1. A couple of weeks ago we took a general look at what still is to happen in the remainder of the book of Revelation. At the sounding of the 7th trumpet the actual events will take place.
2. The seventh trumpet is sounded but before the events are given in detail, we hear a response in heaven to the sounding of the trumpet. There are loud voices but we are not told whose they are. They announce the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ forever. God is sovereign and He rules heaven and earth.
3. But His rule has and is being disputed by Satan. Satan has used other angels and man to exert his claim and his influence. But that will be ended when he is finally defeated.
4. The 24 elders fall on their faces and worship God. They say that He has taken His great power and begun to reign.
5. He always had that power but He has now revealed it in two ways. By His wrath in judging the nations, His enemies. And by His grace to His prophets and all the saints. All who revere the name of the Lord will be rewarded - both small and great.
6. God’s temple in heaven will be opened so that all on earth will see it. This symbolizes His presence with His people. And the ark of the covenant reminds us of His faithfulness.
7. Now that we have seen the response to the sounding of the trumpet, we see in detail what will happen. And as confusing as it may seem to be, we go back historically.
8. In chapter 12 we see that three wars have and are taking place. Or we could say they show three aspects of one war.
9. In verse 1 we are told that John sees a great and wondrous sign. This means that what is described is symbolic.
10. First, he sees a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars. Her appearance is mighty and glorious. So important that even the heavenly bodies of light must serve to add to her splendour. And yet she has not yet reached the purpose of her existence. She is not perfectly happy and blessed. For she is pregnant and in great pain since she is about to give birth.
11. Then John sees another sign in heaven. An enormous red dragon. A monster that is deformed. It is the colour of blood and destruction. It has seven heads, each with a crown on it. This suggest complete rule. And seven is a holy number. But this is deceptive. For he is not what he thinks he is. The ten horns symbolize great power. This dragon is none other than Satan himself. We read that in verse 9. He was created a great angel but now he uses that greatness against God Himself.
12. In vs. 4 we read that his tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. This represents those angels whom he seduced to follow him in his rebellion against God. They are a third, a large number, but not the majority. They, along with Satan, were cast out of heaven.
13. But who is the woman? The answer is partly found in vs. 6. For the period of 1260 days was that which was used for the two witness. She is the church of the living God in Jesus Christ.
14. After delivering the child, she is in the desert or wilderness for 1260 days. The child is Jesus - for He will rule the nations with an iron scepter.
Rev 2:27 'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery' -- just as I have received authority from my Father.
The woman is not the mother of Jesus.
15. Remember what God told Satan after the fall of man
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Christ is God but also man. And as man Christ is to come forth from humanity, not as it is under the power of Satan, but rather from the people of God, from the church of the living God. He is the Son of David. He comes forth from God’s chosen people. We see that promise over and over again in the OT. To Abraham - all people would be blessed through Christ, through Abraham and his descendents of which Christ is one.
Gen 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
16. And the woman wears 12 crowns - a symbol of God’s church. The 12 tribes, the 12 patriarchs, the 12 disciples. And of course the church is often described as a woman, as the bride of Christ. But this is a picture of the church in the Old Testament, before Christ was born. For the church consists of all believers, including those in the OT who were saved by faith in God and His promised redeemer.
17. The devil wants to prevent the woman from giving birth. We see how he tries to turn the people of God from Him throughout the Old Testament. He wants to devour the child. He knows that it is through this child that he will be defeated and destroyed. And so we know how many times Satan tried to prevent Jesus from His death and resurrection. Through Herod killing the children in Israel and through tempting Jesus in the desert and many other ways.
18. But the child was born and He was snatched up by God to His throne. This scene symbolizes the war between Satan and God as played out upon the earth up to the time when Christ was exalted and glorified in heaven. Vs. 6 tells us that the woman or church then fled to the desert until Christ would return.
19. But the scene now changes to heaven. This is not a sign or symbolic scene but one that actually takes place. There is a battle between the archangel Michael and his angels and Satan and his angels. This not a physical battle for angels are spirits and cannot die in a physical sense. It is a spiritual battle fought by spiritual means with a spiritual outcome. This battle probably occurs at the same time as the battle between the woman and the dragon we just read about.
20. Some think it is about the initial battle when Stan rebelled against God. But that seems unlikely. Salvation and the authority of Christ has come, for vs. 11 says that the victory comes by the blood of the lamb.
21. Hoeksema thinks that this battle occurs in heaven and it is a battle over the souls of those who have been saved in the Old Testament. Satan is called the accuser of the brothers, who accuses them day and night before God. These people were sinners. We see this as we read through the Old Testament. And the debt of their sins would be paid for by the death and resurrection of Christ. But Christ had not yet died. And so Satan accuses them and says they have no right to be in heaven. He still hopes he can stop Jesus from dying for the elect.
22. But God knows that Christ’s work will be successfully completed because He has decreed it. And in knowledge of that certainty He has already brought the OT saints to glory. And so the devil claims these saints are sinners but Michael says they are righteous. And in this battle, Satan is defeated. Through the actual, accomplished work of Christ.
23. But the devil will still wage another battle.
Rev 12:12 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."
He has lost the first two battles, but now he turns his efforts toward the persecution of the church as still on earth.
24. The woman is still on earth. She is given wings to escape the dragon. A place she would be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time. Remember this is 3 ½ days or the present period between Christ’s two comings. This means that God will provide the church the wings or means to escape, a haven well out of the devil’s reach. The church can be said to still be the mother of believers, of true believers. It is through the church that the word is preached, that people are called and nutured in their faith. And so the battle is between Satan and the woman and her offspring.
25. But the woman, the church is in this desert, this safe place. It is a place that is in the world, but is not of the world. If one is in the wilderness, one is separated from the life of the world. The church is to be separate from the world. In the OT, the church and state were one, but that is different today. The world has different values and the church’s beliefs are different. Our laws are not the laws of man but of God. Not that we disobey the worlds laws, but we must obey God rather than man.
26. The devil wants to change that.
Rev 12:15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.
This was not to destroy her. But to be a flood that carries her back into the world. Satan tries to make an alliance that unites the church and the world. That the church takes on the ways of the world. And while the devil seems to have some success, the true church will not be compromised or carried out into the world.
27. And so he tries to make war to the church’s off spring - you and me, the individual members of the church. We move around in the world and he tries to entice us to follow the ways of the world rather than Christ. Since we are in touch with the world, Satan can approach us.
28. But we must obey God’s commandments and hold on to the testimony of Jesus. Only then can we withstand his attacks. And the importance of staying in the church. Many leave it and say they believe. They are easy targets for Satan, I know from experience.
29. And the church must remember her task. Not to get involved in the world’s affairs. But to care for and nourish her offspring.
