And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has there a place prepared of God, that they should nourish her there a thousand two hundred [and] sixty days.
In Revelation 12 the child has just been caught up to God's throne, and His mother stays behind on earth. Verse 6 tells what happens to her next, and raises two questions: who is this woman, and when does she flee?
Commentators start with the son, not the mother. His identity fixes hers:
In the twelfth chapter we have a woman who gives birth to a man-child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Anyone would say that must be Christ. There is no one person to whom rule of this kind is given but Christ, though His saints may share it with Him. The woman, if the application is to Christ, can only be the Jewish nation. Nothing else is possible. Christ was not the offspring of the Church, not even of the Jewish Church, as is plain. As the apostle tells us in the ninth of Romans, and as is perfectly clear — of Israel Christ came according to the flesh.
The child's ascension and the mother's flight look like back-to-back events. They are not:
There is a gap of thirty-three years between the birth of the Child and His catching up. In the same way, an interval of nearly two thousand years comes in between the catching up and the flight. In fact the whole history of Christianity bridges the time from the ascension of Christ until the woman flies into the wilderness.
Satan failed to destroy the Son. So he turns his hatred on the nation the Son came from:
The Child was caught away, but the woman was left behind, and, left behind, she is also exposed to Satan's hatred. So "she fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God." The woman, remember, is Israel — Israel as seen in the purposes of God. Satan, disappointed in his rage against Christ, turns all the more fiercely against God's beloved people. But God cares for Israel, just as He had cared for the Man-child.
The desert is more than a hiding place. Standing outside the world costs something, and that is where God's blessing meets them:
The reign of the beast will, for this godly remnant, turn the world into a wilderness. They will find their refuge and blessing by taking a place outside the political and religious world of their day, with its terrible violence and corruption. To stand apart from the world system may involve suffering, but it will secure spiritual blessing. In the outside place that God has prepared, this remnant will be nourished for a thousand two hundred and sixty days. It is just as the Lord can say through the prophet Hosea: "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her."
In the original wording, the word "there" appears twice. That repetition was deliberate:
The repeated word is not a mere Hebrew redundancy, as one has said. It is meant to mark how definite the place prepared for her is, and where she is nourished or cared for. God provides for the woman both the place and the food for 1260 days… Here the careful numbering of the days shows the Lord's tender interest in His suffering saints. He counts them up one by one, so to speak.
Where does she go, and for how long? One earlier man lived through something like it:
The true Israel of God will not be called to resist the dragon, but to flee to a place of no human resources, where God will protect and care for her for the stated period. Elijah, we may remember, fled into the wilderness to a place appointed by God, and later to Zarephath. In both places God fed him by a miracle, and his time of trial lasted three and a half years. Now the 1,260 days of our verse is exactly 3½ years by Jewish reckoning. The same period appears again in verse 14 as "a time, and times, and half a time." Chapter 11 has already given it as 42 months and as 1,260 days.
Not everyone in Israel survives this. The woman stands for a particular company:
The woman is the nation as God sees it. She is not all Israel, nor even all the saints in Israel, but those God has ordained to continue, and who therefore represent the nation before Him… Still God preserves a people to be the core of the nation in the coming kingdom, and this, of course, is what Satan most wants to destroy. God's own hand keeps them safe, though in the middle of trial — the kind of trial the word "wilderness" suggests. God means that trial to purify them.
- Prepared — she does not stumble on a hiding place in a panic. God appointed it in advance, and He supplies the food.
- Prepared for whom — the woman is Israel as God sees her: the nation Christ came from, kept as the seed of the coming kingdom.
- Prepared after a gap — nearly two thousand years of Christian history sit between the child's ascension and the mother's flight.
- Prepared in emptiness — the wilderness leaves nothing human to lean on. Standing outside the world system costs something, and gains more.
- Prepared to the day — God counts the 1260 days one by one. The trial has a fixed limit, and He watches every day of it.
And there was war in the heaven Michael and his angels went to war with the dragon. And the dragon fought, and his angels;
Chapter 12 turns from signs seen in the sky to an actual clash, and the battlefield is heaven itself. Three questions follow: who is Michael, how can Satan be in heaven at all, and when does this fight happen?
This scene is not called a sign. One commentator insists the war is real, and notes how many refuse to believe it:
These verses do not call the scene a sign. The presence of Satan in heaven is real. A war there between the armies of good and evil, under their leaders Michael and the Dragon, is certain. Many are surprised to hear that Satan has a place in "the Heaven," though not in the immediate presence of God. Others refuse to believe it.
If Satan were already in the lake of fire, this verse would make no sense. One writer places him elsewhere, and draws a line he cannot cross:
Satan and his angels are in heaven; see Ephesians 6:12. Satan has access to the heavens that God created, where His throne stands. There he accused Job. But Satan cannot enter the light no one can approach… It is a great mistake to believe that Satan is in the lake of fire. He is with the angels in heavenly places. People will be in the lake of fire burning with sulfur before Satan is there.
Michael appears rarely in the Bible, and always with one nation in view. That makes his arrival here a signal:
Michael, the dragon's opponent, is "the great prince who has charge of" God's people. He is the only "archangel" named, and Scripture always mentions him in connection with Israel… So it seems that evil rulers and powers stand behind the nations that oppose Israel, and that Israel itself is under Michael's special guard… It is a sign, then, that God has taken up His purposes for Israel again: Michael, the great prince who has charge of the people, is the angel who here goes to war against the dragon, Israel's relentless persecutor and slanderer.
Some have thought Michael is Christ under another name. One writer weighs it and does not agree:
Who is Michael? We meet this great name in Jude, where he argues with the devil, and in Daniel, where he is the great prince who rises up as ruler of God's governing power, on behalf of the Jewish people… I do not see that Scripture reveals him to be Christ under a hidden name. But he is certainly the direct and higher agent of God's governing purposes.
The strangest thing here is that God does not simply speak and end the war. One writer ties this to the work of Christ:
The question of good and evil is one and the same everywhere, and it gets its answer for heaven as it does for earth. First in the work of Christ, which glorifies God about it all. Then, as the fruit of that work, in the winning back of what had been separated from Him… It sounds strange to us to hear of war in heaven — of armies drawn up on both sides, of resistance that fails, of a struggle left, it seems, to the strength of creatures, with God not stepping in directly.
One writer dates the war and follows what it means for Israel:
But God has decreed that in the middle of the seven-year Tribulation Period, Michael and his angels will fight a decisive battle in heaven against Satan and his angels, and throw them down to earth… Michael is called Israel's prince, so his fighting will be on behalf of Israel, though Israel will suffer all the more after this time. But God will use Satan's hatred to drive Israel back to Himself through the sorrows of the Great Tribulation. So Satan's presence on earth will result in Israel's true blessing in the end… Verse 9 gives four names for this great enemy of God: the dragon (the one who terrifies), that old serpent (the deceiver), the devil (the accuser) and Satan (the adversary). Yet angels defeat all this hellish power, though certainly at God's direction.
Losing heaven costs him one office, but not every weapon:
Next comes war in heaven; Michael and his angels fight against the dragon. The devil is thrown out, and with that he loses his anti-priestly character. As the accuser of the brothers before God day and night, he was anti-priest. But he still keeps his anti-kingly and anti-prophet characters. His accusing is finished. There is no place for him any more in heaven, though he still has a place on earth.
- Place — Satan is not in the lake of fire yet. He holds a place in the created heavens, but never in the light where God dwells, which no one can approach.
- Prince — Scripture names Michael only where Israel is at stake. His arrival signals that God has taken up His purposes for that nation again.
- Permission — God does not crush the dragon Himself here. He leaves the fight to created armies, on ground the work of Christ has already won.
- Period — the war falls in the middle of the seven-year Tribulation. Satan is thrown to earth, Israel's hardest days follow, and God uses them to bring that nation back to Himself.
- Price — Satan loses his standing as accuser before God for good. He is left with the earth alone.
and he prevailed not, nor was their place found any more in the heaven.
Revelation 12 shows a battle fought above the earth. This verse gives the result: the dragon and his angels lose, and their place in heaven is gone for good. Two questions follow at once. How could Satan have a place in heaven at all? And what changes when he loses it?
The verse assumes the dragon held a place he could be thrown out of. Other passages prepare us for that, and they also mark a limit on how far up he can go.
No careful reader of Scripture will wonder at finding Satan in heaven. Our knowledge on the subject is limited. Still, we read of "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." We see him as the devil, or slanderer, accusing God's people. We see him as Satan, the adversary, opposing Joshua the high priest, and Michael the archangel. Probably he cannot enter "the third heaven" where God dwells, but he clearly has some place in the heavens out of which he is driven by this war.
The defeat falls on the dragon himself. The loss of place falls on his whole company. One writer links the speed of it to what Jesus said about Satan falling.
The dragon himself suffered a shameful defeat, and the whole company of sinful angelic beings is banished for ever from "the heaven." The seventy disciples came back from their mission full of joy that even the demons obeyed them through His name. But that was only the seed of full and final victory over the enemy and his power. The Lord announced that victory beforehand when He added at once, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:17-18). Whatever resistance he offers, his fall from heaven will be complete and instant, like a flash of lightning.
If his presence defiles heaven, why has God put up with it so long? One answer links the delay to the death of Christ, and sets the accuser beside the Advocate.
If it were not for the death of Christ, God would long ago have shown how He views the defilement the enemy has caused there. He bears with the rebellion of the world. He also bears with another rebellion: the boldness of Satan, who dares to push himself into His own presence and bring accusations against His people. But do not forget: if there is one who loves to accuse, there is another who intercedes, the Advocate, who never slumbers nor sleeps... In time, God will no longer allow Satan to taint the air of heaven.
Losing his place is not the same as losing all power. One role ends; two others go on below.
The devil is cast out, and by that he loses his anti-priestly character. He accused God's people before God day and night, so he was anti-priest. But he still has his anti-kingly and anti-prophet characters. His accusing is over. There is no place for him any more in heaven, though he has a place on earth.
Some have read this as a picture of the gospel triumphing in history. Kelly answers that the victors named in the text are angels, not believers, and that the two kinds of conflict cannot be merged.
Michael and his angels threw the dragon and his angels out of heaven. It was not the spiritual victory of the saints. God's people overcame him this way while he was not yet cast down, and this is the warfare the Christian has to wage (Ephesians 6). But a quite different war casts him out of heaven. Not saints by faith, but angels, acting by divine power in judgment. When Revelation 12:8-9 comes true, Christian warfare will have no more place here than Satan and his angels will have a place above.
He draws one more conclusion from it.
Notice that this naturally, if not necessarily, supposes the removal of the church to heaven before the change takes place. If the church were still on earth when the devil and his angels are cast out of heaven, it would no longer be true of us that we wrestle with wicked spirits in heavenly places.
Heaven cleared is the first stage, not the last.
God is still bearing with His enemies, angelic and human. But when His patience reaches its set limit, He will use His power and rid Himself of all who keep opposing His will. He will clear the heavens first. Revelation 12:7-9 describes that final conflict. The clearing of the earth will follow quickly. When judgment has purged the whole scene, above and below, new heavens and a new earth will appear, where righteousness will dwell for ever.
- Place — Satan now holds a place in the heavens, though likely not where God dwells. This verse marks the moment he loses it, never to get it back.
- Patience — God bears with him there, as He bears with rebel man on earth. The death of Christ is why the reckoning has waited.
- Power — Believers' faith does not evict him. Angels do, acting in judgment, and the blow falls like lightning.
- Prosecution ended — He loses his role as accuser before God. His work as false king and false prophet goes on for a time on earth.
- Purging — A cleared heaven is only stage one. Earth follows, and the end is new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent, he who is called Devil and Satan, he who deceives the whole habitable world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
The vision stops to say plainly who the dragon is. It puts four names on one being, then reports his expulsion — which raises the question of where he was until then.
The titles are not decoration. Two describe what he is like, and two are personal names for a real being.
The first two titles describe character — cruelty and subtlety. The last two names, Devil and Satan, refer to the dragon as a person. The devil is an actual historical being, and New Testament Greek uses the word only in the singular. Where older translations say "devils," the word should be "demons." As the devil, he is the accuser, the slanderer, and tempter. As Satan, he is the open and declared adversary of Christ, the public enemy of God and of His people.
The word "ancient" points back to the opening pages of the Bible.
In the Genesis account, then, it is just the serpent, the visible agent of the mischief, that is mentioned. So also, in 2 Corinthians 11:3 we read, "the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning." Only in the last book of the Bible do we get the clearest identification of the serpent with the unseen actor working through it. There, twice over in almost the same words, we read, "that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan" (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). He is the originator and instigator of that dreadful thing, sin, which has invaded this fair creation.
The verse describes his trade, not just his nature. Behind every human agent, one mind is at work. (Scott quotes an older translation: "the whole habitable world.")
Next comes Satan's special work, the one his tireless energy drives at. He "deceives the whole habitable world." … The prime mover in all is alone before us. By God's permission Satan deceives everyone caught in the prophetic scene. It does not matter who the people used are, or what the means are. Satan himself is the leader who lures the world on to its moral ruin. … Then, however, Satan keeps in the background; here in the light of Heaven he stands fully exposed.
No one can be thrown out of a place he was never in. Other passages already show him with access above.
No careful reader of Scripture will wonder at finding Satan in heaven. Our knowledge on the subject is limited. Still, we read of "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." We see him as the devil, or slanderer, accusing the brothers. We see him as Satan, the adversary, opposing Joshua, the high priest, and Michael, the archangel. He probably cannot enter "the third heaven" where God dwells. But he clearly has some place in the heavens, and this war drives him out of it.
The repeated verb is the point. What cleanses heaven is the same as what cleanses the earth.
Repeating the verb cast out three times emphasises the shameful expulsion of Satan and his angels from Heaven. Who these angels are is a question shrouded in mystery. All we know is that they make up Satan's fighting host, and are cast out of Heaven with their chief. Satan can then no longer enter God's presence to accuse the saints to Him. His poisonous breath can never again infect the holy atmosphere of the heavenly places. The heavens have to be cleared of evil as well as the earth. The ground on which both are purified and reconciled is the sacrifice of Christ. How complete, therefore, and far-reaching in its results is the blood of Christ!
Each title has its exact counterpart in the Lord Jesus — which turns the verse into a question for the reader.
As the dragon he is the destroyer. As the ancient serpent he is the deceiver. As the devil, he is the accuser. As Satan, he is the adversary — the adversary of God, of all good, and of our souls. … If the devil is the destroyer, our Lord is the DELIVERER. If the devil is the deceiver, our Lord is the TRUTH — the Holy and the True. If the devil is the accuser, our Lord is the INTERCESSOR AND ADVOCATE. If the devil is the adversary, our Lord is THE FRIEND. You must choose, Christians, under whose control you will come.
- Named. One real person carries four titles: dragon for cruelty, serpent for cunning, devil for accusing, Satan for open hostility.
- Ancient. "That ancient serpent" points to the unseen actor who used the serpent against Eve. He is the originator of sin, and the Bible's last book finally names him.
- Exposed. His trade is deceiving the whole world, and he usually works out of sight. In heaven's light the prime mover stands fully exposed.
- Expelled. He still has access above until this war. The triple "cast out" marks a shameful, final removal. Christ's sacrifice is the ground on which heaven is cleansed.
- Answered. Christ meets each name: Deliverer for the destroyer, Truth for the deceiver, Advocate for the accuser, Friend for the adversary. So the verse ends in a choice: whose control will you live under?
And I heard a great voice in the heaven saying, Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren has been cast out, who accused them before our God day and night
A war in heaven ends with the dragon thrown down, and at once a loud voice announces what his fall makes possible. Two questions follow: who is speaking, and why does heaven say the kingdom has come while the worst hour on earth still lies ahead?
The text never names the speaker, but one word in it narrows the field. Angels do not call believers on earth their family.
The song does not say who sings it. But only saints in heaven could speak of the suffering remnant on earth as "our brothers." So this is not the song of angels. It is the song of glorified saints, represented by the elders. Driving Satan out of heaven was a necessary first step to "the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ." It was so necessary that, once it is done, the song already says these have come. Every obstacle in heaven is now removed, though there are still enemies to overcome on earth.
The word "salvation" has a particular sense here, and the verse itself supplies it. The reason given for the shout is the fall of the accuser.
The salvation spoken of here does not seem to be the salvation of the body, as some think. The verse explains it as the rescue of people who are called "our brothers" from the accusation of Satan. So the voice seems to be that of the glorified saints. The "brothers" they speak of are the saints on earth. In the past those saints overcame these accusations by their own faithfulness, and now the accusations are ended forever.
The announcement runs ahead of the events on earth. Heaven treats the outcome as settled while trouble still lies ahead for the saints below.
Clearly the passage speaks of people in heaven at this time who feel deeply for their suffering brothers on earth. That is the undeniable fact. Who are they but those who are one with Christ, the mighty male child of this chapter? Because Satan has fallen, they look ahead to the full setting up of the kingdom, though three and a half times have yet to pass in fact.
Since the shout runs ahead of events, it cannot be tied to any turning point in the church's past.
Has there ever been a time in the church's past history when God stepped in so strikingly that it would match this? Is it really true that, when Constantine adopted Christianity, salvation came? Surely not.
The verse describes a job Satan has held. He comes before God and lays charges, "day and night." But someone else is just as constant.
God bears with the rebellion of the world. He also bears with another rebellion: the boldness of Satan, who dares to push his way even into God's own presence and bring accusations against His people before Him. But do not forget: if there is one who loves to accuse, there is another to intercede — the Advocate, who never sleeps. There may be the devil against the saints, but there is Christ for them, who always lives to make intercession.
The accuser is dangerous not because he lies. Much of what he reports about believers is true, so the answer must come from someone else.
There is in heaven an accuser of us also, who says things about us that are true. He knows our lives, and he reports our faults and failures in heaven. Another is there too, One not seen in this vision. "If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). So we need not fear what the accuser may say, true though the charges may be, because there is One there to plead His death.
Being thrown down is not a demotion he can appeal. The role this verse describes ends for good.
Satan is completely beaten and overthrown in the very place and seat of his power. Never again will the court of Heaven listen to his accusations, just or unjust.
- Accused — day and night Satan brings charges against God's people before God, and the charges are often true.
- Answered — the Advocate never sleeps. He stands against the accuser and pleads His own death, so we need not fear the charges.
- Ended — once heaven throws him out, that role is gone for good. Heaven will never hear his charges again.
- Announced — the moment that post falls empty, heaven shouts that salvation, power and kingdom have come. On earth, three and a half times have yet to pass.
- Ours — the voice says "our brothers." That one word shows saints in heaven are speaking, still feeling deeply for believers suffering below.
and *they* have overcome him by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony, and have not loved their life even unto death.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
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.