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.