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.