We continue in Revelation 12, and as I mentioned before, there are three wars described in this chapter:
1. War on the earth as Satan goes after Christ Himself and after Israel.
2. War in heaven as we see Michael and his angels in battle with Satan and his demons.
3. War on the earth once again starting in Revelation 12:13.
Remember that Satan has been cast down and thrown out of heaven. He no longer has any access to the heavenlies or access to God. That has not been true throughout all these centuries because until now, although he has no authority in heaven and he is simply one that comes before the Lord to report to Him, still he has access to the heavenly places. That is now no longer true.
Starting in Revelation 12:13, he is now thrown down to earth, and we pick up the story at that point, “And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.” Satan is now on the earth and cut off from the heavenly places. We identified this woman earlier in Revelation 12 as Israel. Israel has given birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. “But the two wings of the 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 a half a time, from the presence of the serpent.” Time, times and half time is the old style of saying three and a half years. She is protected. The Lord enables her to flee. Satan wants to destroy Israel. Satan has always wanted to destroy Israel. We think of the holocaust as an example and other attempts at destroying the nation. None of those ever happen and none of those ever will happen. The Lord is protecting His people. Here is the greatest challenge Israel has ever faced. The devil himself is trying to destroy her and the Lord gives her the wings to fly away and be protected.
In Revelation 12:15, Satan pulls out all the stops, “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.“ That is probably metaphorical, so what that means we don’t know. Whatever he is doing, he is doing everything in his power to destroy the people of God, the nation of Israel.
But it says in Revelation 12:16, “But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.” Again, we do not know exactly what that looks like or how the earth was used to protect Israel, but something took place on the planet itself that became a barrier to the attack that Satan was bringing upon the nation of Israel. So, the nation again is protected. Satan is after that nation. He wants to destroy Israel. He could not destroy the Messiah, Christ. Apparently, he tried at the incarnation. He certainly tried at the crucifixion, but he has failed. Now he is very angry . . .
