Bob's Notes 8/4/19: The Role of the Unholy Trinity During the Tribulation Satan (Part 3)

Post date: Aug 5, 2019 1:31:08 AM

The Role of the Unholy Trinity During the Tribulation Satan (Part 3) Revelation 12:7-17

Review

During our last lesson we discussed that the woman, Israel, gave birth to the male child who is the Messiah. Satan tried to destroy the child, but failed. After His birth, the make child ascended into heaven to sit on His throne. He is awaiting to return to set up the Messianic Kingdom and sit on the Davidic Throne.

We also discussed the curses in Genesis 3:14-15 that God put on the serpent, Satan, for enticing Eve to eat the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. The snake, crawling and eating dust, would be a perpetual reminder to mankind of temptation and the Fall and would be cursed above all other animal was part of the curse. Another part of the curse dealt with four avenues of conflict.

One, God would place personal hostility between the Satan and Israel.

Two, God would place personal hostility between the anti-messiah and the Messiah.

Three the Messiah will destroy Satan permanently.

Four, Satan will temporarily immobilize the Messiah.

Just because Satan failed to destroy the Messiah, he is going to fight to the bitter end as we shall see today in Revelation 12 because his time is short.

The War in Heaven (7-12)

12:7-9 In Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-19 we saw Satan and about one-third of the angels attempting to usurp God’s throne in heaven before the creation of Adam and Eve. This attempt failed and Satan the angels who followed him were thrown out of heaven. Satan and the same angles attempted to do it again. The timeline appears to be in the middle of the Tribulation period. This event may have attributed to the anti-christ breaking the covenant with Israel. The text does not tell us if Michael the arch angel and his angels were part of defeating Satan and his angels the first time, but this time they are involved. In heaven Michael and his holy angels fought Satan and his angels who are called demons. The outcome of this was no different than when Satan and the unholy angels rebelled against God before the creation of Adam and Eve.

Even though Satan and the unholy angels were thrown out of heaven as far as their place of dwelling after the first attempt to take the throne away from God, Satan was still allowed to visit God and make accusations against believers in Jesus. We see this in Job 1&2; Zech. 3:1-3 and in Revelation 12:9. Satan was not just thrown out of heaven, but he was cast out of heaven with force. He was hurled. After he wages war again against God in the middle of the Tribulation period, he will not have access to God any longer. As we shall see, this angers him.

In verse 9 we see Satan is called many names that reveal his character:

The great dragon - he is fierce and has great power

The serpent of old – he has been a deceiver and liar for a long time

The devil – the slanderer

Satan – the adversary

Deceives – even though this is a verb, it certain describes him as the deceiver.

12:10 - John then heard a song of praise in heaven by a loud voice. Their praising and rejoicing seem to in anticipation of what will follow Satan and the fallen angels after their expulsion from heaven. The salvation or deliverance by God and the demonstration of His’ divine power demonstrate that Messianic Kingdom on the earth will have come even closer when Satan was expelled from God’s presence. The demonstration of authority of the coming Messiah also will be closer when Satan is cast out of heaven. (Psalm 2:8 & Revelation 11:15) Satan’s role as accuser of the brethren with accesses to the throne of God day and night is over. As far as Satan’s access to God, you can take his’ pitchfork and stick it in him because he is done

12:11 - Satan is characterized as the one who accuses believers before our God day and night. The principle by which he was overcome and cast out of heaven was the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Not only did Christ provide the victory, but also those who were martyred took part in that victory. Those in the heavens were called on to rejoice because of Satan's defeat. In the second stanza the praise continues. Remember that it is a song of anticipation of what will occur during the last half of the Tribulation period. The ones singing the song are the ones who have already been martyred. They are singing about those who will be martyred during the last half of the Tribulation period. Satan made accusations at God’s throne against them but they overcame Satan who accused them and had them killed. The reason Satan was defeated and they were victorious and were overcomers was because of the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, their testimony, and that they loved Jesus more than their life even as they were facing death. They had great faith in Him!

12:12 – Here we have the third and final stanza in the martyrs' praise. Those in heaven can rejoice because Satan has been punished and is no longer with them (cf. Ps. 96:11; Isa. 49:13) and that there are those with them in heaven who were over comers because gave their life for Jesus while on the earth.

However, in the middle of the verse John transitions from those who should praise the Lord to those who better beware because Satan has been thrown down to the earth. The word “woe” indicates that the result of Satan being thrown down to the earth will be in a state of intense hardship or distress. Mankind and all the those living creatures on the earth and in the sea should beware of what is to come. Satan will be now will be moving among man, especially believers in Jesus and the Jewish remnant, more combatively than ever before. The term wrath means great anger or fury that will be pointed toward believers and the remnant of Jewish people. He is even more dangerous now because he knows his time to do as much damage as possible is short. He only has 1260 days or 3 1/2 years to do his damage because he knows after that time period is over, he and the other two members of the unholy trinity will be bound in the abyss for 1000 years.

The Dragons Vengeance Continues against the Woman (13-17)

12:13 – The realization that he had been thrown down to the earth angered Satan greatly as we just discussed. Since he cannot go directly after the Messiah who is in heaven to antagonize or try to destroy Him, the first thing he does is to go after the woman, Israel. His purpose is to persecute her and to do as much damage to her as he can before his time is up. After all, she gave birth to the Messiah, and she is considered by God as special.

12:14 – Just like many times in the past, God came to Israel’s aide. Remember the promise God made to Israel in Jeremiah 31:35-37 in which He told them that the sun, the moon, and the stars were signs about their eternal existence as a nation and as a people. Also, this is the second time in Revelation 12 that God promised Israel that He would protect her from Satan and provide for her during the second half of the Tribulation period which is the Great Tribulation by Jesus.

God providing “Eagles Wings” to help Israel escape Satan was a phrase that was also used when God provided Israel an escape from Pharaoh and the Egyptians as seen in Exodus 19:4, as well as when Israel came back as one nation from the Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 40:31). The phrase “on eagle’s wings should probably be taken metaphorically. God will help her escape and care for her in the wilderness as a mother eagle would her brood (Deut. 32:11). The eagle is seen as a bird who provides strength and safety.

In our last lesson we discussed how might God provide for them? The Greek form of the verb “be nourished” suggests that they will not nourish themselves but that someone else will. In the OT God fed Israel with manna and quail for 40 years and used a raven to feed Elijah. After Jesus’ temptation from Satan, God sent angels to minister to Him. Maybe God will send angels to minister to Israel. Maybe this time it will be a combination of God, the angels, and maybe some Gentiles. We discussed Matthew 25:31-46 in which the Gentiles were rewarded because they came to Israel’s aide during the Tribulation period. Also, please remember that no one will be able to buy or sell during the Great Tribulation without the mark of the beast (13:17), but God will protect and provide for Israel. The location that we discussed to which God may lead Israel for protection and provision is at Petra which is in modern day Jordan. Even though God will protect and provide for the remnant, many Jewish people will die during the Tribulation period. (Zachariah 13:8-9)

12:15-16 – Now we have to decide if this verse is to taken literally or figuratively. It is certainly possible that this verse could be taken literally, but the contour of the wilderness being flat is not really conducive to a flood as described in this verse. The term flood is used in the OT frequently expresses overwhelming misfortune, persecution or destruction. Satan is seeking to overwhelm the woman. If this is not a physical flood that actually came out of his mouth that the Lord allowed to earth to suck up, it’s really difficult to determine exactly how Satan will try to destroy Israel.

One note of interest is that there are parallels between this and the Exodus from Egypt. God protected Israel in the desert from their Exodus from Egypt and her Exodus from Satan. The parallels between Israel's exodus from Egypt and her past preservation in the wilderness includes rescue from water, the Red Sea and Satan’s river of water? Also, the land swallowed up the water in Revelation so it would not do harm to Israel and in Exodus the water swallowed up the Egyptians so they could not do harm to Israel. Later in Israel’s history the ground swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram so that the Lord would not destroy all of Israel.

12:17 – After the ground swallowed the river of water and Satan had failed again in his attempt to destroy Israel, he became outraged at Israel. Satan has had one defeat after another when it comes to totally destroying the nation of Israel. Since he could not destroy Israel, he decided to go after her remaining children and make war with them, but who are the remaining children? Maybe they are the Messianic Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, to include the 144,000 virgin evangelists the Lord called into service. (Revelation 7:1-8; 14:1-5)

Application for Today

In Revelation 12 in the middle of the Tribulation period we have seen events that span heaven and earth as well as thousands of years especially as we tie in Genesis 3:15 to this picture. There are several practical points concerning our daily lives that we should take away from Revelation 12 and Genesis 3:15.

First, Revelation 12 teaches us that Israel may be blind and disobedient as a nation, but God has never forgotten them. He will be faithful to them even though they are not faithful to Him. He promised in that in Jeremiah 31:35-37. The sun, the moon, and the stars are the sign that He will keep His’ promise to preserve them as a people just like the rainbow is a sign that God will never flood the entire earth again. His reputation as a promise keeper is at stake.

Second, we should pray for and support the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Psalm 122:6 says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.” Since Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, it stands for the entire nation. Therefore, when you pray for Jerusalem you are praying for the entire nation.

They may not be always right in what they do, but who is? Remember what Paul wrote in Romans 11:28-29. “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Israel was called to be a nation of priests. One day they will be! They were also called to light and salt to the world. One day they will be!

Third, Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12 teach us that even though Satan is a powerful and aggressive foe, he will not succeed. His time is short. He may win a few battles, but he will not win the war. God will triumph in the end. Satan will be doomed to everlasting punishment.