Therefore be full of delight, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great rage, knowing he has a short time.
Revelation 12 shows a war in heaven that ends with Satan thrown out for good. Verse 12 gives the two opposite reactions to that one event — heaven must celebrate, and earth must brace itself.
The word "therefore" points back to what has just happened. One writer notes the unusual plural "heavens" here, and points out who else shares in the call:
"Therefore be full of delight, you heavens" — that is, for this reason: Satan and his angels have been thrown out of heaven for ever. Rejoice, let gladness reign throughout the whole of the heavenly spheres. This is the only place in Revelation where the word "heavens" appears. Everywhere else the book uses the singular. But the heavens are not the only ones to share in the joy that follows Michael's victory. It adds, "and you that dwell (or tabernacle) in them." The whole company of the redeemed, and the angels too, share in the call to rejoice — for the heavens are their native region.
The King James Bible adds words here: "the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea." The same writer rejects that addition and explains the two symbols:
"Woe to the earth and to the sea." The Authorised Version wrongly adds "the inhabiters of the earth." The addition does not belong. This is not an outburst of anger. It is a prophetic announcement of coming judgment on the earth — that is, on all settled and stable governments and peoples. It announces judgment on the sea too — that is, the restless and revolutionary part of the world.
Commentators differ on what earth and sea stand for. Another writer reads them as two groups of people:
In verse 12 those in heaven rejoice that Satan is banished from there. But woe is pronounced on the inhabitants of the land (Israel) and the sea (the nations). The devil's bitter hatred will rise to a frenzy of action, because he knows his time is short. Satan wants to do all the harm he can, but God allows it in perfect wisdom, using the evil to teach people what comes of choosing Satan's authority instead of God's. Behind it all stands God's stern wrath against the piled-up wickedness of both Jews and Gentiles — a wrath that is calm, deliberate, and completely righteous.
Verse 10 has just called Satan "the accuser of our brothers." Losing that job explains the storm that follows:
This woe connects Satan's removal from his heavenly seat with the crisis of Jews and Gentiles at the end of the present age. Here we find the hidden reason. Why should there be such an extraordinary storm of persecution then? Why is Satan so active here below for that short time, the three and a half years before the close? Here it is explained. Satan can no longer accuse above, so he does his worst below, while he can.
Satan's rage runs hotter than the anger of the nations, and a running clock feeds it. His fall from heaven is only the first of three steps in his judgment:
The "great rage," or wrath, of Satan exceeds that of the nations (Rev. 11:18), because he is the prime mover and the invisible leader. His rage at being banished from his heavenly place for ever grows sharper, because he knows he has only a short career left on earth… God allows Satan, once cast down, to rage against and persecute His saints on earth for 1260 literal days… At the close of that time the Lord appears, and Satan is shut in the abyss for a thousand years. This is the second stage in the judgment of the devil. The first was his casting down from the heavens. Only the third remains — cast into the lake of fire at the close of the kingdom reign, his eternal doom.
The verse holds joy and disaster together, and that split runs through the whole book:
Here we find that all the heavenly people are called to rejoice that the accuser of the brothers is cast down, and that they have overcome him. The heavenly people are the church of God, because our citizenship is in heaven and we are one with Christ there. At the very moment when these heavenly saints have overcome, Satan comes down to earth with great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. So we get full rejoicing in what is heavenly, and at the same time the most desperate woe in what is earthly. This makes the contrast clear and definite between these heavenly ones and the dwellers on earth. All through Revelation they stand against those who are heirs of heaven.
- Cast out. The "therefore" rests on one fact — Satan is thrown out of heaven for good. That is stage one of three; the last is the lake of fire.
- Heaven laughs. The redeemed and the angels who dwell there share one call — be full of delight. The accuser can never return.
- Earth groans. The same event that empties heaven of the enemy fills the settled world and the restless masses with woe.
- Rage explained. Barred from accusing above, he does his worst below. That is the hidden reason for the storm of persecution in the last three and a half years.
- Short time. A clock he cannot stop measures his fury. The thing that makes him violent proves he has already lost.
And when the dragon saw that he had been cast out into the earth, he persecuted the woman which bore the male [child].
Revelation 12 has just shown a war in heaven. It ends with Satan thrown down, and verse 13 tells us what he does with the little time he has left. He goes after the woman. Who is she? Why does his fury land on her? And what does God do about it?
The story of the woman's flight had already begun earlier in the chapter. So why does the account come back to it here?
He concentrates his whole strength against God's people, represented by the woman. This persecution is not a different one from the persecution named earlier. The account broke off to tell of the war in heaven, and to show how intense the dragon's present rage is. Now it picks up the story again: his persecution, the woman's flight, and her stay in the wilderness.
The one the dragon chases is the one who gave birth. That detail settles her identity for these writers.
In verse 1 we saw the woman in heaven with the sun for a crown. That is how she stands according to God's thought and counsels: a vessel without strength, but clothed with supreme authority. Now, instead, we find her on the earth. Christ came from the woman, the Jews. The church is in no way the mother of Christ; she is His bride. When Satan is cast out of heaven, he begins to make war with the seed of the woman — the Jews. They are the only testimony of God left on earth at that time.
Another writer notes where the church stands in the vision at this moment.
Notice this. When the dragon is cast to the earth, he cannot persecute the Church. She is rejoicing in heaven. So he brings his whole power to persecute the woman who brought forth the man child. That is the regathered Jews.
The dragon cannot reach his real target. So he strikes at what belongs to Christ.
The dragon persecutes the woman who gave birth to the male child. That child is Jesus, "God over all, blessed forever." He is the Root and Offspring of David, David's Lord and David's Son, the Alpha and Omega. He will be the Conqueror over Satan. He knows it. In his dark malevolence he pursues with relentless fury everything that is Christ's. Israel gave birth to Christ, according to the flesh. Israel is now the object of God's interests and dealings. So Israel must be persecuted.
The verse gives a reason for the attack: the dragon saw that he had been thrown down. Losing his old position is what makes him so dangerous now.
Why should there be then such an unusual storm of persecution? Why such tremendous doings of Satan here below for a short time, the three and a half years before the close? Here it is explained. Satan can no longer accuse above; so while he can, he does his worst below. He is cast down to earth, never to regain the heavens: a fact of deep meaning and heavy consequence.
The same event that unleashes the persecution also fences it in. The dragon is now limited to one sphere.
How great is the mercy that provides for God's people during those three and a half years of unequalled tribulation still to come! Satan's rage is at its greatest, and he is arming the world-power against God's people. Yet he never invades the sanctuary of the soul. Is that not worthy of God? The fiery darts of the wicked one stop. He is no longer "prince of the power of the air." He is restricted to the earth alone, where he works through the passions of men, which he can inflame against God's people.
She is not armed. She is carried out of range.
So God gives her power to escape, rapid means of flight from Satan's persecution. It is not power to withstand Satan and fight the battle out with him, but ample means to hide from his violence. The two wings of the great eagle convey this. They picture vigorous means of escape — the most energetic image of flight in nature, applied to the case in hand.
- Cast down — He attacks the moment he sees he has lost heaven. This is a defeated enemy's reaction, not a rising power's advance.
- Cut off — He can no longer accuse above, so he does his worst below. That is why this short period brings such an unusual storm of persecution.
- Aimed at Christ — He cannot reach the male child, so he pursues everything that belongs to Him. Israel gave birth to Christ, so Israel is his target.
- Fenced in — Being thrown out also limits him. He can inflame men against God's people, but he cannot reach the sanctuary of the soul.
- Carried away — God's answer is not strength to fight him but wings to flee him. The woman escapes, and the dragon's short time runs out.
And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the desert into her place, where she is nourished there a time, and times, and half a time, from [the] face of the serpent.
Revelation 12 has just shown Satan thrown out of heaven, and now his fury falls on the woman who bore the male Child. Verse 14 is God's answer: wings, a wilderness, and a fixed span of time. So who is the woman? What do the eagle's wings mean? And how long must she hide?
The woman stands for the nation of Israel, seen as God sees her. But the picture is narrower than the whole nation.
The woman is the nation as in the sight of God; not all Israel, nor even all the saints in Israel, but those whom God has appointed to continue, and who therefore stand for the nation before Him. Judgment cuts off the mass who have turned away from God. The martyred saints go up to heaven. Still God preserves a people to be the core of the nation in the coming kingdom. This is the very thing Satan most wants to destroy. God's hand keeps them safe, though in the middle of trial — which is what the word "wilderness" naturally suggests. God designs that trial to purify them.
The wording echoes the escape from Egypt, when God carried His people out from a king a prophet called a dragon.
The words plainly recall the deliverance from Egypt. The prophet calls Pharaoh king of Egypt "the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers" (Ezek. 29:3), and Pharaoh himself sums up all the hatred of the world-power. Meanwhile God says to the Israel He had delivered, at Sinai, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself" (Ex. 19:4). The reference here is clearly to this. It is not "a" great eagle, in a general sense, as older English versions put it, but "the" great eagle — perhaps the griffon, a bird whose flight nothing can match for power and skill. These words point to divine power. In the deliverance out of Egypt God jealously shut out every other power.
The gift is speed, not strength. God does not arm the woman to face the dragon; He moves her out of his reach.
So God gives power to escape, a fast way of flight from Satan's persecution. It is not power to stand against Satan and fight the battle out with him. It is the means to get away from his violence. This seems to be what the two wings of the great eagle mean: a picture of strong means of escape. Nature's most powerful image of flight is applied here to her case.
Jesus had already spoken of this flight.
The strong man of God, Christ, does not yet exercise His power. The woman has nothing else to do but to flee for three years and a half, during which time Satan exercises his power on earth with great fury. The only resource of the woman is to flee. Jesus foretold this in Matthew 24:16.
The wilderness is not abandonment. God chose the place ahead of time, and He feeds her there.
But God cares for Israel, even as He had cared for the "Man-child"; and in His providence He watches over, protects, provides for, and sustains her. Like the prophet Elijah long ago, she is hidden from sight in a place God prepared for her in the desert. And she is fed by the same kind of miracle for the whole time that Satan's rule goes unchecked.
The measure comes from Daniel. It matches every other time figure in these chapters.
In verse 6 her time alone in the wilderness is counted in days: 1260. Here it is put in vaguer terms as "a time (one year), and times (two years), and half a time" (six months) — three and a half years in all. This way of counting comes from Daniel 7:25. We have months (Rev. 11:2; 13:5), days (Rev. 11:3; 12:6), and times (v. 14). All these periods, worded differently, mean the same stretch of time: the last half week of sorrow that the prophet Daniel places in the middle of the week (Dan. 9:27).
Why does one verse count days and another count times? One suggestion is that the shift matches whose activity is in view.
In an earlier verse the time seems stretched out as long as possible. God's care for her was the main point there, as I understand it. She had a place God prepared for her. When His care and preparation are in view, He lengthens out the time as much as possible. But where the devil's power is the point, He shortens it. It appears to be the same period, only put in a different way.
- Target. The woman is Israel as God sees her — the core God preserves to become the nation of the coming kingdom. That is why Satan wants her destroyed.
- Rescue. The eagle's wings are divine power. They recall Egypt, where God carried His people out and let no other power share the work.
- Method. God gives her speed, not weapons. Her one resource is flight, just as Jesus foretold.
- Refuge. The wilderness is a place God prepared. He hides her and feeds her there, as He did Elijah — and the trial itself purifies her.
- Limit. That span is fixed — three and a half years, the same period counted elsewhere in days and in months. The wrath has an end date.
And the serpent cast out of his mouth behind the woman water as a river, that he might make her be [as] one carried away by a river.
Satan has been thrown out of heaven. His fury now falls on the woman who bore the male child. But she has escaped into the wilderness, out of his direct reach. So he changes his method. He pours a river out of his own mouth to carry her away. What does that water stand for?
The flood is aimed at a specific target. One writer explains who the woman is, and why Satan's anger has landed on her.
The Child was caught away, but the woman was left behind. Left there, she too is exposed to Satan's hatred... Remember that the woman is Israel — Israel as seen in the purposes of God. Satan's rage against Christ was disappointed, so he turns all the more fiercely against God's beloved people.
The same enemy is called the dragon just before this, and the serpent here. One writer explains the new name, and why the serpent had to change tactics.
The dragon here takes the name of serpent, because he takes the form of subtlety, deceit, and malice — "that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan."... The serpent could not overcome the woman in war, for God preserved her, not by a mighty man, but by flight. There his direct power was stopped, because heavenly power came to her aid. Still he uses the resources he has, and pours out these waters, driven by his energy, as a flood.
The prophets already used this picture of a flood. One writer points to the Assyrian invasion of Judea as the key to reading it.
The flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth is a mass of people; Isaiah 8:7-8. When the king of Assyria and all his glory come to lay Judea waste, they are pictured as a flood, as waters strong and many. The earth swallows the flood which the dragon casts out after the woman. God, in His providence, prevents these nations from devouring and destroying Israel.
A river in the desert can vanish into the sand. One writer starts there, then asks what it means that this river comes out of the serpent's mouth.
Many a river is swallowed up in the sand, and so is this one that is now poured out of the dragon's mouth. If an army is what is pictured, the wilderness can absorb a nation's strength just as well. The river coming out of his mouth seems to show that it is by the power of his persuasion that men are stirred up to this flood of hatred against the people of God. That hatred is so completely defeated that the beaten adversary gives up any further effort in this direction. Those he was chasing are left completely unattacked after this.
Commentators differ on how precise the flood is. Some keep it general: nations stirred into turmoil. One writer ties it to a named invasion, and reads the land itself as taking the blow.
The flood from the serpent's mouth (v. 15) is clearly the whirlwind attack of the King of the North. He will come as an overflowing flood (Daniel 11:40-41), also called "the overflowing scourge" (Isaiah 28:15-18). The land opens her mouth and swallows the flood. This shows that the land of Israel will take the brunt of the attack, and so the godly remnant whom God will preserve is spared.
The flood never reaches her. God uses ordinary means — the settled, governed parts of the world — to soak up what was meant to drown His people.
The serpent, so called because of his cunning hatred, now tries a new device... This shows some providential means God uses to deliver His earthly people and His purpose from the instruments of the enemy, who are then thrown into great turmoil. Those instruments are the waters flowing out as a river from the dragon's mouth — people under the immediate influence of the devil. The earth helping the woman plainly means the more settled parts of the world, used by God's providence to resist Satan's efforts to overwhelm the Jews... God can create a diversion where He sees fit, and so bring to nothing what is designed to overwhelm His people.
- Target. The woman is Israel in God's purposes. With the Child beyond his reach, Satan turns his disappointed rage on the people He came from.
- Tactic. He is called the serpent here for subtlety, deceit and malice. War against her failed, so cunning takes over.
- Torrent. Water as a flood pictures a mass of people; the prophets used the same image of the Assyrian sweeping through Judea. Commentators differ: nations stirred up in general, or the invader from the north?
- Tongue. The river comes out of his mouth — men are moved to this hatred by his persuasion, not by his hand.
- Thwarted. The earth swallows the river. God uses the settled parts of the world to bring to nothing what was designed to overwhelm His people. The defeat is so complete that the adversary gives up this line of attack.
And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
The woman here is the Jewish remnant, hidden in a shelter God provided, out of the dragon's reach. So he pours a river from his mouth to sweep her away, and the ground swallows it — but what does the flood mean, and what is this helping earth?
The picture of an overwhelming river is not new with Revelation. One writer points back to Isaiah. There an invading army comes as a flood of water, and God stops it before it can swallow Israel.
The flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth is a mass of people; Isaiah 8:7-8. When the king of Assyria and all his glory come to lay Judea waste, the prophet pictures them as a flood, as waters strong and many. The earth swallows the flood which the dragon casts out after the woman. God, in His providence, prevents these nations from devouring and destroying Israel.
So what is the earth? One writer answers that, and adds a twist. In this book the earth usually carries a guilty character, yet God turns it to His own use.
This shows some of the providential means God uses to rescue His earthly people, and His purpose for them, from the enemy's instruments, which are now thrown into great turmoil. Those instruments are the waters that pour like a river out of the dragon's mouth: people under the direct influence of the devil. The earth helping the woman clearly means the more settled parts of the world, which God uses in His providence to resist Satan's efforts to overwhelm the Jews. "The earth" in this book may have a guilty character of its own. But God can create a diversion where He sees fit, and so bring to nothing whatever threatens to overwhelm His people.
No army marches out to meet the dragon. God works instead through His providence — His hidden hand in ordinary events — and one writer shows what that looks like here.
The settled governments of that day take the side of the Jews and, by God's providence (how, we do not know), they defeat the serpent's efforts. Satan's methods fail, not through war, but because his plans to destroy the people are blocked and turned aside. This, we gather, is what the earth swallowing the river means.
Does the ground really open up? One writer says no, and points to where the dragon's agents end up instead.
I do not think that "swallowed up" here should be taken literally. Instead, God's providence will make the dragon's efforts to destroy the woman — the Jewish remnant — fail. He does it through the action of the nations of the earth, in a way that is somewhat miraculous, yet providential. The men the dragon sends to destroy the woman are lost, as it were, among the population of the earth, and they do nothing.
The woman never fights. She flees, and God opens a way out for her. So the dragon looks elsewhere for a target.
Satan's rage is not calmed by their exile from Jerusalem. He still pursues them with his hatred, pouring out a flood to devour them. This probably means another persecution, as David says, "The floods of ungodly men made me afraid." (Ps. 18:4.) But whatever form his malice takes, God cares for His people, and a providential door of escape is opened — the earth swallows up the flood. Baffled, Satan turns away from the fleeing remnant. They are safe in the shelter God provides. So he spends his rage on any who were still unable to escape.
One writer finds the same reversal in an older story. There the attack falls back on the attackers.
This whole scene seems to match, in some measure, what we are told about Israel in Revelation 12. There the serpent casts water out of his mouth like a flood — a flood of the nations under his influence — to swallow up and destroy the Messiah's people. But the earth, the scene of divine order in the world, opens its mouth and swallows the river. Is that not just what happens here? It is the nations that are swallowed up, and not the people of God — once the government is put into the hands of the only One worthy to hold it, as this mysterious book of Esther shows us.
- Flood — the water is not weather but people: nations stirred up by the devil. The prophets used the same picture for an invading army.
- Earth — the settled, governed part of the world. This book usually treats it as guilty, yet here God makes it the woman's helper.
- Swallowed — a picture, not a real hole in the ground. The attackers are lost in the crowd and do nothing.
- Providence — no one fights a battle. God ruins the enemy's plans through ordinary governments.
- Aftermath — the woman is safe because God sheltered her, not because she fought. The baffled dragon then turns his rage on those left behind.
And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus.
The dragon has failed twice — he could not destroy the child, and he could not sweep away the woman. So his rage turns on a smaller group, called "the remnant of her seed" in older translations.
The dragon's next target depends on who the woman is, and on why he cannot reach her.
The Child was caught away, but the woman was left behind, and being left behind she is also exposed to Satan's hatred... Remember, the woman is Israel — Israel as seen in the purposes of God. Satan was thwarted in his rage against Christ, so he turns all the more fiercely against God's beloved people. But God cares for Israel, just as He had cared for the "male Child". In His providence He watches over her, protects her, provides for her, and sustains her.
The phrase points to those still within Satan's reach once the woman is hidden.
He went to make war with the remnant of her seed — the godly Jews who might remain within his reach, who obeyed God's commandments and had received the testimony of Jesus Christ... The dragon (here he is not described by his cunning schemes, but shown again in his character and action as open power) was enraged with the woman whom he could not touch. He went to make war on the remnant of the seed — that is, to use violence against them.
Not everyone in the nation will stand in the same place. The woman covers the wider group, but this smaller company stands out for what they carry.
These are the Jews of that day who are known for obedience to God and a definite witness of Jesus. If the woman represents a more general state of Israel, the remnant of her seed are the witnessing portion. The mass, or "the many" of the future as Daniel calls them, will have turned away from God completely... Even among the godly, some will be much more energetic and intelligent than others, as we see in Daniel 12. So Satan hurries, and sets himself to put down those chosen instruments in the testimony of Jesus.
The verse gives two descriptions, and one of them is not unique to this period at all.
These faithful individual witnesses have two marks. First, "they keep the commandments of God" — the great and distinguishing mark of a godly life, and one common to all believers at all times. Second, they "have the testimony of Jesus." This one is special, and refers to His coming in His kingdom. "The testimony of Jesus" in this book is prophetic in character. In the Gospels it is of a different nature — one of grace and moral display.
This testimony shapes what they long and pray for.
The godly remnant of Judah in the coming crisis "have the testimony of Jesus." With the Psalms in our hands, we cannot fail to understand the character of that testimony, which in their circumstances is prophetic. They long, and sigh, and pray for the open and direct intervention of God on their behalf.
Writers are careful here about one common misreading. The point is not simply that all prophecy happens to speak about Christ.
In the Revelation an expression occurs that has often been misunderstood. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." It does not mean that all prophecy refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, though in one sense that may be true. It means that the witness of Jesus which this book contains — what Jesus testifies in Revelation — is the spirit of prophecy. This is the Holy Spirit as the book shows Him to us throughout: not bringing us into present communion with the Lord Jesus in heaven, but telling us what He is going to do later on.
Being the dragon's target does not mean being forgotten.
It is clear, then, that at the time of the end, during the reign of Antichrist, a godly remnant will live in the middle of a nation that has turned away from God. They confess Jesus Christ and keep the commandments of God. Such will be very precious to the Lord, and, like the remnant of Malachi's day, will have their names inscribed in God's book of remembrance (Mal. 3:16).
- Rage — Thwarted in his rage against Christ, the dragon turns all the more fiercely on God's beloved people.
- Reach — God hides and sustains the woman, so he turns on those still within his grasp: the witnessing portion of the people.
- Marks — Two things mark them out. They keep God's commandments, as godly people always have. And they hold the testimony of Jesus, which here is prophetic: the hope of His coming kingdom.
- War — Satan uses open violence, not cunning, and he sets himself to put down the chosen witnesses.
- Remembered — The Lord treasures the ones the dragon hunts. God writes their names in His book of remembrance.