Angelic Battle - Revelation 12:7-17
Revelation 12:7-17 · Vern Peterman · Aug 9, 2009
Revelation (2009), No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926140482741

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We went last week through some slides on the first six verses of chapter 12. And this is one of the slides that we touched on. And you also had a copy of this in last week's handout. There are additional copies available if you didn't get one of those. But one of the things we did is we put on one slide the time sequence for the different things that are a part of those first six verses of chapter 12.

And to step through it quickly, you see everything from reference to Satan and the third of the angels fallen. You see the reference to Jacob, Rachel, and the twelve sons of Jacob being referred to as the sun, moon, and stars. That's from Genesis 37, Joseph's dream. You see Christ's first coming. Child is born, the dragon who is Satan seeks to kill Christ. And the child is caught up to God in His throne. And then finally, you see the events of the tribulation period showing up in that passage. So all of those events are made reference to in the first six verses of Revelation chapter 12. And we also have this slide which will kind of repeat in part, and that is between Daniel chapter 9 and Revelation chapters 12 and 13, there's basically multiple references to the length of the first half and of the second half of the tribulation period.

And those are spelled out as half a week in terms of how we count a week. Those are spelled out as three and a half years, as we count years. Forty-two months, pretty much as we count months. Remembering the Jews had a slightly different way of measuring months. And then 1260 days. It's as if Daniel and John want to be, by being repetitive, they want to be emphatic that you know that these are the same length and same period of time. So it's given in several different measures.

Specifically here, Revelation 12.6 puts this time of Israel fleeing in the last half of this tribulation period, which is three and a half year period of time, 1260 days.

There will be a remnant of Jews, and from Zechariah 13, 8, and 9, I believe it is, actually two-thirds of the Jews will die during the tribulation period, one-third will be preserved and remain. Two-thirds of the Jews that are in the land will die during the Tribulation period. One-third will remain as a remnant. This exile and preservation of the remnant of Israel in the wilderness during this last half of the Tribulation period, we gave you a list last week of the references. Some of them.

There are also many others that spell out the same thing. And then we talked about some points to take to heart for ourselves and the church. We're not going to be around on earth during this time. There are still lessons to be learned. One of the things we made mention of last time is this place in the wilderness that it talks about here in Revelation 12 is also talked about in other places in the Old Testament. Multiple places.

And we have pictures here that I wanted to kind of walk you through to give you an idea. Why would they go to this place out in the wilderness? Well, looking at these pictures, you'll get an idea why. First of all, you see there are some things that are carved into the rock in this wilderness area where the Jews will retreat to get away from the satanic attack. This is one of the front pieces.

Here's another front piece to give you an idea of how much is carved into the rocks there. And you'll see the location. It's in southern Jordan, right across the border from Israel, in a city, an ancient city called Petra, and nearby another one that's mentioned by the Old Testament prophets called Basra. And Basra is mentioned several times by the Old Testament prophets. Here's some additional pictures of some of these underground areas. Now, why would it be an advantage to be in an area like this? Why would that be of help to these Jews that are trying to get away from a military attack?

Yeah, just protection from open attack would be one of those things. You could have people in there. They could stay in there for quite a while. You could store things in there, right? And so yeah, that's the main thing. There will be physical protection there.

This is rock that's so solid that after, because this was, what you see here was built over 2,000 years ago. It was built a couple centuries before the New Testament era. And you're right, protection is exactly what they've got there. Here's some additional pictures of some of the structures that have been carved into the rock.

There has to be some limitation as far as military arms at that point because with the arms that we have now, a bomb could be dropped there and that could be destroyed in an instant. So during all these seals and stuff, things have changed enough that there's no longer the ability to destroy them with one weapon. One of the things that's interesting is while you see protection in there, and I think Jessica's point's well taken, Your point is also well taken, and that is the Old Testament prophets spell out that God will protect them.

One of the reasons that these people will turn to the Lord, this one-third who is a remnant, one of the reasons they will turn to the Lord is they will recognize only God saved us. Because right now in Israel, the vast majority of them are not believers. I would say not even Jewish believers, much less being Christian believers. The vast majority of them are agnostic and even atheists. But what they will come to recognize is there is no way we're going to survive without God's preservation of us.

So while Jessica's point is well taken, there is some protection, there is also a recognition that this by itself will not be enough. And the Jews will come to a place of seeing only God got us through this. And that's why those who remain, this one-third that remains, they will fulfill what Christ said in Matthew 24. Those who survive to the end will be saved. And what Paul wrote in Romans 11, 26 is all Israel at this time will be saved.

Yes. And also Petra means Peter, right? Petra is ultimately rock. And so by derivation it goes back to Peter. Right. And so when Christ said that, upon this rock I will build my church, there has been some commentary that said that that could be a double reference to I think it is accidental, and one reason is because building his... I believe it's the rock of faith, because Peter just expressed faith in Christ and who he was. I think that's probably more likely what Christ is referring to in that particular context. We won't have a chance to go into detail, but I believe that that's the case.

Here's another picture. This was a Roman-era road and you see some remaining columns and things of that sort in there. Here is, matter of fact, what you see in front of you here is something that was shown in the Indiana Jones third movie, The Last Crusade. That was one of the shots they had here.

Now, what I'll show several of is another reason why there's some degree of protection, and that is any land troops trying to get through these narrow canyons, and there's a lot of them. Matter of fact, all the accesses to Petra are pretty much these narrow canyons. If you get a bunch of troops going through there, what happens if somebody takes out the lead vehicle? Blocks it. You just plugged it and everybody else is a sitting duck.

Right? Here is inside some of those buildings. You get an idea. It's not just a facade. Those go back into the mountain some substantial distance. Not here, but in other places in ancient times. Cappadocia is one of them that's mentioned in the Bible. They had underground cities as many as 18 stories deep into the mountain. And that same thing could be done here. In one particular underground city, you could have about, I think, 24,000 was the estimated number of inhabitants in this underground city. So the same kind of structure could be built here.

Here's some more of these canyons where, again, all you have to do is, if you've got a line of vehicles trying to wind their way through the canyon, somebody comes up with an RPG and hits the lead vehicle and the rest of them are done. So that's one thing that will provide some degree of protection, but again with today's military technology, particularly missiles, military aircraft, things of that sort, Protection will be there, but it won't be enough. It will also require the Lord specifically protecting them, and that's one of the things that will bring them to the place of belief. Another picture of this canyon here. Okay, let me get back to there. Alright, let's take your handout. Your handout's pretty lengthy, and so we'll kind of hit the high spots.

You've got a set of bullets to kind of review last week the main thing I want to point out is you had the the woman who was Israel the dragon who was we said was Satan and the child who was Christ and The woman clothed with the Sun and the moon her feet and 12 stars is in reference to the Dream of Joseph in Genesis 37 verses 9 and 10. The last few bullets there is the woman Israel had been in travail to bring forth the child the first time. This is Christ. And then the woman Israel will be the object of a satanic pursuit for extinction this last half of the tribulation period, three and a half years. but God will preserve the woman, Israel, miraculously in the wilderness.

And then Revelation 12.1 and 12.3 both make clear reference to a sign in heaven.

This word sign has more than one meaning in the Jewish mind and some of those for whom John wrote in Revelation were Jewish, but one of those Jewish meanings was that a sign was a symbol. On investigation, one finds that there are seven signs in the book of Revelation. And so what you have there in your text box is a listing in chapter 12 where those signs begin. And so what you find is from this chapter to the last chapter that covers the tribulation period, there are those seven signs. And what we break them out as, three of them are signs in heaven, the other four are signs on the earth.

Interesting pattern, because remember we keep running into this number 7, right? And so this is another pattern there. Sometimes John says 7, sometimes he just writes about 7 things. The signs are one of those instances where he writes about 7 things. By the way, the same pattern of 7 shows up in the Gospel of John as well. About how many things did Christ say, I am? So, similar kind of thing. Okay. Let's take a look at page two then.

Here's the seven signs of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John, aside from I Am seven times, also had seven signs. The first of which was the changing of water into wine at Cana at the wedding. And the last of which was the raising of Lazarus. OK. One more thing to take note of regarding the sets of seven related to these great signs are seven significant personages.

Here's John again. Again, he doesn't spell out there are seven personages. What you do is you observe them and count them out. What do you find out? There are seven. These appear here in the 12th chapter of Revelation as well as the 13th chapter. We'll get on to that next week. These seven great personages are the woman, Israel, the great red dragon, Satan, and the male child, the Lord Jesus, Michael and the holy angels, which starts our passage that we're looking at today, the remnant of the woman, Israel, the last verse in chapter 12, and then the beast out of the sea and the beast out of the earth, which we'll see in chapter 13.

Okay? So those seven. Alright. Any questions so far? Or is everybody perfectly baffled? Okay. Alright. I'm going to read verse 7. And there was war in heaven. By the way, does that surprise you? You know, when you think of heaven, what do you think of? What's that? You think of peace, you think of a place, oh, it's perfect, right? It's also immaterial. You know, you wouldn't think immaterial things would be able to do that. Yeah, you think, well, heavens, heavens, what an expression.

You think, here we are on planet Earth, and this is a place, yeah, all kinds of things go wrong, you know. Well, certainly, that's why we've got ambulances and emergency rooms, right? And other things go wrong, too. But amazingly, here is, this verse says, and there was war in heaven. Wow! I mean, that kind of rocks your boat, doesn't it? Well, let's ask another question. We're kind of getting ahead of ourselves, but we'll do it anyway. Let's ask another question. Why does God make a new heavens and new earth? Why not just keep the present heavens and just kind of clean it up? Why a new heavens? Was the original one affected by the fall? Here is this original heaven and what was it?

It was a place of, there was a rebellion there. Satan and a third of the angels said, hey I'm out of here. Right? That wasn't exactly what they determined to do, but that's what ended up happening. There was a rebellion of Satan and a third of the angels. That's not a majority, but it's a lot. And furthermore, where does Satan, who is the accuser, where does he make his accusations? Against us? Against you and me? In heaven.

And the Lord has a perfect defense. The Lord comes there every time and says, This one was identified with me. This one, I died for his sins. I don't see any problem here. Everything's covered. But the accusation is there. It's a place of accusation.

It's a place where Satan has continued up until this point in the Tribulation to make an appeal before God. I want to go after Job. I want to go after those believers down at Holly Hills. He can make the appeal. Up until this midpoint here that he just described, right in this chapter, he gets to be there.

And the Lord says, this place has been tainted. The fall not only impacted and tainted the earth, but it tainted heaven too. It is a place that has a history of rebellion. There are three heavens. They get Jewish and Muslim ideas of seven heavens and different things like that. But the third heaven is actually the place where God dwells. It's the place where the obedient angels continue to follow the Lord. But it is a place that has also been impacted by the fall.

And so the Lord says, I'm wiping that all out. New heavens and new earth, and we'll get to that in Revelation chapter 21. New heavens, new earth, and so the old one's gone. Pardon? Yes. And the reason is, the reason is there are, Scripture observes three heavens, unlike the Jewish and Muslim tradition of seven. Scripture observes three. One is atmospheric heaven, the second one is astronomical heaven, and the third one is the heaven where God dwells. So those three heavens are the ones that Scripture recognizes and are even addressed here in this book that we're studying. So then you're saying there's only one immaterial heaven? That's correct. That's correct. He presently has access there. To that immaterial heaven. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah.

In other words, the three heavens, we had a slide on it previously in this class, but it's been a number of months now. The three heavens are the atmospheric heaven, and by the way, that's where the gospel angel preaches the gospel from during the tribulation period. It's where we saw a couple chapters back an eagle cries from that first heaven. Then the next heaven is astronomical heaven, and that's where some of these judgments come from. Some of the things coming out of this astronomical heaven, and then is the heaven where God dwells.

So those three heavens are recognized in Scripture. And I would say rather consistently. I don't see Scripture giving some sort of a mixed or confused picture. Pretty consistently, those three heavens are in the picture. The Jews and consequently the Muslims developed a sort of a mythology of seven heavens, but that's not out of Scripture.

Paul went to the third heaven, which tells you we went to the heaven where God dwells. Yeah, and that's where you find these. You went to the third one, and that's the highest one, and that's where God dwells. So again, even Paul's reference there to the third heaven is consistent. Okay? We okay so far? Okay.

So Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. Who's the dragon? Satan, right? And his angels, and what's the fraction? A third. So we know that from the prior verses. And they were not strong enough and there was no longer place found for them, plural, in heaven. Satan still has access, but the angels do not have a place, resident, continuing in heaven. The ones that rebelled. They're pitched out. Satan, for the last three and a half years, will be like all the other fallen angels relegated to the planet Earth. Until the time of the Second Coming, at which time Satan will be what? Not quite yet. He's going to be what for a thousand years?

Bound. Right. And then, you're right, cast into the lake of fire with all the rest of them. Okay? Alright. So looking on page three then, so there was a place for them in heaven at one point in time, but they're cast from it. The other thing is that Satan and his angels did not want to voluntarily give up that place. They didn't give it up without a fight. But they didn't have the strength and the power.

And that's one thing that's very important to remember. Satan and God are opposites. They are not equals. People often mix that up. It's like there's this big constant tension. Yes, there is a tension, but not because Satan and God are equals. It's because Satan and God are opposites. They're morally and spiritually opposite with God as the defining character.

Remember, Satan's characteristics are not infinite like God's. Can Satan be everywhere at once? No. No. Satan cannot be everywhere at once. Does Satan know everything? No, he doesn't. He doesn't know everything. Is Satan all-powerful? No. So, Satan, you start looking kind of down the list, Satan is not just God's equal and opposite. Satan is certainly opposed to God. but he is by no means an equal, okay?

Not the same at all. And he loses the battle here. Alright. So Satan has this failed rebellion. He's not completely out of the picture yet, but he has lost, along with his angels, a lot. Now, let's ask this question. Do the angels have an opportunity to believe in Christ and therefore be saved? Isn't that interesting? The Lord chose to show us His mercy and His grace, but the same is not there for the angels.

And I think that's one reason why Ephesians 3.10 talks about us being God's schooling regarding God's grace for the angels. Yes? Yes. And that's an interesting thing.

As human beings, when do we get a choice to choose for the Lord's salvation or not? As people are born, because remember Adam and Eve were just two of them, right? As people are born, they then get a time window in which they have the opportunity to accept or reject the Lord's gracious offer. But the angels, having all been created at one time and not reproducing, the angels were given a time window to decide after which they get no chance to reverse it and they do not get the opportunity of salvation as we do. So angels are spiritual beings as we are, but God did not deal with them in the same way. Very interesting, huh? The Lord chose to do it differently.

So here is Satan at the midpoint of the tribulation period. He's finally pitched out of heaven. Yes, heaven will be replaced. And it will be something around 1,000, 3 1⁄2 years later, heaven will be replaced. But, in the meantime, Satan is stuck here on planet Earth. He no longer has access to heaven. And his only recourse, since the church is already in the heavenlies, is to come after the Jews.

And that's exactly what he does. Because that's the only vulnerable target, so to speak. And the Lord says, hey, you're not going to wipe them out? I made a promise to Abraham and I intend to keep it. Right? Here's this guy raised a pagan on planet Earth, and God just comes up and... Abraham doesn't have God's arm twisted or anything like that. He just comes up and promises. And because of that promise, which took place about 4,000 years ago, God's going to remain faithful to that, and the Jews will be preserved in spite of every attempt of Satan to wipe them out.

Here in verse 9, ìAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.î This verse and Revelation 20 verse 2 leave no doubt about the identity of the dragon, who is also called the serpent. This is Genesis 3 of course. the devil, Satan, and the deceiver. John makes a play on words which is not readily apparent to us in English. The Greek word for devil is diabolos, which means to always throw. Satan is casting accusations at God about believers.

So in Revelation 2.10, the church-age believers are told that the devil, diabolos, will throw some of them into prison.

Balo. He's always throwing. He's going to be throwing some into prison. Revelation 12 here, several times, you're told six times that the devil, Diabalo, was thrown Balo into the earth. So there's a play on words there. It isn't readily apparent in the English. It says, hey, you who are the thrower, you're going to get thrown. You who are constantly throwing, are going to be the ones thrown. Tricks on you. What's interesting, He was thrown to the earth as angels were thrown. Let me see. I don't answer that here. So let me do this. I will take a look at that question and have an answer for you next week. Because I didn't address it in here and I'd like to make that clear. So I'll try to remember it. Yeah?

Oh yeah, certainly, and if you think about it, initially there's this throwing down. And it may be that the answer, and I want to just make sure I'm correct before I say it so definitely, it may be that the answer is that they were all thrown out so as to not have a place, that is, this isn't where you belong. Satan's still being granted access, but still as an outsider. Still as an outsider, not as one, you have a right of being here, but this isn't where you belong. And it may be that that's the answer.

I want to double check that before I answer you. I will answer it next week. But I think the picture here is he's on restriction and he's grounded. That's the picture. He's on restriction and he's grounded. That's what we get here from this one. And page 5, it says, 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 that he has only a short time. How short a time? Three and a half years. And by the way, who's knowing? Who doesn't know that he has only a short time?

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I jump ahead here? I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you for bringing my attention. We're going to have to backtrack because I skipped over this and I should not have. Okay. Page four. My apologies for the out of step reading here. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation, the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. He who accuses them before our God day and night." So here's a great opportunity for those loud voices, but we don't want to awaken anyone. So I'll have to settle for just telling you about it. This verse rejoices in Christ taking power.

So this is a transition time. Isn't it interesting that during this transition time, Satan tries to do everything he can in a desperate last fling. We made the comparison with a presidential election in which, for example, we had this happen this last fall into the winter time, and that's with the handoff over a period of two months or so. between the two administrations. You've got one that's still, yeah, they've still got some authority. They're desperately trying to get everything done at the same time they're ultimately going to have to hand things off. The time is short. You've got this mad scramble to do everything you can while you still have power, at the same time realizing that it's all going to be gone in a short period of time.

So, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. I think that's something to take a look at. Satan is the accuser. Does God go along with it? No. And why doesn't God have to just go along with it and say, oh, no. Why doesn't God just do that? What's the problem with that?

Christ said one word in the Greek, in English it's translated, it is finished. He said one word and the word was packed with meaning. Two significant things. One is the word is finished was an accounting term. It's paid. The other thing, it was in perfect tense. It means it's a completed past action with ongoing results on into eternity future. It's finished! Done!

And so Satan can throw up all the accusations he wants against you and against me. And he does. And he will. For a time. But the Lord says, hey, I don't see what the problem is here. You bring this accusation up against Byrne, but it's been paid for. I declare him righteous. Nobody else can declare otherwise. So take your accusation and go away. It's not going to stick. Not guilty. And that's what he gets again and again. But it doesn't stop him from bringing the accusation. And Christians can get stuck in this mode of heaping guilt upon themselves. It's not God's intent. It's Satan's intent. But in reality, that's not our place. As far as God says, I'm not guilty. That's my declaration. God says that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Because that's what happened when Christ said, It is finished.

He meant it. Verse 11, 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 the face of death. Excuse me, even when faced with death. So notice, overcoming Satan comes about because of the blood of the Lamb. Remember we said Christ said, It is finished. Overcoming Satan comes about when the believers testify of the truth. Overcoming Satan comes about when believers recognize that our eternal life with Christ is far, far more important than maintaining this physical life.

When they realize that one is Excuse me, should be, one is far better off, not if, one is far better off when loving the life of Christ than the life this world has to offer or threaten to take away. Some years ago there was a fellow that I would call, at one point, I haven't talked to him in a long time, he may even be home with the Lord by now, but at one time I would call him my friend, Dick Hillis.

He had been a missionary in China when the Red Chinese took over. And a Red Chinese lieutenant was holding a pistol up to his head and saying, I want you to tell me the names of the other Christians and missionaries here. Because of course they wanted to get them corralled and pull them up. Lieutenant was threatening him with that. Pulled his pistol out and had it up to his head.

And Dick said, no, I'm not telling you. And the guy says, don't you realize I can blow your brains out? And Dick's response was, that's all you can do. That's all you can do. If you do that, big deal. I'll be home with the Lord. So that's no threat to me. The lieutenant put his gun away. He realized he had no power over Dick. Yeah, he could blow his brains out, but that wouldn't get him what he wanted. So he put the gun down and put it back in his holster. Dick loved not life, even when faced with death.

Okay, now to the page that I originally went to. This is in verse 12. 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 and knowing that he has only a short time." So, Satan is cut off. What does heaven do? Rejoices! Verse 13, and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

Now I'm down here. I can't get at God anymore. I can't go and accuse the Christians. I have no longer any access, so I'm going to go for these Jews. That's it. He is like a cornered beast. He sees the limitation of his time and he sees the limitations of his domain. So with insane desperation, he turns on the woman whom we have already determined is Israel.

In Romans 9, in the last part of verse 3 through verse 5, Paul writes to the people of Israel, My brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption of sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all.

God bless forever. Amen. So in spite of the fact here that many of the people of Israel have been and are now spiritually blind, and it's true, the majority of Jews in Israel today, and even a great many around the planet Earth, they are spiritually blind. They don't see and they don't understand.

The Lord has brought about a great many spiritual blessings through them. They are the people through whom God has chosen to channel many blessings. Indeed, have we not been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, the child of the woman who is Israel? With the exception of Dr. Luke, the great majority of authors of the Bible are Jewish.

Verse 14, But the two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could 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. So some new symbolic terms are presented here. Let's work our way through these. We know that the woman is Israel. We've determined that before. We know that Satan, who is called the serpent in this verse, is in hot, angry pursuit of Israel, who is called the woman. And we know that the woman, Israel, will go into the wilderness to escape the vicious and murderous pursuit of Satan.

Now, to gain clarity on the meaning of verse 14, let's re-read Revelation 12.6, which we studied last week, along with Revelation 12.14. So with that, we go to page 6 here.

So at the top of page 6 you have Revelation 12.6 and it says, And then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that she would be nourished for 1,260 days. So in verse 14 we read, And the two wings of the great eagle, that's a lot of words for fled, right? Were given to the woman. so that she could 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 time and times and half a time, there is again the three and a half years. So it's another redundancy if you will. What is a time then? What's a time? A year. One year and then Two years add to that and then half a time, so three and a half years. So to clarify, the bullets have this.

The two wings of the great eagle and flying into the wilderness are in reference to the woman fleeing to the wilderness with swiftness, very quickly. She goes from the population center, which is more to the north and particularly along the coast and west of Jordan, the Jordan River. down into this wilderness area at the southern end of the Dead Sea.

We're told that God will nourish the women in the wilderness in both verses. That is, miraculously provide. The place in the wilderness is one prepared by God. By the way, can you think of examples where the Lord has provided people food where there wasn't any? When they left Egypt out in the wilderness, right? And what did God give them? Manna. And what else? and water, and a bunch of quail, right? So the Lord made a bunch of provision out in the wilderness. Can He not do the same thing again? For those very same people, at least by lineage, that He provided for 3,400 years ago. He can do it again, can't He?

The place in the wilderness is one prepared by God. What you see and what you saw in the pictures is human preparation. It's possible that God could include some of that human preparation in his preparation, but there may also be other things that are not currently visible. It's not just Israel's idea or a wild run that happens to lead them there. It isn't just a human idea. Hey, let's just go there. This is God's provision specifically for them.

This provision and protection is precisely what God has in Now, about that time, times, and half a time, we have in the text box what we also referred to in a chart earlier. Comparison to the 42 months, 1260 days, and one week, but in the middle of the week, a week of years. So that's in the text box there. Okay. Then, page 7.

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. Now, we know that the serpent is Satan. That's been made clear before. The serpent does something in his hope to profoundly affect the woman, Israel. He pours out a flood. Now, a flood is an Old Testament figure of speech.

It shows up at least in Isaiah 8.8, which we covered previously, and Daniel chapter 11 about four times. So Satan, knowing that Israel is fleeing for the wilderness, will hope to overwhelm her with raw military power. This is the attack and assault that Stan was talking about, right?

What he fell short of accomplishing in the Holocaust more than 60 years ago, he will hope to complete right then and there. He says, I got him! I got him! But what's going to happen? Yeah. It's interesting that it says that it comes out of his mouth, because later on it talks about the three frogs coming out of the mouth and deceiving the people, and so this is not just a physical battle, this is also a very spiritual, affecting the minds of the people that are actually doing it. Yes.

In other words, it is based on satanic message. That's the key thing. The figure of speech that's used there is coming out of his mouth. It is satanic message that is going to drive this. Yeah, that's right. So it is a satanic message that is going to drive this, what will ultimately be unsuccessful, military attack on the Jews.

Satan's self-deluded thought will be, I got him! I'm going to kill God's chosen people! I'm going to pull it off! Yeah! And he's going to drive these people in this satanically inspired military attack. In the same way that God has inspired his word, Satan will say, I'm going to inspire this attack against God's people. And he says, I'm going to win! He thinks. He's self-deluded in this, however.

And the truth is, it won't work. The truth is, we saw some obstacles there from the pictures, but just as you recognize, well there is some protection, there is also, God's going to have to do something beyond what's there to make this happen. Yeah. Yes. I think that he would probably know that.

So this seems more like a projection that he's projecting upon the Jews the fact that he's been cast out of heaven and that he's never going to go back. So he's blaming them in pure wrath to destroy the people who destroyed him. There is a certain insanity to it, isn't there? I mean, you might think, well, heavens, why doesn't he just kind of reason, all right, this isn't going to work, I'm not going to pull it off and just kind of give up and say, hey, you know, it's all over. The script's been written, this isn't going to work, and so I'm just going to give up and fold up the tents and go home. But that's not what he does. He has this quiet, this kind of quiet insanity that bursts out with this irrational attack on the Jews. He can't attack God. He can't attack the church. What's he got left?

He's going to go after the Jews. He's going to go after them. Yes, and we'll see that subsequent to here. Verse 17, so the dragon was enraged with the woman. Satan will be absolutely livid in the extreme with Israel. Insanely angry. He went off to make war with the rest of her children.

Now that the rest of her children, remember two-thirds will die, but one-third will remain. this remaining part, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. These people who finally will look at it and say, only God's going to pull us through here. Only God's going to make this happen. Yes? Doesn't Satan know the ultimate outcome? In truth, he does. It says up at the top, he knows that he has a short time.

And yet there's this insanity. As a Christian, have you ever done something that when you start to look back on it, you look at it and say, you know, this doesn't make any sense, but I got this weird emotional compulsion to do this anyway? We encounter the same kind of spiritual insanity, if you will, on a different scale. doing something, we know this is not what the Lord wants, and we know this is not what God intends, and it doesn't make any sense with who I am in Christ, but I just am going to do that. So we as human beings go through something kind of like that, where it doesn't make spiritual sense, and we know the facts are contrary, but we do it anyway. It's a kind of spiritual insanity. The only spiritual sanity is for us to walk according to our position. But the truth is, we have temptations that pull us from doing exactly that. Which is spiritually nuts. Right? Okay. We run out of time here.

So I'll leave it to you to cover the rest of the material. And so next time we'll step into verse 13. We're going to be continuing on this section here from chapter 13. We're going to be continuing on this section where we look at this time where it's spelling out what happens during the rest of the tribulation period from the midpoint, which has been spelled out here in chapter 12, to the rest of the tribulation period. Some of the big sweeping things then in chapters 16 is where it resumes. Here are the judgments. So we've got a few chapters here of Here are some of the big things that are taking place during this middle to the last half of the tribulation period, including addressing the Antichrist and what he does, false prophet and all that.

Let's pray. Lord, as we see what's happening here, what's going to happen, as soon as three and a half years from today, We just are thankful for your faithfulness. We're thankful for your telling us the truth. Thankful that we have the curtain lifted on the intent and plan and the outcome of the deceiver. And thank you that we have been declared righteous. Thank you that we have been declared justified before you in the courts of heaven and for all eternity. In Jesus' name, amen.