Revelation 12:1-5
The Conflict of the Ages
We continue preaching through the book of Revelation and through the
Seventh Trumpet also called the third woe, the Great Tribulation, and
the Time of Jacob’s troubles. The Seventh Trumpet started in
\\#Rev 11:15\\ and will continue through to the end of the
tribulation.
Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in
heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown
of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in
birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven;
and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads
and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars
of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and
the dragon stood before the woman which was ready
to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon
as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to
rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her
child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
I think chapter 12 is a unique chapter for several reasons:
1. I believe from the end of chapter 1 to the beginning of chapter 13,
occur at the middle of the Tribulation. I believe this for
several reasons:
a. In the last chapter, Satan was served his eviction notice.
In these chapters, that eviction process is beginning.
b. In these chapters, we are given our last references to
the complete 3 1/2 years.
(1) \\#Rev 12:6\\
(2) \\#Rev 12:14\\
(3) \\#Rev 13:5\\
(4) What does that mean? After this point, there will
not be 3 1/2 years LEFT in the Tribulation.
2. The second thing that makes this chapter unique is that this
chapter is entirely symbolic. Throughout this book, I have
told you that I maintain the belief that IF you can interpret
an event literally, do so. However, I do not think you can
interpret this chapter literally — although all of it has a
very literal meaning.
3. The third thing that makes this chapter unique is that it is
describing for the Conflict of the Ages.
a. There has been one underlying conflict that began before
God created man and upon which all other conflicts are
built.
b. This chapter introduces those who are part of that
conflict.
With those remarks, let’s look at chapter 12.
I. The Characters of the Chapter
A. There are three.
1. A woman
2. A Child
3. A red dragon
4. Let’s start with the most important and eternal One first.
B. Who is the Child? We are told five things about Him.
1. \\#2,4\\ He is born. That in itself is not so amazing
except that I have already told you that He is the
eternal One.
2. \\#5\\ He is the man Child.
3. \\#4\\ The dragon sought to kill Him as soon as He was
born.
a. That account is legendary.
b. As soon as Jesus was born, Herod sought to kill Him.
Instead, he killed all of the babies in Bethlehem.
4. \\#5\\ He will rule the nations with a rod of iron.
a. That is prophecy.
b. \\#Psalm 2:9\\, speaking of the Messiah.
5. \\#5\\ He will ascend to God and to HIS throne.
a. Others will ascend to God but none HIS throne.
b. No one else will rule the nations with a rod of iron
and no one else will ascend to His throne except for
Jesus.
C. \\#1-2\\ Who is the woman?
1. \\#2,4\\ She is the one who gives birth to Jesus.
a. Israel is the nation that birthed Jesus so the woman
is Israel.
b. It was Israel’s role and the plan of God that the
Messiah would be born through Israel.
(1) To be honest, her relationship with God and her
role in bringing the Messiah into the world are
what makes Israel important.
(2) God created, chose, and loves Israel,
(3) Israel is lost and deceived; but because she is
chosen and loved by God, as much as I can, I
will stand with Israel.
2. She is the one who suffered to bring Jesus into the
world.
Rev 12:2 And she being with child cried,
travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
a. This is not a reference to the suffering Israel has
experienced because of her sin but of the suffering
she has and will experience because God chose her.
b. The devil hates Israel BECAUSE she was chosen and
used by God.
(1) The devil has attacked Israel like no other
nation. Indeed, no other nation would have ever
survived what has been done to Israel.
(2) But that is nothing compared to the suffering
that Israel is about to endure.
3. \\#1\\ Notice that Israel is described as being clothed
with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and having
a crown of twelve stars.
a. All three of these (the sun, moon, and stars) are
associated with Israel in the Old Testament.
Ge 37:9 And he (Joseph) dreamed yet another
dream, and told it his brethren, and said,
Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold,
the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made
obeisance to me.
b. God uses these symbols to help us identify the woman
as Israel.
(1) The sun is Israel’s father, Jacob.
(2) The moon is Israel’s mothers, Rachael, Leah,
Bilhah, and Zilpah.
(3) The twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel.
D. Who is the red dragon?
1. He is described in \\#3\\ and named in \\#9\\.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world….
2. He is the devil.
II. The Conflict of the Ages - Revelation 12 starts the conflict with
the birth of Jesus, but we can go further back than that.
A. Round One
1. The Bible gives us Satan’s beginnings:
a. Satan was created as the most beautiful of all angels.
Eze 28:12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon
the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith
the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of
wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was thy covering, the
sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the
onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald,
and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of
thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee
in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth;
and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in
the midst of the stones of fire.
b. But iniquity, sin, was found in him.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
that thou wast created, till iniquity was found
in thee.
c. Pride and rebellion was found in him.
17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy
beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason
of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the
ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they
may behold thee.
d. Ultimately, Lucifer wanted to be as God.
Isa 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds; I will be like the most High.
e. Instead, God degreed his punishment long ago…. "He
will be brought down to hell."
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to
the sides of the pit.
2. Satan’s damnation is not dependent upon God defeating him.
a. Satan has already been defeated.
b. All God ever had to do was to speak the word, and
Satan would have been in hell—or worse.
c. But God decided to let Satan roam and even rule the
earth for a time, thus using Satan to select a people
for himself, a people who choose to love and follow
God.
3. God has already cast Lucifer from heaven.
Luke 10:18 And he (Jesus) said unto them, I
beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
a. Even so, Satan still has limited access into heaven.
(1) \\#Rev 12:10\\ He is called the "accuser of our
brethren."
(2) He comes before to accuse the Christians of our
sins and weaknesses.
(3) In other words, Satan tries to make us look bad,
but even that access will be cut off one day
soon. (See Job 1 & 2.)
b. That first casting out is being alluded in
\\#Rev 12:4\\.
(1) At that time, Satan took 1/3 of the host of
heavenly angels with him.
(2) Those angels became Satan’s demons.
c. From that moment to this, Satan has done all he can to
hurt God.
(1) Of course, he can’t hurt God directly.
(2) So Satan turned his wrath to the crowning
creation of God, man.
(3) And when God selected a people to bring
redemption to mankind, the Jews, he turned his
wrath to them.
(4) And when Jesus put on flesh and walked among men,
he turned his wrath toward Jesus.
(5) And when Jesus birth the church into this world
to represent Christ, Satan turned his wrath upon
the church.
B. \\#1-5\\ Round Two - Began when Jesus was born.
1. Israel entered the conflict.
2. Round Two is just summarized in this Scripture.
a. \\#2\\ Describes Jesus’ birth.
b. \\#4\\ Describes Satan’s attack of the Child at birth.
c. \\#5\\ Describes Jesus’ ascension.
3. However, we can turn to the Gospels, Acts, and the
Epistles to get the details of it.
4. We are still in Round Two, but the devil is gearing up for
Round Three.
C. \\#5-11\\Round Three will begin at the middle of the
Tribulation.
1. Once the anti-Christ claims to be God…
2. Once the Jews reject him and turn to Christ…
3. Once the anti-Christ commits the Abomination of
Desolations \\#Dan 9:27, Matt 24:15\\.
4. Then things really heat up.
a. \\#6\\ Israel will flee into the wilderness as Jesus
told them to do in \\#Luke 20:20-21\\.
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she hath a place prepared of God, that they
should feed her there a thousand two hundred and
threescore days.
b. They will stay there for 1,260 days or the last 3 1/2
years of the Tribulation.
c. \\#7\\ Michael, the Archangel, with his army of
angels, will come to defend and help Israel.
Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon; and
the dragon fought and his angels,
(1) This was prophesied in \\#Dan 12:1\\.
(2) This is when God will really start pouring out
His Spirit as evidence by dreams, signs, and
miracles.
(3) It will be the completed fulfillment of Joel 2.
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams, your young men
shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my
spirit.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and
in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of
smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and the
terrible day of the LORD come.
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever
shall call on the name of the LORD shall be
delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said,
and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
d. During the tribulation, Satan will garner to himself
the most power that he has ever had on earth.
e. He will accomplish that by two means:
(1) Man will become more proud and rebellious toward
God than he has ever been.
(2) Satan will fill a man with himself, either
literally himself or another demon so much like
himself that we could not tell the difference.
f. The first part is being fulfilled right before our
eyes.
g. The second part is not far behind!
Are you ready? As I have repeatedly said, you cannot prepare to live
through the Tribulation. You must be prepared to leave before it.
That is through Jesus Christ!
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