Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #6 of Revelation, chapter 12, and we are going to be reading Revelation 12:4-5:

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.

We have been looking at this passage in our last few studies.  We have seen that Satan, who is called a great red dragon, is typified as having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads, and he is the one prepared to devour her child.  The word “devour” in verse 4 is the same word used in the parable of the sower, where the seed is “devoured.”   And, of course, that is an activity of Satan, too.  When the Gospel was sown upon the hearts of men, he came along and “devoured” the seed and took away that which was sown.  It is also the word translated as “devoured” in the Luke 15 parable of the prodigal son, where it said he “devoured” his living with harlots.   So it is a wasting and a removing of whatever is in view.  Satan was ready.  He was prepared to “devour her child.”  The woman, who is a picture of the elect Old Testament believers, is typified as the one bringing forth the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and there is Satan, ready to oppose, to hinder and to come against the purposes of God and His kingdom.  He wants to devour the child and destroy the Lord Jesus Christ.

It says in the first part of our verse in Revelation 12:4:

 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:

This is the great red dragon’s tail and, again, the dragon represents Satan.  Regarding his tail, when we get words like this in the Bible, by God’s grace He has taught us to look elsewhere in the Bible and see how else the word “tail” is used, to see if there is a particular verse to help define it in the sense of giving us a spiritual meaning for the word “tail.”  When we go to our Strong’s Concordance and look up all the places the word “tail” is found, we find a very helpful verse in Isaiah 9:15:

The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

The “tail” is a figure of a false prophet, a prophet that teaches lies.  This fits perfectly with the idea of the dragon’s tail, as Satan has his emissaries that come as “angels of light” and they come speaking the Word of God, declaring that what they are saying is what the Bible says.  It is his “tail” that draws “the third part of the stars of heaven;” that is, Satan uses his ability to draw unsaved people that are associated with the kingdom of God, the outward representation of God’s kingdom on the earth.  In the New Testament era it was the churches, but in the Old Testament age, it was national Israel that was the corporate body, just as we had commonly looked to the churches when we thought of the representation of God’s kingdom or of those God was using to bring His Word, because for almost two thousand years God did use the churches.  But in the Old Testament it was not the churches.  The churches had not even come into existence.  It was the nation of Israel that had been around for hundreds and hundreds of years.  It was Israel that was the caretaker of the oracles of God.  It was Israel where the true believers could be found.  Sometimes, there would be others that God had saved, infrequently, in other nations, like Ruth the Moabitetess, or Naaman the Syrian, but those people would come into contact with Israel.  It would be fairly rare that people from these Gentile nations would be saved.  God was primarily working through Israel.  Israel was where the truth was and where God’s Word was and God concentrated the focus of His Word within Israel and He gave His Word to the prophets to declare to Israel.  That was also where Satan would concentrate his efforts to pervert the Word within Israel.  He would attempt to manipulate individuals to enter the priesthood or to rise in the ranks of spiritual authority within national Israel, just as he did with the churches.  He worked through individuals that went into the seminaries and then became pastors or elders or deacons and he infiltrated the churches and congregations until they became a synagogue of Satan, a church given over to falsehood to believe a lie rather than the truth. 

This verse is telling us in Revelation 12:4 that when Satan did go against the New Testament churches to seek to turn them from the truth to a lie, he had been doing that with national Israel for centuries.  It is why God brought so many judgments upon Israel, because they kept being led astray – to idolatry and worship of other gods.  This is basically the same thing the churches did when they went after other doctrines and other gospels.  Spiritually, it is pointing to the same thing.

Here, in Revelation 12:4, the dragon’s “tail” would be false prophets.  Were there false prophets in Israel?  Just read the Book of Jeremiah and you will read about all kinds of false prophets.  The true prophets, like Jeremiah, were a rarity.  There were numerous false prophets in Israel, when we read the history of Israel and they greatly outnumbered the faithful and true prophets of JEHOVAH.  They sometimes outnumbered them four hundred to one or eight hundred to one.  That was Satan’s activity within Israel and in our verse “his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.”  This was the working of Satan in Israel.  Again, this is not the New Testament churches, as Christ has not yet been born.  This is the Old Testament “church,” as God does call Israel the “church in the wilderness” in Acts, chapter 7.  He uses that same Greek word that He used to apply to the New Testament churches.  As far as God was concerned, it was a very similar thing – they were His corporate body, the eternal representation of the kingdom of God to the people of the world in the Old Testament era. 

This is exactly what the New Testament churches became to the world, so it is a very similar thing, so God uses similar language we are very familiar with in relationship to the churches.  For instance, drawing the third part of the stars of heaven and casting them to the ground is something we saw in Revelation, chapter 8.  Remember, God brought judgment on the “third part,” again, and again.  It was the “third part” of the stars, the “third part” of the moon, and the “third part” of the sun.  The “third part” was under the wrath of God and we saw that God used that phrase “third part” because His elect identified with the third part and closely identified with the New Testament churches and the churches, therefore, took on that identification.  God was judging the “third part,” the churches, but not His elect.  He would never do that, except in Christ, but the elect had already been judged in Christ. 

But, today, we would have to add that God is making “manifest” His judgment upon His elect from the foundation of the world, as the true believers live in the world in the Day of Judgment and going through this period of time.  But it is not a judgment upon them because they had already been judged.  Instead, it is a manifestation or a demonstration of the judgment they already experienced, but the “third part” came under judgment, in Revelation 8, when God began judgment at the house of God at the beginning of the Great Tribulation and end of the church age. 

The “third part” is actually a term we get from the Old Testament.  If you remember, it says in Zechariah 13:

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire…

Here, the “third part” clearly pictures the true believers.  Verse 9 goes on to emphasize that.  It is not the corporate body, in this case, but it regards the Old Testament and God is speaking of His people that identify with the “third part.”  So when we read of the “third part” in Revelation 12, it does not refer to the true believers, but to Israel, which also had identification with the true believers because the elect individuals were a part of Israel, just as the unsaved people were part of Israel, so national Israel took upon itself the identification of the “third part,” just like the churches did.  Since the “tail” of the dragon is drawing the third part of the stars of heaven and casting them to the earth, it is language indicating that the Light of the truth of the Word of God in the Old Testament is being put out.  The truth that the nation of Israel possessed, they are now losing sight of and we can see that a little bit.  We do not have too much information about Israel just before the time of Christ’s birth.  We have just a little information, like they were in cohorts with King Herod and that raises “flags” right there that they were troubled when Herod found out about the birth of the Messiah.  Let us read that verse in Matthew 2:3:

When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

We can understand why that wicked King Herod would be troubled, but why was Jerusalem troubled?  Had they not been longing for and expecting the coming of the Messiah?  Had they not been hoping and desiring that He might come in their lifetime?  Yes, that is what they said and that would have been what came out of their mouths, but what was in their hearts was a different matter.  They were unsaved men, primarily, and they did not want the Messiah to come.  They did not want God to enter into the world in their lifetime and change everything.  Just look at what happened when the Lord Jesus began His period of ministry, as He went forth and did all those mighty miracles before Israel.  Notice the reaction of the rulers in Israel and those in authority.  They did not welcome Him with open arms.  They did not praise God when the blind saw and the deaf heard and the lame walked and the lepers were cleansed and the dead rose up.  None of that impacted them in a positive way.  They were troubled by it.  Why?  It was because they had their “system of religion” and everything in the tradition of their fathers, the way they wanted things.  They were very happy running their religion just as it was and this was certainly upsetting everything.  They were afraid the Roman soldiers would come and take away their place.  Of course, that was just an excuse not to listen to Christ and to get rid of him.  They wanted Him to be devoured and have Him out of the way.  It is really a striking parallel with the New Testament churches of our day. 

So that was the first coming of Christ and Israel’s reaction to him, but Jesus had promised to come again.  The Bible, the Word of God, opened up information as God said He would do when He said to Daniel, “Seal up the words of this book until the time of the end,” and then knowledge would increase.  There are many more Scriptures that indicate God will reveal information concerning the coming of the Lord, as Jesus answered the disciple’s question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”  The Bible answers those questions and gives us the time for the Day of Judgment – the judgment on the churches and the judgment on the world.  There is an entire Biblical calendar of history unfolded before our eyes, because we happen to be living at the time of the end when God wants us to know these things. 

And what was the reaction of the churches?  The churches, supposedly were longing for the coming of the Lord.  That’s what they would say and they so want Him to come.  They greatly desire His coming, just like the Jews desired the coming of the Messiah.  Oh how they would have gone on, and on, and told you in great detail of their longing for Christ’s appearance and how it was their hearts’ desire for Him to come.  Then He came and we see what the truth was and what was really in their hearts.  None of them wanted the Messiah to come and “upset the apple cart.”

Likewise, it was a similar reaction when God opened the Scriptures to reveal the coming of the Lord on May 21, 2011, Judgment Day and the Lord coming as the Judge.  There was much Biblical evidence, but the churches were “troubled.”  They responded, “Oh, no, we are not to look into those things.”  There was a strong, negative reaction, as if they did not actually want Christ to come and as if they were not happy about it at all.  It was very obvious that they were disturbed by the thought that Christ would come, because the churches were full of unsaved people and unsaved people do not want God to come in judgment.  This is severely troubling to an unsaved individual and it is the last thing they want and it is the last thing the churches actually want.  The churches of our day want to maintain “business as usual,” day after day: “Let us just keep this business going and mouthing the words that we long for the coming Christ but, of course, we do not want Him to actually come and ruin everything and take away our lives and our enjoyment of this world.”  It was the hypocrisy of Israel of old and of the churches of our present time.  They do not speak the words that are in their hearts, but they say things that sound good, with lots of “praise” to God and, yet, God is completely out of the picture and they want Him out of the world.  They do not want Him to come at all.

Satan, the great red dragon, “drew the third part of the stars of heaven,” and even the word “stars” identify with the true believers.  We could go to many verses, but let us go to Daniel 12:3:

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

True believers are consistently referred to as “stars” in the Bible, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.  Again, due to association and identification through dwelling together for long periods of time with Israel of old and the “wheat and the tares” growing together in the New Testament churches,  the churches, as well as Israel, can take upon themselves the same type of language. 

So these are those in Israel that identified with the true believers and they are the “third part of the stars of heaven,” and they are cast to the earth.  They are cast down to the ground.  They no longer shine as lights within Israel.

Then it goes on to say at the end of Revelation 12:4:

…and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Here is Satan, eagerly waiting in anticipation of getting his hands on this child.  We better believe that was the only thing on his mind!  It was long promised and Satan had probably been preparing and waiting for quite a while.  When would it come?  Then came the time after 11,006 years of history, in the year 7 BC, and the “man child,” the Lord of Heaven, Eternal God entered into a virgin’s womb, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and was growing in Mary as any other child would be.  He was being “formed and knitted together” with a human body and then came the day of His birth into the world.  For instance, we see in Luke, chapter 2, this same word “delivered” that is used at the end of our verse.  We can clearly see the “man child,” Christ, being born in Luke 2:6-7:

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Then it says in Luke 2:11:

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

The word “born” is a translation of the same Greek word translated as “delivered” in our verse in Revelation 12:4.  Christ is “delivered.”  The Anointed One, the Messiah has finally come.  In Matthew, chapter 2, we read an historical narrative that pictures exactly the things we are seeing in Revelation 12.  It says in Matthew 2:1-8:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

Of course, Herod was lying.  We read in Matthew 2:13-18:

And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Herod ordered that infants and children two years old and under be killed in his attempt to devour the man child and to destroy the child that was born.  This is a true historical account.  Herod was troubled that this child was called King of the Jews and Herod was the king (he had been set up by the Romans as a puppet king).  In his pride and arrogance he wanted no other king.  He was very foolish and we can see that.  Yet, God allowed this to happen to illustrate Satan’s great desire to destroy the Messiah – to “devour the child.”  It portrays the evil lusts of Satan to rule over the Lord Jesus and to be God himself.