Remaining True

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

REMAINING TRUE

Rev 14:1-5

14:1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

NIV

Here is that number which we have already seen when John saw the twelve thousand from each tribe which made up the 144,000. But as we have also have thought this may not be actual Israel but rather those of the new covenant who are circumcised of the heart rather than just of the flesh as Paul points out are true Israel. So that when the scripture says that all Israel will be saved, it certainly could and most likely does mean all the people who have circumcised their hearts, exposing the most sensitive portion of themselves to God. This again agrees with the fact that we believers have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit thus being the mark of our heavenly Father upon our foreheads, at least in that sense. It is most likely John was familiar with the many secular sects who in those days and even in the East today, wear the mark of their deity on their foreheads. Although we do not actually wear this mark of the Holy Spirit on the exterior of our head, it could also mean that this promised Holy Spirit marks us in our thinking, in our way of understanding the truth as this is one of his functions, to lead us into all truth. This could also apply to our whole being as with the word grace that is translated as the divine influence upon our heart, the seat of our being, who we are, which certainly includes our thoughts, our brain, the interior of our foreheads. But we are back to this inclusive number of 144,000, whether it is actually Jews who were the first to be converted to Christianity or it is a representation of the new covenant church. There is one sect today which we have seen in our lifetime proclaim they were the 144,000. They call themselves Jehovah Witnesses and in the beginning they said that they were that 144,000 that would be saved. But as their numbers kept growing and they exceeded that number their proclamation changed or even ceased.  They could not keep below or at that number as their need for more converts and thus congregates paying their tithes outweighed all else, at least it would seem. This also applies to the Christian church today. This idea of this 144,000 not defiling themselves with women carries that theme. We remember there were times when the men of Israel defiled themselves with the Moabite women. There were throughout the course of history when Israel involved itself with temple prostitutes of other gods. This is a representation of defiling themselves with the idols of their women and thus not with God. Whenever we engage in some form of defiling ourselves with idols we are not pure, we are not like the pure church of Christ. If this number is the representation of the Church of the Lamb, those who have circumcised their hearts, who follow Jesus then we can be sure we cannot have any part of idol worship. This is a difficult lifestyle. There are so many things which could be seen as idols in our life. There are so many things we could be committing adultery against our Lord with. If we are the bride of Christ, which we are as the new covenant church, than we have to keep ourselves pure from all other things which would entice us away from him, thus committing adultery. The list is large, and we should not expand on that for each of us may have only one or two which entice us, but as a whole church we may have many areas in our lives which we need to make sure we are not drawn to. We also need to make sure we are not deceived by some churches which have been swayed by the ways of the world and are engaged in the worship of the idol of numbers, or size or of wealth. Some churches are engaged in the worship of those who have the wealth, giving more attention to their desires then of those of with less wealth. There are so many ways we can engage in not being pure. In our personal lives we have so many ways to be distracted by temptations. One of the greatest temptations we face is the lack of anything. If we think we are lacking in something we begin to desire it more. If we think we lack the good life, we want that good life and try to figure how to attain it. If we think we lack love we try to find it and maybe in the wrong way. If we think we lack money, we desire it more. We might hide our desire for money with our desire for things. If we think we do not have the right clothes we need new ones, or we want a new toy, or new home, or a new car or a new whatever. The temptation for more is usually driven by discontentment with what we have or the lack of what we think we should have. We have been taught that we should be content in whatever situation we are in. If we have much or have little our contentment is in Christ. Paul told the Philippians that he learned to be content in all circumstances, when he had plenty and he also was in want. To learn to be content if we are well fed or hungry. He also told Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain. That we came into this world with nothing and we leave it with nothing, if we have food and clothing we should be content with that. The writer of Hebrews told us that we should keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have for God said he would never leave us not forsake us. There is so much about keeping ourselves pure, being that true church that knows that new song. We in fact walk to the beat of a different drummer, a new song. There is more than living in the same manner as everyone else and simply saying we are Christians. If we are born again than we are a new creature in Christ, new with a new life. As babies are taught whatever language their parents speak, we have learned a new language, a new custom of living, a new lifestyle and a new way of thinking about life. We are different than everyone else. We live by different values, the first is that we are followers of Christ, we are his bride and we keep ourselves true to him. We cannot afford to even deceive ourselves thinking we are pure when we are not. We must not even lie to ourselves. Our righteousness is found in Christ and him alone. In him we are blameless. Let us remain true to him.

Wisdom

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

WISDOM

Rev 13:11-18

11 Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. 12 He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. 14 Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

18 This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

NIV

Once again the scholars have given way to years gone by and by all accounts they have given this number to mean “The Latin Empire”. There is a very complex system explained by the scholars of how the ancients use numbers to represent the Greek alphabet giving each letter a number and thus they can calculated it was this phrase. They can explain away all this revelation as past events using mainly the rise and fall of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires and with the rise of the Latin Empire or the Papacy and thus cast all negativity toward Catholicism as most of these supposed scholars were of protestant beliefs which developed after Luther and the reformation. There was a great distain for the Catholic Church and no doubt many of the scholars of time ago wrote their explanations through this filter of distain. We, on the other hand, cannot afford to see through our own man made filters. It can never be the wisdom of the human mind that is mentioned here which is called for to understand and calculate the number of the beast. This wisdom can only come from a divine influence upon our heart and mind. Many men throughout the ages since this revelation has been recorded have endeavored to determine which man name in their era adds up to this 666. Once again we have to wonder if this could also be a number which represents an ideology rather than a single man’s name. The thought of this adding up to the phrase or ideology of The Latin Empire, certainly bear witness to us not being the first to think it to be something other than just a name of a man. But they felt it was already visible in the Catholic Church, as with some of the Popes, especially during the dark ages, as well as in the time of the great inquisitions, were extremists with power to kill all heretics and excommunicate those from the church and thus social community, who opposed their authority, thus people could not buy or sell within the setting of that community. In the wisdom of man they would seem to make a rather solid case. But then of what value is this revelation to us? If it is all ancient history, when or if does it have any bearing on the future which is yet to come? Is there a moment in this revelation in which the ancient scholars make a transition from past to future in describing their views? Again we must remember there has been many more empires of sorts rise and fall since the time of these scholars which we now could view as having been the first or the second beast as well as what this 666 meant. But we could also view all this as something supernatural coming from the hand of God in his final efforts to show mankind their need to repent. Nothing happens without the absolute authority given by God. Again this could mean something far beyond the human ability to comprehend, but at the same time God desires for us to understand what he is doing. As Abraham was a man who believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness. God said that what he was about to do, the disaster he was about to bring to Sodom and Gomorrah, was he going to hide it from Abraham, no, he would tell him what he was about to do. God desires to let his people, those who believe him, those accept his Son as their Savior, what he is about to do. This is why he called John in the Spirit up to heaven to reveal all this revelation so that the people of God, those who believe him would know what is to happen at some future time. We have to conclude this to mean none of this has happened yet and so it is still to come because those who believe God are still here and thus can gain the knowledge God desires to share with us as to what he is going to do, as he did with Abraham. Yes, there has been and will most likely always be some form of beast, both the first from the sea, and the second from the earth. There will always be some form of either economic, spiritual or political power that rises up from among mankind that will be considered a beast by others who are not within the inner circle of this powerful force. Whatever it is that will be, it derives its meaning from the number 666. One thought we might consider is that God’s perfect number is seven. This seven has been used throughout scripture. He created everything in six days and rested on the seventh. We have built an entire religious experience based on the seventh day, the Sabbath day. We could spent a great deal of time on this seven, but it is God’s perfect number. Thus 666 is short of this perfect seven. Whatever rises up, it is not perfect, it is flawed, and it is short of being anything God has for us. Although it will happen with his authority, he will allow this beast, this power to rise up and conquer the hearts and minds of those who do not know him, it comes from he who is not God. This power that rises up will be either from Satan or from mankind itself, but it will be imperfect. What we have to learn is God has and always will be perfect and whatever he is doing in our lives is perfect. This we can know is wisdom from him. 

The Book

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

THE BOOK

Rev 13:5-10

5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. 6 He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast — all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.   9 He who has an ear, let him hear. 10 If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.

NIV

Once again we see this same time period of forty-two months made reference to. This is also combined with that time, times and a time in Daniel. All these times are the same, which also shows us much of this revelation is happening all at the same time, but that John just cannot record everything all together, so he has to keep recording everything as one thing he sees and then here is another thing he sees and then over here there is another thing happening and so forth. Once again we find the scholars thinking only in the past and viewing all this as already happened to either the Jews or the saints of the early Church of long ago. It certainly would be easier to think of all this as the past and therefore not have to consider any believer would have to endure the experience described here. There seems to be no doubt about this beast being able to wage war against the saints and here we see he wins, at least subdues the saints along with all the inhabitants of the earth. Are these saint those who have come to Christ during the seven trumpets? Are these saints all of the believers who are alive when this happens which would mean the church has not been raptured at this point. But then who are that great multitude in white robes before the throne of God? The language here has a certain flavor in that all the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, except those of us whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Because time holds no boundaries for God, Jesus was already slain before he created all things. This was and always has been the plan of God for the redemption of his people who he knew would disobey him even before he created them. That may sound a little odd, but that is what the facts bear out in this language. If we are here when this happens, or if it is those who have repented during the seven trumpets, either way those whose names are written in the book of life will not worship the beast, the Anti-Christ, the representative of Satan. Now as far as what will happen to those whose names are in the book of life, it appears some will be lead into captivity and some will be killed. We certainly can see that happening today with the actions of the terrorist group ISIS and how they capture and kill Christians. It certainly happened in the past with the Romans using Christians as entertainment in the Coliseums. We have seen one dominant religion at a time in history burn heretics, who were actually true believers, alive on a stack. If we are to agree the Jews are the chosen people of God, and that he will save them, we have seen the Nazi’s murder great numbers of God’s chosen people. Are there names in the book of life, we simply do not know, but what we do know that everyone’s name starts out in the book of life and those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their savior have they name blotted out. This would mean anyone who accepts the Anti-Christ thus worshipping him will have their names blotted out of the book of life. This anti-Christ may not even be a person, but it might well be an ideology, a world philosophy which opposes the whole idea of God. Humanism at its finest hour is fast approaching within our lifetime. We could surely see this kind of power over the inhabitants of the earth. We even have a would be world leader who professes our greatest danger in this country, in this world, is global climate change. There is a rising ideology of the human control of all things, leaving God and creation as only a myth, a crutch for the weak minded. They slander the name of God. They blaspheme against the whole idea of God.  Science has been heralded as their God. There are other gods the humanists have created, even ones of gold, in fact it is gold itself, or wealth, which captures the hearts and minds of many, even those who profess to be of the household of faith. Perhaps this is another method of leading the saints into captivity or simply killing their spirit, their faith in God. We have to remember Satan is a slick schemer, he does not make a full frontal assault on the believers. He uses methods which are so seductive and sly many believers might well be deceived and thus lead off in captivity to his proposals, his temptations. But we can rest assured if we endure to the end, resisting the devil and all his schemes we will not see out names blotted out, but we will join the multitude in white robes before the throne of God. We can also be sure that whatever is assaulted upon us, God will avenge us with the same actions upon those who would do any harm to us. Let him who has an ear hear. We need to continue to believe God and God alone, and in doing so we will see our names in that book of life for all eternity. 

God at work

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

GOD AT WORK

Rev 13:1-4

13:1 And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. 4 Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"

NIV

Before we get into any serious discussion about what is represented here and the great length of explanation some of the scholars have offered we should note that most, if not all the published works are of men who lived in the seventh or eighteenth centuries. They for the most part always ascribe these monsters or great powerful kingdoms to the Roman Empire, either the central empire in the time of Christ, or after when there was the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. But always looking to the past, rather than thinking of any future rise of a great and terrible nation kingdom that derives its power from the conquering of other nations. If we were to ascribe to looking into the past we could see in some sense the 3^rd Reich as a great monster who came out of many nations with Adolf Hitler being a type of Anti-Christ, who people worshipped and said who is like this beast? Who can make war against him? Again we could see at one time the European Common Market when it was comprised of only ten nations. It was rising in economic power and it was certain to some at that time the true Anti-Christ would rise to power from this Common Market.  We could see the great nation, the king of the North, Russia rise up out of past leaders such as Lenin, or Stalin or Marcs or even today with its resurgence under Putin who is hailed as the Savior of Russia. We could see the great and powerful communism of China rise up from all the dynasties of the emperors.  The point is men can always either look to the past and explain away all the symbolic language of this revelation or they can guess to its meaning in some present on going ordeals in the world. But what we know for certain is God is revealing to John want is to come and when we are dealing with the providence of God when cannot be certain of any human actions that are explained here. This might be symbolic language describing some great powerful nation overpowering the world. It might be an ideology that rises up from among many nations, such as this extremist Islamic movement, as an example. It could be something no one has ever seen or thought of before because it is what God is revealing to John. Why would John use this kind of language? This symbolism? If we read the Gospel he wrote or his letters to the churches we do not find any symbolism, but plain understandable truths. Certainly he was inspired to write those words by the Holy Spirit so everyone would clearly understand. But here most scholars are looking for some esoteric or hidden meaning to be understood only by the most learned of theologians. Why can this not be just as plain as all the other words John was inspired to write? Why do we always look for that hidden meaning to explain away this in some human expression? If John saw the great Roman Empire, why would he not called it as such? He was more than aware of this Great Empire, it had crucified Jesus. It would seem only right to expect some great terrible monster to rise up from the sea. Whatever that is, it will be so great and powerful the peoples of the earth will be awestruck by it. We can see many people today who are indeed awestruck by what they think is supernatural. We have television programs and movies about paranormal activities.  There is also a wide range of thoughts about what kind of monsters live in the depths of the oceans. People made movies about great and terrible sea monsters rising up to attack people. The internet is full of images of monsters of the sea. When we are dealing with what is to come, we may have no idea exactly what this is that will rise up from the sea, but what we can be certain is this is once again the hand of God demonstrating he is the Almighty who have all authority over all things. When what John describes happens people from all the earth will know it is God who has either ordained or allowed this great thing to happen. He will make sure they know it is not of human origin, so men will repent of their sin and turn to him. Let us pray we will not see this great and terrible thing, but we will already be in the presence of our lord. But nevertheless there will be no sign along the road telling us men at work, or now people at work, but this is a sign saying, God at work. 

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. 

Short and Eternal

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

SHORT AND ETERNAL

Rev 12:7-12

7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."

NIV

This scene John is watching unfold on the scroll, or perhaps being shown in some other way, certainly appears as though he is describing an event in the far past. A time when Satan, who was then called Lucifer waged a war against God and Michael being the archangel battled and won. A long time battle of evil vs good. This has not changed in all the centuries of time that have passed since that serpent lost his battle and was cast down to earth. From the very first he has accused the people of God. As he tempted successfully Eve regarding trusting what God said, he has been doing the same throughout the ages. He leads the world astray, he is a liar, a deceiver, a lover of self and desires nothing more than to prove God wrong about his people. This battle for power is portrayed by John as in heaven, but it also is about what happened and is happening on earth. Satan is here now, and still trying to win the battle, he knows his time is short, whatever that time means. It might be centuries in our time line, but in the context of eternity, it is s short time. Satan is waging a fierce battle against the people of God. He is not just trying a little maneuver here and there, he is waging a full scale war, pulling out all the stops, using every effort to destroy the church, the people of God. This war is waged on us, but it is actually waged on God. Satan is still so angry with God for casting him to earth, for losing his place of honor in heaven. Satan does not bother with all the people who by their own evil desires live in sin, in disobedience to the word of God. He cares nothing about them, he only wants to destroy those who profess Jesus Christ as the Lord of lords, King of kings and their Savior. Once we accept Jesus we have to know and be prepared for a battle against our very lives. We might think after accepting Jesus our lives will be blessed, we will be on a bed of roses, life will be but a bowl of cherries. Although all of that is true, God will care for us, he will protect and provide for us, Satan is all about making our lives as miserable as he can. Of course we know that he that is within us is greater than he who is in the world. We know Satan does not win. He and all his followers will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. But for now he is after all of us who love the Lord. He attempts to make us disbelieve what God said, he casts doubt toward us. Will God really provide for you? How come you are having so much financial trouble? Will God really heal you? How come you are having this illness, or this pain? Will God really protect you? How come some of you are being hurt by others? He still lives in the spiritual realm and as he did with Job, he can still accuse us before God. He can still tell God to see how we fail him. He gets us to doubt, then he accuses us of being doubtful of all God promised us. He tries to get us to lose our faith in God and return to our old way of life. But he will be the one who fails. He will never get us to doubt God, no matter what happens in our life. God has a plan, he has a purpose and he will accomplish his plan and purpose for our lives. We only need to remain true to him, always trusting, always believing, and always knowing deep within our being that he has everything under control. Satan can do nothing to us without the authority of God, just as we saw with Job.  Satan has no authority of his own over us. He can only tempt, but he cannot make us yield to that temptation. His time is short, but ours is eternal. 

A child is born

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

A CHILD IS BORN

Rev 12:1-6

12:1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

NIV

Oh the hay day the scholars have had with this great and wondrous sign which appeared in heaven. They are casting all sorts of people and things in the roles of both this woman and the dragon. One of the principles we need to apply to all the rendering or according of this revelation to John is that it all is not absolutely chronological. Many of the events described by John could all be happening at the same time but that he could only focus his attention on one of the happening at a time in order to fully record what he was witnessing. This might be like us when attending a three ring circus, not that anything in heaven is a circus, but there are three rings with acts going on in each plus clowns roaming around and all the side shows on the midway, all happening simultaneously. How would we record all that we saw? Would we not have to make a list and write about each thing we saw? This may well be as with John’s record of this revelation. This women is no doubt the church as we have been described as the bride of Christ. We are clothed with his brilliance, with the sun, the light of the world. Some would suppose, again, this whole event has already happened as the Roman Empire did use a Red Dragon as one of its emblems. But then why would this woman need to run in the dessert. Her child certainly was taken up to heaven. Satan surely would like to devour her child. Jesus is the ruler over all the nations whether they care to admit it or not. What can all this mean to us? How does it apply to our walk with the Lord? We the church have certainly fled into the wilderness of this world and we are certainly cared for by God. The time frame could have some significance, but 1260 is not exactly three and half years as 1274 days equal three and a half years. So we really do not know what that is. It could represent years, but then the church has been in existence longer than that. The point is we are the church who are clothed in the radiance of Jesus Christ. Satan would like nothing better than to destroy all that Jesus represents. We are also in part giving birth to another child. We are giving birth to a whole new group of children of God. A child in that sense, that we are part of God’s plan to give birth to more believers. We talk about the job of the pastors, or evangelists who declare the word of God, but we are too as well. The shepherd does not give birth to sheep, sheep beget sheep. So we the church, the believers should give birth to other believers. Yes it is the spirit who convicts men of their sin, but it is we who explain that to them and share the road to their salvation. Also in another sense if we are the temple of the Holy Spirit then it is through us he convicts people of their sin and need to repent. But Satan is ready and willing to devour new believers, but God has prepared a place for them in heaven, and he has given all believers a place where the dragon cannot destroy. He has given us the truth. Perhaps there is something about this desert place, as Jesus was tempted in the desert but he overcame all temptations by declaring the word, the truth to Satan. As we are in this place prepared by God for us, we are tempted too by Satan, but we also have been given the word, the truth to declare as our defense against him. Although Satan is ready and willing to devour the child, he does not have the power to do so, as the child was snatched up to heaven. Although this may well mean Jesus, it also may well imply we too have been or will be snatched up to heaven. Although we are not ruling with an iron scepter as that only can apply to Jesus, we have authority over Satan. We are not his victims, we are not his captives, but we have the authority of Jesus over all the dark forces of evil. We are a child of God.