PRESERVATION OF THE WOMAN AND HER SEED
[p. 425] PRESERVATION OF THE WOMAN AND HER SEED
Revelation 12:1-6; Revelation 12:13-17
This chapter is an extension of certain thoughts which engaged us today about a woman. The allusion was made to Genesis 1 in which it is said that God gave dominion to man, male and female being included. “Let them have dominion”(Genesis 1:26). This is a thought like many others in Genesis, a seed planted in a rich garden which should bear fruit. It is still bearing fruit. As has often been pointed out, the book of Revelation affords the fruits. Genesis, the roots; Revelation, the fruits. What comes in between affords rich communications, oral and written, the Holy Spirit having taken the matter on and given it completeness; I mean the whole matter of the roots and the fruits in the great field of God.
First, I spoke of the garden, but the scriptures widen out into the idea of a field. Isaac in blessing Jacob, regarded him as a field, “as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed” (Genesis 27:27). For my point, Jacob represents the nation, or, you might say, the race, taken on in culture peculiarly, and the yield, we know about it, the Israel of God of which we now form a part as believers. But the root I am speaking of is in the passage in Genesis 1, and includes not only Adam; Adam was the generic thought, but includes the male and the female of the human race. The antediluvian conditions served but little to bring out the divine intent in the woman. It ends with the distressing allusion to the daughters of men, how they became exposed, and Satan found an inlet to work out corruption which God dealt with — I mean the deluge — but He has not given up His ideals. He gives up none of them. An ideal is worth [p. 426] nothing save as it can be developed into eternity, eternal relations, and these ideals are found in God and God only.
So the next section in the Bible opens up the glorification of woman. It is in the line of Shem, a certain family in which God would develop His ideal. This particular one is full-blown in the chapter I have read from. In no chapter do we find such a presentation of woman, symbolical of course, but still the symbols represent reality. Indeed, it is a sign. The word ‘wonder’ is not there. God teaches by signs, especially through John’s writings, not by wonders. Paul put signs and wonders together. They are both to be used, but not in this chapter. It is a sign, several signs. And what I hope to do is to work out simple practical thoughts about this sign in Revelation 12, how it may enter into current history among the people of God.
God is doing His best, so to speak, to give woman her place. The devil is doing his best to take her out of her place. And God would say to our sisters and to all of us, that the sisters have a great place in this chapter. We have to stop and think of it; why God wrote certain chapters, why He gave such a place to the second greatest creature. He surely has great thoughts, basic ones, in the end of the book to have recourse to such a sign as this. A sign simply means something that signifies another thing and this chapter is calculated to save the sisters, young ones. It is God’s way, too, to make it worth your while. For He would say, ‘I have had them all along, great thoughts. I began with them. I have great thoughts about this creature that I am saying so much about now’. She is seen in heaven.
Of course, it is a heaven of mixture, but still it is an operational heaven. It is a heaven of mixture because the dragon is there too. That is another sign in heaven. God, as it were, clears the operational [p. 427] scene, and the scene here is heaven, not the heaven of heavens, of course, or the third, even. The allusion evidently is to the first one and the first one is the latest one, where it is called the expanse. It is in addition to the primary created thought. It is called the expanse. He called the expanse Heaven. The word ‘expanse’ conveys the idea of it, but God graciously or considerately calls it heaven. But it is an addition to what was there. It affords God a wider operational area. The expanse that was called heaven extends right down to the very earth itself, because it includes the atmosphere. The birds are said to be there. The sun, moon and stars are said to be there, and God has great opportunity in it and He seizes this occasion to bring out His idea in woman and He presents her in heaven. As in scripture generally, it is to enlarge on the scripture given in brief. “Great the host of the publishers”, we are told (Psalm 68:11). The Lord gives the word and it is, you might say, woman’s day, a day afforded her. Each prince had his day, we are told in Numbers. This is woman’s day, so we have this remarkable sign and every Christian, every saint, every sister ought to feel, ‘Well, this is something surely that God is saying’.
It was a woman. She was clothed with the sun. Who can conceive of such an immense thought as this save God? It is His own thought allowing His servant John to see. It is an apocalypse, you know. That is the meaning of the word and this is one of the chapters in it; but it is a very remarkable one and God is saying to us that He is going to tell us, open up things to us, as indeed He has the means of doing in the one who is serving, and He has the ears ready to hear. God can do great things in this way, and so to be simple, this is a maternal scene, but the woman is clothed with the sun. She has no such clothing in Genesis 1, nor even in Genesis 2. The real creature is seen in Genesis 2. God made her [p. 428] out of a rib that He took out of man, most important and interesting bit of the creation, Adam and Eve being the subjects, and He brought her to the man and what would man’s reaction be? Well, it is a question, dear brethren, of what our reaction would be to this scene. “A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars”, as the passage reads. And then she is about to bring forth a child. It is said she brought forth a man child. Really, it “a male son”. She is functioning in the highest degree and our minds are directed immediately to the male son. It is just to stress the male idea, that she is subservient to that. Her very existence is subservient to that, the seed of a woman. God spoke to the devil about her and about her seed, and now the devil is here understanding something, that the thousands of years had elapsed, are maturing, and the seed is coming into evidence, a male son; and the devil, the dragon, we are told, stood before the woman and was ready to devour the child as soon as it was born. He is a destroyer.
Well now, to be simple and brief, dear brethren, it is a woman’s opportunity, woman’s world, so to speak, and God is going to take advantage of what is in His mind. This book is the end of things. He expects us to be attentive. So that she is functioning. It is a maternal idea, as we note the ministry that we have directing us to this particular point. God is not allowing the enemy to have the triumph from the woman’s side of the position. All the epistles bear on this and what we had today bears on it. That is the balance in government. It is a governmental time, which is only a provisional time, because what is provisional leads on to what is final, eternal, and the part that the sisters have at this moment is especially to be stressed. God is saying to us, or to them, that He has very great thoughts,
[p. 429] greater than they have any conception of as to them, and the devil, too, has his thoughts. He would seek to be as great as God in what He is doing. He is the arch-enemy of God. He is the adversary and his first great triumph was over a woman. Is his last to be? Well, it is for us to challenge our own hearts, those who are mothers here and wives, as to whether the enemy is going to get the advantage. God is stressing before us the greatness of the feminine side.
So, as I said, the antediluvian world afforded little. It was a disaster. Even Noah’s wife and daughters-in-law were not much. But God began with Shem and provided the sisterhood, glorifying the sisterhood, having in mind the blessing of Jacob, “The smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed”. The twelve are here, the twelve stars, a crown of twelve stars. Where is the mother here who does not regard her family as a crown? And an administrative thought is in it. So that the work began, in that sense, in Jacob, and so the twelve tribes come down to us and are seen, as we had today in chapter 14 of this book. What a product we see! We have noted it twice today already, a hundred and forty-four thousand, a great administrative thought on mount Zion, with the Lamb on mount Zion. It is the great thought of God. He is going on with it and the Lamb is there going on with it and the singing goes on. And this one great family on earth is able to learn that song.
But now I am coming back, as I said, to the woman here in this verse. What thoughts! “Clothed with the sun”, the supreme thought. You would say, ‘Where is her husband?’ The husband is prominent by His absence. It is God. God is the great Husband in the Old Testament. And so it is come out in Christ now. But here it is God. And she is clothed with the sun. What adornment in any family! The psalm says, “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine in [p. 430] the inner part of thy house; thy children like olive-plants round about thy table”, Psalm 128:3. How God would stress in the Book of Psalms this great idea of the family and the preservation of the family! You see the preservation comes into evidence at once. The dragon is present here. We are told what power he has got, and I am now urging that we should be most practical as to how the children are to be looked after. It is a great problem amongst men, how the children are going to be protected; the potential brethren are to be protected. The dragon is ready. We are told what power he has got. He is taking the third part. And he is ready before the woman, ready to devour her child as soon as it is born. ‘Let the children be destroyed at once’, not of course physically, but morally. ‘Let them be damaged at once’. What would become of the meetings, the care meetings and all meetings, if these potential brothers and sisters are to be damaged immediately? So we are told by Luke that the fathers and the mothers in the Lord’s time brought infants to Jesus — infants, as if the infants needed protecting by Jesus. You say, ‘Cannot a mother do that?’ No, the mothers know they cannot. The Lord can, and so the dragon’s power is being pointed out. He drew the third part of the stars. No doubt the third part is Europe, physically. In the ancient world, continents were fewer than they are now, but Europe was one of them and it must be the great sphere of Satan’s opposition to the revelation of God in Christ, and that opposition takes form in an attack upon the children. It is on now in full force.
The male child must be distinguished. It is not male children. It is a male son. That is, the pre-eminence is in Christ. He must have the pre-eminence. He must come in in His pre-eminence, the Lord Jesus. Hence, Luke is used by the Spirit of God to attract us. The older one becomes, the more one [p. 431] values children. The more lovely they are, the more they afford in the way of assurance as to the testimony as it exists. The testimony will go on as the children are present, but the dragon would draw the third part of the stars by his tail. It is an after-effect, I believe. The great Roman system is an after-effect for the destruction of the race. It is an after-effect. It is the tail, and heaven intervenes, although it is not so much in view specifically, but it is said, “She brought forth a male son, who shall shepherd all the nations with an iron rod” (verse 5). This is the Lord Jesus. I am endeavouring to bring this out for a practical working in the families of the brethren; to stress the continuance of what we are now enjoying under the hand of God. But Christ must come in first. Our souls must be always full of Him; that is, we will see however many children we may have, boys or girls, that to start with the right apprehension of their value is to have an apprehension of Christ in the male son. And so it is said, “Her child was caught up to God”. That is the outcome. As the child is born, it is enfolded in prayer. “Caught up to God and to his throne”. Not some low place inside, but the throne. The conception of Christ from this point of view is immense. It is infinite. He shall rule all nations, so that the matter is settled from the abstract standpoint. The idea of rule, government, is issuing forth according to the first of Genesis in this male son. As I said before, there is a tendency to use the words in that way, but it is to stress the male idea, this great personage. Every sister is subservient in her measure to the divine idea. The child is caught up to God and to His throne. We do not exactly ask for that for our children, like the wife of Zebedee. The Lord is saying, ‘That is My Father’s blessing’. He is adjusting the idea of government. It must begin in a house. And it is a supreme matter, not simply a secondary matter. It is the Father’s matter. The position at the right hand of Christ is the Father’s matter. “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. They are to be there. So the matter is settled.
Now as to the protection of the male son. He is taken far away beyond the range of the dragon, as his range is the whole of Europe, as I said. The stars, the great names of Europeans go back for thousands of years under his control, drawing them with his tail, using his tail, using that system, that ancient system in that section of the world to damage the race morally, yet to deify woman. Think of it, to deify woman! The woman is not deified. The system I am speaking of deifies the woman. It is the devil. It casts a dark shade on the whole realm of revelation to pretend to assume such a thing. “Blessed is the womb that has borne thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked”, Luke 11:27. The Lord says, “Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it” (verse 28). That is the word for the house today, for the sisters, the word of God in the house, in the family, Bible readings and the instructions that go with it. Not a hurried word before catching a train, but instructions, however few or little. The word is, Let the idea of an instruction be there, as we had today, the Maschilim idea; the children are taught from their very initial existence in the measure that they may receive any kind of an impression. Let it be given and given fully.
Here the idea of the male son is seen, but it is carried up into heaven. Notice that. Her child was caught up to God and to His throne. The child is handed over as some, whom one could speak of, such as Moses and Joash, John the baptist and thousands of others. “Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven”. Their little minds will be charged with the divine thoughts insofar as the mother can do it, and so her child is [p. 433] caught up to God. God will answer our prayers. Will not something happen, some protecting hand, for the saving of that child for the divine purposes? Nothing else. It is not for me to say anything today about governmental purposes, the authorities, but I mean the divine purposes. Every child gets his spirit from God and God has His purpose in it and hence there is divine protection.
And so we are told the child is caught up unto God and to His throne. How wonderfully beyond the range of harm he is! When the devil would have destroyed the Lord Jesus literally according to Matthew, God provides His supposed father to protect the little Child and His mother, the little Child first. Mary was subservient to Him. Joseph was subservient to Him, and He is not touched: “Arise, and take to thee the little child and his mother, and flee into Egypt”(Matthew 2:13). He is taken into Egypt, of course.
Now we are told the woman fled into the wilderness. That is a wholesome thing, to flee into the wilderness, not to the picture show or tea parties, but to the wilderness, and she did it. Notice it is “where she has there a place prepared of God, that they should nourish her there”. I am speaking simply. I am speaking to young mothers, young wives, and elder mothers and grandmothers, that they should function in this matter and not let the dragon have scope. You would say, ‘I have no power to deal with the dragon’, but still there is a place prepared for the mothers and the grandmothers. They are to be nourished for the great office they are to fulfil in the family. They are to be nourished. And the place is prepared of God. She is to be nourished there, and we are told how many days, “a thousand two hundred and sixty days”. You say, ‘That is a long time’, but it is needed for these mothers. One day after another. Time hangs heavy on mothers’ hands sometimes, but the children run about as they will.
The mother’s hands are intended to protect them. And the mothers are therefore nourished and they have a place prepared for them. Let the sisters take this in: a place prepared for a certain time by God, or by someone, but here it is a place prepared by God where she is to be nourished a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Well, the war is on, dear brethren. You say it is on, sure enough. We are waiting for the end of it, but the war here is another one. What happens in heaven is greater than whatever happened on earth and the next verses tell us about this war. It is a war between Michael and the dragon, the devil. I dwell on that, that it is to be fought to a finish, at least the first great phase is fought to a finish and the dragon is cast out with his angels into the earth. God uses several phases and this phase is still to come, but the final one comes afterwards and the devil is cast out.
Now in verse 13 it says, “And when the dragon saw that he had been cast out into the earth, he persecuted the woman which bore the male child”. He did not persecute her first. His aim was the child. Now it is children, because the end of the chapter tells about her seed. She is going to have more children. He can do nothing against Christ. The child is taken up to God and to His throne, but the woman remains on earth and she has a place prepared. Take notice of this, how God takes care of the mothers. They are to be nourished. They are not to read novels or have backdoor talks where the news of the day is bandied. The nourishment of God is intended to build up a constitution of mothers and grandmothers to look after the children.
So that now that the man child is taken away. “When the dragon”, it says, “saw that he was cast out into the earth, he persecuted the woman which bore the male child”. That is, his ire was against [p. 435] her, and mothers have to face this. They need our prayers because of the great function they are to perform for God and the great result, the assembly, the continuity of the testimony of God. The devil is persecuting her now. He had not done it before. It is a question of the man child. Now it is the mother of the male child. He is persecuting her and notice that it says in verse 14, “And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle”. She has got wings herself now. Where did she get these? It is a question of development of the means of flight that God would use to carry us; He teaches the mothers how to flee. He bore us on eagles’ wings. And wings are given. So that they would go where? In the desert, not any attractive places, not that which affords food for the natural mind, natural heart. It is a desert; but still, food is in it. The allusion of course would be to Israel in the wilderness. It was a desert, but food was there, the manna. So when the persecution begins not only against Christ, the male son, but the mother, the mothers need to take care to be properly nourished and not to rely on the natural things that are furnished, but upon divine things for nourishment, not for so many days, but for so many times. It is shorter in the sense of experience.
It is said, “She is nourished there a time, and times, and half a time”. That is to say, she is to calculate not by days, but by times, and it is a question of experience. We have had it already today. I am seeking to enlarge on what we have as to experience now, how this period is to be worked out by experience, by reckoning in a spiritual way as to what the word time means. We read of the times that passed over David. What times are passing over us! Extraordinary times. Not so many days, but times. It is the working out of something and God is saying to mothers here, to sisters, that He knows how great [p. 436] is the pressure. It is the times. It may be times of waiting. It may be shortage of food, shortage of clothing, as it is in many parts of the earth. What sisters must be enduring in these times, peculiar times, but God is saying, ‘I have a place for you’, for the woman. The woman was in a wilderness. This is a spiritual matter, sisters giving up all natural things and going into the wilderness and proving what God can be to them in looking after their children. “And there were given to the woman two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the desert, into her place, where she is nourished there a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth behind the woman water as a river, that he might make her be as one carried away by a river”.
If you will pardon me for the use of interpretation, let us not be playing with the earth. We are not to dwell on the earth. The man child has gone up there. The wilderness is the position to occupy, pending translation, the place where the mind is not fed with the things of this life. But notice that the position is changed. We shall never get any help from it if we are earthly, feed on earthly things. When we come to the earth helping, that is the physical thought. It is a creative thought, for after all, the earth is God’s. “The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fulness thereof”, Psalm 24:1. It helps us to give thanks every morning. At least, we should for what the earth yields, for our cereals, and our eggs and our butter and our bread, the fulness of the earth. The earth helps the woman. It is most remarkable. It opened its mouth. Playing with the earth is a moral idea, sensual, devilish. It will destroy us, but the earth will help us if we regard it as a divine creature of God.
Everything is working in our favour: “For all things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:21) and so they are. The [p. 437] earth is ours in this sense and has a mouth to swallow up the efforts of the devil. So that we can live on it, stand up on it, give thanks to God that it is to enable us to feed our children, to take them where they should go, to get food, to get instruction, to get influence. The earth helps the woman, but she has got seed, as I said before, and in the last verse the dragon was wroth with the woman. “And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus”. They have graduated. It is a graduation day for the children. “Her seed”. They are able to tell her about the commandments of God on the graduation day. They developed in the glory because it says, “Who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus”.
I have endeavoured to be simple and practical, and to enforce the truth in the family, especially the little ones, and the importance of the mothers, their obligations to see to it that the children go through, the food and protection and influence go through. They need to go through. May God bless His word.