How many of us love to look up in the night sky, to enjoy the stars and try to understand the moon and its phases? But with the lights from the cities, we are drowning out the night sky, and it becomes harder to appreciate the heavens. We now have to drive hours out of our way just to enjoy the night sky. God used these heavenly luminaries to tell time and he had it prophesied about particular events that would occur in mankind’s history.
When you look to the night sky, do you know what God is trying to tell us today? What is the purpose for this sign found in Revelation chapter 12?
Revelation 12:1-2… And a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon was beneath her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars, 2 and she was pregnant. And she cries out in her pains and in her agony to give birth.
What is meant by the use of the word travail? Who does this woman represent? What or who is she giving birth to?
For a woman to be in travail means she is engaged in a painful and laborious work like childbirth.
Next we notice that she is pregnant, and she is in travail to give birth. But why do we think she is in travail?
Is it not because of the Dragon? We know it was trying to get at the newborn and the woman also knows it, but she cannot stop it. So, is that all or is there more to this heavenly sign?
First this is an event and sign that is found in heaven, this celestial sign of the woman happens every year at Tishri 1, this is the time for the beginning of the new secular year for God’s people, the Jewish secular new year.
On 2017 September 23 there was an alignment in the night sky with all the stars, that could have fulfilled Bible prophecy. What is the purpose of this particular sign? How rare is this event?
This particular astronomical event happens every year between the middle of September to October. But from year-to-year part of the sign is lacking some of the stars, but not on the year 2017. I believe that the purpose of this sign of the woman giving birth calls attention to God’s kingdom coming at the beginning of the Jewish secular new year.
The other components of the signs do not exist from our perspective with our knowledge of today’s astronomy. That’s not saying that in the future we will not find something, because I do not want to take away the meaning of this verse found in the Bible. Nor do I want to say that these other verses don’t matter with this particular sign that we discovered in the sky in 2017.
Battle with the Dragon
Next we have another sign that appears in heaven, it is that of a Dragon. What could this mean and what is God trying to tell us?
Revelation 12:3-6… And another sign was seen in heaven, and look! a great fiery-colored dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and upon its heads seven diadems; 4 and its tail drags a third of the stars of heaven, and it hurled them down to the earth. And the dragon kept standing before the woman who was about to give birth, that, when she did give birth, it might devour her child. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was caught away to God and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
The purpose of the sign is this, that it describes the events that are happening or did happen in the spirit realm, God wants us to know so we can see the cause and effects in our space and in our time. It is described for us as a rebellion found in heaven against God and his kingdom.
Who is the Dragon? Who or what is the male child? Who is feeding the woman?
The first time this celestial event was observed by those on the earth was around the time of Jesus Christ birth. After the time of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ he was taken before the throne of God. The son of God was produced through the Jewish nation so, could this be the woman? we will cover this subject under the subheading Who is this Persecuted Woman
The wilderness appears to represent a place of solidarity, but we will cover this subject under the subheading Where is the Wilderness.
Revelation 12:6 says that God prepared a place for her and that they should feed her. Is the food that God feeds his people with physical or spiritual? So, is the woman being fed physically or spiritually? If the woman was spiritual there would be no need to feed, her physically. But if the woman represents something physical then we can ascertain that possibly she could be fed both physical and spiritual. At this point we cannot say for certainty who is feeding the woman. But it would make sense that God’s Angels would be involved in the feeding.
Picking back up on our reading of Revelation:
Revelation 12:7-9… And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled 8 but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. 9 So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.
Can we point to the time that war broke out in heaven? Who is Michael? Who is the original serpent?
Michael is one of the archangels that take care of God’s people, his name means he who is like God.
The original serpent also has a name, and he is the very one who seduced Eve in the beginning. Enoch identifies him as Gadreel at Enoch 69:6.
If we were to point to a time that war broke out in heaven, we could guess it started somewhere around 64 CE to about 70 CE and ended as the last apostle dies. We can only point out as to the proof of this as found in the next two verses of scripture.
Revelation 12:10-12… And I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! 11 And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. 12 On this account be glad, YOU heavens and YOU who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to YOU, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.”
Who was the last apostle that died? It was the apostle John, and he died sometime in 99 CE, so it is possible that the war in heaven broke out sometime between 64 CE at the burning of Rome or the burning of Jerusalem 70 CE. But when does the war in heaven end? When was the devil cast from heaven?
What action does the devil take next after being cast from heaven? When will the earth experience this last woe from Satan the Devil? We will cover these questions in the writing The Third Woe.
Remember in the reading of Revelation 11:15 we were told that the blowing of the seventh trumpet announces the kingdom of God, and that Christ has begun ruling.
When is the Devil and Satan put into the abyss, how long of a time span do we have before the Devil is thrown in? We will answer these questions in the writing entitled The Abyssing of Satan.
Revelation 12:13-17… Now when the dragon saw that it was hurled down to the earth, it persecuted the woman that gave birth to the male child. 14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place; there is where she is fed for a time and times and half a time away from the face of the serpent. 15 And the serpent disgorged water like a river from its mouth after the woman, to cause her to be drowned by the river. 16 But the earth came to the woman’s help, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon disgorged from its mouth. 17 And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed (G4690), who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.
How was the woman persecuted? Next what does the river represent and how could the woman be drown by it? Who was the male child that was born and caught away to heaven? Who are the children of the woman, the seed that bears witness to Jesus Christ?
This male child would be none other than Jesus Christ who died and proceeded to go to heaven and he sits at the right hand of God, but could there be more to this?
We asked this question because the Scriptures say that the dragon goes after the remaining ones of the seed, who is the seed? We will answer this question in the writing The Seed of the Woman.
This woman would not be a physical person because it says that the wings of an eagle were given her. Also, we need to analyze why the Dragon was trying to drown the woman with water. Where is the wilderness that the woman flees to and how long is 1260 days?
It’s Just Math
Revelation chapter 11 through 13 uses these following mathematical expressions: 42 months, 3 ½ times, and 1260 days. All three of these expressions can be used to extrapolate additional information, it helps point us to the correlation to the times as years, months, and days. If we take the 42 months × 3.5 years = 1260 days and if we take the 1260 days and divided it by 3.5 years, we get 360 Days. If we take the 360 days and divided by 12 months, we will come up with 30 days equals a month and so we start to recognize this to be prophetic day, month, and years. Will need this information later on in chapter 13 of Revelation.
Who is this Persecuted Woman
Revelation 12:13 says that the woman was persecuted but how?
There are many clues to let us know who this woman is. So, let us review some of those now.
The first clue is that the woman gave birth to the male child who would shepherd all the nations, we know this because many scriptures point to the shepherding of all nations being that of Christ, the son of the true God who was brought into the world and made manifest by God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was born from a physical woman but more importantly into the nation of Israel who God referred to as his woman many times in the Scriptures. Isaiah 51:1-3, Isaiah 54:1-3 and Isaiah 66:7-8
The next clue comes when it is said “that the wings of an eagle were given her.”
Ever since 64 CE to 70 CE the Jewish people had fled their homeland. They have faced persecution all over the world from prejudice people to the prejudice of governments. The Holy Roman Empire being the biggest perpetrator of anti-Semitism as it pushed the Jewish people eastwards into Ukraine and Russia. There is no need to rehash the history of the Jewish people because anti-Semitism still exist today.
If we started counting the days beginning at 70 CE and then add 1260 years, we would end up at the year 1330 CE. So, by the end of 70 CE the Jewish nation was scattered to a wilderness. Would we be correct in calculating from 70 CE + 1260 years to look at the year 1330 as some particular spiritual event?
We know what happened in May 1948, it was part of history. It was the re-establishment of the state of Israel back to its home land. Can we count back to 1260 years were would we be in time? May 1948- 1260 years = 688 CE but what happened then? I not sure if anything happened.
Where is the Wilderness?
God has referred to his people is being in the wilderness when they came out of Egypt under Moses. Exodus chapter 16
A wilderness is a desolate place, a place of solitary, a place where God can speak to the heart of the woman.
Hosea 2:1-3… “SAY to YOUR brothers, ‘My people!’ and to YOUR sisters, ‘O woman shown mercy!’ Carry on a legal case with YOUR mother; carry on a legal case, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. And she should put away her fornication from before herself and her acts of adultery from between her breasts, that I may not strip her naked and actually place her as in the day of her being born, and actually set her like a wilderness and place her like a waterless land and put her to death with thirst.
Hosea 2:14-16… Therefore, here I am prevailing upon her, and I will cause her to go into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart. And I will give her the vineyards from then onward, and the low plain of Achor as an entrance to hope; and she will certainly answer there as in the days of her youth and as in the day of her coming up out of the land of Egypt. And it must occur in that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘that you will call [me] My husband, and you will no longer call me My owner.’
After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE many Jews were spread out too many nations. Could we refer to this as the woman fleeing to the wilderness? Because no more were they settled on their homeland. Because of history and the perspective of time from where we sit, we can look back and now know that the Jewish people have returned to their homeland May 14, 1948. So, what happened? Did God’s calendar get put on hold and then restarted? Will this date be a pivotal moment in time?
The Drowning of the Woman
Next what does the river represent and how could the woman be drown or swept away by it? Also, we need to analyze why is the Dragon trying to drown the woman with water. How does the earth help?
Because the water comes from the mouth of the Dragon could we conclude this would be some type of ideology, or spiritual information? There’s power in persuasion, it can carry you along and down the path of least resistance, much like water sweeping you down and away from where you were. We also know that any type of overwhelming of information could be referred to as a drowning. If this were true how did the earth come to the help of the woman?
Revelation 12:15-16 says that the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the water. There is a very interesting thing about ideologies or information, that you can direct it, but where it goes, who receives it, or how it affects someone cannot be controlled.
It becomes obvious that the Dragon does not want the woman in his way. What could the woman do to interfere with the plans of the Dragon? It also becomes evident through the Scriptures that the woman has produced more than one seed.
Revelation 12:17… And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.
Who observe the commandments of God? The 10 Commandments were given to the Jewish nation, and no other nation was told to observe any of the commandments of God. But the nation of Israel the Jewish people did not accept Jesus Christ. But the Scriptures plainly say that the seed would be bearing witness to Jesus and observing the commandments of God. So, who is the seed of the woman?
Follow the hyperlink to: The Seed of the Woman
Summary
What we should have gleaned is this, that the sign in heaven tells a story and gives a timeline of events that God wants us to know about.
The woman should represent the nation of Israel as a whole.
The Dragon represents the rebellion against God’s kingdom.
The birth of the child and the being caught away to heaven has been accomplished by means of Jesus Christ and he sits at the right hand of God in the kingdom.
Tishri 1 has been a pivotal point in time for God’s kingdom.
We been able to identify that the 1260 days is a prophetic time and fits in with God’s timeline of events.
The wilderness was a place of desolation where God can speak to the heart of the woman.
The Dragon will go after those who conform to the commandments of God and bear witness to Jesus Christ.
As of today, most of this prophecy of Revelation chapter 12 has been fulfilled. With the birth of the kingdom. The war in heaven, and the woman escaping to the wilderness. What is left is the Dragon waging war on the remaining ones of the seed. How will this play out? Let’s continue on with our review by picking up at Revelation chapter 13.
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