Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #16 of Revelation, chapter 12, and we are going to be reading Revelation 12:15-17:

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. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

In our last study we were looking at this “flood” and we saw that this word “flood” can also be translated as “river.”  We saw this was another example of Satan’s attempt to be like Christ and Christ has the “rivers of water” that can cause a wilderness to become a wonderful place of life and “green things.”  Satan, attempting to imitate Christ, also cast water out of his mouth, but, of course, it is polluted water and a perverted gospel.  It is a gospel that cannot bring life, but brings death.  And this was his purpose when he cast water out of his mouth after the “woman,” that she might drink the water and die, that she might be deceived into drinking the lies that are very close to the truth and, yet, not the truth.  That had been Satan’s hope and plan all through the church age, as he pursued and persecuted the woman for century after century, following after her from church to church.  He would constantly foul the waters in hope of causing just one of God’s elect to die as a result.

God tells us something interesting 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.

Obviously, since this “river” is coming out of the dragon’s mouth, it is not a literal flood, as we know there was a literal, cataclysmic flood in the days of Noah.  This is spiritual.  It has to do with the water of a gospel, with Satan taking the Word of God in his mouth, through his emissaries, as He comes looking like an angel of light.   He looks like a lamb, but spake as a dragon, as we will learn a little later on in the Book of Revelation. 

It is this spiritually polluted water that is coming after the “woman,” and it is this water that the earth is said to open her mouth and swallow the flood to help the woman, the elect people of God.  Of course, since the water is not literal, neither does the earth literally open its mouth, like some sort of sinkhole, to swallow the water.  This, too, has a spiritual meaning. 

In order to better understand what God is saying in reference to the “earth opening her mouth,” let us go to Numbers 16, where we will find very similar language.  In Numbers, chapter 16, a rebellion among the people of Israel is coming to the surface; it had probably been festering for some time.  In the previous chapter, in Numbers 15, there was a man that picked up a few sticks and God commanded that he should be put to death, a seemingly severe punishment for what seemed like a rather minor infraction.  It is very possible that this punishment brought much fear to the rest of the congregation of Israel, since picking up a few sticks is something anyone could have done.  But he was picking up the sticks on the Sabbath Day and God wanted to stress the importance of keeping the Sabbath; God had His reasons for it in painting a spiritual picture.  But the Lord does not have to explain; He had commanded them to keep the Sabbath.  The man had violated the Sabbath, no matter how slight it may have seemed, and God commanded the death sentence.  We can see how this might have troubled the minds of many in the congregation, fearing that they might be the next person that went contrary to the Law of God on some point.  I would not be surprised if “murmuring” increased at that point, because of what we read in the very next chapter.  It says in Numbers 16:1-3:

Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and JEHOVAH is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of JEHOVAH?

It is very likely that as these men gathered among themselves they were blaming Moses and Aaron for the severity of the death penalty for that man who picked up a few sticks.  So they determined, “We cannot allow this to continue.”  They led an uprising to take authority away from Moses and Aaron, but, of course, Moses and Aaron were put in authority by God.  God is the one that commanded the man to be stoned to death.  God is the one that led them this way into the wilderness and caused them to experience the things they experienced, but these men do not understand and they dared to lift up their hand against God’s chosen individuals who had been chosen to lead Israel through the wilderness.  As a result, God will pour out His wrath upon them.  We read in Numbers 16:29-34:

If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then JEHOVAH  hath not sent me. But if JEHOVAH make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked JEHOVAH. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.

One thing we can immediately see is that the rebellion against God and against the people that God had put in place, Moses and Aaron (his elect), was stopped in its tracks.  The rebellion had been growing and developing and there were 250 “men of renown” in the congregation leading a strong rebellion against God.  When God opened the earth to swallow these men and they went down into the earth, never to be seen again, the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation.  At this point, their rebellion, for all intents and purposes, came to an end. 

This is the key thing God is teaching in Revelation 12 concerning the church age.  Yes, there will be rebels that infiltrate the congregations; they will enter in as emissaries of Satan and they will stir up rebellion and fight against the true people of God.  That happened whenever the truth came under attack and the true Gospel was being changed into a false gospel.  Yet, God helped the “woman,” the elect, by having the “earth opened up.”  Of course, God did that literally in Numbers 16 and, very quickly, all the rebels were gone as they sank into the earth.  Maybe there were still some that were in opposition and continued to murmur, but the “ringleaders” were all dead and their opposition came to a close.  In Revelation 12, it is spiritual and we do not know exactly how God did this, but He is saying that He would offer a similar protection to His people that were within the churches.  Now it could be that as apostasy would begin to develop and men were beginning to follow another gospel, it would become more of a threat to the true people of God, the elect.  Since God had prepared the churches as the “place” for them during the 1,955 years of the church age, it, therefore, would have been necessary for God to offer some protection to the institution of the church to maintain it to the end of the church age.  Then at the end of the church age, God would simply “give it up” and the churches would lose that protection.  We have witnessed that and we have seen it with our own eyes.  A church that is not protected is ripe for any and all apostasy.  They are given over to it and there is no removing or diminishing of it, then it just festers and increases and they become a spiritual wasteland and spiritual desolation.  That was the character of the Great Tribulation when God was judging the churches.

But during the church age, a particular church, or even a particular denomination, could go astray, but, overall, the corporate body had protection.  God sometimes used the figure of the “birds of prey” that wanted to come down upon a carcass and there was a man to “fray them away,” so that they cannot feed upon the carcass.  When God brought judgment on the churches, He used the figure of there being “none to fray them away,” and there is “no man” to ward off the vultures or eagles; they feed at will.  That is the present condition of the churches, but throughout the church age, one of the ways God would help was to allow the earth to “open up and swallow” the threat.  This could have been as simple as bringing death to a certain individual that had developed a following.  While he was alive, he was writing and speaking and people were saying, “This man makes sense and I am going to follow him.”  So this man developed a following and then God caused him to have a heart attack or to be killed.  Maybe the false doctrine remained around for a while, but it was not the threat it had been when he was alive.  And what happened to this man when he died?  He was buried.  He went into the earth and the earth was thrown over him.  As the Bible says, man “returns to the dust,” so, in a sense, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed him up and helped the “woman.”  What this man had been teaching was poison water and no spiritual benefit to the people of God.  So this is one example of what God could have in view with this language: “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.”

Let us go on to the last verse of this chapter, in Revelation 12:17:

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

We already know that Satan was angry when he could not destroy Christ and he went after the woman that had brought Him forth, the body of believers, and he has been doing warfare with them.  This has been going on throughout time, until Judgment Day when God defeated Satan and brought an end to the battle; there are no more elect souls that were captive in Satan’s kingdom that Christ must bring out.  It has all been accomplished and completed.

But, throughout history up until the completion of the Great Tribulation, the spiritual warfare was raging.  Satan, the dragon “was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.”  When we get to Revelation 13, the next chapter, we are going to see that God finally allows Satan, who is called the beast there, to have the victory over the saints and to win the war, as it says in Revelation 13:7:

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them…

This is the change, because Satan, the dragon, had been warring with the saints for thousands of year.  But, it is only at the time of the end, in our lifetime, that it was given to him to win and to overcome the saints.  That is one big “sign.”  It is a Biblical sign and it is one big sign to let us know we are at the end of the world.  The desolate and dead churches that we see all around us and that have no life of any kind are a big sign from God to His people that the end is here.  If we ever think the world will just continue endlessly, just look at that desolate wilderness that the churches have become; it is a reminder that the world will not continue and that we are in the final phase of God’s plan for this earth.  Satan had never been able to overcome the churches to this degree.  Yes, he could overcome a church (singular) or overcome a denomination, but he could not overcome the entire corporate body.  Christ was in the midst, helping “her,” by opening up the earth, or in other ways that prevented Satan from winning and overcoming the camp of the saints, until the time of the end.

Notice it says in Revelation 12:17:

… and went to make war with the remnant of her seed…

If we go to Isaiah, chapter 10, it says in Isaiah 10:21-22:

The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

That remnant is the elect.  Even though Israel would be as the sand of the sea, yet, within Israel is the remnant that is the true people of God.  You could have an entire nation of Israelites and, yet, only seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal.  You could have a corporate church of about two billion people and, yet, there was only a remnant within them.  Of course, during the church age, there were not always that many, but however many there were, there was also a “remnant” within them, just as there was a “remnant” within the nation of Israel.  It was the elect.  It says in Isaiah 11:11-12:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Then it says in Isaiah 11:16:

And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left…

In this chapter God is looking at the remnant saved out of the Great Tribulation period, but they are still called the “remnant of his people,” and those are the ones that the dragon targeted: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.”  The “woman” represents the elect and the “remnant of her seed” also represents the elect.

Remember what we saw when we did a study in 2John?  It says in 2John 1:1:

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

The “elder” is a figure of God and the “elect lady” represents the elect, of course, and “her children,” and it is the identical idea to what we are reading in Revelation 12:17: “the woman and the remnant of her seed.”  It is the woman and “her children,” because God is speaking of the elect that were living then and of the elect that would come in every generation of the church age.  Satan did not just attack the elect in the first century, but also in the third and tenth and seventeenth centuries, and so on.  All through history he has come after the people of God, relentlessly pursuing them and persecuting the “woman.” 

Finally, it says in Revelation 12:17:

… and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

This is the nature of the true believers.  Once God has saved them, they have a new heart and a new nature that perfectly obeys the Word of God or the Law of God, without error or transgression.  The new heart that God places in each one He has saved is perfectly obedient to the commandment of God.  They are kept within the “inward man” of everyone God saves, but, in the flesh, there may still be disobedience, which is the struggle that goes on in the life of a child of God.

The remnant also has “the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  And what is the “testimony of Jesus Christ”?  It is the Word of God, the Bible.  Satan targets the woman and the remnant of her seed.  He goes after those God has chosen, but he identifies them because of their relationship to the testimony of Christ.  They will not give it up; they will not compromise it; they refuse to stray from it and they will not go to the left of it and they will not go to the right of it.  They insist on going according to “that way” set forth in God’s Word and that makes them obvious targets.  They are very easily spotted by the enemy.  Who else in the world is going “that way”?  The rest of the world is going the “broad way that leads to destruction.”  Satan has only to watch that “narrow way” and who is following the singular path that is extremely narrow and which no one in the world could ever follow – the people of the world cannot go “that way,” and the people of other religions cannot go “that way.”  Even the professed Christian goes far adrift from the “narrow way” set forth in the Word of God, so Satan easily can see who is a part of the “remnant of her seed.”  In that spiritual battle, he was able to see the enemy.  It was actually the case that God’s people were at a disadvantage, in a manner of speaking, because it was hard to identify their enemy Satan because he came looking like Christ; sometimes it was so close it was difficult to see the difference.

Anyway, this was a helpful chapter to remind us of the church age and of God’s protection over the churches.  When we go in the next chapter in Revelation 13, we are going to be right back into things regarding the Great Tribulation, the time we just passed, and the destruction of the corporate church that once enjoyed the glorious presence of the Lord Jesus and all the protection that the Almighty afforded it.  Yet, it will no longer be the case at the time of the end, when judgment would begin at the house of God.  This is going to start in the next several chapters and we are going to get deeply into our present time.  Chapter 13 speaks of the Great Tribulation.  Chapter 14 is Judgment Day and chapters 15 and 16 also speak of Judgment Day.  In the next four chapters, it is going to be very intensely focused and in verse, after verse, after verse, God is going to remind us of what is going on in our present time.