Rebirth of Israel Revelation 12:1-9 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Revelation 12 prophecies the rebirth of Israel and the devil’s final attempt before the millennium to destroy the nation of Israel. Here are the details:
12:1 – A Woman – this is not “Our Lady of Guadalupe” – this woman is Israel – notice in Jeremiah 3:20 and Isaiah 54:5-6 that Israel is a woman, the wife of the Lord
– Sun, moon and stars – notice in the interpretation of Joseph’s dream that the sun represents Jacob, the moon represents Rachel and the stars represent Joseph’s brothers – clearly these identify the woman as Israel
12:2 – Travailing with child – this is a typical phrase of the tribulation [Isaiah 13:8-9; Is 21:3-9] – this phrase is significant because of the national rebirth of Israel [Isaiah 66:5-9]
12:5 – the man child – often considered to be Jesus, but he was born over 2,000 years ago – the man child shows up in Isaiah 66:7 and in Isaiah 66:8 this man child represents a nation – he will rule with a rod of iron – of course, Jesus rules with a rod of iron in Revelation 19:15 but so do the tribulation saints in Revelation 2:27 [in Isaiah 60, Israel becomes the ruling nation of the world and in Is 60:12, the nation that will not serve her is utterly wasted]
12:3 – Great red dragon – this is the devil Revelation 12:9
- 7 heads – 7 primary world kingdoms historically
- 10 horns – 10 kings in the tribulation [Revelation 17:3, 12]
- 7 crowns – kings of the kingdoms above [Revelation 17:10-11]
12:4 – Drew 1/3 of the stars – these are fallen angels [Revelation 12:7]
- Revelation 1:20 – stars are angels
- Matthew 25:41 – the devil has angels
– To devour her child – so that the nation would be destroyed by killing the new born – notice how the devil did this in Exodus 1:15-16 and in Matthew 2:16, when he tried to destroy the Messiah
12:5 – (see notes above under 12:2)
– Caught up to God – Rapture of at least a portion of Israel – see Revelation 7:4-8 and 14:1-4 where the 144,000 appear suddenly before the throne of God
12:6 – fled to the wilderness – Jesus told his disciples that Jews would flee when the abomination of desolation was raised up in the temple [Matthew 24:16-21] and Ezekiel prophesied that God would bring them out to the wilderness to plead with them [Ezek 20:33-36]
– A place prepared – Sela Petra (the rock city) [Deuteronomy 33:2, Habakkuk 3:3, Psalms 68:7-9, Obadiah 13-15]
– feed her there – God will feed her with manna just like he did when the Jews were in the wilderness journey after escaping Egypt [Micah 7:14-15 (notice they will also be in Bashan, Gilead and Mt. Carmel), Psalms 78:15-25] – this is why the miracle of feeding the 5,000 is recorded in all four gospels; they were fed in the wilderness [Matthew 15:32-33]
– 1,260 days = 42 months of 30 day months each
12:7 – star wars – reminiscent of the movie and Reagan’s defense plan, however, this is the real deal
12:8 – in heaven – they were cast down to the earth [12:13] – Satan goes though 5 falls
- Covering Cherub originally – Ezekiel 28:14
- Cast down into the 2nd heaven in Ezekiel 28:16
- Cast down into the 1st heaven in John 12:31
- Cast down to the earth in Revelation 12:8-9
- Cast into the bottomless pit in Revelation 20:1-3
- Cast into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:10
12:9 – Serpent – Genesis 3:1, 4
– deceiveth the whole world Revelation 20:3, 8