Revelation 12

From: The Revelation of Jesus Christ By: Charles Stanley

Revelation 12 • 5 min. read • grade level: 7

Revelation 12 should begin with the last verse of Revelation 11. The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in it the ark of His testament. This shows that we are now occupied with the revelation of God as to Israel. His counsels as to them shall stand. I must remind my reader again, that all this becomes simple, and easy to be understood, just in proportion as we are acquainted with the Scriptures. Who is this woman clothed with these emblems of supremacy? If we turn to Micah 4:8, there can be no doubt who she is. “And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Do you think God can break this promise? Read the first eight verses carefully. To a person ignorant of Scripture, Revelation 12 must present serious difficulties. In Revelation 2 there is the pain and travailing in birth of Israel; and an objecter might say, there was no commotion, or travail, of the Jews at the birth of Christ, the man-child. Jerusalem was asleep, and a few peaceful shepherds only were awake. Quite true. If we turn again to the prophets, you will see that the revelation rightly presumes that we should know that this must be so; and that the travail of Israel is not at the birth of Christ at all. Turn to Micah 4 again. The travail of Israel is described in Micah 4:10¹⁰Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. (Micah 4:10), when she has gone out of the city, even to Babylon. “There shalt thou be delivered.” Does not the Lord also speak of this sore travail in Matthew 24:15-22¹⁵When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) ¹⁶Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: ¹⁷Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: ¹⁸Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. ¹⁹And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! ²⁰But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: ²¹For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²²And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:15‑22)? Now let us read carefully Micah 5:2-3²But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. ³Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. (Micah 5:2‑3). In verse 2, the man child is born: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Thus we have the place of His birth, Bethlehem, not Babylon; and though He is to be ruler in Israel, yet is He caught up to God: “shall He come forth unto Me” (Mic. 5:2²But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)). And though He thus went to God, yet was He equal to God: “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2²But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)). But what of Zion and the time of her travail? In Micah 5:3³Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. (Micah 5:3) the prophet says they shall be given up “UNTIL THE TIME that she which travaileth hath brought forth; THEN the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.” Is not this very striking? Jesus, the future Judge of Israel, was smitten on the cheek: He was rejected: He did go unto God. Israel has been given up, and will be until the time of travail, the great tribulation. Some may have thought, in reading Revelation 12 that the time of travail was at the birth of the man child; but Scripture is very clear as to this. Turn to Isaiah 66:7⁷Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. (Isaiah 66:7): “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.” Then, it may be asked, what is brought forth at the time of travail? See the very next verse. Isaiah 66:8⁸Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. (Isaiah 66:8); “as soon as she travailed, she brought forth her children.” Ah, we may have confused thoughts; but how clear is Scripture! With these scriptures before us, we now turn to Revelation 12. Israel, who is to have the first dominion, is in travail and pain: and now mark, the very symbol used in Revelation 13 to describe the power of the Roman empire, is used here to describe the power of Satan, the great dragon: “having seven heads and ten horns” (Rev. 13:1¹And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. (Revelation 13:1)). This is an awful fact, that the source of the power of the Roman empire is Satan. Christians who meddle with this world’s politics would do well to ponder this. Can Satan be reformed? Then can his kingdom be improved? But here all this is connected with the Jews. When the man child was born, we see Satan was the mover of Herod, the representative of the Roman power, in seeking to destroy the infant Lord: and again at the cross. But He is to rule all nations, and He was raised up from the dead and caught up to God. If you look carefully at verses Revelation 12:5-6⁵And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. ⁶And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (Revelation 12:5‑6), you place, as it were, one point of the compass at the time of Satan’s hatred of Christ on earth to His ascension, and the other point reaches to the time of Israel’s tribulation. Thus the whole of the period of the Church is entirely omitted between these two verses — as is the case in the well-known passage of Isaiah 61:2²To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; (Isaiah 61:2).

And now the time of sorrow is marked, twelve hundred and sixty days; but, as always, these dates refer to the Jews — the time of tribulation so fully described in Matthew 24. At that time will take place what is called the war in heaven; and then Satan is cast out of heaven to the earth. This gives great joy to the heavens, and terrible woe to the inhabiters of the earth. Satan will then direct his special wrath against the Jews, but they flee into the wilderness, and are nourished there during the three years and a half.

Thus has our God been pleased to reveal to us the hatred of Satan against His Son as Messiah, and against His chosen earthly people. All this we have seen in heaven, as indeed we shall be there when these things take place. We now get the development of Satan’s power amongst men on earth.

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