Lesson 7, The Desolation of Smaug

Revelation lesson 7, The Desolation of Smaug.  Revelation 12-14

Last week we finished Revelation 6-7 and focused on the opening of the seals, primarily the ones that unleashed the 4 Horsemen.  We touched briefly on the 144,000 and the Multitudes (knowing we'd get deeper into them this week).

As we break the book of Revelation into sections (see Lesson 2: The Magnificent 7) we are going to make our first deviation from the linear order of the book.  We left off with the opening of the 7th Seal, which contains the Sounding of the 7 Trumpets and Pouring of the 7 Bowls).  Today we are going to skip to Revelation 12-14 and look at the 7 Histories.  An interlude of sorts as John is given more insight into what leads up to, and will happen during the end times.

The Woman:
Chapter 12 talks about the woman and the dragon.  There are bits and pieces of these verses that can have you jumping (at least your mind) into several areas as you determine what the Woman symbolizes.

First, there are some obvious visuals of both Eve (with that ancient serpent), and Mary (Herod's attempt to get the baby Jesus).  And while I think these visuals are there purposefully, there is a more overriding symbolic meaning of the woman that we derive from some of the references in the passages.

First, she is clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars.  The sun, moon, and stars reflect directly back to Joseph's dream and can indicate the woman represents Israel (we'll come back to the sun, moon, and stars in few minutes).  Now the debate could be made whether this is the 'proper' Israel, the Converted Jews, or the Church as a whole (including the Gentiles).  We don't have enough time or space today to dive into all that, but the common theme in all those interpretation is that those people all follow and are faithful to God.  In other words, "God's People".

But this woman is pregnant and gives birth to a male son who will rule the nations with an iron scepter.  Jesus is referred to often along with the iron scepter, and this indicates the Woman birthed the Messiah.  Now if you take the Woman to be Israel, or the Church - the question might be how does she birth the Messiah?  The Old Testament is the history of the Israelite's, with many prophecies indicating the Messiah is coming, and it is because of the Church (or God's love and grace for it) that the Son had to come and sacrifice Himself in order that there be eternal life.  It is also important to note that this pregnant woman is in pain (suffering).  I believe there is a correlation between this and Matthew 24:8 where Jesus talks about the suffering before the tribulation being, 'birth pains'. (more on the woman in a few paragraphs).

The Dragon:

Now let's take a look at the Dragon.  The dragon is Satan.  We're told so in verse 7.  That was easy... well, not exactly.  While we know who the dragon is, there are some interesting aspects to what John sees.

1. The dragon is described as sweeping a third of the angels to earth with his tail.  Indicative of Satan's fall and taking some of the angels with him.
2.  The dragon waits to devour the pregnant woman's child the moment he is born.  Could be the plot of Herod to kill Jesus.  Could be Satan standing by to devour the Church.
3. Then war breaks out in Heaven between Michael and the dragon.  The dragon loses and is hurled to the earth along with his angels.  The question is: is this a more detailed version of Satan sweeping the stars and falling to earth?  Is this an insight into the original fall of Satan?  Or is this a flash-forward to the final battle in Revelation where Satan is defeated?

So now (verse 13) the dragon saw he had been hurled to earth.  That is an interesting way of phrasing the dragon's response to getting his rear-end kicked by Michael.  But what I think it is to mean is that, "Satan realized he no longer had access to Heaven." (I'll come back to this in a second).

Back to the Woman.  She is given two wings of a great eagle so she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness.  Here the wilderness represents spiritual refuge, and it appears that this refuge is from Satan.  Also, I believe that the eagle's wings she is given indicates Michael's protection (see Daniel 12:1 - Michael is Israel's protector).  Eagle wings are often symbolic of angelic nature. That's why we fantasize about angels being these magnificent creatures with broad and strong wings. It is what I based the image of my main character, Jude in my book, Providence.

Back to the Dragon.  He is now enraged that the woman is protected, and thus wages war against the rest of her offspring (those who keep God's testimony about Jesus).

So here is my summary of the Woman and the Dragon.  The woman is Israel, The Old Testament 'births' the Messiah.  Satan can't get him and focus on the woman.  Michael defeats him and casts him to earth.  Satan again tries to get the woman, Michael protects her.  Satan is frustrated and focuses on the rest of her offspring (the Gentiles).

The Rabbit Hole:
In these first few verses, we bounce between Heaven and Earth, the beginning of time and the end times.  I tried to wrap my head around some chronology here, but I failed.  What I did do was stumble onto an interesting question.

"The dragon saw he had been hurled to earth".  Did he not know?  Or did I misunderstand Satan's fall?  When did Satan fall?  When were the angels created?  (please note, I want your curiosity piqued and I want you read the Bible and discover - I spent about a day and half in this rabbit hole...)

First, I assumed angels had been here long before the creation of the earth.  I assumed Satan had fallen beforehand, and that is why he tempted Eve into eating the apple.  So I took my questions and began reading.

Genesis 1:14-19 (The Fourth Day)

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Genesis 2:1 (Immediately following the Sixth Day)

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

These two verses made me wonder, did God make the angels on the 4th day?  Finishing both the heavens and the earth on the sixth day?  Now, before you jump - I realize this says "heavens" and not "heaven" - meaning it could simply be translated to refer to the universe.  I get that.  But for me personally, the symbolism of the sun, moon, and stars is pretty strong.  And we know Satan was in the Garden of Eden along with Adam and Eve.  As a matter of fact, he was a guardian.

Go to Ezekiel 28:11-19.  These verses describe Satan and indicate he was there in the Garden, and that he was beautiful and worthy (right up until he fell).  So the question becomes, when he tempted Eve, was that his fall?

Now we have to jump to Job 1:6-8.  The angels come to present themselves to God, and Satan comes with them.  So he still had access to God. But, even after he had fallen?  Maybe, and Michael hurling him to earth was the straw that locked him down here.  And don't forget Jude describes Michael disputing with Satan about Moses' body.  So was Jude still in heaven's grace during this dispute?  So then when does this hurling take place?  I'm not sure.  But, I hope I've gotten your curiosity up a bit and that you'll do some personal reading this week.  I know I'm going to be reading some more.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

The Beast of the Sea:
So after verse 12, we are taken to the shore of the sea with the dragon standing there.  That doesn't mean the next events happen immediately following, but it very well could.  Remember God is atemporal, and it is possible any amount of time could pass between the end of verse 12 and beginning of verse 13.  Anyway, I'll just start by telling you I think the beast of the sea is the Antichrist.  I know those exact words are not used in Revelation, but they are used elsewhere.  This beast has ten horns, and ten crowns and seven heads.  This imagery is used in Daniel and other places in Revelation.  It is symbolic of the military and political power and authority.  I won't dive into the realm of trying to determine the exact meaning of each head, horn, and crown.  But many think it is indicative of future 'kingdoms' or 'rulers' dividing the earth up into some kind of 10 nation global union under the Antichrist's rule.  Note that there is a slight variance between this beast's makeup of horns, heads and crowns to those of the dragon who only had seven crowns.

This beast has blasphemous names on it's head and spouts blasphemous words for 42 months (we'll talk about these months and others a bit later).  This indicates that the beast is not going to friendly toward God (or Jesus or the Holy Spirit).  It's good to note that blasphemy of the Spirit is considered an unpardonable sin (we spoke of that a couple of weeks ago).  So anyone who follows or worships this beast, could by proxy be guilty of the same.

The verse declares that the beast will get its power from the dragon.  Whether the dragon can actually give the beast power, I don't know for sure.  But we can be sure the beast will be executing whatever it does in the name of the dragon.

Finally we are told that all will worship the beast except those written in the book of life.  This is subject of its own, which we discussed a few blogs ago about losing salvation.  So let's just summarize here - you worship the beast, you die.

This section ends with the familiar pattern of Revelation, "This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people." (stand firm, folks).

The Beast out of the Earth:
Now John sees a second beast, this one coming from the earth - perhaps the Abyss we'll talk about in later chapters.  This beast has two horns like a lamb (gentle sacrifice) but spoke like a dragon.  Means he is going to preach one thing knowing it is deceitful.  This beast is going cause great signs such as fire from heaven and even make an image of the Sea Beast actually come to life.  People will be in awe of this guy and he force people to worship the first beast.  I believe this beast is the false prophet and will be the leader of the religion of the end times that is lock-step in bed with the political workings of the first beast.

Finally, the second beast will make everyone who wants to buy or sell to where the mark of the first beast (this would include food - remember the Black Horse and economically induced famine?).  In other words, he'll make you worship the first beast in order to survive.

Here is also where we get the famous "666" as the mark of the beast.  It is described as the "number of man".  There are many interpretations of this number.  It could be some form of gematria that calculates a given name into a number - a practice quite common in early Biblical days.  It could symbolize that the Antichrist is incomplete in every way.  Since 7 is the number of completion, and 6 is just short of that.  Or it could simply be that God was revealing that the Antichrist is just a man.  Not God or Jesus or Angelic.

The 144,000:
Verse 14 starts with John looking and seeing the Lamb (Jesus) on Mount Zion with the 144,000.  The 144,000 were first mentioned in Chapter 7.

Rev 7:
…Hurt not the earth…, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. (List doesn’t match OT)

The Great Multitude: “These are they who have come out of the Great Tribulation.”

Rev 14:
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads…

…These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

Defile with women… Spiritual defilement (Rev. 17 refers to the new religion as a harlot prostitute)
No lie was found in their mouths – they held the truth, the faith.

The 144,000 can be looked at in many ways.  While you can study many parts of Revelation without fully deciding if you are pre-tribulation, post-tribulation, or which 'millennialism' you adhere to, etc., that is a bit more difficult here.  The number 144,000 can be taken literally or symbolically and can be interpretted in the following manner.

• A different way of describing the 'multitude' spoke of in Rev. 7
• Exactly 144,000 Jewish, male, virgins who convert and witness.
• All the Jewish converts during the last days.
• The whole Church (either of all time, or in the last days)
• Spiritual Israel - the Church on earth
• And probably a few others I haven't listed.

You can see by these possibilities that your view of the end times will directly reflect the way you interpret who the 144,000 are.  Me personally - I think the number is symbolic and represents the great multitude and therefore is representative of the Church.  But, you make your own call here.

The Angelic Announcers:

We are now presented with 3 angelic announcers.  Each one arrives on scene, makes their declarations and then we get a final word of encouragement.

• Angel 1:
• Proclaims the eternal Gospel
• God’s judgement is here. Day of the Lord
• Angel 2:
• Fall of Babylon (new world politics, religion, economy)
• Maddening wine and her adulteries (spiritual corruptness)
• Angel 3:
• If you take the mark or worship the beast… same punishment as Babylon.
• Have patient endurance

You can see their goal is two-fold.  1) Highlight what you should do, and 2) highlight what will happen if you don't. They end with encouragement in a not so encouraging setting.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

So we've learned about the Woman and the Dragon.  We've been introduced to the two beasts. We seen the 144,000 be taken care of by God. And then we get a summary by the angelic announcers wrapping it for us.  This takes us to the last part of this week's study where we'll learn the purpose of all that John has just learned.

The Harvest.
Chapter 14 is broken into two parts.

Part 1:
Jesus is waiting with his sickle in the clouds.  He gathers his followers.(Note, this is also similar to the rapture in that we have the references of Jesus in the clouds and gathering of the saints).  In Jesus harvesting here, the word ripe (xērainō), means dried and ready (withered).  Indicating the saints are tired and weary, but persistent and ready.

Part 2.

Another angel comes out with a sickle and then another angel in charge of the fire (judgement) comes out and the command to harvest the ripe grapes.  This word 'ripe' (akmazō) means to come to maturity.  This ripe, is only used once in the NT.  (signifies a difference from the other use of ripe).

These harvested grapes are not taken to Jesus, these are trampled in God’s winepress.  (I'll take Part 1 please).

Before we conclude, let's talk a bit about 3 and 1/2 years.  You've probably heard or read that the Tribulation will take 7 years.  Whether that is a literal 7 years, or symbolic, I'll let you ponder.  I think it is symbolic, meaning it will just need to be 'complete'.  I do not take all the numbers in prophetic literature literally (as a matter of fact, I don't take many literally - or any).  But throughout Daniel and especially these few verses, we seen reference to 3 and 1/2 years on several occurrences.  I believe these to mean that these events will occur during the Tribulation, they won't comprise all of the tribulation, and are designated with the time frame to show they have a beginning and an end.  Here are some ways that 3 and 1/2 years are described in the Bible.

A time, times, and half time.

• A Time = 1 year, 
• Times = 2 years, 
• Dividing of Times = 1/2 year.

1260 days

• 360 X 3 =1080+180 = 1260

Forty two months

• 42 X 30 = 1260
• 12+12+12+6 months

A thousand Two hundred and threescore (score = 20) = 1260

So let's conclude/summarize the 7 Histories.

• The woman (God’s people) are protected and victorious
• The dragon (Satan) angry and on the war path.
• The Sea Beast (Antichrist) will have political power to rule
• The Earth Beast (False Prophet) will deceive with his religion
• The 144,000 will have eternal life after surviving the Tribulation
• The Announcers proclaim; 
• Worship God
• Babylon will fall
• Remain faithful
• The Harvest:
• Jesus will gather his believers
• The rest will face God’s Wrath

I hope these studies are prompting you to dig into the study even further.  Remember, these writings are not facts, they are simply how the Scriptures are being revealed to me.  It is a preparation to understand as much as possible to be ready for whatever may occur.  Always be open minded and remember to let the Spirit guide your study.

Until next time,
God Bless you all,
Rob

Don't forget to check out my website, www.starvt.com.  And for those of you who have read my novel Providence, you can be assured that this journey through Revelation will show up in the next two books of the series, Purpose and Perseverance (hint, hint).

Also, here is a table of contents for the Revelation series (it is also located in the side menu).