Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #15 of Revelation, chapter 12, and we are going to be reading Revelation 12:14:
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
As we continue along in Revelation, chapter 12, we have seen that Satan has been greatly emphasized by God in this chapter. From the beginning of the chapter, we read in verse 3 of this “great red dragon,” and as we have gone through this chapter of only 17 verses, “Satan” or “the serpent” or “the dragon” was mentioned 14 times. Eight times he is called either “great dragon,” “great red dragon” or just “dragon.” He is also called “the serpent” three times; he is called “the devil” two times and he is called “Satan” one time.
The chapter started with the birth of Christ as Jesus entered into the world and then his ascension back to heaven. Then in verse 6 through the rest of the chapter, the focus is on the “woman” that had fled for refuge into the wilderness to the placed prepared of God, the New Testament churches and congregations. There is intense spiritual warfare in view as Satan comes after the woman and 14 times God directs our attention to Satan. In fact, it is more than 14 times because he is also called the “accuser of the brethren.” The constant focus of Revelation, chapter 12, is that God has prepared the place, the corporate church, for the woman to be spiritually fed and nourished for the entire period of the church age, which turned out to be 1,955 years. And the “woman” could expect continual attacks from Satan during this time, and that is what we are reading about here in Revelation 12:14:
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
The serpent is after her, pursuing her and seeking to persecute her. Again, the Greek word translated as “persecute” is often translated as “follow after,” so Satan is following after the woman. The woman flees to the churches and where does Satan’s interest then turn? It turns to the churches. Previously, he had been intensely interested in national Israel because they had been the caretakers of the oracles of God. That was where God was dealing with His people; that was the “place” He had prepared for the Passover, for the coming Messiah which would fulfill the spiritual feast of the Passover.
Then the next “place” where God would fulfill the spiritual feast of Pentecost was the church, so Satan’s focus also changed and he turned to the New Testament churches and congregations that were being established. Remember, back in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, when God spoke to the early churches in Asia-Minor. We found Satan there and some of the churches had already become synagogues of Satan and Satan had a seat in a certain church. His infiltration had already occurred in the 1st century AD and, of course, it just continued throughout the church age. He has never given up the pursuit through the entire church age, until the end of the church age when God finally turned over all rule in the churches to Satan.
Of course, God had yet another plan and another “place” in mind for the second part of the Great Tribulation. Finally, it was God’s plan to fulfill the Feast of Ingathering by bringing in the precious fruit of the earth outside of the churches. The “place” then turned from the churches to the world and God’s people departed out of the churches and into the world. Yes, Satan pursued even then, of course, and his pursuit of the people of God never ends.
Let us look at Revelation 12:14:
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place…
We know the “woman” is the body of believers and the “two wings of a great eagle” is a beautiful picture of God. It says in Deuteronomy 32:9-13:
For JEHOVAH'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So JEHOVAH alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
Here, God speaks of Jacob and Jacob is a name assigned to the elect: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated.” In speaking of Jacob, God gives this beautiful picture and notice the wonderful detail in verse 11, which might be describing something we might see in a nature video today. With our cameras and ability to view these things, we can see these wonderful details, but remember an eagle’s next is high up and back then there would have been few, if any, that had witnessed how an eagle deals with its young. Of course, God is witness to His entire creation and every aspect of His creation; God knows the intricate details of an eagle with its young or what goes on in an ant colony deep within the earth, or what goes on with any other creature He has created. He knows everything about everything.
So, here, God is a brilliant writer, of course, since He is the author of the Bible and He has the ability to describe in such vivid detail and we can almost see it in our mind’s eye as He describes it here, in Deuteronomy 32:11:
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So JEHOVAH alone did lead him…”
So as the eagle cares for her young and flies them on her wings, we can just picture that: as an eagle takes flight high in the sky with her young on her wings, so, too, JEHOVAH does with Jacob. And this is the wonderful picture God gives us here in Revelation 12 and it is also the picture He uses to portray a wonderful truth, in Isaiah 40:28-31:
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, JEHOVAH, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon JEHOVAH shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
“But they that wait upon JEHOVAH shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.” Again, let me read Revelation 12:14:
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle…
The woman was given wings, but, really, the illustration is that we are flying under the safety and protection of Almighty God. He is caring for us. Then it goes on to say in Revelation 12:14:
… that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
The word “nourished” is the same word as “feed” back in Revelation 12:6. Let us read that, again, because a few things are identical. It says in Revelation 12:6:
And the woman fled into the wilderness…
(We just read the same thing in Revelation 12:14.)
… where she hath a place prepared of God…
(It said the very same thing in verse Revelation 12:14: “into her place.”)
Then it goes on in Revelation 12:6:
… that they should feed her there…
(Again, the word “feed” is the same word as “nourished” in Revelation 12:14.)
So, Revelation 12:14 is a reiteration and further emphasis on what God was telling us in verse 6, but it is also very helpful to us to understand the reference to “time, and times, and half a time.” Now if God had not given us Revelation 12:6, we might have some difficulty in understanding what “time, and times, and half a time” is referring to, but we see that in Revelation 12:6 the only difference is the “number.” It says in Revelation 12:6: “that that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” In Revelation 12:14, it says: “she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time,” and that means that the “time, and times, and half a time” is the equivalent to “a thousand two hundred and threescore days,” or “1,260 days.” It is the same amount of time. When we look up “1,260 days,” which is “three and one half years” of 30-day months, we see that “time, and times, and half a time” is “three and one half” and how that relates to “1,260 days,” and the “1,260 days” represents the entire New Testament church age and the last half of Daniel’s “seventieth week.” The first half was Christ’s “three and one half year” ministry from 29 AD to 33AD. Then at the point of the cross, was the “sixty-ninth week” and the “seventieth week” is the New Testament church age, which concludes at the end of the church age. The “1,260 days” takes us to that point.
So we are helped here to understand that the time when the woman is nourished for a “time, and times, and half a time” is the “1,260 days,” and it refers to the church age period. Now the “time, and times, and half a time” is proven by the context. In another place, the “time, and times, and half a time” can take on a different meaning, perhaps. It depends on the context. The context here is what determines what “time, and times, and half a time” means.
Let us go on to Revelation 12:15-16:
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
What is going on here? What is the reference to the flood? How does the serpent have the ability to “cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman”? One thing we know for sure is that it is not talking about a literal flood or literal water. When God describes the flood that took place in Noah’s day, it is a different Greek word.
The first time the Greek word for “flood” is used is where it says, “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood,” and it is Strong’s #4215. The second time it is used in verse 15, it says, “carried away of the flood,” and it is the same word as the first instance, but it is a compound word that has in view “borne of the water,” as if you are carried away of the water, and that is why it is translated that way. Then in verse 16, where it says “swallowed up of the flood,” it is Strong’s #4215. This word is different than the word we find in 2Peter 2:5:
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
This word for “flood” is Strong’s #2627 and it is “kataklusmos,” and it is a very different word than what we found in Revelation 12, verses 15 and 17. A similar word is found in 2Peter 3:6:
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
The English word “overflowed” is a translation of Strong’s #2626, a related word to “kataklusmos.” So this is a very different Greek word and, yet, it is translated as “flood” just like the word in our verse in Revelation 12. But our word in Revelation 12:15, Strong’s #4215, is commonly translated as “rivers.” For instance, it says in John 7:38:
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
It is the same word that is found in Revelation 8:10:
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
This is a word that is also translated as “streams” in Matthew 7, and there it is in association with a flood, as the streams of waters rise and destroy a house, but it is the same word as in Revelation 16:12, which says, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up.” The word “river” there is the same word translated as “flood” in our verse.
So, we can see when it says in our verse, “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood,” or “out of his mouth waters as a river,” just like the Lord Jesus Christ; remember that verse in John 7:38: “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water,” and that is referring to the Gospel, the Word of God that went forth during the day of salvation. Wherever the waters went, they brought life. God used His Word to save sinners. Well, Satan, the serpent, wants to be like Christ. He comes looking like Him, according to 2Corinthians, chapter 11. He comes as an “angel of light,” and let us read that verse, since God is focusing so intently on Satan in our chapter. It says in 2Corinthians 11:13-15:
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
Satan is transformed into an “angel of light.” He entered into the churches and congregations from the very beginning. What language is used within the churches? It is language which revolves around the Word of God, the Bible. Satan, through his emissaries of unsaved individuals, entered into church leadership – elders, deacons, pastors, ministers, bishops, popes and all sorts of positions of power. They developed other kinds of gospels. They changed a word here, or changed a doctrine there and came up with false teachings that perverted the Gospel of grace. The truth became lies. That is what Satan speaks. That is what comes out of his mouth – rivers of lies that began to flow forth out of the pulpits of the various churches and congregations. God’s people would recognize this, from time to time, and they would leave or there would be splits in the congregations and they would form another church. But the “rivers” of false gospels continued to flow after the “woman.” It was a constant pursuit of the “woman,” or of the elect. If only they would believe these lies. If only they could be deceived into believing error and false gospels. There is no salvation in a false gospel, so that was Satan’s hope and his plan, to deceive the very elect, if possible. Of course, that is not possible, but his goal was to deceive them and destroy them by holding back salvation from them. If he could only disappoint God’s plan for even one of these elect, then Satan could win, as he had deluded himself into thinking.
So this pursuit of the woman took place in church after church. As one church fell away and another church formed, that new church would not be left alone. Satan had the churches as his target and he had the elect within those congregations as his ultimate target and he went after that “woman.” Sometimes it may have been a slow process to get his emissaries into place, but Satan would always seek to do that.
In Revelation 12:16 God gives us a very curious verse to let us know how He helped the woman. It says in Revelation 12:16:
And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
This is strange and unusual for the “earth” to help the woman by swallowing up this “river” of falsehoods. How is that accomplished? We will think about that, Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study in the Book of Revelation.