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CHAPTER 12
Part Two
THE WOMAN VS. THE DRAGON
5) And she gave birth to a son, a
male child, who is to rule all the nations with the rod
of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne
A male
child
-Before she
travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth
to a boy (Is. 66:7)
Nations refer to
non Jews (Gentiles).
6) And the woman fled into the
wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she
might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty
days
- The
Christians fled into the wilderness during the time of great
persecution and God
took care of them
7) And there was war in
heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon (satan).
And the dragon and his angels waged war,
8) and they were not strong enough, and
there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.
9) And the great dragon was thrown
down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and satan, who
deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his
angels were thrown down with him.
And He (Jesus) said to them (His disciples), I was watching satan
fall from heaven like lightning.
(Luke 10:18)
10) And I heard a voice in heaven,
saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our
God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of
our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our
God day and night.
Accuser of our brethren is satan
- Then
he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the
Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.
(Zech.3:1)
11)
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and
because of the word of their
testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. |
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Points to Ponder
The Testimony of Jesus
The
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Rev.
19 10)
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture references are from the NASB version of the Bible.
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Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away;
behold all things are become new.
Continued...
12) “For this reason, rejoice, O
heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing
that he has only a short time.”
13) And when the dragon saw that he was
thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to
the male child.
And when Satan saw that he was thrown down to the
earth, he persecuted spiritual
Jerusalem (the Christians/church)
14) And the two wings of the great
eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the
wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and
times and a half time, from the presence of the serpent.
The
Christians went into the wilderness to escape the persecution of
Satan. God protected them during this time.
15) And the serpent poured water like a
river out of his mouth after the woman so that he might cause her to
be swept away with the flood.
Satan
tried to destroy the church through the people who didn’t believe in
Jesus Christ – people like Saul whom we now know as Paul.
16) And the earth helped the woman, and
the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon
poured out of his mouth.
The
believers in Jesus Christ remained true to their faith in spite of
the persecution they experienced and the church survived.
17) And the dragon was enraged with the
woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who
keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Satan was
angry with the church and focused all of his energies on persecuting
all of the Christians by stoning them, killing them with
the sword and burning them at the stake - just to name a few
examples.
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