The Epistle of Jesus #10: The War of Heaven and Hell – Revelation 12

The Epistle of Jesus #10: The War of Heaven and Hell – Revelation 12

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Introduction: There have always been wars in this world.

There have been wars that last 4 years, 10 years, the countries of England & France fought a war that lasted 100 years. But the war we look at today in Rev. 12 is the war of all wars. it is the beginning of all wars, and it will be the last of all wars in this time of earths existence. Revelation 12 is about the war that was begun by Satan’s rebellion, his desire to rule rather than serve, a war that has raged since before time began. A war that is raging today and one that will continue until the end of time. Revelation 12 gives us a glimpse into that war’s history and final outcome.

Milton’s "Paradise Lost" imagines Satan words as he is cast from Heaven at the very beginning of the War Between Heaven and Hell

Hear at least we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we ma reign secure, and in my choice to reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. – Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost.

John Milton wrote that in 1674 in a ten-thousand-line, 12 volume Poem called Paradise Lost. That line is one of the most famous attributed to Lucifer the fallen angel. It concisely captures the reason Lucifer rebelled. “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.” It also captures the sentiment of many people today caught up in that war and fighting on the wrong side.

Revelation 12 is about the war that was begun by Satan’s rebellion, a war that has raged since before time began. A war that is raging today and one that will continue until the end of time. Revelation 12 give us a glimpse into that war’s history and final outcome.

 Heaven’s Wonders – Revelation 12:1-6

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: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 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. 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. 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. 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.

 A War Throughout Time

Now the first wonder that John sees is the Woman clothes with the sun. Who is this Woman, can we identify her from the description John gives us?

Revelation 12:1–2 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:  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

She is clothed with the sun, the moon is under her feet and she has a crown, a στεφανος, stefanos of twelve stars. She is also about to give birth. This woman can only be the nation of Israel, whom the Bible throughout the OT has described as the wife of God.

We have a very good identifying clue in Genesis 37:9 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. Jacob his father on hearing this said, Genesis 37:10 Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

So Jacob whose name had been changed to Israel and gave the nation its twelve tribes identifies Joseph’s dream as his family. Now in the book of Revelation we see that same imagery used to identify that family now a nation, and a people.

John sees the woman and then he sees another, The Second Wonder in heaven in vs. 3 Revelation 12:3 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.

There is no doubt who this is. In vss. 9 and 10 than in any other single passage in the Bible.

Revelation 12: 9-10 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down

In fact that term in the Old Testament would have been serpent, this is the same being, Lucifer the fallen archangel who has become the arch enemy of God, that tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. He was the Dragon then and He is the Dragon now.

In vs. 4 it says, And his (The Dragon’s) tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. These stars are symbolic of the angelic host that fell with Satan.

And John is seeing this dragon waiting to ready to devour, to destroy the child she was ready to deliver. A child who was to rule we a rod of iron, an obvious reference to the Messiah as foretold in the prophecies of Psalms, Isaiah and Micah.

In verse 5 we see the child is caught up to God and to His throne and the woman flees into the wilderness where she will be fed in a place prepared for her by God for 1260, one thousand two hundred and three score days. Once again a period of 42 months or 3 ½ years. So this protection of the nation Israel must take place in the last half of the tribulation.

Vs 4 takes us back to the birth of Christ, while vs 6 takes up forward to the last half of the tribulation. It is a distillation of time and history giving us a picture of the conflict with Lucifer from before time to the tribulation at the end of time.

The Fall and War With Satan

Jesus once made a statement to the Disciples after they had returned from a mission for him in which they had been able to cast out demons by His name. Jesus sharing in their joy relates an event to them in Luke 10:18 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Sometime in the past Jesus saw Satan, Lucifer fall from heaven. This would seem to be an insight into what we read in…

Isaiah 14:12-15 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
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:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

So sometime in the past, probably eternity past, before time began, Satan in his pride, rebelled against God and was cast from heaven. From this passage it appears that he took with him 1/3 of all the angelic host. We do not know how many that was but we do know how powerful they would be as angels. From that time on Satan has been at war with God and has been striving to destroy God’s creation and especially that creation what was made in the image of God, Man himself.

That War has especially been targeted again against the woman we see in Revelation 12, Israel the wife of God and her seed.

Pharaoh threw all the male children of the Hebrews to the crocodiles of the Nile, motivated by Satan.

Haman, was able to convince the King of Persia to destroy all the Jews, throughout all the lands ruled by the King, which was most of the earth at that time.

Herod, upon hearing of the child born “King of the Jews” killed all the infants 2 years old and under in Bethlehem.

In Medieval France and Germany, Jews were blamed for the Black Plague and torturously treated. The year that Columbus discovered America, 1492, Spain drove every Jew out of the nation. The Roman Catholic Inquisition slaughtered Jews in the name of Jesus Christ, and the numbers of them are beyond counting, massacred in the name of Christ. In 1882, the Russians massacred thousands of Jews in order to sieze their land and drive them from their country.

More recently Hitler in the 1930s and 40s tried to litearlly exterminate all Jews upward of 7 million were shot, bayoneted, put in gas chambers and burnt to ash in ovens.

Today Islamic terrorists like the Taliban and ISIS are killing all Jews and Christians that come into their power.

Why such hatred against these people? Because they are God’s people, God’s nation and God loves them. Therefore, Satan hates them and from the time of Jacob until the Tribulation He is in a blind killing rage to destroy that which God loves. And the precious it is to God the more Satan seeks to corrupt, ruin and destroy it.

God has always protected Israel.

How have such targets people survived? How is it after so many centuries upon centuries of hate, persecution and murder have they been able to not only exist but even to flourish and once again found their own nation? How can this be but by the power of the God of Heaven, who has and always will protect them.

One of the greatest, most undeniable proofs of the reality of God is the survival of the Jews. They should not exist, they should have been wiped from the plane of existence and yet here they are. Only possible by the power and promise of God.

God’s promise to Abraham Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Psalms 72:18-19 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel,
who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever:
and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

 A promise of protection and enduring that sees its final fulfillment in Revelation 12 with God protecting Israel in the wilderness. Some believe this will be and actual physical refuge and for many if may well be, but I also think it means that many Jews will be protected in the wilderness of the Gentile nations and people. When Jesus judges the nations at the end of the tribulation the criteria for those nations to enter into the kingdom is that they “cared for His brethren” during the tribulation.

Now all that is the past from the first rebellion of Satan to the end of Jesus ministry and now in vs 7 we jump back to another future war, this one taking place in heaven itself.

Heaven’s Wars – Revelation 12:7-12

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

A War At the Beginning of The Tribulation

Jesus in showing this vision of hell’s final assault on Heaven. When Satan realizes that this is the last seven years of his kingdom on earth, it appears he makes a last ditch, desperate attack on the halls of heaven itself.

This war is won by Michael and his angels and once it is won, the Bible says there is no longer a place for Satan and his angels, his demon on that spiritual plane of heaven. We talked before about the 2nd heaven where it was believed that the angels dwelt, well it appears that that spiritual realm also include the fallen angels and Satan, until this future battle in heaven.

They are cast out of that realm to the physical earth. The loud voice calls out, “Now is come salvation and strength…for the accuser of the brethren is cast down.” One of the things that Satan could do, as we know from the book of Job, while he was in that spiritual 2nd heaven was accuse the people of God, but no longer. Furthermore, those accusation were defeated by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.

The people of God, whose faith was in the grace of Jesus Christ and his shed blood overcame throughout history by that gracious gift and by the gift of their own lives in testimony of their faith. “they loved not their lives unto the death.” They destroyed the accusation of the Destroyer by the lives they were willing to sacrifice in service to their Savior and God.

Overcoming the Accuser

In Revelation 12 we are once again afforded this glimpse into heaven and thought that glimpse is mainly so we can understand this war that Satan has waged against God, there is another insight that is very valuable to us today. It is the insight into overcoming.

In vs 11, And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

That verse is talking about all of us caught up in the sidelines and the frontlines of heaven’s war. To overcome you must possess three things.

The blood of the lamb. You must be born again, you must like the Hebrews prepared for the first Passover, have the blood of the lamb over your lintel and upon your doorposts, not of a physical house but of your heart and soul.

You must overcome through the word your testimony. We must possess the salvation Jesus Christ through his shed blood and we must tell others of Jesus our testimony, our witness, the truth of a life saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Finally, if we are to over come we must love something greater than our own life on this earth. We must love the Lord and we willing to give this life, to spend this life, to pour out this life. For if we are truly overcomers then we know this life is only the staging area for the first steps we will take into eternity. Spend that life wisely in service to God.

Remember what Paul said in Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

If you can’t back up your faith with the actions of your life then doesn’t that mean you also can’t overcome the accusations of Satan? Don’t let him win even a temporary victory. Look to the blood of the Lamb, Live the word of your testimony and let your love for the next life be much more powerful than loving this present one.

There is one last Battle Satan’s tries to win. The war has been lost but He wants revenge. He want to hurt the ones God loves and so he turns his hatred back toward the woman, Isreal.

Hell’s Wrath – Revelation 12:13-17

And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

A war at the end of the Tribulation.

The Dragon, Satan turns his wrath upon the woman who gave birth to the man child. He turns upon the remnant of the nation of Israel though which Jesus was born of the seed of David, through Mary his earthly mother.

We are told that the woman is given two wings of a great eagle, a symbol of God’s power and a symbol of great speed. She flies into the wilderness, into her place and she is cared for, nourished there for a time, times and half a times. In other word for a year, two years and half a year. 3 ½ years. This remnant probably of the Jewish believers, reached by the 144, 000 living in Israel, miraculously escape and are protected in the wilderness.

Some believe this to be Petra, the city cut into the steep canyons of red rock in the desert. It could be another place in the wilderness we can’t be sure but we can be sure that they will be protected for 3 ½ years in that place.

The dragon opens his mouth and send out a flood after the woman, but the earth swallows up that flood. It could be a symbol of God’s protection or it could be a symbol of the woman being protected by some of the Gentile nations, who take in and protect the people of God.

When this happens, the Dragon will then turn on the next target of opportunity, another remnant of the people of God, the woman’s seed. Perhaps those who were not able to escape and are still holding out in Jerusalem. For we know the army of the Anti-Christ will march on the city just before the Battle of Armageddon.

This will be …

The last Battle for Israel's Survival

We as the New Testament People of God won’t be on the earth to witness this terrible assault by Satan on God’s people. Our time, the church age has come and gone and now we wait along with all the host of heaven as God works out the final details of His omniscient plan to save His people.

You know what we as God’s children in this age can learn from this passage? It’s a valuable, indispensable lesson. This lesson, this truth, along with all the others are revealed now to us, because we need the same assurance today, that the Woman and her seed will need in the last 3 ½ years of the tribulation.

God is at work saving His people. He always has been. He always will be. There has never been a single moment in time, that God has forgotten or ignored those He loves.

The Bible is filled with God’s promises and assurances that He is with us and will protect us.

Psalms 91 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress:
my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers,
and under his wings shalt thou trust:
his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night;
nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness;
nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side,
and ten thousand at thy right hand;
but it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold
and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge,
even the most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee,
to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands,
lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder:
the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him:
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him,
and shew him my salvation.

That Psalms looks past this physical life and just like Revelation 12 it gives a glimpse into eternity. God will show us his salvation! A salvation that starts fearlessly in this life but is ultimately seen in eternal life.

 Conclusion

It may not seem like it to us today. I imagine those we see fleeing in Revelation 12 will have doubts, fears and uncertainty about what will happen to them as they run to that place of safety. We will have them in the times of trouble in our life, but I have to believe for you and one day for them as  children of God, that when those terrible times come, the comfort assurance of God will be there to carry you, when you can no longer carry yourself.

That God will give you wings of an eagle and fly you into a place of protection away from all this world intends to destroy us with.

Paul wrote to the persecuted believers of his time in Hebrews 13:5-6, reminding them of Jesus promise, “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”