Revelation 12:13-17

13When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth,

he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

14The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so

that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert,

where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a

time, out of the serpent's reach. 15Then from his mouth the

serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and

sweep her away with the torrent. 16But the earth helped the

woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that

the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17Then the dragon

was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against

the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.



Dig Deeper

Recently we have taken to watching a show on the history channel entitled, Gangland. This show documents and recounts the history and development of major national street gangs, particularly as it relates to efforts by the authorities to stop and limit the gangs. If you watch the show regularly, you will see a sort of a pattern emerge with the development of the gangs. In almost every case, the authorities, once they became aware of the gang, made concerted efforts to squash the gang before it could spread. Their ultimate goal was to annihilate the gang once-and-for-all. In every case (at least for those gangs being documented), the efforts failed. Yet, the authorities did not just give up and accept the spread. They renewed their efforts to try to fight the second and third generations of the gang that are now spreading into cities all over the country. They had failed in their initial attempts, but the war would continue.


In this section, we have a similar situation going on. The enraged Dragon tries to completely annihilate the Church before it can really get going, but he is unable. Rather than just giving up, though, he renews his effort by going off to make war against the Church in all the places that she is rapidly spreading.


12:13 - Now that he has concluded the brief interlude describing the war in heaven, John returns to the woman’s flight from the Dragon. As a direct result of his defeat in the heavenly war and the realization the he had been hurled to the earth , the Dragon turns his attention toward the woman who had given birth to the male child . This was a key point for John to make sure that the early church understood. The persecution that would endure was taking place precisely because the Dragon had already been defeated by Christ. All of Satan’s attacks on the church should serve as a reminder to the church that, although they are very real and dangerous, Satan has already been conquered. Also, don’t miss the fact that the persecution of the church, symbolized by the woman, happens first on the land, which is a symbol of Israel. This is the first place that the Dragon would seek to destroy the Church.


12:14 - Rather than being destroyed, the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert. This imagery borrows from the book of Exodus in which the people of God are saved by God in the wilderness. Moses says that God protected them, "like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions" (Deut. 32:11). In verse 10, it says that God found them in a howling waste. Curiously, there is only one other time that "hover" and "waste" are used together in the entire Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament). That place is Genesis 1:2 which describes the earth as a waste or "without form" and says that the Spirit was "hovering". It is likely that Moses was drawing attention to the fact that the salvation of Israel was a creation event. John, then, is tying these things together, indicating that the formation and protection of the Church is also a creation event. This is why so much of the language in the Revelation that describes the coming of the New Covenant is cataclysmic and creation-related language. The reason for the woman being in the desert is not that she has been abandoned, but is evidence that is being taken care of during the time of the tribulation. This is reminiscent of Job who questions the treatment of the donkey in the wilderness, comparing it to the plight of the poor (Job 24:5). God’s answer is that the donkey is precisely where God wants him to be and

is being taken care of (Job 39:5).


12:15-16 - Just as the Israelites were trapped between their enemy, the satanically-inspired Egypt and the Red Sea, so is the woman trapped by the Dragon and the water like a river that was spewed out of his mouth. The idea of a menacing river flowing from the mouth of Israel’s enemies, seeking to destroy God’s people is a familiar one (Ps. 18:4, 16; 124:3-6; Isa. 8:5-8; 59:19; Jer. 46:7-8; 47:2; Hos. 5:10). Once again the Church escapes as a result of divine protection. The earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river. John uses the imagery here from Numbers 16:28-33, when the leaders of a rebellion against Moses were swallowed up by the earth. The point is clear: regardless of what the Dragon does to attack the Church, she is protected by the power of God and will not be destroyed.


12:17 - The Dragon failed to destroy the Church during the short time that he had (Rev. 12:12). Frustrated from that attempt, he turns his anger towards the rest of her offspring. Milton Terry, in Biblical Apocalyptics: A Study of the Most Notable Revelations of God and of Christ in the Canonical Scriptures, explains this distinction between the woman and her offspring. "These distinctions are easily made and maintained. The Church, considered as an institution and an organic body, is distinguishable from her children, as Isaiah 66:7-8 and Galatians 4:22-26 clearly show. . . We accordingly observe that the Church is in one point of view the totality of all her members of children; in other ways, familiar to the Scripture, her individual members are thought of as related to her as children and mother." Having failed to destroy the mother and offspring, Satan turns toward the rest of the primarily Gentile Christian Church. The Saints overcome the Dragon by the word of their testimony and their faithful obedience (Rev. 12:11). This is not meant as a strictly chronological passage as if Satan will only attack the Church after the Jewish War. This is, instead, the culmination of events of the ‘last days’, symbolized by the flight of the woman.



Devotional Thought

Does the thought that Satan will attack you and your church discourage you. Don’t forget John’s point to the church. The very reason Satan attacks the church with such ferocity is because Christ has already defeated him. Remember that the next time you feel like you are under attack from Satan. Christ has already defeated him and has given us the power and authority in His name to resist Satan and defeat him when he attacks.