray that your flight will not be in the winter. (Mark 13:14-18, similar to Matthew 24:15-20, Luke 21:20-24)
Jesus' point is that, when they see this prophesied event, it's time to run for the hills. Don't pack, don't pause, just get going.
Zechariah 14:1-5 includes this fleeing event.
We are finally at the event that gives this study its name.
And there was war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fighting with the Dragon; and the Dragon and its angels fought 8 And did not prevail, neither was a place found for them in Heaven. 9 And the great Dragon was cast down, that chief serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, which deceives all Earth, and it was cast down on Earth and its angels were cast down with it. (Revelation 12:7-9)
While I was preparing this study, I stumbled upon a video by a pastor who claimed this event was in the past. His basis for that was that there were demons on Earth in Jesus' time. He figured that, if demons were there then, they must have been kicked out of Heaven before that time. He's wrong. Those demons were on Earth for a different reason, but I won't go into that in this study.
That pastor's view is common. I think the confusion in this area comes from thinking that "Satan falling" and "Satan being cast out of Heaven" are the same thing. They are not. Satan's fall occurs when Satan turns away from God. It's a spiritual fall. This must have happened around the time of the original sin. His sin doesn't seem to affect his access to Heaven, though there may have been some restrictions. In the book of Job, we see him speaking with God. They aren't on Earth at the time, so they must be in Heaven. Being cast out is different because Satan and the angels cannot come back into Heaven. They are locked out.
Thinking about this war might make you wonder … how exactly do angels fight? I touched on this a little at the start. Nothing in the Bible gives us a hint. I think it is likely that it is a battle where glory is the weapon, but that doesn't really say much that is useful. We do know, from the verse about the dragon's tail, that Satan's forces are badly outnumbered … if that means anything in a war between angels.
A related question is … what causes the war? From the previous study called What is Going On? We saw that Satan is planning to use his understanding of prophecy to make God a liar. His presence in Heaven would give him access to information he could use to do that. This makes him and his angels spies. It makes sense that a time would come when the spies would have to be removed.
But God tends to cut off privileges only when there has been a cause. I think it is safe to say that Satan has done something that violates an agreement or rule. Most likely, he has been caught trying to pass information to the anti-Christ. This war will happen immediately prior to the persecution of Israel that we discussed. Perhaps it is something related to that.
The Old Testament touches on this battle a little.
Now at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will stand. (Daniel 12:1)
Daniel doesn't say why Michael is standing up for Israel, but we see Michael battling in this war. After that, we see the woman fleeing, which takes the woman out of the end-times picture until immediately before the Second Coming. It seems, then, that Michael is standing for this battle and its consequences for the woman.
We see another thing that is interesting here. There is a list of names for Satan. Among them is the curious name "chief serpent". The Greek is different here. It says "ancient serpent" and would be a reference to the serpent in the garden. Chief serpent makes more sense because it refers to a leader and more than one serpent. In a recent study, we looked at the serpent in the garden and found a prophecy of another serpent, who we know as Judas. We'll come back to this question of serpents.
Though the war in Heaven only appears in Revelation, this idea about Satan being cast from Heaven appears in another place.
Jesus talks about it. I'll give you some background first. He had sent out his disciples on missions, and they are returning now with stories of their successes. In reply, he talks about a vision he has seen while they were gone.
And those seventy whom he had sent returned with great joy and they were saying to him, "Our Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name." 18 But he said to them, "I was beholding Satan himself who fell like lightning from Heaven." (Luke 10:17-18)
Many people see an odd discontinuity here. It seems to them like the disciples say one thing, and Jesus says something completely unrelated. That's called a non-sequitur. They talk about demons being subject to them; Jesus talks about watching Satan fall from Heaven.
What they say is not disconnected. Actually, there is a parallel between what the disciples say and what Jesus says. There is an interconnectedness to both, but it is hidden. The disciples say, "The demons are subject to us." What they mean by that is that when they command demons to leave someone, the demons leave. The demons are cast out. For his part, Jesus says Satan fell, but we know from the verses we are studying that Satan fell because he was cast out. In other words, the disciples say, "We cast out demons," and Jesus responds, "I saw Satan cast out of Heaven." Satan is the greatest of the demons, so they are both talking about casting out demons. That's the connection.
The difference is that the disciples saw in the present, but Jesus saw in the future.
Isaiah 14:12 also has a reference to this event with the tone of "How the mighty have fallen."
So, Satan was cast out of Heaven. Now all of Heaven celebrates. That's no surprise. They're glad to be rid of him.
And I heard a great voice from Heaven that said, "Now is the deliverance and the power and the kingdom of our God, for the Accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them night and day before our God. 11 And they were victorious by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of his testimony and they did not love their lives unto death. 12 Therefore Heavens, celebrate, and those who dwell in them; woe to the Earth and to the Sea, for the Devil, who has great fury, has descended to them, as he knows that he has little time." (Revelation 12:10-12)
The verse talks about "the accuser." We use the word "Satan" as though it were his name. It's actually a descriptive title for him. Satan in Hebrew is Ha Satan, which means the accuser. So when we say Satan, we are saying accuser, and he is called that because that's what he does in Heaven. He points out every little sin by God's people. Everyone in Heaven is tired of hearing that.
Then the verse says God's people were victorious anyway. Then it says their victory came from three things:
First, the blood of the lamb, which cleansed them of the sins that Satan accused them of,
Second, the word of his testimony. Jesus' testimony is everything he said and did. He taught us about right and wrong, how to live, etc. God's people were victorious by being transformed to be like his testimony.
Third, they did not love their lives unto death. The consequence of the first two points is that they no longer fear death. Therefore, fear would not keep them from their work.
It's odd that the Holy Spirit is not listed among these causes of victory. There is a reason, I think, and we discussed it in the previous study I've mentioned many times. The Holy Spirit is not active at the time of the war in Heaven and hasn't been active for something like 30 years or more.
The verse also says that Satan knows he has little time. We know that he has 1260 days before the Second Coming. He knows that, too. Now, if you know that you have 3.5 years to live, how are you going to spend that time? You would likely spend it loving friends, caring for people, exploring places, and scratching items off the bucket list. Satan is a little different. He goes full evil. He attacks the woman (Israel) and all of Christianity … or … maybe that is his bucket list.
And when the Dragon saw that it had been cast down on Earth, it persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male. 14 And two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman to fly into the wilderness to her place, to be sustained there for a time, times, and half a time, from before the face of the Serpent. (Revelation 12:13-14)
Notice that the Dragon has a moment of realization. The verse says, "he saw that he had been cast down". So, bam, there he is on Earth, and it takes him a moment to figure it out. In the movie Despicable Me, there is a character called Vector. When he sees that circumstances have left him stranded on the moon, he says, "Oh, poop". That's his moment of realization. We'll see Satan goes on a screaming rant instead.
The verse refers to "two wings of a great eagle." Many people who should know better say this is a reference to the USA coming to rescue Israel by putting them on planes. It isn't. The reference to the wings of an eagle has the same meaning here as when we see it in Exodus 19:4. That verse says, "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." Therefore wings are an indication of God protecting them as he carries them to safety, just as he did back when they left Egypt.
The verse also has the phrase, "time, times, and half a time." We'll talk about that later in this study.
The verses also mention both the Dragon and the Serpent. At the start of this study, I mentioned that it is odd to have two symbols that seem to refer to Satan. We'll see both of these mentioned again in the next verses and talk about them there.
So far, the woman is fleeing. We'll see here that she isn't fleeing on an airplane.
And the Serpent cast water like a river out of its mouth after the woman, to cause her to be taken by the waters. 16 And the Earth helped the woman, and the Earth opened its mouth and swallowed that river which the Dragon had cast from its mouth. (Revelation 12:15-16)
Here again, we see mentions of both the Dragon and the Serpent, but they are much closer here. Look carefully at what the two verses say about the source of the river:
It says the serpent cast the river out. But, after the river is swallowed up, it says the Dragon cast out that river, referring back to the river cast out from the serpent. So we are clearly talking about the same river. How did it come from both the mouth of the serpent and from the mouth of the Dragon? The answer is that they are sharing the same mouth. You might think that doesn't help, but it does. Let's go back to the Garden of Eden.
Some people realize it, others don't. The snake was possessed by Satan. After the sin, God talks about "her seed", meaning Eve's seed, and "your seed", meaning the snake's seed. Few people try to understand who "your seed" is. In the Hebrew text, both "seeds" are singular masculine. We understand Eve's seed to be Jesus. The snake's "seed" is a reference to another person who is like the snake, a person who is also possessed and who will strike at Eve's seed.
Does the Bible describe such a person? Yes, it's Judas. But, is it possible that the prophecy has multiple fulfillments? Other prophecies have had that, so it wouldn't be unique that way. I don't think anyone would be shocked to hear that the anti-Christ was possessed by Satan, but nowhere does the Bible say that clearly. That would be how they share the same mouth.
If it is a dual fulfillment, then we would also expect to see the anti-Christ strike at Jesus, the Messiah. We do see that. Zechariah 13:7 says, "Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, And against the man, my associate," Declares the Lord of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones. We are way beyond the scope of this chapter, and I don't want to explain the details here
The serpent in the garden:
When does that possession take place? I think the indication of sharing a mouth here in the verse is telling us that it happens now, as Satan is cast out of Heaven.
And the Dragon raged against the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, these who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua. (Revelation 12:17)
Earlier in this chapter, we saw the "woman's seed". Now, we see the "remnant of [the woman's] seed." We said before that the woman's seed is Christianity through Jesus. Therefore the remnant is the remnant of Christianity.
Then the verse chooses to identify the remnant of her seed by their characteristics. That's a little off topic for the verse, but it's very valuable to us.
The first identifying characteristic is that they keep the commandments of God. Everyone understands this to refer to the 10 commandments. But the Ten Commandments are more than many people recognize. The commandments, as stated in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy, are examples of underlying principles. For example, the murder commandment doesn't only refer to actual physical death. It includes diminishing a person … within yourself. Jesus said this. Thus, the person is uninjured and possibly even unaware that you broke the murder commandment against him. So, "keeping the commandments of God" would include all their depth.
The second identifying characteristic is that they have the testimony of Jesus. This translation is very direct and retains some of the original phrasing. Instead of "testimony of Jesus", we would say that now as "having Jesus' testimony within them." Everything that Jesus said and did was his testimony. He testified about who he was, who the father was, what was right and wrong, what would happen in the future, and more. Therefore, having his testimony within you would be accepting all that he said as true and conforming to that.
There is an oddity here that we also saw in an earlier verse, in that the Holy Spirit is not mentioned as an identifying characteristic. Some books in the New Testament talk about the Holy Spirit as the mark that you are a Christian. We would expect him to be mentioned here. I think we don't see that because, at that time, the Holy Spirit has become inactive. I talked about that extensively in the previous study.
The phrase "testimony of Jesus" is also a little odd. It appears multiple times in Revelation but not anywhere else. The author of Revelation is believed to be John the Apostle, who wrote 3 other books of the Bible. He doesn't use that phrase in any of those other books. I believe this is again related to the Holy Spirit being inactive. In his place, we will rely on the testimony of Jesus that we received from the Bible.
One of those other places where the phrase is seen is in Revelation 19. It's a bit off-topic for us, but I think it is a worthwhile diversion. That verse says
And I fell before his feet and worshiped him, and he said to me, "No! I am your fellow Servant and of your brothers who have the testimony of Yeshua. Worship God, rather, for the testimony of Yeshua is the spirit of prophecy." (Revelation 19:10)
The phrase appears twice there, but what does it mean? The phrase Spirit of prophecy is used here in a similar way to how the spirit of holiness is used. The spirit of Holiness brings forth holiness within the person. The spirit of prophecy brings forth prophecy. We often think of prophecy as statements about the future, but prophecy is any word of God. So the verse is saying that having the testimony of Jesus within you brings forth the word of God. I like that.
We've covered the verses, but I have some additional thoughts.
A question comes out of this chapter. Why not plainly say the woman is Israel and that the child is Jesus? Why not plainly say that Satan is the dragon?
We ask that here because those were pretty easy to figure out. Yes, we didn't figure them out until a few verses later, when we got enough information. But we did figure it out then.
I think there are two answers. God hides himself to see who is willing to find him, who will put in the effort, and who cares enough. That applies to all prophecy. The second answer is that the easy symbols are there to teach the reader how to handle the harder ones.
We also saw a mix of things in the verses, some symbolic and some literal. This should serve to teach people that they need a way to separate the two types. Some people say all the real symbols are literal, but here we've seen heads, horns, crowns, and diadems, which are real items, but they were all symbolic of something, not literal. Angels were also mentioned. They are real beings, but they are literal in these verses. The word "angels" refers to angels, not something else. Even if we are prepared to put in the effort, how do we figure out which is which?
We saw that there is a connection to Exodus in the verse that refers to "wings of an Eagle". There is also a connection to Daniel in the heads, horns, and diadems. For these symbolic descriptions, the answers came from what we knew from the prior books of the Bible. This tells us that understanding the symbols comes from understanding all of the Bible, Old Testament and New.
Before we are done, I wanted to say a little about the time measurements that we have seen in this chapter.
When prophecy describes periods of time, it uses the prophetic year. It is 360 days long, which is divided into 12 30-day months. That is slightly … but significantly … different from our solar year, which is 365.25 days long, which is divided into 12 months of various lengths from 28 to 31 days. The Hebrew calendar also has 365.25 days, but it has 12 lunar months of 29 or 30 days and an extra month to synchronize its calendar with the solar calendar.
In the verses we have studied, we've seen two measurements for the length of the Great Tribulation.
The first is 1260 days. That comes from Revelation 12:6. 1260 days is 3.5 years of 360 days, so it's 3.5 prophetic years.
The other measurement we've seen is a "Time, times, and half a time." That comes from Revelation 12:14. That's certainly more cryptic. This phrase appears in many places and doesn't always refer to the same time period. In our case, when it says "time," that is one year. Where it says "times" that is two years, and a half time is half a year. When you add that up, it's 3.5 years, and those would be prophetic 360-day years. In solar years, that would be 3.5 solar years minus about 18 days.
The Bible never says why it uses a calendar that is so different from the real year and month. It's possible the day is also different, but nothing in prophecy is ever measured that is less than a day. So, we can't know that. I have an idea that it is using the calendar from the time of creation, and the year changed during the flood.
Elsewhere in Revelation, there is a time measurement for the Great Tribulation that is 42 months. That would be 42 30-day months, which is 1260 days or 3.5 years.
Revelation gives the length for the Great Tribulation in days, months, and years. There has to be a reason for doing that. It seems it is trying to be clear about the length of time in the same way that Genesis 1 tries to be clear that there are 6 literal days of creation. Nonetheless people still get that wrong.
We've seen many things in this chapter. Some we have known before, others not so much.
We saw that 1/3 of the angels followed after Satan. It's amazing to me that Satan could deceive so many beings who knew God so intimately. I guess that means he should be respected as an adversary.
We saw that Judaism gave birth to Christianity through Jesus. The Bible says salvation is from the Jews, and most people understand this, but some people try to ignore the role of Judaism as the foundation of Christianity.
We saw that there will be a war in Heaven. When we think of Heaven, we have this dreamy, serene view of a blissful existence, with people playing harps on grassy hills. But here we see all of the angels at war. We said it was likely that Satan violated some agreement with God, and that caused the war. Whatever, it's necessary that Satan must not be in Heaven, so he won't have enough information to make God a liar.
We saw that Satan and his angels will lose the war and be cast down to Earth. We don't know what that would look like to the people on Earth. These verses make it clear it isn't a good thing.
With Satan finding himself on Earth, we saw that he will try to destroy Israel in Judea, especially Jerusalem. God will intervene to protect his people as he has in the past. He has made promises to them that he will keep. This intervention will come in the form of an escape, … for some …, from the attackers.
We saw that those who escape will be protected for 1260 days, which is until just before the Second Coming. With Israel protected, Satan will attack Christians as hard as he can.
We saw the structure of the world government at the time Satan will be cast out of Heaven. We also talked about that government having slightly different forms before that time and a different form soon after. That government and the changes in its form tell us where we are on the prophecy timeline.
We saw that this is the beginning of what the Bible calls the Great Tribulation, the time when things are at their very worst. The Bible says that if that time were not kept short, no one would survive.
Many other things happen as this time begins. The chapter we've been studying only describes a few of them. Many prophecies will be fulfilled in this 3.5-year period.
The verses we studied describe many things that people will not be able to see, for example, a war in Heaven. So, for those of us sitting on Earth, what would this chapter look like? What should we be watching for?
Some things will already be in place. I've marked them in blue.
The anti-Christ will be recognizable by this time, to anyone who has read Bible prophecy about him. He will have done things that no one else can do.
The world government will already exist. At the time of the war in Heaven, it will be structured as 7 jurisdictions, where the jurisdictions choose 10 leaders. By that time, the anti-Christ will have taken control of that government.
The rest of the items in this list are things that those living will see happen. They are the result of the War in Heaven, which they will not see.
The anti-Christ will suddenly become more vicious toward Israel. To the people on Earth, it won't be obvious why. Satan's fall to Earth will be the cause of this. We also discussed the probability that the anti-Christ will be possessed by Satan at that time.
The anti-Christ's first strike at Israel will come as his army encircles Jerusalem. Jesus says, when you see that, it's time to run for the hills, and don't delay.
The Mount of Olives will then split in two, with one half moving north and the other south. The Mount of Olives is made of limestone and chalk, and has always been a mostly bald dome where little grows and no one builds, other than tourist attractions.
The wise Jews will head toward the Mount of Olives and escape. They are the woman, the idealized Israel of that time. The Bible is very unclear about where they go, how they get there, and how they are protected from the anti-Christ.
With the best of Israel out of his grasp, the anti-Christ will attack Christians more viciously than before.