The Revelation
We have been at war since the beginning. It began in the Garden of Eden. The serpent (evil) presented what looked like God’s best…”to be God” to Eve. She fell for it and convinced her mate, Adam to fall with the “fallen”, too. He did. It seemed as though the true enemy, the serpent Satan won. But God stepped in. Adam and Eve were banned from His “heaven” of the perfect garden with this prophetic pronouncement…
“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.” (Genesis 3:15)
Since this time the battle continues between man and evil. Then Jesus is sent to earth to set thing right with God. New born believers are in danger of being eaten up, however…In this passage, the revealed conqueror, Jesus Christ defeats evil and scoops up the new born believers of the church of God, our Father.
Read the next passage with the perspective that “the woman” is the church. Make a movie in your head with this lively description of how the Devil and his offspring attempt to prevent the increase of the church.
Revelation 12, The Message
The Woman, Her Son, and the Dragon
12 1-2 A great Sign appeared in Heaven: a Woman dressed all in sunlight, standing on the moon, and crowned with Twelve Stars. She was giving birth to a Child and cried out in the pain of childbirth.
3-4 And then another Sign alongside the first: a huge and fiery Dragon! It had seven heads and ten horns, a crown on each of the seven heads. With one flick of its tail it knocked a third of the Stars from the sky and dumped them on earth. The Dragon crouched before the Woman in childbirth, poised to eat up the Child when it came.
5-6 The Woman gave birth to a Son who will shepherd all nations with an iron rod. Her Son was seized and placed safely before God on his Throne. The Woman herself escaped to the desert to a place of safety prepared by God, all comforts provided her for 1,260 days.
7-12 War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his Angels fought the Dragon. The Dragon and his Angels fought back, but were no match for Michael. They were cleared out of Heaven, not a sign of them left. The great Dragon—ancient Serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, the one who led the whole earth astray—thrown out, and all his Angels thrown out with him, thrown down to earth. Then I heard a strong voice out of Heaven saying,
Salvation and power are established!
Kingdom of our God, authority of his Messiah!
The Accuser of our brothers and sisters thrown out,
who accused them day and night before God.
They defeated him through the blood of the Lamb
and the bold word of their witness.
They weren’t in love with themselves;
they were willing to die for Christ.
So rejoice, O Heavens, and all who live there,
but doom to earth and sea,
For the Devil’s come down on you with both feet;
he’s had a great fall;
He’s wild and raging with anger;
he hasn’t much time and he knows it.
13-17 When the Dragon saw he’d been thrown to earth, he went after the Woman who had given birth to the Man-Child. The Woman was given wings of a great eagle to fly to a place in the desert to be kept in safety and comfort for a time and times and half a time, safe and sound from the Serpent. The Serpent vomited a river of water to swamp and drown her, but earth came to her help, swallowing the water the Dragon spewed from its mouth. Helpless with rage, the Dragon raged at the Woman, then went off to make war with the rest of her children, the children who keep God’s commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.
Wow!….”He’s (satan) wild and raging with anger; he hasn’t much time and he knows it.” No wonder we are feeling the pain of evil’s work in God’s church!
We still fight the true enemy, the Devil, this angry fallen angel from heaven and his evil army of demons in God’s church weekly…daily…hourly. The revealed Christ reminds us that we are more than conquerors because of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who prayed to our Heavenly Father in our behalf before we were even born and born again!
“I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.” (John 17:15, NLT)
Truly… “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) Boom! Done!
What do we learn?
–We rejoice, even when attacked by satan himself, because Jesus has already won!
–We will continue to be persecuted in the world for our faith in Christ, however, “Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.” Really take this to heart…”GREATER is HE! And HE lives in us! Hallelujah!
–Know God. Know Your true enemy. Know Your True Conqueror. Know that the enemy will strike in very subtle ways. He will cause rifts between family members and reek havoc between members of God’s church. He only has a few tools that he uses over and over again. (Because they work!) The tools include jealousy, lying, envy, power, addictions to all that destroys us and false love. Be alert!
–Our enemy is NOT each other!
–The strength of the church lies in having the Lord Jesus as the captain of their salvation and the cornerstone of upon which to build her faith, “always growing and full of love”. (Ephesians 4)
–We have a lot more to learn!!
Dear Heavenly Father, Forgive us our sin as we forgive those who merely offend us. We are grateful, eternally grateful for saving us from our true enemy. Keep us alert and on guard always. Thank you for the assurance that YOU are GREATER in us and for living in us. We ARE more than conquerors because You have conquered over all. In Jesus Name, Amen
