The Intensifying Conflict Between Israel and Satan

THE INTENSIFYING CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND SATAN Spring Valley Mennonite; February 24, 2019; Revelation 12; Matthew 24:15-22 As we have been studying Revelation, we have found that the chapters are not in a strictly chronological order. Interspersed throughout the book are interludes which describe various individuals, beings or entities and their actions during the seven years. Some of these entities are groups, like the 144,000 or the multitude of martyrs while some are individual beings like Antichrist or the False Prophet. These entities act and interact in the last days. Sometimes it is difficult to ascertain exactly when these actions take place. Often it is best to settle for the knowledge that they are involved, but the “when” is uncertain. Even those who are recognized scholars in the area of prophesy don’t always agree on the timing of certain things. So far, we have studied four individuals or groups of individuals prominent in the Tribulation: The Antichrist, his False Prophet, the 144,000 Jewish men who are sealed and protected, and the vast company of believers who come to faith, most of whom will be martyred. There are several more prominent actors on this seven-year-long historical stage, some of whom we have already mentioned. But we are given additional information about the four of which are specifically described in Revelation chapter 12. These four are the nation Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel Michael, and Satan. Turn to chapter 12, follow along as I read the first two verses, I. THE WOMAN, WHO IS ISRAEL We first read of a woman who is pregnant. In the history of the church, this woman has commonly been seen as either the Church or even Mary. But as we examine the details relating to this woman, we find neither of these choices acceptable. There is no debate about her child, for as verse 5 clearly explains, this is Christ “Who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron”. Also, we realize that the Lord Jesus gave birth to the Church, not the other way around. As for the woman being Mary, although she was the earthly mother of Jesus, the interaction and persecution of Satan against the woman, and her fleeing to the wilderness for protection for three-and-a-half years doesn’t fit Mary. Scripture often uses a woman to represent different entities. In Revelation, four different women are mentioned: there is Jezebel who represents a false religion in chapter 2, the harlot in chapter 17 is the world-wide church, including the apostate professing Christian church; in chapter 19, we have the bride of the Lamb at the wedding feast of the Lamb. And we have this woman in chapter 12. We find also in the Old Testament, Israel is portrayed as the unfaithful wife of Jehovah. Here, this woman clearly represents Israel, through whom the Messiah was born. Being “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and the crown of 12 stars” fits the description of the nation in the dream Joseph had of the future of Israel. God has obviously worked His plan for the ages through Israel, whose Messiah was not only the Savior of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. Abraham was promised that the world would be blessed through Israel, and although Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah, and has been set aside for the last 2000 years, God resumes work with Israel in the last days. One of God’s main purposes in the Tribulation is to bring Israel to faith. He will use the 144,000 sealed Jews as His main messengers during this time. The pain in birthing the Messiah, recognizes the persecution of Israel by Satan down through the ages, as he tries to defeat God’s plan of redemption. If he could eliminate Israel at any time, or defeat the Messiah’s mission, he could have won. But God has preserved Israel throughout history, even bringing her back into the holy land in 1948, although in unbelief. God is setting the stage for the last days, for Israel has to exist as a nation for a covenant to be made; the action which begins the seven-year Tribulation. God will keep all His promises to Israel, as He said in Jeremiah 31: Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: (If this fixed order departs) “If this fixed order departs From before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease From being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:35-37) Despite her rejection of the Messiah Jesus, God will fulfill all His promises to Israel. The second entity mentioned is in verses 3 and 4 is: II. THE RED DRAGON Read vv. 3-4. An enormous red dragon appears, hideous in appearance with seven crowned heads and ten horns. One has commented that, “Red, the color of fiery destruction and bloodshed, further stresses Satan’s vicious, deadly, destructive nature1” This is the devil, Satan, the angel formerly named Lucifer, (Isaiah 14:12-17) whose first diabolical plan was to ruin the paradise of heaven and usurp the throne of God himself. He led a rebellion in heaven among the angels, and fully one-third of the angels followed Lucifer, who held the honor of being first among all created angels. He was barred from dwelling in heaven. He then succeeded in destroying paradise on earth through the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As Adam sinned, his sin affected not only mankind, but all creation. This, by the way, is why God will create a new heaven and a new earth, for this creation has been infected with the deadly decay and corruption of sin. Lucifer became known as Satan, and his followers became demons. This dragon, or Satan, was ready to devour the child who was born of Israel. We remember the efforts of King Herod to destroy the Christ Child when He was born. Satan is the “behind- the- scenes” force that has opposed God’s plan and will from the time of his fall. He brought about sin and death to mankind through tempting Adam and Eve. He repeatedly tried to eliminate Israel through their enemies. He was unsuccessful in destroying the infant Jesus, though he continually tempted our Lord during Jesus’ years on earth, finally orchestrating Jesus’ death on the cross. But Jesus defeated Satan, death and the grave as He was raised from the dead, and His death was accepted by the Father as payment for all our sins. Satan will “pull out all the stops” as he tries to eliminate believing Jews during the Tribulation. MacArthur observes, “The final battles of Satan’s long war against God are yet to be fought. They will take place in the future, during the last half of the seven-year tribulation period, the time Jesus called the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:21). At that time Satan, aided by the absence of the raptured church and the presence of increased demon hordes (9:1–11), will mount his most desperate assaults against God’s purposes and His people. But despite the savage fury with which those assaults will be carried out, they will not succeed.2 To explain the seven heads with seven crowns of the dragon, what makes the most sense to me is that “The seven heads with their seven diadems (diadema; royal crowns symbolizing power and authority) represent seven consecutive world empires running their course under Satan’s dominion: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Antichrist’s future empire (17:9–10).3” The final kingdom, ruled by Antichrist, will be a ten-nation confederacy; the ten horns represent the kings who will rule under Antichrist (17:12; cf. 13:1; Dan. 7:23–25). The shifting of the diadems from the dragon’s heads to the beast’s horns (in chapter 13, verse 1) reveals the shift in power from the seven consecutive world empires to the ten kings under the final Antichrist.4 (MacArthur) It should be noted that although he was cast from his dwelling in heaven, Satan, in this present age, has access to God’s presence; as we see in the book of Job. Satan will be permanently barred from heaven after his defeat by Michael and the holy angels during the Tribulation.5 For a moment, let’s consider: III. THE MALE CHILD WHO IS TO RULE THE NATIONS Read v. 5. As I said earlier, the child is Jesus. Psalm 2:7-9 tells us, “(NASB95) 7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’” The ascension of Jesus after His resurrection is the meaning of the child being caught up to God and the throne. In verse 6, we find further details regarding Israel: IV. THE WOMAN’S PROTECTION IN THE WILDERNESS Read v. 6. A remnant of Israel will be preserved through these last 3 ½ years. After the covenant Antichrist makes with Israel is broken at the halfway point, an intense persecution breaks out against the Jews. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 24:15-22 15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. 18 “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. 21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. 22 “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. The mountains of the wilderness to which Israel will flee for protection will obviously be for the believing Jews, who will be in addition to the sealed 144,000. This may be describing a “government in exile” sort of thing. If the wilderness is to be taken literally, it could be a sanctuary near enough that those fleeing could get there quickly. Some have proposed the mountain sanctuary of Petra, an area in Southern Jordan, as this sanctuary. Very interestingly, the next verses describe how: V. SATAN LOSES HIS ACCESS TO HEAVEN Read vv. 7-12. One commentator describes it like this: “There has been war in the heavenly places since the fall of Satan (Isa. 14:12–14; Ezek. 28:11–18). Though at present he still has access to God’s presence in heaven (v. 10; cf. Job 1, 2), Satan’s domain is the earth and the air around the earth. That is why the Bible describes him as the “god of this world” (in 2 Cor. 4:4) and the “prince of the power of the air” (in Eph. 2:2) and his demon hosts as “spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).6 (In Daniel 10 we read of one such battle between the “prince of the kingdom of Persia”, the archangel Michael and Daniel’s angelic messenger.) This final battle in the war in the heavenly places occurs somewhere around the mid-point of the Tribulation, and results in Satan being confined to activities on earth. Even though at his initial rebellion Satan was cast from his exalted position as the “Anointed Cherub”, he still has access in some sense to the throne of God. We see this in the book of Job where Satan appeared before God and was told to examine God’s servant Job. Here in Revelation, we see the further demotion of Satan as he loses a cosmic battle with the arch-angel Michael. Michael and the holy angels fight against Satan and his demons, and Michael prevails. This marks a significant development in the timeline of the Tribulation Period, for “Woe” is pronounced upon the earth and the sea, as verse 12 tells us, “the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” Henry Morris has written: With what weapons and by what tactics this heavenly warfare will be waged is beyond our understanding. Angels cannot be injured or slain with earthly weapons, and such physical forces as we know about are not able to move spiritual beings. But these beings do operate in a physical universe, so there must exist powerful physico-spiritual energies of which we yet can have only vague intimations, energies which can propel angelic bodies at superluminary velocities through space and which can move mountains and change planetary orbits. It is with such energies and powers that this heavenly battle will be waged and the spectators in heaven (including John) will watch in awe. When Michael finally prevails, and Satan is forced forever out of the heavens, a tremendous cry of thanksgiving will resound through the heavens. (The Revelation Record [Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale, 1983], 224)7 Read vv. 13-17. Through his earthly forces, Satan now concentrates his hate toward on Israel, and intense persecution breaks out through Antichrist, as the covenant is broken, and Antichrist declares himself “god” and sits on a throne erected in the Jerusalem Temple. The Great Tribulation, the second half of the three-and-a-half years has begun. As Satan and his minions step up the persecution of Israel and believers, the Lamb of God opens the seventh seal, which contains the seven trumpet and seven seal judgments. The first 3 ½ years have been bad, but things are about to get much worse for those on earth. But the true universal church will escape this wrath of the Lamb, for the rapture will come before the Tribulation begins. Even so, come Lord Jesus!