REVELATION 12
We are brought “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel” in prophetic vision to the setting up of the kingdom. Then chapters 12 to 19 come in to supply details which are full of instruction for us, and which will be of vital importance to those who are in the circumstances to which they refer. They manifestly give us things which precede what is celebrated in chapter 11: 15 - 18.
Israel comes into view here as she is in the vision of heaven. God purposes that Israel shall have authority and glory, and that she shall be in administration here. He has never recalled that purpose; “the gifts and the calling of God are not subject to repentance”. But she can only have that place through the coming in of the Man Child; her glory all depends on Christ. “Of whom, as according to flesh, is the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen” (Romans 9: 4, 5). It is the Israel of divine purpose that we see here, and her great adversary, or rather the adversary of the Man Child whom she brings forth, and who persecutes her because of her relation to Him.
The “great red dragon” is “the ancient serpent, he who is called Devil and Satan, he who deceives the whole habitable world”. He is described here as “having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems”. I think we may see the significance of this description when we note how it corresponds with what is said of the beast in chapter 13. There will be a beast to which the dragon will give “his power, and his throne, and great authority”, so that “[p. 136] all that dwell on the earth shall do it homage, every one whose name had not been written from the founding of the world in the book of life of the slain Lamb”. So that the seven heads and ten horns on the dragon shew that it is Satan viewed as the one who aspires to bring the whole earth under his authority, and who will set forth in the first beast of chapter 13 all that blasphemous ambition in public administration here. There is this difference between the dragon and the beast, that diadems are on the heads of the dragon, but on the horns of the beast. The dragon has it in mind and purpose to usurp all authority on earth; it is an object of deliberation and plan with him to do so; the heads suggest this. But the actual carrying out of it in power — of which horns speak — so far as God may allow it to be carried out, will be in the beast.
So that we see Satan, as the dragon, standing before the woman “in order that when she brought forth he might devour her child”. Satan knows the Scriptures; he knows well that it is the purpose of God to give universal dominion to Christ. He knows that the Seed of the woman is to crush his head. He knows that all Israel’s glory, and everything that God has in view for the earth, hangs upon the introduction of the Child. And he is the great antagonist of God; he is set to oppose and countervail every divine thought. His whole device from Eden onwards has been to have man and the earth for himself. He would use Cain to kill Abel, he would use Pharaoh to oppress the sons of Israel, he would use a misguided and deceived people to persecute and kill the prophets of God, he would use Herod in the attempt to kill Jesus as soon as He was born, he [p. 137] would use chief priests and the Roman governor to put Him to death, he would use Saul of Tarsus and many another to persecute or kill His saints. He has been the same dragon all through, and will be to the end.
In this chapter and the next Satan is seen in three other characters of opposition to Christ. He is the accuser of the brethren, and in this he is opposed to Christ as Priest who intercedes for them. Then he brings in the first beast, who is the great usurper of the rights of Christ as King. And the second beast is the false prophet — the one who deceives with lies — the opponent of Christ as the Prophet. Everything that Christ has made known as the truth will be denied by the antichrist.
“And she brought forth a male son, who shall shepherd all the nations with an iron rod: and her child was caught up to God and to his throne”. It is the King of Psalm 2, of whom Jehovah says, “Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee”, who is brought forth, but instead of having the nations for an inheritance, and the ends of the earth for His possession, He is caught up to heaven. His life here and His death are not mentioned, because the point is to mark the fact that between His being born on earth and His having universal dominion there is an interval during which He is in heaven. We know that the interval has lasted nearly two thousand years, during which the assembly has been called, and that she, too, will be caught up to heaven because her place and blessings are there where He is. So that, as it has often been said, the rapture of the church is involved in the catching up of the Man Child. “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”.
[p. 138] His catching up to heaven involves hers, for she is His body and His bride. But all that is passed over here, because it is Israel His mother that is in view, and not the assembly His wife. What we learn from this scripture is that there will be an “Israel of God” then, and that she will have a place prepared of God, where she will be nourished during the last terrible half-week of the tribulation.
God has preserved a remnant of Israel all through in the assembly, and after the assembly has gone He will still have an elect Israel in a wilderness position. This time in the wilderness will be of immense value to them. They will begin their history afresh by learning divine care and nourishing in the wilderness. He will not bring them at once into the land, but into the wilderness where they will learn what He has brought them to in Himself before they enter on millennial blessing. “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart”, etc. (Hosea 2: 14 - 17) refers to this time. The remnant will find their safety in retiring from the ordered system of things in the world to an outside place. Everything will turn for faith on the place which Christ has, just as it does today. If Christ were in honour here His saints would be in honour too. But if He is rejected and in reproach the word for His saints is, “Therefore let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”. And in that day, when Satan has by the beast usurped dominion here, there can be nothing but the wilderness for the woman. But it will be a blessed place of divine nourishing; they will be learning Christ there. Just as He disciplined and educated His people in the wilderness when He brought them out of Egypt, and prepared [p. 139] them morally, in figure, for the land, so will He again in the coming day. Many scriptures in the prophets refer to this time. They will have wilderness experiences of God before they enter the land. And their hopes will be, as it were, caught up to heaven because their Messiah is there. They will come into the good of Peter’s addresses to “the whole house of Israel” in Acts 2 and 3, and will “know assuredly” that the crucified Jesus is made both Lord and Christ in heaven. They will know that “heaven indeed must receive” Him until “the times of the restoring of all things, of which God has spoken”. And they will look for Him to be sent so that times of refreshing may come.
At this point we get a momentous event. War in heaven, the issue of which is the casting of Satan and his angels out of heaven into the earth. In what is probably the most ancient part of Scripture we find Satan presented as having access to God (Job 1), and as bringing accusations against one who feared God. He has used his place in heaven to accuse the brethren before God day and night. In the wisdom of God this has been permitted, just as other evils have been permitted, but it will be finally terminated by Satan being cast out of heaven. No doubt the failures of the people of God often give occasion to the adversary to accuse them, and this is a serious consideration, but his character comes out in his accusations. Whether he has any just ground for accusing or not, he appears before God as the accuser, whereas Jesus Christ the righteous is the Advocate. The sin of a believer calls advocacy into activity with the Righteous One, but accusations with the evil one. The question has been asked, and it is a very pertinent one, “The accuser or the advocate — whose side do you take?”
The brethren overcome the accuser “by reason of the blood of the Lamb”. They find an answer to all his just accusations there. They will be justified in the power of that precious blood, which cleanses from every sin. It will become the complete answer in their consciences to every true charge which the accuser might allege against them. And this will set them free in conscience, and make them bold in heart, to come out in distinct testimony here. Satan would seek to intimidate them by accusations, the truth of which they might not be able to deny, but if the blood of the Lamb has removed every stain before God they can fearlessly go on with “the word of their testimony”. They do not yield to the adversary, or surrender their witness for God; they overcome the accuser. And, finally, they “have not loved their lives even unto death”. Satan’s thought of men is “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2: 4), but the brethren will show that they love God’s testimony more than their lives. Satan can do nothing with such people but kill them, if God permits him to do so; in any case, living or dying, they overcome him.
The casting of Satan out of heaven is the sign of his complete overthrow. So that a great voice in the heaven says, “Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ”. Heaven is cleared of “all rule and all authority and power” that is contrary to God. The clearance of the earth will follow after a brief but terrible season of the devil’s rage. All was anticipated by the Lord at the time when demons were being cast out through the power of His Name. “I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven” (Luke 10: 18).
[p. 141] It was future as to fact, but the power was present, and in action, that would completely dispossess Satan. The catching up of the Man Child to heaven is followed by the casting out of Satan, and then when the Firstborn is brought into the habitable world Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss.
The special object of the dragon’s enmity, when he is cast out of heaven, is the woman who bore the Man Child. But wings are given to her “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”. The remnant — the true Israel of God at the moment — will be preserved and nourished in a desert place; I think it indicates retirement to a distance from the whole order of things in which the serpent’s power will be active. Morally that is the place of the assembly today; she is preserved and nourished as she keeps herself apart from the world.
Then the serpent casts water out of his mouth as a river after the woman; I take that to mean that he influences a large body of people to move together in a manner that is adverse to her. But “the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed the river”. There will be a providential intervention which will render abortive the design of the dragon. It is often so in the ways of God when movements are taking place which are likely to have a serious effect on His people. He gives an unexpected turn to things which alters the whole situation.
“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”. The woman has been seen as bringing forth the Man Child who was caught up to God. Now we find she will have other seed who will be the object of the dragon’s enmity on earth. Israel will bring forth through travail of soul a seed for God. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her sons” (Isaiah 66: 8). It will be a spiritual seed characterized by obedience; the law will be written in their hearts, and they will be quickened (Psalm 119) so as to respond to it; and they will have the testimony of Jesus. It is striking how “the testimony of Jesus” comes in here, and “the faith of Jesus” in chapter 14: 12. Then in chapter 19: 10, “For the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus”. It is as though God would make specially prominent, in contrast to the blasphemous pride that prevails at the time, all the lowly grace of the One who came here to do His will. Faith will have Jesus as its Object and as its Testimony. The One who is to have the kingdom and dominion is Jesus. “Behold, thy King cometh to thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9: 9). The One who went down in obedience to the very lowest point has a Name above every name, and at His Name every knee of heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings will have to bow. He has a Name above every name now in heaven, and in the hearts of His saints, and He will have it in the hearts and testimony of the remnant of the woman’s seed, and then finally He will have it universally. The men of Thessalonica rightly judged that if “another king, Jesus” came in it would mean the overturning of the whole present order of the world. All rights and honours belong to Jesus, and [p. 143] He will assuredly have them. We testify to it now, and the remnant of the woman’s seed will testify to it in that coming day.