Revelation Ep 11 The Woman, The Church and The Manchild

Revelation Episode 11: The Woman, the Church and the Manchild Today we are doing Revelation episode 11, which talks about the Woman, who represents the Church in the last days, and her experience of being attacked by the Dragon and protected by God during the three and a half years, or forty-two months, of the Tribulation. Reading from Revelation 12:1: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems…” The Dragon of Revelation is out to destroy the Woman and her Man Child. We will look at him in a moment. Most traditional viewpoints identify the Woman as Israel bringing forth Jesus. However, that is a historical event—not a future event during the three and a half years of the Tribulation. Revelation chapter 12 describes the narrative of the Woman over the Tribulation period of 1,260 days, or 42 months, or three and a half years. This event is of great significance in Revelation for the Church, regarding its ongoing future conflict with the Dragon and his rebellious angelic following, and the divine protection of the Church throughout the Tribulation. Remember, in the last episode on the Two Witnesses, we saw that Revelation chapters 11 to 19 deal with all the events within the final 3½ years. The events are not all presented as a single, uninterrupted chronological sequence. They are explanatory “camera angles,” or parallel perspectives on the same period—like watching a movie and thinking you’ve arrived at the end of the story, where everything is about to be resolved, and then a caption comes up on the screen saying, “Three and a half years earlier.” From Revelation 19, we can move progressively toward Christ’s return. Today we are identifying the Woman as the Church—camera angle three on the grid below. PERSPECTIVE — FOCUS OF THE VISION — SPECIFIC NARRATIVE SYMBOL - Heaven — Declaration of God’s Kingdom — The Seventh Trumpet (Revelation 10) - Israel — The prophetic ministry/testimony — The Two Witnesses (Revelation 11) - Church — Conflict and protection of the Church — The Woman (Revelation 12) - The Beast — The political/religious authority — The Two Beasts (Revelation 13) - God Blesses — Choosing of an anointed group — The 144,000 (Revelation 14) - God Judges — The outpouring of divine wrath — The Seven Bowls (Revelation 15) The foundational blueprint for the overarching journey of the Woman as the Church travels from Genesis to Revelation starts in Genesis 3:15 (God to Satan): “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This promise of a coming deliverer who will bruise the serpent’s head finds its prophesied goal in the corporate body of Christ. While the initial fulfilment is enacted in the person of Jesus on the cross, the apostolic vision of Paul in Romans 16:20 confirms a final delegated work from Jesus to the Church. Paul says to the Church, “The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” This shift to the corporate phrase “your feet” signals the transition from Jesus on the cross to the Church as the feet in the execution of judgement. To understand this fulfilment, we must first analyse the celestial “Woman” of Revelation 12—a spiritual fulfilment whose seed is prophesied into history from Genesis 3:5. We saw the Woman dwelling in the fulness of the Godhead in the sun, moon, and stars. The sun speaks of the glory of the Father; the moon is the reflected glory of Jesus; and the stars speak of the Holy Spirit in Christians. Twelve stars represent the twelve Apostles of the Book of Acts—the number twelve speaks of order and authority. The Woman, the Church, is about to bring forth a Man Child. The identification of the stars representing the Holy Spirit in Christians is seen in the following Scripture references. Firstly, through Abraham—Genesis 22:17: “I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Matthew 16:18—the gates of hell shall not prevail). Then, through Daniel—Daniel 12:3: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Then, through Paul—1 Corinthians 15:37: “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory” (God on display). THE DRAGON This Dragon is Satan. Revelation 12:3: “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” The seven heads speak historically of seven world kingdoms down through the ages, spoken of in Daniel. These are Egypt, Assyria, Media, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the final fearsome ten-toed kingdom (covered in Revelation in a later lesson). The seven heads here are seen as last-days heads of nation-states, while horns in the Bible speak of power. The ten horns speak of last-days strategic horns of power that give rise to the Beast’s Antichrist rule. We will see later that the crowns change place between Revelation 13:1 and Revelation 17:9, speaking of significant corrupt political and spiritual power-brokering in the final days. Even today, we are seeing radical changes in the power dynamics of political, military, and economic hegemony, where some nation-states are in desperate decline while others are gaining economic and military advantage. Unexpected alliances of strategic horns-of-power groupings are being formed to dominate nation-states, and these power groupings leverage and threaten with no regard for diplomacy. We can perhaps expect to witness surprising structural and influential changes in national leadership, even over the next two years, because of the current political instability (next episode). THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE DRAGON, SATAN, AND THE WOMAN, THE CHURCH Revelation 12:4: “His tail swept down (syro from 138, drawn to oneself) a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the Dragon stood before the Woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. She gave birth to a Man Child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to His throne, and the Woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.” The tail of the Dragon draws the third part of the stars of heaven (verse 4). This “sweep” refers to the deception of “fallen saints” rather than original angelic rebels. We saw earlier that the stars represent Christians. Later, in verse 9, the Dragon, Satan, falls with ALL of his rebellious angels. According to the typological key, we see what happens here in Isaiah. Isaiah 9:15: “And the prophet who teaches lies is the tail; for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up” (bala—engulfed). So these are Christians deceived by false prophets and lying wonders, as Paul prophesied in 2 Thessalonians: 2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time (the Holy Spirit). For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way (mesos; in the midst—how is the Woman out of the way?). And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one (the Beast) is by the activity of Satan (the Dragon), with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” The Dragon now prepares to devour the Man Child because this is the fulfilment of the prophesied “seed of the woman” (Genesis 3:15), who will completely destroy him, the Dragon (Romans 16:20). When the Man Child is caught up, the Dragon is cast to the earth with all of his angels. This is distinct from the one-third of the stars being swept by the tail of the Dragon, meaning fallen saints, not angels. All the angels are cast down after Michael defeats Satan. THE MAN CHILD Revelation 12:5: “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.” The identity of the Man Child is one of the controversial issues of the Book of Revelation. Like the Book of Revelation itself, teaching on the Man Child has become sectarian and divisive. This would be precisely what Satan, the Dragon, would want to see for obvious reasons. I simply propose that the Man Child is a certain corporate group expression of Christ that rules with Him, with a designated sphere of influence and authority. We will compare Moses, Jesus, and the Man Child in their ministries and note the progression. FEATURE — MOSES — JESUS — MAN CHILD - Birth — Natural birth; old creation from old creation — Supernatural birth; new creation from old creation — Miracle birth; new creation from new creation - Conflict — Children slain by Pharaoh; Moses picks up serpent by the tail — Children slain by Herod; serpent bruises Jesus’ heel — Children?; Man Child bruises Dragon’s head (Romans 16:20) - Ministry — Ministers at Tabernacle; supernatural feeding (manna) — Ministers in Temple; feeds people in the wilderness — Ministers in spiritual Temple; feeds Church in Woman in wilderness - Authority — Shepherd who ruled with a rod — Great Shepherd; the measuring rod — Rules all nations with a rod of iron - Translation — Translated bodily into heaven — Translated bodily into heaven — Translated bodily into heaven WAR IN HEAVEN Revelation 12:7–9 In verse 6, we saw that the Woman flees into the wilderness, where “they” feed her for three and a half years. This is the “taking out” of the Church and is expanded in verse 14. We will deal with this event in a moment. The Dragon is now cast down to the earth from his place in the heavens. Michael the Archangel is seen here in his role as warrior, conquering the evil angels (compare Daniel 10:13). The power of the Dragon, Satan, is in his deception. He is called the Father of Lies and always desires to work under cover. But now he is exposed and seen for who he is, shifting the battlefield from the heavenly to the earthly realm. The saints who are left on the earth during this time of Tribulation will no longer be deceived by him and will overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, which is their newfound love of the truth (verses 10–11). Satan now knows that he has but a short time and is bent on the destruction of the earth and its inhabitants. His first target is the Woman, the Church—his greatest enemy. THE ESCAPE OF THE CHURCH Revelation 12:14: “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place (out of the way, in the midst, mesos?), where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the Dragon.” The Church is supernaturally taken into a protected place or spiritual state of existence on “eagles’ wings” (see Exodus 19:4), as Israel was taken out of Egypt. This will be a place on earth, but protected from the judgements upon the earth (Isaiah 16:1–5; Isaiah 26:20–21; Psalm 55:6–7; Isaiah 49:25). Also compare the 42 months of Tribulation with the 42 encampments of Israel in their wilderness journey. Whether or not this wilderness refuge is an actual geographical place, or a state of spiritual protection within the general community, remains to be seen. But the miraculous protection and provision are clearly indicated, just as they were in the spiritual protection of the symbolic Noah’s Ark during the 150 days of protection in the midst of the flood. We compared this with the 150 days of spiritual protection from the demonic, tormenting spirits set free from the pit of the Euphrates in Revelation chapter 9. The Dragon cannot destroy the Woman, so he goes to war against the remnant—made of the same cloth, but a smaller piece not woven into the garment. These are the saints who did not comprise that Bride company. See the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25) and the parable of the invitation to the wedding feast (Matthew 22). A remnant is made of the same type and quality as the original garment but is not able to be used in the making of the garment. It is always a smaller piece than the cloth used for the garment. It would seem that God’s mercy will ensure that a greater number of His people will escape the Tribulation, while fewer will be martyred in that time for not taking the mark of the Beast. The outcome of this conflict was settled at the dawn of history. The narrative concludes by pointing to the foundational promise in Genesis 3:15, where God declared the seed of the Woman would bruise the serpent’s head. This is confirmed for the Church in Romans 16:20: “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” We don’t know what “shortly” means, but it signifies a progressive movement from an earthly struggle of trials of faith to a Heavenly Wonder, where the Church is seen in divine glory, and then to a Cosmic Conflict involving the birth of a governing body (the Man Child) and a war in the heavens. Although the Dragon attempts to destroy the Church through deception in the end times—and through a full-on attack at the very end—God provides a Supernatural Escape into a protected place for the Bride. While the Remnant must face a final test of faith, the ultimate victory and the crushing of the serpent are historically and prophetically guaranteed. We are to see ourselves as having Satan under our feet at all times. The bruising for us is small compared with the mighty crushing of his power in the earth. 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”