Desert

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

DESERT

Rev 12:13-17

13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The 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. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then 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.

NIV       

Once again we find ourselves at odds with all the scholars who would either explain away this symbolic language as referring to the Roman Empire of years ago, or to the papacy. But because of the language of the time, times and a half of time both have to be in error. This time frame as it is either the same as in Daniel or just similar refers to years because of the original Hebrew word in Daniel and the Greek word used here. A day, a week, a month is not the standard measure of time as a year is.  This would then become 1260 days, which is actually years. But the Roman Empire did not last that long and since no one is absolutely sure of the beginning of the papacy, we cannot find and accurate date of its fall. But if by its own confession that Peter was the first Pope, then the papacy is well past 1260 years of reigning. Why bother with this discussion? We need to see that this revelation given to John is about what is still going to happen. It has not happened yet. It is certain Satan has been hurled down to earth and it is also, as we have already thought, the woman is in fact the bride of Christ, the true church, the body of believers. Her offspring are all the new believers brought to the saving grace of Jesus Christ through the efforts of the church in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Satan is after us with everything he has. It is known some serpents, some snakes spew a poison out of their mouths to stun their prey. This is the language here in that Satan spews out poison against the church, the people of God.  Throughout the ages he has successfully caused so many to worship either deities made of their own hands, or some dead deity of years past. He has won them over, by his poison, but his real enemy who stands in his way of ruling the whole earth is the church of Jesus Christ, the body of believers who gather under the banner of Christ.  He attempts to overtake the church with his poisonous lies. He tries to build false churches based on misinterpretations of the scripture, just simple outright lies as to what it says. But he makes it sound so sweet, yet it is poison, and he preys on the weak, as the snake he is. But the point we need to continue to see is the earth helped the church, the true church, the real body of believers that have existed from the time of Christ. This true church has been kept safe from the attacks of Satan, and that has served to enrage him even more. He knows he has won many attacks with his poison, with his inflicting false teachings upon the weak causing many false religions to exist in the world many now using the name Christianity. But there is a true church, a body of believers who have not been tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but have grown strong and brought forth offspring which we are some of them. Here is where the rubber meets the road. Because we are the offspring of the true church, Satan is after us with a vengeance. He is making war against us. The world, would under his influence, would endeavor to extinguish our voice, even our life, but he will not prevail. Jesus promised to build his church and he declared the gates of hell will not prevail against it. As long as we hold true to the pure word of God, we are the church, the body of believer who Satan will not prevail over. We have already won the victory. We have nothing to fear from his poisonous lies, his accusations, or his vengeance. He cannot harm us, we are safe in the palm of the hand of the Almighty. He is our refuge, our strong tower. But in the language John uses here, God is our desert. As Elijah escaped into the desert when his life was in danger, and David escaped into the desert as Saul sought to kill him, we can escape into the desert, a place of safety, we escape under the wing of the Almighty, he is our desert.