The Woman with 12 Stars


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Revelation chapter 12 through 14 are a time-line which brings us from the birth of Jesus until  He reaps His harvest, followed by the battle of Armageddon in the last verse of chapter 14.

A quick summary of chapter 12;

1. Jesus born and caught up to the throne at baptism.
2. Jesus feeds the woman in the wilderness for 1260 days, ministry.
3. Now salvation comes= is the death and resurrection of Jesus.
4. Satan kicked out of heaven= defeated by the blood of Jesus and he purses the woman
5. The woman is fed another 1260 days (time, times and half) by the apostles.
       Note; Jesus 40 days in the desert added to 1260 + 1260= 2560 days which is the end of the 70th week for the woman.
6. Then Satan tries to wash the woman away with a flood of water (peoples nations) 70 AD.
7. earth saves woman= is woman being dispersed throughout the nations of the earth.
8. The dragon goes after those that believes in the Son= persecution of the Christians.
9. The dragon stands on the seashore watching the first beast coming out of the sea, his weapon for the end days against the woman (natural Israel and the children that keep the testimony of her Son).
 
 

Rev 12: 1 
A GREAT sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;

This is ethnic Israel

 
Rev 12: 2
and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. 3; Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4; And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. 5; And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

Jesus is the male Son.

I believe that from the time that Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came down to Him, and God said "This is my Son of whom I AM well pleased.", that this is when He is caught up to heaven (spiritually and symbolically). When Jesus was announced to the world by His Father in Heaven, He was then, symbolically, caught up to God's throne and would, in the end, be literally taking His seat in Heaven.

Just as we were born again of the Holy Spirit and now have access to go before the throne of God in prayer.
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Rev 12: 6 
Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 
These 1,260 days would have been the time of Jesus' ministry on earth.

Jesus Baptism until crucifixion
From Feast of Booths, Tishri 15, until Passover, 14th of Nisan, = 1260 days= ministered to Israel in the wilderness.

He preached to the Jews not gentiles during this time, in a place prepared for her (Israel). We have some powerful symbolism here because it shows that the woman is not being nourished by those of the Temple nor any synagogue. Not being nourished by the Old covenant but by the New Covenant which was not approved of, nor supported by, the religious community of Jerusalem. Jesus preached outside the city and all through the Galilee area. This is called the wilderness and the people came out to the wilderness to hear Him teach. The 5,000 came out to the wilderness and they didn't want to leave, so they ran out of food and Jesus fed them there in the wilderness.
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Rev 12: 7
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,
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During this 1,260 days of Jesus ministry, the war in heaven was being waged. At one point during His ministry Jesus sent out 70 people to prepare the way for Him and when they returned they expressed:

Luk 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. Luk 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

I believe the word fall here means the process of falling had begun by the power of the name of Jesus because the next few verses tell us what caused the final boot to be given to satan and the fallen angels fighting with him.
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Rev 12: 8
and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.

Why did satan and his army not prevail? Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, as we see in the next verses.

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Rev 12: 9
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Satan stood before the throne accusing man up until this point. But then Jesus entered heaven as the slain Lamb and stands between us and the throne. Which means that there was no more place in heaven for satan as the accuser of the brethren because of sin.

 
Rev 12: 10
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation,

WHEN DID SALVATION COME ON THE EARTH? Your answer has to be....when Jesus was crusified and resurrected.

Salvation came through the death and resurrection of Christ. So if salvation has NOW come, then Satan would no longer have a place in Heaven. His place was accusing the people of the earth before God. Read Job for reference. Jesus' blood covers the sins of the believers, so satan is without a job in heaven any longer.
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Rev 12: 10 continues
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.
11; And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
He was defeated by the blood of the Lamb when salvation came to the world.

There was no longer a place found for him.

Is there ever another event in history, or yet to come, that will bring salvation to man? NO.

People want to say that salvation finally comes at the time of the last 7 years, or last 3 1/2 years, and that is when satan is cast out. Is this when salvation finally comes to the world? In the midst of the last 7 years? I think not. If so then no one was saved for these last almost 2000 years.
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Rev 12: 12
For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. 13; And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 
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Satan only had a short time to decieves the Jews. So when he saw he was cast down to the earth he was intent on persecute the woman. But the woman was being protected by God from satan as we see in the next verse.
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:14; 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 half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 
 
This of course is symbolism, which we need to remember, the wings represent God's protection until her time is up.

The time, times and half time would be the amount of time the Jews had left of the 490 year in Daniel' 9 prophecy,  She is being fed, by means of the apostles, testifying of  His Son's resurrection, and the New Covenant being offered to all who would believe.  Shortly before the time was up they sealed their fate by killing Stephen, the apostle of the Lord.
 

Rev 12:15; 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.
: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.
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This represents the destruction of 70 AD.  Satan had hopes of  totally destroying the woman but the earth swallowed the water saving the woman.  I believe this took place when those survivors where carried into the nations of the earth.

The woman is a harlot at this time or her Holy city wouldn't have been destroyed.

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Rev 12: 17
So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Satan then begins an earnest persecution of the church.


 
 
Rev 12:18 and  13:1 And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.  

Satan watches as his beast  for the end days comes up out of the sea.


But there is another place we hear of this woman, Israel, in John's visions

The Harlot riding the Beast

The key to understanding this woman comes from understanding what country she symbolically represents.

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Rev 17: 1 
"Come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot that sits on many waters." 
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The angel is only making a reference here to a woman that John saw sitting on many waters, or many nations, and peoples, and tongues.  John is NOT seeing the woman on the water in this part of his vision but is going to be shown what God will use to bring judgment on her for her acts of Harlotry against Him.

In verse 15, the angel says, "And the water that you saw" So we know that even though the angel is just making reference to to the woman in this part of the revelation given to John we know that John saw the water for himself at some point in his visions.

We have to go back through the visions to find out where John saw this water where the woman sat.  The only place John saw a woman and water was in chapter 12.

We might not have remembered, but John remembers. He doesn't even question this reference the angel makes to the woman sitting on the water. So at some point the water that the dragon poured out to sweep her away, caused her to look as if she were sitting in or on the water.
 

John is then taken in the vision to see her judgment.  (see Chapter Eleven The FIRST BEAST OF REVELATION for the rest of the story concerning the woman on the water)

 

 
 


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