To understand revelation 12, we need to see it as a revelation of a principle, more than the revelation of a specific event. When we understand the principle, we will realize it has worked time and time again, even though there will be an outstanding fulfillment of it in the end time.
The interpretations of this chapter have been many. It is given not as a chronology of events but as a revelation of end-time events. For example, we will find a certain period in the first three or four chapters of the Book and then cover that same period again and again.
In the twelfth chapter is a picture included in end-time events, but it brings out a principle in a symbolism that has been in operation since the dawn of creation. That is why the Book of Revelation is such a mystery.
Let’s take one of the common interpretations of the sign in heaven: the woman clothed in the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; most fundamentalists will say this is a picture of Israel—And she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. The idea is that she gives birth to a son—a male child—and the dragon is ready to swallow him up, but he is caught up into heaven; and he is to rule and reign with a rod of iron. The woman is Israel, and the man child is Christ who is to rule over all the nations. The dragon is Satan, who tries to swallow up Christ, but does not succeed as Christ is caught up into the heavens. So he goes to war against the Jews for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
The dragon is: enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Verse 17. Because the testimony of Jesus is brought out so much here, these people are not the Jews that rejected Christ.
This woman and her seed are glorifying Christ; they have the testimony. This man—this offspring—has the testimony of Jesus. That does not mean they were going about, passing out tracts, “testifying about Jesus.” The testimony is what Jesus has to testify to the world. … For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10.
A person prophesying has to bring forth through that spirit of prophecy, what Jesus has to testify to the earth, to the world, or to His Church—to whomever He is testifying. These “hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
If we look at the woman not as the apostate church, but as the Church is in its real sense (being Spirit filled; made up of born-again believers), then we have a picture of the woman. She is in pain and travail, crying to be delivered; and out of the Church to come forth by birth, is the Manchild who is to rule and reign.
The Book of Revelation is constantly referring to select companies and groups as they come forth out of the Body of Christ. No one would know that better than John, one of an inner circle of the twelve disciples. Peter, James, and John saw the transfiguration of Jesus and many things that others did not see.
John was always aware that, while the ground is level at the foot of the cross, there are specific groups which are raised up for different purposes and different ministries. In the Song of Solomon there is always the bride and there are the attendants of the bride, the daughters of Jerusalem. They are different groups.
We do not want to focus on “select companies and groups” because if we say, “You are a select group of people who have been brought out of all Christianity, unique above everyone else on the face of the earth,” this produces spiritual pride.
We need the humble realization that we are raised up to be unique before the face of God. Everything God is releasing ministers to produce the select groups and the individual ministries within the Body of Christ that are to come forth.
Peter says, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood … a people for God’s own possession” (I Peter 2:9). That makes us special, doesn’t it?
verse 4 says this dragon “swept away a third of the stars.” This goes back to the story of Lucifer. We cannot attach this to any unique time—this keeps occurring all through history. Now we are referring to an ante-Adamic world, back in time before the earth became void without form, and darkness was on the face of the deep, (Genesis 1:2), when Lucifer was the anointed cherub.
This dethroned Lucifer, the anointed cherub that covered (Ezekiel 28:14). Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 are chapters that clarify who Lucifer really was in that old world. Lucifer became the one who in his rebellion drew a third of the angels from heaven.
The allusions of John show the deep knowledge he had of the Scriptures as he refers in Revelation 12:3 to the dragon (Lucifer) as the one that had drawn a third of the stars (the angels) out of the heaven.
… And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. Verse 4. This means the church is to give birth; it is from the Church this Manchild is to come: the Church that is to have such a glorious place of rule with the Lord.
And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. Verse 5. If we look upon this as Jesus Christ, He would be the only One who is to rule with a rod of iron. But in John’s interpretation, Christ is not one individual any longer, but Christ is composed of a many membered Body.
The Lord Jesus Christ left His individuality to become the Head of this great corporate Body, the Body of Christ of many members. “As the Body is not one member but many, so also is Christ” (I Corinthians 12).
Christ is not one Man, one Person; Christ is a many member Body. The Head is in heaven and we are members of that Body on earth. We are the Manchild that has been brought forth to rule and reign. The future of Christ is our future because we are a part of the Christ.
We are members of the Christ. If we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him (II Timothy 2:12). We will reign with Him because we are identified and one with Him. Everything that He is, we are. Everything that He will be, we will be. Everything over which He has dominion and authority, throughout the ages, we share in, because we are a part of the Christ.
As soon as this child was caught up to God and to His throne, … the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. Verse 6. There are three and one-half years of wilderness even for the church of Jesus Christ, that has not been prepared for the first rapture.
Although we came out of the church of Jesus Christ, we did not come out of it in the sense of leaving it. We are a part of it. A boy that is born is no less a part of his mother when he is outside of the womb than he was when he was inside the womb.
He is flesh and blood of that woman. Though he may continue to grow to be quite a man, yet he is always a part of her. We will always be a part of the church of Jesus Christ because we are of the same identical structure. But we are coming forth for another function than just to be the church! We are coming forth for this position of authority and rule in the end time.
This Manchild company of people were caught up into the heavens to God and to His throne—not at the first resurrection, because the dragon is still out there ready to devour. Nor is it the end time resurrection. It does not mention that the dragon devoured them, then they were resurrected and ascended up.
The dragon desires to devour us and everything that is being born into a walk in the Spirit.
The sons of the Kingdom are coming forth to rule and to reign; the kings and priests are coming forth to rule and to reign.
When we talk about a principle, this is the way it always works and always has. Every time God had to do something special, He put the Church in travail, and they would give birth to people who would immediately be expelled from the Church, but still be a part of it.
Now what is to happen? And there was war in heaven (Note the timelessness of this interpretation. What happened to the woman that gave birth? Immediately she fled into the wilderness.
What will happen to the Christian people who are not caught up to God and His throne?
They will go into the wilderness and will still be destroyed by the devil unless there is a protection given to swallow up the antichurch flood that started over the whole earth. But there will be a place prepared to bring it through.) Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down .… Verses 7–9.
The heavens had been purged before. Jesus said, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Luke 10:18. The Greek says “the heavens.” It is plural. We refer to it as the heavens, but it is the heavenly places, the second heaven, the spirit realm, it is not talking about the third heaven, Satan no longer has access there. Paul speaks of being caught up to another heaven as though there are several. There is no doubt that Jesus did see Satan fall, just as He said, when the apostles were marveling after they first went out to preach the word and cast out devils (Luke 10).
Understand that in the spirit realm (interpret this as the heavenly places) there is war going on. Michael and his angels are fighting the dragon and his angels. There is no place found for them.
Verse 8 says the devil and his angels were not strong enough. Why? Because the Manchild is caught up to God and to His throne to a place of rule and authority. That furnishes help and assistance because God will purge the heavens and the earth.
We need to understand that the victory of Christ does not happen automatically because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, won the victory at the cross. He won the victory in potential, but in actual experience that victory comes forth not through the one Man but through the many-member Christ.
It pleases God to crush Satan under your feet (Romans 16:20). It is the plan of God that the victory should come forth through this great Christ Body, this Manchild that is raised up.
I do not think God will be doing anything sovereignly in the end time, not even the tribulations or the judgments to be poured out, apart from the people that He has brought forth, through the travail of the church.
We are destined to be a part of the Christ, and to bring it forth. When the dragon comes against Michael and his angels, the authority of the Manchild company at the throne of God will cast him down. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him (Verse 9).
It is significant that John always looks at the bright side. The entire story about the devil (the dragon) is filled with praises to the Lord because the victory of Jesus is assured, and this is the story of the manifestation and enforcement of that victory.
Christ bought the Kingdom and has given it to us, but it’s up to us to go in and get the squatters out. We must displace the heavens of the spirits and angels that are there. The things that war on our flesh must go.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come” (the whole picture is one of the authority of Christ in the great Kingdom; this great Dominion coming forth), “for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.”
No doubt this happened in the past, but look upon it as a principle of revelation that is in the process of taking place in the events right now.
The principle of this chapter was enforced many times down through the years, and there may be another time that we will see it manifested until the whole world will shake under it.
But we know, right now, God is raising up people right now to make governmental decisions in the heavenly realms.
Some people say that prophecy has only one fulfillment. But that is not necessarily true.
The principle of the thing was in operation, but it does not preclude the fact that there will be some main, principal fulfillment.
For instance, Daniel talks about the abomination of desolation (Daniel 11:31). Many people believe that took place back in the days of the Maccabees (162 B.C.), when Antiochus Epiphanes slew the swine in the temple. Those Jews had a horrible time trying to resanctify their temple. But that was not the abomination of desolation, because Jesus refers to the same prophecy (Matthew 24:15) as though it were a future event.
Then some people say there was an absolute fulfillment of Matthew 24 in 70 A.D. But some of the passage did not happen in 70 A.D.
People read the Bible wrong. They read the Bible and say, “This Old Testament Scripture speaks about Tyre and Sidon.” Or “This prophecy is against Babylon.” What is Babylon? There was a tower of Babel in the days of Nimrod (Genesis 11:9). There was a Babylon in the days of Jeremiah and Isaiah. John refers to Babylon long after that Babylon of the Old Testament had disappeared from the earth. But he refers to Rome as Babylon.
Yet, when you read in the book of Revelation about “Babylon is fallen” (Revelation 14:8), you realize it went further than that. Babylon has become something that has been built in every heart. It is a principle.
God is saying, “Come out of Babylon! Come out of her, my people” (Jeremiah 51:6). Babylon is wherever anyone has tried to build something that God was not in. We have to understand the principles of this. We need to know more about the Word. To let it become a living thing in our heart.
In as much as denominations all participate in Babylon that must come down. The cry is not one of hostility, but, “O people of God, come out of that, and come into what God is bringing forth! Seek God; don’t go build your own little tower of Babel, and try to reach God by your own system. Go God’s way!”
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea; because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing he has only a short time.” Verses 11, 12.
Satan knows he has only a short time. He is throwing everything he can into it. In fact, this is the thing we should be apprehensive of and pray about continually: “Unless those times be cut short, there will be no flesh saved alive” (Matthew 24:22), because the wrath of Satan is to destroy the whole world.
“Woe to the earth and the sea; because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. And the two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place. Verses 12b–14a.
The deliverance will be by the authority of those who have taken their place of rule at the throne of God. We are being positioned—we are not evangelists, but we are participators in the throne, and it is from the throne that the word, the gospel of the Kingdom, will be preached to the ends of the world.
And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (The literal reads, “from the face of the serpent.”) Verse 14.
The preservation of the Church at large will not come by a rapture that catches them out. But they will be positioned in a wilderness and maintained and preserved by the authority and blessing that comes.
And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. Verse 15. Here the whole satanic attack, the diatribe against the churches and everything pertaining to Christ, is designed to dethrone Him and to destroy His people.
And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus. Verses 16, 17. This indicates that the Church will continue to give birth to such things as the Manchild company. God will keep bringing forth other groups, special people who will keep the testimony of Jesus.
I believe that this is where we are now: we have come to a new place in God and the old dragon has been coming after us to swallow us. Our concern now should be in assuming a new place with God at His throne, with the authority and the Kingdom of God being the important thing, and with being ready to minister to the people of God.
The company that God raises us will be the only hope for the preservation of the church later. We will be the ones who will be able to minister with authority to nourish her during the days of tribulation, when the serpent will come with a flood out of his mouth to destroy her if he possibly can.