Everyday Life in Revelation: Part 7 Cosmic WarsShembull

After being defeated by Jesus, Satan attempted to destroy our Savior’s people. According to Revelation 12:13, he first pursues the woman from John’s vision. As we have seen, this woman represents faithful Israel, the remnant of God’s people. The woman escapes into the wilderness on the two wings of a great eagle. There she is “nourished.” This is imagery taken from the Exodus. God brought Israel to the wilderness on eagles’ wings, as it were, and there He fed, cared for, and protected them. So, we find assurance in the imagery of the woman’s escape from the dragon that God will care for the remnant of His people. As Satan attempts to destroy God’s children, he will not succeed.

The woman is nourished in the wilderness for “a time, times, and half a time” (v. 14). This works out to three and a half years, or forty-two months, or 1,260 days, which had come to be known in John’s day to represent any period associated with the persecution of God’s people by foreigners. Some believe that Revelation 11:3–14 explains 1,260 days as the period between Christ’s first and second comings. Thus, God will take care of His people in every generation as we wait for Jesus to return.

Verse 15 of today’s passage describes to us Satan attempting to defeat the woman by pouring “water like a river out of his mouth . . . to sweep her away with a flood.” In Revelation, the mouth usually refers to speech; thus, commentators remark that this likely refers to Satan’s attempt to destroy the church by prompting God’s earthly foes to utter false words of slander against it or to inspire false brothers to speak words of false teaching within the church. Either way, Satan will not be ultimately successful. The earth will swallow up this flood from the dragon, a metaphor for defeat (see Ex. 15:4–12). But even then, the devil will not give up. He will continue to war on the woman’s offspring, another reference to God’s people.

This passage should encourage us. Even in the darkest hours of church history, we can be sure that God is with us and that He will protect us. He has promised to care for and to preserve us. In the short term, life might be difficult and faithfulness costly. However, we know that ultimately, in the long-term, we will be richly rewarded for being part of the family of God. God will get the final victory; ours is to be faithful to Him.