In Rev. 12, the “man child” who is to “rule all nations with a rod of iron,” embraces both Christ and the Church; the interval from His ascension to that of hers not being looked upon as time, and both taken as one event, of which His was the first fruits. The portion of the Church is to reign with Him over the nations in His heavenly glory, when the earth will be brought into ordered subjection in the “administration of the fullness of times” —the millennial kingdom. “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” says the apostle (1 Cor. 6), when condemning “ brother going to law with brother.” “Ye have reigned as kings without us,” again he says, when he finds the Corinthians going on in the world’s way, “I would to God ye did reign” (in reality), he adds, “that we also might reign with you.” This is, then, the portion of the Church. But she has a sweeter portion still than that of judging the nations. She has the Bridegroom Himself as her heart’s portion—the “Bright and the Morning Star.”
When Christ asks for the heathen, according to the second Psalm He will have His Church safely in the glory, and she will be joint-heir with Him, the Bride of the Lamb.
I might cite many passages in the Old Testament which show that where Christ is spoken of, there the Church is included as seen in Him. She herself is never spoken of. She was hidden in God’s own counsels. Thus, when passages only true of Him are imported into the New Testament, we find them applied to the Church-as, for instance, this 2nd Psalm.
We may compare, with this thought in our minds, Isa. 49:6, where it applies to Christ only, with Acts 13:47, appropriated by Paul, in the New Testament for the Church. Also Isa. 1:8, 9, where Christ is before the mind of the Spirit, with Rom. 8:33,34, which is the portion of the saints. Compare also Isa. 49:8, with 2 Cor. 6:2. And Eph. 6:13-17, with Isa. 59:17, &c. This will help us in understanding these “unsearchable riches of Christ.”
How sweet then, that when we read of Him in the Old Testament, we find the Church’s portion, as united to Him, bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh, by the Spirit sent down at Pentecost.
Then, as soon as this taking up of the Church occurs, the woman flees into the wilderness, the godly Jews become the objects of Satan’s persecutions as well as of the Lord’s dealings. The latter part of the day of sorrow is here presented during the “Great Tribulation”—the twelve hundred and sixty days (v. 6). There God has prepared her a place, and there He finds her in that “hour.”
From verse 7 to 12 another vision is presented to account for the presence of Satan on earth, in this special season of his power, before his overthrow. He is presented to us, in the present interval, as in “Heavenly places”—not of course where God dwells, but in the created heavens. Consequently, if you and I have our spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, we have to wrestle with wicked spirits in heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). If we are only combating the flesh in ourselves, we are not occupied with proper Christian conflict at all. And again, if you find a soul struggling for deliverance, that is not conflict. He must learn that he cannot fight; he needs deliverance, not victory. When he surrenders, he is free, and then he finds he has “sin” in him to contend with; but there is power in Christ for victory, and he must use it and walk in the Spirit: The sense of his heavenly portion entails other conflict—true Christian conflict then, and Satan opposes his path.
But in this vision all that wrestling of the Church is past; Satan is cast down, and his place is no more found in heaven; this “war in heaven” clears the scene. Then rejoicing follows, and “woe to the inhabiters of earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Then the woman flees—the time of she has come. She flees into the wilderness where she is sustained of God for a time, times, and half a time. This goes back to take up the thought of the sixth verse again, having accounted for the presence of the adversary on earth.
(To be continued.)