Revelation 12-13
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“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
The book of Revelations reveals the battle and the victor as well as the defeated.
This interlude gives us a picture of the ones involved in this end judgement
From this point on we get a picture of the opposition.
Satan’s aim is to frustrate Gods rule and kill Gods people
This first chapter gives us a spiritual picture of history and the struggle in the spiritual world.
This is another Pause in the book of Revelation. These pauses between the judgments are crucial to understand. There is more than just a battle going on.
Lets start by reading Chapters 12 and 13
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.
His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.
She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,
and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,
but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
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, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.
The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood.
But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.
Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.
One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.
It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,
and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,
and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
Key Figures
The Pregnant Woman
Represents the people of God, The Church or if your a Catholic it would represent Mary.
The mother of the Messiah.
Isaiah 66:7 gives us a picture of Zion giving birth to a redeemed Israel.
“Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.
But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.
The heavenly church the picture of the earthly church.
The crown of twelve stars can represent the twelve tribes.
She is in pain of travail
As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, She writhes and cries out in her labor pains, Thus were we before You, O Lord.
This is talking about Israel, not the actual birth of Christ by Mary.
SHe is preserved and the 3 1/2 years is the first half of the tribulation period.
The Red Dragon
Satan Himself
wants to kill the church
wants to kill the messiah
He wants to rule
Seven heads and Horns represent power or nations but ultimately showing he has a great degree of power and influence.
Ten horns go back to Daniel 7:24
‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.
He is the accuser of the Brethren ( Day and Night)- He hates you that much !!
The Male Child
Gods anointed
It shows Satan not able to kill Him
This depicts Christ and the church
The Archangel Michael
Michael and his angels fight with Satan and his angels and they lose . As you read the account it isn’t much of a fight.
Satan is hurled down , now not able to be the accuser of the Brethren. ( which we see in the book of Job)
Vs 11 states that the ultimate battle was won by the blood of the lamb.
Michael in Daniel 10 is called the guardian angel of Israel.
Even though Satan was defeated at the cross- he still influences people today - until he meets his final end.
He is the great deceiver
But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.
Point being - Satan still is a defeated power - AMEN
You prove it by your testimony to the fact that you are free. AMEN
The Remnant
They loved the Lord rather than life itself
They conquer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Satan has lost his power - He cannot bring a charge against Gods elect.
Beast of the Sea- Anti-Christ
The Anti-Christ ( means against or instead of ) -and is government
10 kingdoms under the control of the Anti Christ- ( or His influence)
Do NOT TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY- How can one man run ten kingdoms in this extremely selfish and self centered environment we are in.
He has to rise as a leader - Just like the Ukrainian President has done in the last three months. He rises and captures the hearts of the people.
To study this further you can go back to Daniel ch 7
I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.
This Anti- Christ is going to deceive people suggesting he is the great deliverer. He is the one with all the answers - He will oppose what God stands for. - He is depicted as a bear ( powerful and cruel) Leopard and lion - ( Fierce and Swift)
He has great military prowess and acts as one with authority. He is also empowered by Satan himself.
Who is the anti-christ - we do not know yet - but this is who he will look like.
The False Prophet - Beast of the Earth. The Second Beast
This false prophet is going to come across as a loving, caring, gentle person. But in reality he is a dragon.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
What could it look like today? ( 2 current examples)
Again we have a Political leader and a Spiritual leader working together.
Right ( in this present climate) now you can say we have that with the political leader being Putin and the spiritual leader being Patriarch Kirill- the Leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Today we do not see the connection between the 10 nations -Flip that around and we would have the Ukrainian President Zelensky team up with Pope Francis of the Catholic Church.
( Do you see how that dualism works)
This False Prohet works in signs - things brought beyond normal circumstances which have a deeper meaning - ( Like the seven signs in John) They have a purpose beyond a miracle)
This false prophet makes an image for the beast and gives it life. In this case authority. This mark or image we call the mark of the Beast - symbolized by teh number 666-
This mark is your submission to the beast and His economic authority.
Isn’t it remarkable how we just had a (beta test) for the mark of the beast with COVID-
The COVID passport - unless you had one you could not go into any restaurant in San Francisco . Without it you to this day have to be quarantined in Canada for 14 days even though it now makes no sense. and the rules are not followed internally.
Europe was the test capital - The people fell for this hook line and sinker.
So easy was this implementation that this coming mark will be no trouble to push on Spiritually ignorant people.
Fear and Intimidation will be marked traits of the Beast and the False Prophet. Followed by silver bullets.
If you do this WE will let you do this.
Get the Mark we will let you eat.
Get the mark we will let you travel.
Get the mark and we will let you work. ( Didn’t we do this with all medical personnel( like nurses - get vaccinated or we will fire you).
This was all done under the disguise of Health Care. You could be a lone data entry clerk working out of your home in the middle of Alaska and you still had to get vaccinated -
Get the mark and we wont try to kill you, we will protect you.
WOW what have we learned in the past three years?
It is easy to direct the masses using fear and intimidation
Conclusion
Revelation 13:10 (NASB95)
Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.
Those who stand fast in their faith and have confident assurance.
How do we reconcile these chapters?
Well again It is all about Worship
Revelation 13: 8 says “ speaking of the first beast - “All the earth will worship it - everyone whose name is not written in the lambs book of life”
The word it - is a Spirit of Anti-Christ
This word worship means casting oneself to the ground, or bow down.
It is an outward gesture to an inward attitude.
Remember in Johns Day every roman citizen had to acknowledge “Caesar is Lord” - Your allegiance was to the governmental authority.
If not- you were an enemy of the state.
Depending on who you worship and follow will dictate whose side you are on.
The soldiers of the Third Reich were for the most part either Catholic or Lutheran. How could they be apart of such great evil?
WEAK FAITH, coupled with weak worship
We are stalled in grace
We are stalled in honor.
We have baby milk worship and baby food preaching.
Weak because of intimidation and Fear.
Weak because mans promises seem more tangible than Gods promises.
Weak because they served the creation and its devices rather than the creator.
Stay alert - the devil is prowling around looking for someone to devour.