Shabbat Shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to Part 44 of our study of the Book of Revelation.

Today we're going to wrap up the segment on the Woman and the Dragon. Last week´ we learned that she was a symbol of Israel, not the 'Church' and not the Virgin Mary even though Mary is certainly part of the symbol. We also looked at the EU symbols of the occult counterfeit 'Mary' or Morena. We left the Woman screaming in the pains of child labour last week which is where we pick up the story thread today.

Let's open up our Bibles and read the first six verses of chapter 12 again:

"12:1 Now a great ['and wondrous' - NIV] sign ('portent' - NRSV) appeared in heaven (the shamayim): a woman clothed ('adorned' - JB) with the sun, with the moon under her feet ('standing on the moon' - JB), and on her head a garland ('crown' - JB, NRSV, HRV) of twelve stars (Gen.37:9). 2 Then being with child ('pregnant' - NRSV), she cried out ('screamed' - JNT) in labour ('birth pangs' - NRSV) and in pain ('agony' - NRSV) to give birth (Is.66:7; 26:17; Mic.4:10). 3 And another sign ('portent' - NRSV) appeared in heaven: behold, a great ('huge' - JB; 'enormous' - NIV), fiery red dragon (Aram. 'great dragon of fire' - HRV) having seven heads (Rev.13:1; 17:3,7,9) and ten horns (Rev.15:1), and seven diadems ('crowns' - NIV) (Rev.17:12) on his heads ('each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet' - JB). 4 His tail drew ('swept away' - NASB) a third (Rev.8:7) of the stars of heaven and threw ('cast' - KJV, RSTNE) them ['down' - JNT] ('dropped them' - JB) to (upon) the earth (Dan.8:10). And the dragon stands (stood) before ('stopped in front of' - JB) the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour ('eat' - JB) her Child (Aram. 'Son' - HRV) (Mt.2:16; 12:5) as soon as it (He) was born [1]. 5 She bore a male [Child] (Is.66:7; 7:14; 9:5-6) who was [Aram. 'about' - HRV] to rule (alt. 'shepherd') all nations (olam, 'the world') with a rod of iron ('iron sceptre' - NIV) (Ps.2:9; Rev.2:27; 19:15). And her Child was caught up ('taken straight up' - JB; 'snatched up' - NIV) (Ac.8:39) to Elohim (God) and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled ('escaped' - JB) into the wilderness ('desert' - JB), where she has a place ['of safety' - JB] prepared by Elohim (God), that they should feed ('look after' - JB; 'nourish' - HRV) her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days (3½ years) (Dan.7:25; 9:27; 12:7; Rev.11:2)" (Rev.12:1-6, NKJV).

To begin with, let's remember - and keep on reminding ourselves - to whom all of this was addressed in the first place and what their circumstances were. Cast your minds back to the seven congregations of Asia Minor which we studied in great detail way back at the beginning of this course almost a year ago to the day: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laocidea. Everything written in the Book of Revelation was addressed to them, in their language, first of all, and only then to every other generation since. The persecution which the Messianic Community (Church) had already suffered at the end of the first century AD, and which was about to burst forth again at the beginning of the second century, is the great fact that underlines the whole of this book. All 22 chapters were written for persecuted believers, and that's every true Christian and Messianic in every generation up to, and including, the last generation, including those who think they are going to escape persecution by being whisked away to another planet by that pop fictional event called the 'Rapture'. You'd better believe this is for you because you're not going anywhere except the grave unless you are resurrected when Yah'shua (Jesus) returns so you can be properly equipped to rise up in the air to greet Him, to then immediately return to the earth with Him. We were reminded of this in the first 13 verses of chapter 11 not so very long ago.

In the 'seals' and 'shofars' the Messianic Community (Church) has been assured, in a broad and general sense, that Yahweh's judgments will fall upon the world of wickedness, and that the ungodly will bow before the power of the Lamb. What remains of this Book, in chapters 11-22, the victory of Messiah and His spiritual Family is foretold in even more definite detail. It's getting very specific now. The great enemies of Christ are brought forward, under the personification of the Dragon (chapter 12), the Two Beasts (chapter 13 onwards) and the Harlot City (chapter 17). Then we are shown Christ's battle against them, and the complete overthrow both of them and of all evil (chapters 18-20), after which the Book ends with the glorious and everlasting blessedness of the New Jerusalem (chapters 21 & 22). This is the main story line.

The first great enemy of the Messianic Community (Church) - Yah'shua's (Jesus's) spiritual Family - the cause of all the hostility against her, is Satan. Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) suffered his enmity (hatred), and passed through it triumphantly in these first 6 verses of chapter 12. Now, Satan is already conquered in principle as we'll see in next week's text (vv.7-9), through for a short time the Messianic Family experiences his virulent slander (vv.10-17) which is why the word 'devil', meaning 'slanderer', is used to describe him too.

As we saw last week, both Old Covenant pre-Messiaic and New Covenant Messianic Israel are shown under the figure of a woman clothed with heavenly glory (v.1) from whom the Messiah is about to come (cp. Is.66:19; Mic.4:10). She is opposed by the devil (v.9), pictured as a dragon, red with the blood of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) (cp. Rev.17:3ff.) (v.3). His 7 heads and 10 horns (cp. Dan.7:7) almost certainly represent the Roman emperors through whom he exercised his power, whose modern successors he continues to exercise his power through in the repeating cycles of prophetic history throughout the centuries, for as I have pointed out to you before, the Roman Empire never actually ceased to exist and is still going strong today. It has been suggested that the 10 horns may stand for the same emperors with the addition of Galba, Otho and Vitellius (cp. Rev.13:1; 17:10ff.) but we'll discuss that possibility in due course if we have the time.

The Dragon waits to attack the Messiah (v.4) but when He is born (cp.Ps.2:8ff.), the Dragon has no power over Him, and He is exalted to Yahweh's Throne (Phil.2:9) (v.5). The Messianic Community (Church) escapes from the Dragon in the same way that Old Covenant Israel escaped from Pharaoh into the wilderness, to be preserved during a time of trouble (Rev.11:2) (v.6). So in the first instance - on the first prophetic level in the first prophetic cycle - the references here may be to seasons of rest which the Messianic Community in the Promised Land of Israel-proper experienced during the troubles of the first two centuries which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem (Ac.9:31), and the escape of the first believers to Petra before the siege (cp. Mt.24:16). That is the overview of the rest of today's text. With that in mind, let's now take a closer look at each verse.

We've seen the 'Sign in Heaven' - the Woman - who represents Israel, the nation as a whole. On the primary level, she is Israel personified or represented as a person, together with the marks which characterise the nation in its constitution and hope; on the secondary, she represents Messianic Israel after the Messiah has been born, ministered, crucified and ascended to heaven.

Now we must take a look at the Woman's great enemy in verse 3:

"Then another sign appeared in heaven: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its heads were seven coronets (diadems)..." (Rev.13:3, KNT).

This second 'sign' is also seen 'in heaven' and there isn't any doubt as to what it signifies. Verse 9 goes on to later explain that "the great [red] dragon" is "the ancient serpent who is called the devil (slanderer) and the satan (adversary)". He has seven heads and ten horns, and upon his head seven crowns, diadems or coronets, which may also be plain jewelled headbands that are worn as badges of sovereignty, authority and glory...signs of earthly dominion: for Satan is the "ruler (prince) of the power ('authority' - HRV) of the air" (Eph.2:2, NRSV) - "the controller of those evil powers who haunt the air" (Barclay) - "the unseen ruler" (JBP), "the ruler (prince) of this world" (Jn.12:31, NRSV; 14:30; 16:11). In other words, combining the sense of these two ideas, he is the unseen or invisible ruler of this planet's political (world) system. It doesn't mean he is sovereign of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and trace gases and/or the volume of space between the surface of the earth and outer space. It means that, like air which cannot be seen, he is the unseen ruler of the planet. The same idea is used when Yah'shua (Jesus) compares the invisible Ruach (Spirit) with the wind (Jn.3:8).

Please be careful to note that Yah'shua (Jesus) did not dispute this claim by Satan in Luke's Gospel:

"The devil led Him (Yah'shua/Jesus) up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendour, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship Me, it will all be Yours"(Luke 4:5-7, NIV).

Cut off one of the Dragon's heads heads, and two more will grow in its place by virtue of that authority the Devil possesses until Yah'shua (Jesus) returns to finally displace him. Our job is to manifest the Saviour's invisible Kingdom that comes from within by living the messianic life (Lk.17:21) and to thereby set up a spiritual tension that men and women can see and so choose between. You can't change this world using the system that Satan has been ordained to control for a fixed period of time; that means involvement in politics will never bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. The fallen satanic world system is here to stay for now though it can be weakened in places where the righteous qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) prayerfully combat (for example) territorial spirits - Satan's henchmen-demons. Satan's rights are here because of millennia of sinning which has given him and his hosts those rights and since Yah'shua (Jesus) prophesied that true emunah or faith would be hard to find on the earth when He returns. That much we can change by fixing the consequences man's sinning. This will remain a very dark world indeed as the Book of Revelation is clearly pointing out save for special individuals and places or cities of refuge which the Enemy cannot touch.

Though I have taught about this before and in much greater depth, it is important that you grasp it so that you are not tricked into following the lies of 'Kingdom Now' theology, also known as Theonomy, which is the futile attempt to make the Kingdom happen through the external imposition of the force of governmental law on people whether they want it or not. This was attempted in the Middle Ages and was a complete failure because it resulted in oppression. What can be achieved through politics can, at most, only be temporary to give believers breathing space - relief from persecution for a while - and to enable evangelism to proceed to the unreached. Besides, 'Christian' politics is subject to the bane of denominationalism.

Historically orthodox Christian secular power was used to impose Sunday worship and/or rest on everybody, a law which still obtains in Germany, for instance. All business was by law forced to cease on Sundays when I was a teen in the UK. Then Jews objected because they wanted a Saturday 'sabbath' exemption to the Law followed by Jehovah's Witnesses who wanted the right to work on Sundays if they so wished even though they actually meet on Sundays. Both got their 'right'. What happened was that traders made nominal conversions to the Jehovah's Witnesses so they could trade on Sundays. The system became chaotic and finally in Britain the Sunday trading laws were abolished. But 'Kingdom Now' advocates would bring back those compulsory Sunday laws. That's why Theonomy doesn't work. You can't impose religious practices on people, especially not now in multicultural societies. The same problem would happen if a ban on Saturday trading were enforced to make the Seventh-Day Adventists and most Messianics happy. Theonomy only works in a Theocracy and there hasn't been one of those since the 19th and 20th centuries, nor will there be until Messiah returns. Such theonomic theocracies as do exist in, for example, the Moslem world, where Sharia rules, are hell on earth for all but the most extreme Moslems.

There are lots other problems which we don't have time to go into now when it comes to the relationship between the State and Christians/Messianics [1]. Similar issues exist with the so-called Noahide Laws which Jews want to impose on the whole world which many uninformed Christians and Messianics support not realising that they would themselves become its victims as idolaters for worshipping Messiah as Elohim (God) and suffering beheading for their trouble. A Noahide State would be another hell-on-earth in spite of the individual laws being good but only in the context of a wider whole. All man-made systems, however they are dressed with religion, are doomed to failure because man is himself corrupt. So the only way to contain and restrain Satan's authority and power is to pursue the Principle of Free Agency. Liberty with freedom of speech are essential. Get that enshined in Satan's political sphere and you can throw a spanner in his works which is why he fiercely attacks liberty. We are in danger of losing it altogether in the West in the current political climate. That's all I'll say on that subject as this would require a series of sermons to tackle properly.

Let's read verse 4 again:

"And its tail swept a third of the stars out of heaven and threw them down to the earth" (Rev.12:4a, KNT).

Continuing:

"The dragon stands (stood) opposite the woman who was about the give birth, so that he could devour her child when it was born" (Rev.12:4b, revised KNT).

There are a couple of things I want you to note about the 'foundation of the world' passages in the Bible. Firstly, there is an obvious difference between "since the foundation of the earth" (mentioned 7 times in Scriptures) and "before the foundation of the earth" (mentioned only 3 times - in John 17:24, Ephesians 1:4 and 1 Peter 1:20). Today's passage informs us that Satan's rebellion occurred after the creation of the world but without distinguishing between the world that was re-formed in Genesis 1:2 and the original creation in Genesis 1:1.

It has long been our view that Satan and his malakim (angels) lived on this world before the re-formation of the planet and the creation of plants, animals and man during the Genesis 1:1 period. He and his hosts were removed from it violently by flooding after their rebellion, in the same manner as Noah, leaving the earth "formless" and covered in water, to be recreated in Genesis 1:2 onwards [3] when "a wind from Elohim (God) swept over the face of the waters" (NRSV). Seeing Man given custodianship over the earth which once had been his, filled Satan with rage and jealousy, an added reason why he has waged continuous warfare against human beings. Nevertheless Satan was still legally the earth's 'prince'. This model also explains why external light appears before the sun becomes visible from a vantage point on the earth since it was obscured by a thick canopy of water. But that, as I'm always saying, is 'another story for another time'.

This rebellion was not, incidentally, a single act but an on-going one. The text properly reads, "and the dragon stands (not 'stood') before the Woman..." The verb is in the present tense and not the past, something that E.W.Bullinger points out but which nearly all other translators ignore. The Hebraic Roots Version (HRV) comes closest by rendering it "was standing" but even that does not convey the sense that this is something that's still going on - it's a continuous act of hostility, and not just a single passing event. Why is this significant? You see, the moment the word went forth that the seed of the Woman should one day crush the serpent's head (Gen.3:15), that old serpent, the Devil and Satan, took his stand before the woman in order to destroy her seed as soon as it should be brought forth. This prophetic image covers a long span of time. Indeed, it explains the long, convoluted and complex history of the world so we must spend a little time examining it. It explains why he went after Israel and why he is still going after Messianic Israel. So let's unfold this properly.

Satan's highest priority - his primary mission - from the moment that prophecy was issued, was to prevent the 'seed of the Woman' from ever coming in to the world - into his domain over which he had authority. He has no intention of being crushed if he can at all prevent it. That is why he goes to extraordinary ends to stop Christians/Messianics who have 'Christ in them' from spreading into, and overturning, his domain because they are ordained to replace him, the reason he hates us so much. That is why believers are so relentlessly persecuted because we are a threat to his invisible kingdom - what is poetically referred to as the "[kingdom] of the air" of which he is "prince". John's readers...nitially the 7 congregations of Asia Minor - and now us, today - are being told of the Devil's doom but at the same time how that same Devil has taken his 'stand' so as to prevent not only the Master's appearing but why he is so furiously engaged in bruising our heels, dogging us wherever we go. Speaking to the Serpent in the Garden, Yahweh had said:

"On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed (offspring) and her Seed;
He shall crush your head,
And you shall strike at (bruise) [4] His heel"
(Gen.3:14-15, NKJV & NIV).

Now, of course, he dogs us by biting or striking at our metaphlorical 'heels' (as the NIV renders the text) by raising up various human instruments and agents to mke life difficult for us, and whilst each of these people have their own respective motives for going after us, Satan's object has always been one - and only one - to protect his kingdom and his own 'head' or authority. Why 'head'? Because, as the expression 'head of state' implies, it's the leading or first position of governmental rule, like a President or Prime (First) Minister. This is the deadly game of preserving power for selfish ends, the great goal of unspiritual and wicked beings.

This murderous 'game' - this power struggle that involves oppressing, imprisoning and even killing the 'opposition', first began in Genesis 6:1 when Satan strove to corrupt the whole of mankind:

"When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the [fallen] beni elohim (Sons of God) saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then Yahweh said, 'My Ruach (Spirit) will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.' The Nephilim (giants) were on the earth in those days -- and also afterward -- when the [fallen] beni Elohim (sons of God) went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men ('warriors' - NRSV) of renown ('famous men' - JB, 'men of name' - ISRV)" (Gen 6:1-4, NIV).

Satan was so successful in corrupting human DNA with this 'fallen angel seed' that only one family was uncontaminated - he came within a hair's breath of succeeding in wiping out the Messianic line by destroying His ancestral progenitors. This is what the word tahmim in the Hebrew means in the passage that reads:

"Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations (tahmim)" (Gen 6:9, KJV).

Nothing but divine intervention therefore was able to save the human race back in Noah's days and nothing but divine intervention can save it again at the end...which is what the Book of Revelation is all about on the collective level. In Shem (whose name also means 'renown', 'reputation' or 'name' - Gen.9:18), the blood line of "the seed of the Woman" was continued, and the promise made in Eden was preserved.

That was Satan's first attempt. The second was made in Exodus 1 to destroy the male children of Israel at their birth, not the females. That is because the blood line is carried in the Y-chromosome (which is why Israel is a patrilineal and patriarchal society, unlike that of ancient Egypt). Pharaoh's object was to prevent the increase in the number of the children of Israel so that they would not one day become strong enough to revolt and leave Egypt. That was the human motive. But Satan's object, as ever, was to destroy the male messianic line altogether and thus make the birth of "the seed of the Woman" impossible, thus preserving his hegemony over the earth.

Once again divine interventions defeated Satan's plans. It was a spiritual conflict in which Heraven and Hell were taking part all along. It is the same conflict which we see here in Revelation 12. It is the same reason why the élites are trying to genetically modify the male 'Y' sex chromosome, not to prevent the birth of Messiah (which satan failed to accomplish) but to prevent 'believing men-in-Christ' from rising up in their capacity as heads from assuming leadership positions in society and thus challenging Satan's power base. This is the reason Satan has engineered the feminist movement...humans have their own agendas, of course, including 'equality' and the like. To understand all the complexities of what is going on here I highly recommend you get a hold of Dr. Henry Makow's book, Cruel Hoax as I don't have time to get into all of that here [5]. This is a subject that raises a lot of hackles but the truth has to be told because the big losers are the women themselves who have been shamefully used by the dark powers to destroy their own essence and identity to achieve a diabolical, satanic objective. Like I said, there are Satan's motives and there are men's motives which aren't necessarily the same, the one invisible and the other visible, often contradicting one another, which is a reason confusion exists in the world. Satan doesn't care how he achieves his objectives or whether they make any human sense or not. There's a reason the Serpent went after Eve in the Garden Paradise and not Adam because he knew that Adam, who would have resisted had he discovered what was going on, would follow Eve wherever she went out of his love for her.

Returning to Egypt for a moment because Satan's designs were frustrated by a baby's tear and a pagan woman's soft heart. Scripture tells us that Yahweh "catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away" (Job 5:13, NIV), and what Pharaoh said utilising Egypt's 'wisdom' (Ex.1:10) was frustrated by a baby's crying:

"Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for ('had compassion on' - KJV) him. 'This is one of the Hebrew babies,' she said" (Ex.2:5-6, NIV).

Thus Pharaoh's wisdom (which was being manipulated by satan to achieve his war against the Seed) was forced in the end to give 'board and lodging' to the very person who would destroy him and Satan's designs - not only that, but he was also forced to bring him up and educate the very man who accomplished the very object Pharaoh had striven to prevent. For it was Moses who delivered the nation of Israel out of his hand, along with the Messianic Seed, and Yahweh Himself overthrew his armies in the Red Sea (Yam Suf, Sea of Reeds). Remember this: Yahweh always has the last word, He always turns up at seemingly the last moment when we think all is lost, and He uses the corrupt wisdom of His enemies against themselves. He even uses them in His service without them ever realising it. And that includes Satan.

The next determined attempt of Satan to break up the Royal Line may be found in chapters 11 and 12 of the Second Book of Chronicles by which the seed of the Woman was to come. On the death of Jehoshaphat, his son Jehoram, made a beginning to this diabolical scheme (to serve his own purposes, of course - power):

"When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father's kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the princes of Israel" (2 Chron 21:4, NIV).

But he had children and of these, we read that the Arabians attacked Judah and slew his sons so that "not a son was left to him except Ahaziah, the youngest" (2 Chron.21:17, NIV). Ahaziah, then, was the only lineal descendant of the Royal Line of the seed of the Woman, through David, Abraham and Shem. But Ahaziah had children. These, in their turn, were murdered by Athaliah. She evidently left them all for dead, for it says "she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah" (2 Chron.22:10, NIV). Well, that is what she meant to do, and would have done had Yahweh not again intervened and rescued the infant Joash "from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom" (2 Chron.22:11, NIV). It's quite the drama, and would have made a good movie!

For six years all the hopes of Yahweh's people rested on that one life. All the faithfulness of Yahweh depended on the life of that one babe, Joash. While Jehosheba, the wife of the Cohen Gadol (High Priest), was hidden with the child in one of the chambers of the Temple, her husband, Jehoiada, was going about among the people testifying and saying, "Behold, the king's son shall reign, as Yahweh has said, of the sons of David". That was the burden of the testimony - the faithfulness of Yahweh! And nothing but the divine intervention frustrated the designs of Satan (and the plans of Athaliah) from succeeding in cutting off the Line by which the Seed of the Woman was eventually to come into the world.

But Satan still stood before the Woman waiting to devour her child, the moment it was born. And at length the hour came when the Seed of the Woman entered the world. This time the Enemy used Herod. Having ascertained the place (Bethlehem) from the Torah Teachers or Scribes where the child should be born (Bethelem - Mt.2:4) and the time when the star appeared before the wise men (Mt.2:7), he murdered all the babes in Bethlehem under two years of age, and thought he had devoured the Seed of the Woman. But once again, Heaven interfered and defeated his plans. You see, He does take care of His own. You can trust Him with that.

But it doesn't end there, does it? So what does Satan try next? Having failed to snuff Him out at His birth, he must next await his opportunity when hHe is an adult. He suggests that Yah'shua (Jesus) throw Himself off the pinnacle of the Temple by taking a Scripture from the Tanakh (Old Testament) out of context (Mt.4:6). That failed. Next He aroused the people of Nazareth into a rage and drove them to push Him off a cliff (ILk.4:29). When that failed, he whipped up two storms on Like Chinnereth (the Sea of Galilee - Mt.8:24 and Mark 4:37; Lk.8:23) to try and drown Him. Thus there were ever more attempts by Satan to devour this Man-Child.

And when he saw Him on the cross, and laid in the tomb, and the stone sealing it, and the Roman guards set, the Devil thought he had his prey within his grasp and started to celebrate his imagined victory. But again Heaven interfered. Elohim (God) "raised Him from the dead" (John 12:17, NKJV) and the child, as stated in the Book of Revelation, was "caught up to Elohim (God) and His throne" (Rev.12:5, NKJV), as also shall the faithful qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) be, Messianic Israel (Rev.3:21). And that is something we can all eagerly anticipate! What a crowning moment of a life lived in the service of Yah'shua (Jesus) that will be!

Next, verse 5:

"She gave birth to a male child, who is going to rule all the nations with a rod of iron" (Rev.12:5a, KNT).

"Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter (rod); you will dash them to pieces like pottery" (Ps.2:8-9, NIV).

Continuing with the second half of verse 5:

"And the child was snatched away to Elohim (God) and His Throne" (Rev.12:5b, KNT).

This is emphatically true of the Messiah (Rev.3:21) but is not true of the Messianic Community (Church). Rather, we, in the words of Paul to the Philippians, are to be "called...heavenward in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus)" (Phil 3:14, NIV) by a special calling and our lowly bodies are to be "transform[ed] ...so that they will be like His glorious body" (v.21). Paul here speaks of the glorious physical resurrection. Once the first resurrection of the dead or disembodied spirits take place they will immediately proceed back to earth - not tarry in Heaven - with the Messiah and be greeted by the resurrected survivors of the Great Tribulation in the sky who will welcome them home to earth [6].

Which brings us, finally, to verse 6:

"The Woman, meanwhile, fled into the desert, where a place has been prepared for her by Elohim (God), so that she could be looked after there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days" (Rev.12:6, KNT).

This is not a punishing wasteland like the Sinai Desert through which Israel had to wander for 40 years to kill off the first idolatrous generation and train the second generation, but a place of spiritual refuge that is alluded to by the navi (prophet) Hosea:

"Therefore I am now going to allure her (Israel); I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her" (Hos.2:14, NIV).

This is a most important truth that the end-time Remnant must understand. The Woman remains in danger throughout the Book of Revelation until her Bridegroom returns for her. Having failed to devour the Man-Child, Satan will do the 'next worst thing' by turning on Messianic Israel, the Remnant Bride, in his rage. Unable to defeat Christ, He goes for the next 'best' thing: Messiah's allegorical Wife.

This is a tactic of the Devil you must surely be aware of. Here the symbol becomes both mother and spouse which, though impossible in the flesh, is real enough in the spiritual-symbolic realm. We understand this because as believers we are both Yah'shua's (Jesus') 'sons and daughters' as well as His 'wife'. These are not literal concepts but spiritual, describing relationships. Yah'shua (Jesus) is both a Father and a Husband to us depending on the spiritual process working in us. So we should not, therefore, be baffled by the concept of a man being both a spiritual father and a literal husband to his wife. This becomes all the more important in a dysfunctional world reflecting Satan's hatred of the family and his followers' zealous efforts to eradicate it. Fathering and mothering will be a rare thing indeed in the very last of days, that essential ingredient of growing up that must be supplied by someone. Indeed, is this not a task of the Elijah Prophets? Will they not engage and supply the Spirit of Elijah so that fathers and sons can be reconciled, as prophesied by Malachi at the very end of the Tanakh (Old Testament)?

So the woman is taken to an isolated place - the wilderness of desert - where she can be tenderly cared for. Instead of being a place of, at times, violent purification as the first Israelite wandering was, this place is to be one of nourishment and safety from whatever is going on elsewhere, which we know all about from what we have read thus far of the judgments in the Book of Revelation...which isn't a pleasant time. In this safe haven, Messianic Israel is to be taken care of for 3½ years, in other words, the second half and worst period of the Great Tribulation. The Dragon is still persuing believers but those who are in this place of safety cannot be touched. They are supernaturally protected. This is where 12-tribed Messianic Israel goes into hiding - not raptured but into a place of safety right here on planet earth. Those who are not with this company are going to go through the terrible times of the judgments alongside the world. This 'place of safetly' is an important part of our Five Commissions...the fifth to be exact. So this passage should be resonating in all those who are called to this work. If it isn't, then you have cause to wonder if you're in the right place. We are all here gathering for the Last Exodus and if not for ourselves, then for our children. This Final Gathering is what the Olive Branch was created for, and indeed our gigantic website.

We are the Woman now and what happens to her should therefore be of the greatest interest to us. At length we shall meet a counterfeit woman, a horrible caricature of this one, who will be garnering a lot of attention for herself along the way. She too shares our world and has done so from the beginning - the Whore of Babylon - and is our greatest earthbound adversary.

So, ironically, perhaps, this time of special protection also corresponds to the final time of terrible persecution, something most Christians and Messianics have found hard to reconcile because they don't understand that some are gathered in a place, or places, of safety while others, who will not, or cannot not (because they refuse to be obedient). They will find themselves in great danger, often becoming martyrs alongside the Remnant specifically sent out from the Cities of Refuge as witnesses. Both will die for their testimony and for refusing the Mark of the Beast which we'll learn more about as we encounter the two nasty monsters in the verses to come.

Next week we shall be looking at a fairly large chunk, verses 7-17 as we resume Interlude III. In the meantime, I have an important prophetic message in two day's time for the Remnant at Rosh Chodesh which ties in to our current theme. So until then, may Yahweh bless you all over the coming nine days as we navigate through our current difficulties. May the grace and peace of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) be with you. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] See, for example, The Limits of Obedience to the State: A Study of Romans 13:1-7
[2] Matthew 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; John 17:24; Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 4:6; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8; 17:8
[3] See, for example, Genesis 1: How Old is the Creation? and Big Bang or Yahweh's Creation?
[4] The verb in both instances is shoof meaning to 'break', 'bruise', 'strike at', 'snap' at', etc.. Nlot only must the context reveal which to use, but as this is poetic in form, it is quite likely that different nuances would have been contrasted, which the NIV handles masterfully. There are multiple levels of prophecy here - a contest between Satan and the Seed, the Messiah; and between the followers of Satan and the followers of the Messiah
[5] Henry Mackow PhD, Cruel Hoax: Feminism & the New World Order - the Attack on Your Human Identity (Silas Green, USA: 2010)
[6] See how this contradicts the popular 'Rapture' doctrine

Acknowledgements

[1] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone - The New Testament for Everyone Commentary Series, Vol.19 (SPCK, London: 2011)
[2] E.W.Bullinger*, Commentary on Revelation (Kregel Classics, Grand Rapids, Michihan: 1984)
[3] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNT Publications, Clarksville, Maryland: 1992)
[4] ESV Study Bible (Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois: 2011)
[5] The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1995)
[6] Ed. J.R.Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (MacMillan, London: 1909)

*E.W.Bullinger was a brilliant Anglican clergyman and scholar whose works merit careful study by serious students of the Bible. He was, however, seriously in error in at least three main areas, namely, (1) he believed the 'Church' has been raptured before the Book of Revelation opens, (2) he believed that the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 are 7, literal Jewish churches or assemblies yet to come, and (3) he believed in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture.

• 1. White horse - military aggression
• 2. Red horse - bloodshed
• 3. Black horse - famine
• 4. Pale Green/Blanched/Pallid/Sickly-looking horse - disease, epidemics

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• 5. Persecution & prayer
• 6. Tremour & terror

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  INTERLUDE I (Ch.7)
  (The 144,000 Redeemed)

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• 7. Silence in heaven, listening to prayers which are then answered in a final catastrophe: a severe earthquake I

• 1. Scorched earth
• 2. Polluted sea
• 3. Contaminated water
• 4. Reduced sunlight

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• 5. Insects and plague (for five months) (1st Woe)
• 6. Oriental invasion (200 million army) (2nd Woe)

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  INTERLUDE II (Ch.10-11)
  (The Malak with the Little Scroll)
  (The Two Witnesses)

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• 7. The Kingdom comes, the world is taken over by Yahweh & Yah'shua (Jesus) after a severe earthquake II (3rd Woe)

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  INTERLUDE III (Ch.13-14)
  (The First & Second Beasts)
  (The Lamb & the 144,000)
  (The Messages of the Three Malakim)

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• 1. Boils on the skin
• 2. Blood in the sea
• 3. Blood from the springs
• 4. Burning by the sun

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• 5. Darkness
• 6. Armageddon

  ---

• 7. Hailstorm (OB 368:11-12) and severe earthquake III, leading to international collapse