Home	Our Hope
Article		May 20, 2017
Where Eagle Wings Lead

The book covers many topics that are too large for a FaceBook post. This is one of them. It will only be possible to get you started. If it leads anywhere from there it will be through you.

And two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman [Israel] 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 12:14)

Due to poor knowledge of the Old Testament many people have tried to interpret the eagle wings according to their own understanding. The common result is believing this is a reference to America rescuing Israel by flying them away in planes, perhaps even the planes of American Airlines (winged eagle logo). This is not correct.

The Bible interprets itself. The reference to the wings of an eagle means the same thing that we see in Exodus 19:4: "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." Therefore the wings are an indication of God protecting them as he carries them to safety just as he did back when they left Egypt.

The phrase "time, times and half a time" is interesting. I know of three different time scales on which this phrase is applied, where a "half a time" is 1000 years, 1 year and half a year. In each case "times" always refers to 2 times. The phrase seems to be a statement about how God structured the universe - many things have this time structure, 1 unit, then 2 units that are different in some way, then a half unit that is also different.

In this case the unit is 0.5 years for a total of 3.5 years. We know that because two verses before we were told it would be 1260 days in total. This gives us a value for a "time" of 360 days, the length of a prophetic year.

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)

To understand the verse above, we first need to see how Zechariah described the same event.

A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. (Zechariah 14:1–5)

What Revelation describes symbolically, Zechariah states fairly plainly. God will act to fight for them so that they will be preserved. We expect when God fights, there will be lightning strikes and deadly blasts, but usually it isn't that way. Here he fights by standing on the Mount of Olives, which is east of the city of Jerusalem, and splitting it. The mountain splits into north and south halves with each moving away from the other to create a valley between. The people will flee through that valley.

Now we return to the verses from Revelation above. The serpent will send people, likely troops (water) after them to catch them, but something happens. The Earth opens its "mouth" and "swallows" the "water".

What exactly happens there? I hope you've noticed the strong parallels here to Israel's escape from the Egyptians by crossing the Sea of Reeds. In that case, the waters parted; in this case, the mountain is parted. Israel escapes between them with the Egyptians in close pursuit. Israel escapes to the wilderness. Now for the good part. In the case of Egypt, the waters returned and the Egyptian troops were destroyed. In this case, what happens? The most likely outcome appears to be that avalanches from the newly parted mountains roll into the valley and destroy the troops. The Earth swallows them.

I'll close with two more verses.

I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; like a flock in the midst of its pasture they will be noisy with men." (Micah 2:12)

Galilean men, why are you standing and gazing into the sky? This [Jesus], who was taken up from you into Heaven shall come in this way, as when you saw him going up into Heaven." (Acts 1:11)