Evility was absorbed with the details of
Operation Takeover. One of his more challenging
assignments was to explain Revelation 12. After
pondering for days and making copious notes he
had an outline for his presentation. He
decided to practice his discourse aloud. He
drifted to a remote part of the desert and began
a monologue.
Woman
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman
clothed with the sun, with the moon under her
feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor
and in pain to give birth. Rev 12:1,2
This woman is not a literal, physical woman. Her
name is not Mary. She is a
symbol for God’s kingdom. Her name is the New
Jerusalem. She is a dazzling, brilliant,
gorgeous city radiating the light of God’s
glory. Jesus gives her His light. A detailed
description of her is given in Revelation
chapters 21 and 22. The moon is under her feet
because it is in subjection to her. The moon
rules the night. The moon being under her feet
symbolizes the idea that there is no night or
darkness in the New Jerusalem.
Stars symbolize angels. (Rev 1:20) The 12 stars on her head represent the 12 angels
who stand at the 12 gates leading into the
kingdom – into the New Jerusalem. The names of
the 12 tribes of the children of Israel are
written on the 12 gates.
She is in labor, ready to deliver her first
child. Her pain is intense.
Dragon 3 And another sign appeared in
heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having
seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on
his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars
of heaven and threw them to the earth. Rev
12:3,4
This is not a literal, physical dragon with
seven heads and ten horns. It does not represent
a person or a country. The dragon is a
symbol for Satan. It is clearly identified in
Revelation 12:9 as “that serpent of old, called
the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole
world.” The seven heads and ten horns are unique
to Satan. Any time you see a creature in the
Bible with seven heads and ten horns you will
know immediately that the creature is Satan. He
uses his seven heads to control. All seven of
his heads exist at the same time (See Daniel
7:6). Each of his seven heads has a different
name and is a different manifestation of
himself. Each one is a king, which is why it is
wearing a crown. The names of his seven heads
are:
1. Dragon Rev
12:9
2. Serpent of
old Rev 12:9
3. Devil Rev
12:9
4. Satan Rev
12:9
5. Star
(Lucifer) Rev 9:1 (Isaiah 14:12)
6. Abaddon/Apollyon
Rev 9:11
7. Beast Rev
13:1, 17:3
The dragon has ten horns. They are ten of his
evil angels – leading demons.
The dragon’s tail symbolizes his lies and
deceptions. Stars symbolize angels. (Rev 1:20) By lying to the angels in heaven, the dragon was
able to deceive 1/3 of the angels and convince
them to worship him instead of God.
Child 4 And the dragon stood before the
woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her
Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male
Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of
iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His
throne. Rev 12:4,5
The Child represents Jesus Christ. The dragon
(Satan) desperately wanted to kill the woman’s
(kingdom of God) first Child as soon as He was
born. Satan wanted God’s kingdom to be barren
and empty with no inhabitants. Jesus was the
first Child born into the kingdom of God. This
birth was not His literal, physical birth on
earth. His birth into the kingdom of God was His
Spiritual birth that occurred at His baptism
when He was 30 years old. Jesus said that a
person must be born again to enter the kingdom
of God.
3
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly,
I say to you, unless one is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God." John 3:3
A persons first birth is when he is physically
born as a baby and his second birth is a
spiritual birth when he is born into the kingdom
of God. This second birth must be of water and
the Spirit.
5
Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God. 6 That which is born of
the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. John 3:5-6
It was at His second, spiritual birth that Jesus
was born of the woman and was born into the
kingdom. This occurred at His baptism. He was
born of water and the Spirit.
16
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up
immediately from the water;
and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and
He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And
suddenly a voice came
from heaven, saying, "This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased."
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. Matt 3:16 – 4:1
At 30 years of age Jesus began His public
ministry. First he was baptized by water and
then by the Spirit. He was born again into the
kingdom of God. Then the voice of God the
Father, who sits on the throne, could be heard
saying, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am
well pleased.” Jesus was reconnected with the
throne of God. He was spiritually caught up to
the throne. Immediately after this He went into
the wilderness to be tempted by Satan and He
began to preach that the kingdom of heaven was
at hand.
17
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,
"Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand." Matt 4:17
6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she has a place prepared by God, that they
should feed her there one thousand two hundred
and sixty days. Rev 12:6
Satan attempted to destroy Jesus and His kingdom by tempting Him to sin in the wilderness. But each time Jesus used the word of God as His
defense against Satan, and each time Satan was
defeated.
God had prepared a place for His kingdom in the
wilderness and He fed her there for 1260 days.
The food she ate was manna which represents the
Word of God. The purpose of the food was to make
the kingdom grow and prosper. As people accept,
receive and abide in Jesus by His word, they are
sustained and grow. Jesus preached about the
kingdom of heaven and it grew for 1260 literal
days (3 ½ years). The 1260 days started when
Jesus was baptized and ended when He was
crucified on the cross.
Notice the three characters whom we have just
learned about:
1. Woman
Kingdom of God
2. Dragon
Satan, serpent of old
3. Child
Jesus
These are the same three characters we are told
about in Genesis 3.
One beautiful day, about 6,000 years ago, Eve
was exploring in the garden of Eden. She came to
a tree that was covered with delightful fruit. There was also an enchanting, cunning serpent in
the tree. The serpent could talk and Eve was
fascinated as she listened. The serpent told Eve
that if she ate the fruit of that tree her
powers would expand and she would become like
God. He told her that he had eaten the fruit and
now he was able to speak. But God had told her
not to eat the fruit from that tree or she would
die. Eve was deceived by the serpent’s lie. The
serpent was not just a snake. It was Satan
pretending to talk through a snake. Eve
believed the serpent and ate the fruit. She
sinned against God by disobeying His command.
14
So the LORD God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel."
16
To the woman He said:
"I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your
conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children.” Gen
3:14-16
This promise of God was literally fulfilled
about 6,000 years ago. The serpent lost its
wings and had to crawl on its belly. Women began
having pain when they bore children.
But more importantly, it was a promise for the
future when it would have a spiritual
fulfillment. The Lord said to the serpent,
“I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel." Gen 3:15
The serpent is the dragon and Satan. The woman
is God’s kingdom. The Seed is Jesus.
God would put hatred between Satan and God’s
kingdom and between the people in Satan’s
kingdom and Jesus. Jesus would bruise, or crush,
Satan’s serpent head and Satan would bruise
Jesus’ heel. This prophecy was exactly fulfilled
when Jesus was crucified on the cross. When
Jesus died, Satan bruised His heel. But it was
only a bruise and Jesus was raised from the
grave to live forever. But Jesus crushed the
serpent’s head. When Jesus died Satan understood
that one day his own kingdom would end and he
must die forever.
War in heaven
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his
angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon
and his angels fought, 8 but they did not
prevail, nor was a place found for them in
heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was
cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil
and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was
cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out
with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the
kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ
have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who
accused them before our God day and night, has
been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony, and they did not love their lives to
the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and
you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of
the earth and the sea! For the devil has come
down to you, having great wrath, because he
knows that he has a short time." Rev 12:7-12
This war in heaven has not taken place yet. There have been wars in heaven and Satan has
been cast out of heaven twice already, but he
will be cast out a third time when these verses
are completely fulfilled.
The first time Satan was cast out of heaven was
about 6,000 years ago. Satan lived in heaven and
went by the name Lucifer – light bearer. He was
a perfect, glorious angel. He was the commanding
angel over all the millions of angels in heaven. Then he rebelled against God and persistently
refused to repent. He also persuaded 1/3 of the
angels in heaven to rebel. When God had
exhausted all possibilities and there was no
chance that Satan or his angels would repent,
they were physically thrown out of heaven. He
was still able to visit heaven, but his new home
was the earth.
The second time Satan was cast out of heaven was
about 2,000 years ago. Satan caused Jesus to be
crucified. After Jesus was raised from the dead
and returned to heaven Satan was cast out of
heaven again. This time he was cast out in the
respect that the angels in heaven had no more
sympathy for him. But he was still able to act
as accuser of God’s people.
In the near future a third war will break out in
heaven between Satan and his angels and Jesus
and His angels. In the Bible Jesus is sometimes
called Michael when he is battling directly with
Satan. Satan will lose the battle and for the
third time he and his angels will be cast out of
heaven. This time he will be cast down as
accuser of God’s people.
When Satan loses this battle he is furious! He
knows that the final sequence of events on earth
– the Great Tribulation – has begun. He
realizes that his remaining time on earth
to deceive people and gain their worship is
very short. He has less than four years to
convince every person on earth to worship him
instead of God. The timer on this bomb has been
started and there is no way to delay or disable
it. Dragon is enraged
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast
to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave
birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was
given two wings of a great eagle, that she might
fly into the wilderness to her place, where she
is nourished for a time and times and half a
time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So
the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a
flood after the woman, that he might cause her
to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the
earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its
mouth and swallowed up the flood which the
dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the
dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went
to make war with the rest of her offspring, who
keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev 12:13-17
Satan’s serpent head was crushed and killed when
Jesus died. The serpent head received a deadly
wound. When he is cast to earth the third time
his deadly wound is healed. God allows his
serpent head to come back to life to engage in
the last war with people on earth.
The first thing the dragon does when he sees
that he has been cast to the earth is to pursue
and persecute God’s kingdom. But God’s kingdom
is given two wings of a great eagle to fly into
the wilderness. She will again be fed manna
(God’s word) in the wilderness so she can grow. She will be there for 3 ½ years (time, times and
½ a time), protected from the presence of the
serpent. The serpent will shoot water out of his
mouth to try to wash the woman away. This flood
of water will be a flood of evil spirits who
will attempt to deceive and destroy God’s
kingdom. They will not be successful.
Then the dragon goes off to make war with the
children of God’s kingdom. They are identified
in two ways:
1. They keep all ten of the
commandments of God. (Exodus 20)
2. They have the testimony of Jesus.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy
(Revelation 19:10)
Since Satan will not be able to destroy God’s kingdom he
will fight against the people who are born into
it. The children born into God's kingdom are holy and will be
able to enter through her gates into the city. They are the only people who can enter. . . .
Evility's voice drifted off as he got to the end
of his speech. He hadn't even noticed the
dropping temperature and the gathering gloom of
night. Evility was absorbed with the
details of Operation Takeover.
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