Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #7 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.

I will stop reading there.  We have seen that the “woman” represents the body of believers and that the man child she delivered is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Satan is the great red dragon with the seven heads and ten horns that stood before the woman when she was ready to be delivered in order to devour the child.  This worked out in the world through King Herod’s desire to slay the child and he did command that children two years old and under be killed in the area where the Lord Jesus was born.  So we see how Satan does work in the affairs of men. 

It is interesting in the Book of Job we read of Satan presenting himself before the Lord and accusing God of having put a “hedge” about Job.  Then God allows Satan to afflict Job and to do certain things to Job, but to spare his life and the next thing we discover is that Job’s wife tells him to “curse God and die.”  It is almost exactly what Satan wanted him to say and, yet, it is coming through the mouth of Job’s wife.  Job’s wife had also suffered a great deal with the loss of their possessions and, especially, with the loss of their children.  So she was weakened in mind and she was able to be manipulated by the devil and she expressed the devil’s desire: “Curse God and die.”

Herod, too, expressed the devil’s desire to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ by attempting to kill the man child that was born.  This is how Satan works in the world.  He is able to stir up people.  If they are unsaved, they are part of his kingdom and they are “fair game” for him to use in this kind of way.

Now we are going to move on to Revelation 12:5:

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron…

Remember that this “woman” was clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars is no ordinary woman.  It is not talking about Mary, even though Mary was a woman that God used to bring forth Christ and give him a human body and a human nature.  Yet, Mary is not in view in these verses – it is the body of believers, the elect, that lived on the Old Testament side of the cross and Jesus, in a sense, “came forth” from them. 

This language that “she brought forth a man child,” is interesting because in the Greek it literally should read, “She brought forth a male son.”  The word “son” is in the original Greek and it is a word that is found many times in the New Testament translated as “son.”  The word “son” by itself already indicates a “male.”  If you have children, you have a son or a daughter and if you have a son, you have a male child.  That is just how it is.  You cannot have a “son” who is a daughter; it must be a male.  So it is curious that God uses both these words together.  It is not that common for Him to do this.  The word is translated as “male” in a few places.  For instance, in Matthew 19, the Lord explains that mankind was created as “male” and “female,” and the word “male” is the word used here: “She brought forth a male son.”  Obviously, a son is a male, so why the double emphasis?  What is God saying? 

Let us look at one place in the New Testament where the word “male,” as found in our verse, is also used.  It says in Luke 2:21-23:

And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)

Here is our word “male” and “Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.”  We find similar language in Exodus 13:1-2:

And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.

Then it says in Exodus 13:11-15:

And it shall be when JEHOVAH shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, That thou shalt set apart unto JEHOVAH all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be JEHOVAH’S. And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand JEHOVAH brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that JEHOVAH slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to JEHOVAH all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.

I think the statement in Exodus 13:15 that says, “therefore I sacrifice to JEHOVAH all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem,” is the answer to why God refers to a “male son.”  Jesus was the Son of man as He was born into the world, born of a virgin with a human nature, but He was also the male sacrifice offered up to God.  By using these two words, God is pointing to both: He is the Son of man and since He had a human nature He could die for men and pay for their sins, but He was also a male and God used male animals often in Israel’s sacrificial system to typify the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I think that is the reason and I cannot think of any other reason.  There does not seem to be a point otherwise, but by saying that she brought forth a “man child” or a “male son,” it leads us to Exodus 13 and to the sacrifice of every firstborn male animal; and the word “son” leads us to the Son of man, the Son of God, the Messiah, who was also this sacrifice, as the Lamb of God.  This is where the “male” reference comes in, as Jesus is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.

Again, it says in Revelation 12:5:

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron…

This is the second time in the Book of Revelation where we have seen the phrase “rod of iron” used.  It was stated back in Revelation 2:26-27:

And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

It is also stated in Revelation, chapter 19, so it is found three times in the Book of Revelation.  It is a reference to what is said back in the Old Testament, in Psalm 2:5-9:

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: JEHOVAH hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

This refers to the wrath of God being poured out during Judgment Day, so the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son (in verse 7), where it says, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee,” and this is actually taking us back to the foundation of the world when Christ died and rose again, to be declared the Son of God; that qualified Him to be the Judge, the one that comes in judgment at the end of the world to rule “with a rod of iron.”  Notice that it says, “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”  That reminds us of what the Lord says in Romans 9:21-22:

Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

So the unsaved people of the world are created by God.  God is the potter and they are pottery.  Every human being is likened to a vessel of pottery, some to honor and some to dishonor.  Those that are “vessels unto dishonour,” the Creator will destroy; they are “fitted to destruction,” and that is why it says He shall break them with a “rod of iron.”  The rod will be used to break the pottery and dash it in pieces, as it says in Psalm 2:9.  That is where Revelation, chapter 19 comes in, as it details the Day of Judgment in a tremendous way, and we read of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Revelation 19:13-15:

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword…

Let me just say before we continue, the “sharp sword” coming out of Christ’s mouth represents the Word of God.  The Bible, the Word of God, is likened to a twoedged sword.  It goes on to say in Revelation 19:15:

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron…

The Word of God, the Bible, is going to be used by the Lord Jesus Christ as a means of judgment.  Of course, He is not going to literally pick up the Bible and smite people with it, but it is the information that comes forth from the Bible.  It is the truth which God gives to His people and they share it with others and that does the “smiting” of the nations.  It is also the Word that will result in the Lord Jesus ruling them with a “rod of iron.”  Before we go back to the phrase regarding ruling with a “rod of iron,” notice the last part of Revelation 19:15:

…and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

We should not miss that because it is a very important statement.  It is in the context and setting of Judgment Day.  Remember, it said in Revelation 14:19-20:

And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

“Without the city” means outside the city of New Jerusalem – outside of those Christ has saved.  This is because the “city” is comprised only of the elect and God’s elect and the majority of that great multitude are living on the earth in the time of judgment, but they are part of that holy city because they have been translated into the kingdom of God; they have citizenship in heaven.  The winepress of the wrath of God is “trodden without the city.”  Every one that is in the world and is not saved is “without the city,” the New Jerusalem and, therefore, they are being punished.  But the child of God who is saved and part of that city could be the neighbor of an unsaved individual and there may be unsaved people all around him that are being punished, but the true believer that lives amongst them in the world is not being punished – he is not being “trodden without the city” in the winepress of the wrath of God because he is a part of that holy city.

So the Lord Jesus is the one treading the winepress and the blood comes out “by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs,” which equates, in all probability, to 1,600 days of judgment.  Now this is important because, in Revelation 19:15, Christ is smiting the nations with His Word, the Bible, and He is simultaneously ruling them with a “rod of iron” and treading the “winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”  This is an indicator that this will continue throughout the 1,600-day period: He will smite the nations throughout the duration of this time and rule them with a rod of iron throughout this prolonged period of Judgment Day.

Again, what does it mean when it says, “He shall rule them with a rod of iron”?  Have you ever thought about this?  How is it possible for Jesus to be ruling the nations with a rod of iron (in Revelation 19:15), which is clearly the time of Judgment Day?  He is ruling with a rod of iron, which carries the idea of “governing,” especially when we look at the Greek word, Strong’s #4165.  I would pronounce it “poy-mah-ee-no,” and it is derived from Strong’s #4166, which is pronounced “poy-mane,” and it is translated as “shepherd” or “pastor.”  It is the word found twice in John 10:11:

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

The word “shepherd” is “poy-mane” and that means when this word “poy-mah-ee-no” is translated as “feed,” we can see that is exactly what it means.  In Revelation 19:15 and in our verse in Revelation 12 and in Revelation 2, this word translated as “rule” is also translated as “feed” in 1Peter 5:2:

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

“Feed the flock of God.”  How would you feed the flock?  You would feed them with the Word of God.  It says in Acts 20:28:

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Again, you would “feed” the churches during the church age and you would always “feed” the eternal church of God’s elect through the Word of God.

It says in John 21:16:

He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

This is all the same Greek word that is translated as “rule,” where it says, “He shall rule them with a rod of iron.”  We could very properly understand this to mean, “Feed them with a rod of iron.”  When we go back to Revelation 19, we see that the Lord Jesus is called the Word of God in verse 13; then it says in 15 that “out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword,” and this identifies with the Word of God, according to Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.”  So when it says in Revelation 19:15, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations,” we can see that clearly: God’s Word is pronouncing judgment: the shutting of the door of heaven, the end of His salvation plan and judgment coming upon the world that smites the nations and the inhabitants of the earth.   “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron or he shall feed them with a rod of iron.  Even the word “rod” relates to the Word of God.  So this means Christ will use the Bible to smite the nations and at the same time He will use the Bible to feed His people.  When He does so, it will be like ruling the unsaved with a “rod of iron.”  It is amazing because this is exactly what is happening.  As God opens up this information, it is “food” for the child of God and nourishment for our souls.  At the same time it is a condemnation and a grievous thing for anyone that is unsaved.