God Protects Israel from Satan’s Pursuit

Transcript

GR 2027
01/14/2018
God Protects Israel from Satan's Pursuit
Revelation 12:13-17
Gil Rugh

We're going to the book of Revelation in your Bibles and I want you to stop in chapter 1 before we move to the chapter before us. Revelation is the capstone of God's revelation regarding His purposes and plans for His creation. It pulls together revelation He had given prior to this time and then He organizes it, if you will, and fleshes it out for us. It is a book that is to be understood. The problem with the book of Revelation for many people is they fail to interpret it the way they interpret other parts of the Bible, literally and in a normal fashion. Historically, grammatically as we would say. The same way we interpret passages regarding our salvation, the person and work of Christ. It is a book to be understood.

In Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is he who reads and those who heard the words of the prophecy and heed,” keep. They are to be understood so that we can live in light of them. “Heed the things which are written in it for the time is near.” We are moving toward the fulfillment of what is unfolded here. God didn't write it to confuse us, He wrote it to enlighten us. Where we are going is to Revelation 1:7, “Behold He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is, amen.” We are on track, God is working His perfect purposes and plans in a world that seems in confusion, turmoil, unsettled, on the brink of danger and catastrophe. We are as believers, as the song says that was sung earlier, we don't have any fear. God is with us, we belong to Him, Jesus promised I will never leave you nor forsake you. And we know what God is doing. That is to shape our lives.

Come to Revelation 5. It is because of the finished work of Christ, His death and resurrection that there can be, if I can put it this way, a successful conclusion to the creation that is enveloped by sin, corrupted by sin, doomed by sin. But there is a Savior and so the celebration in heaven when Christ took the seven-sealed scroll to open it, which is the unfolding of the climactic events that bring us to the time when Christ will descend in power and great glory from heaven to establish His kingdom on earth. And we read in Revelation 5:9, “Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth.” And God's people, when Christ comes to reign and establish His kingdom, we will reign with Him. Verse 12 says, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” Verse 13, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

This is the book of Revelation. When we get done with chapter 22 we will have moved through, we will have come to the kingdom, we will have come to the time when God Himself will be enthroned on the earth and we will have entered an eternal dimension of His kingdom.

Come over to Revelation 12. Why don't you put up the chart on the 70 weeks if you would. It has been a month so maybe it doesn't look familiar to you. This is the basic layout of God's plan for the nation Israel. Leave the chart up and come with me to Genesis 12, and here you have the initial statement of the Abrahamic Covenant, the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants we know of as the Jewish people. He tells Abraham to “go forth from his country, from his relatives, from your father's house to the land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, the one who curses you I will curse. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

In Genesis 13:14 God tells Abram, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can be numbered. Walk about the land, its length, its breadth, I will give it to you.” It is repeated in Genesis 15 where he is told look at the stars, they are innumerable. That will be your descendants. It is repeated in Genesis 17, it is repeated in Genesis 18.

Come over to Daniel 9. God has promised Abraham the provision of salvation would come through him and his physical descendants would possess the land that he was promising to him. Now He told Abraham you won't see the realization of this in your physical life. We are 400 years away from your descendants going into the land of Canaan. But know this is given to them forever. So in the book of Daniel which is very much like the book of Revelation and is a preparation for the book of Revelation, which will be given much later. Verse 24, this is where this chart comes from, Daniel 9:24, “Seventy weeks,” or as you may have in your margin, seventy sevens. Seventy sevens, it is a seven-year period, not a day-period, it is a week of years and not a week of days. “Have been decreed for your people and your holy city.” Daniel's people are the Jews, the holy city is Jerusalem. So familiar. So that's where the seventy weeks come from. And six things will be accomplished in those seventy weeks. “To finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, to anoint the most holy place.”

We will have the redemption of Israel, and in effect the establishing of the kingdom as we will see as we get toward the end of the book of Revelation, all six things will be accomplished. And as we have seen in our prior studies, this is broken down and you have on the chart here the first sixty-nine weeks. And they are broken into two divisions, but for us right now sixty-nine weeks. Then we were told, verse 26, “After the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off.” So after sixty-nine weeks Christ was crucified. And as we are going to see again when we look in Revelation 12, then He ascended to the Father. Christ came to earth, lived His 33 years, crucified and ascended to the Father. There is a break between the 69th and 70th weeks, that's the shaded portion of this chart, that's the period of time in which we live, that's the church age. This will come to a conclusion when Christ comes in the air and calls all believers from Acts 2 down to this period of time to meet Him in the air, and He takes them to heaven. Then we will have a representative of a revived Roman Empire sign an agreement with the nation Israel. And that marks the beginning of the end, the final seven-year period, the 70th week of Daniel.

So this shaded period does not appear anywhere in Old Testament prophecy. I keep mentioning this, I pulled a book off my shelf earlier this morning when I was in my study and began reading. He is a man who has written good things on salvation but he doesn't believe you should take prophecy literally. So the church, we are in this tribulation period and it just is an extensive period of time that just covers all of this and you don't take the book of Revelation literally. And I think, what a confusing way to explain Revelation.

While I was gone, there is a modern commentary on Revelation written by a scholar, and he has written some good things, but he doesn't think you take the book of Revelation literally. We are in Revelation 12 so come to Revelation 12, I read what he said on Revelation 12, I've read other of his stuff, quite frankly, when I was done reading what he wrote on Revelation, I couldn't figure out how would I get up on Sunday morning and try to explain this to people. It makes no sense. He has all kinds of things going on. Interpret the book of Revelation like you interpret everything else in the Bible—literally. There is figurative speech, we saw that, we saw Revelation 12 open up, “A sign in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, on her head twelve stars.” We went back to Genesis 37 and Joseph had the same image in a dream presented to him and he and his family knew what it meant. His father was the sun, his mother represented by the moon and the twelve stars were Joseph and his eleven brothers. This is the nation Israel, and the nation Israel, Christ is about to be born in Israel. Then we have the dragon, that's another symbolic representation. We know who it is because down in verse 9, “The great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan.” They all reflect the same person. The dragon, something of his fierce, ferocious character. We've talked about the different images here.

Then we go from Israel to Satan and his followers and to angels who followed him in his rebellion. Then verse 5 back to Israel. Remember the woman, verse 2, was with child. Christ is born, His lineage is given at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew and then in the Gospel of Luke. And He was born to rule, be king, but He wasn't established as king. He was caught up to God and to His throne, the ascension in Acts 1.

Then we have a break. We don't have the church age mentioned here because God is revealing to John His purposes for the nation Israel. The church was removed from the earth here, if you go back to that chart a minute, right here at the Rapture after Revelation 3, remember. We saw it in heaven in Revelation 4-5, the heavenly vision. Revelation 6 here to Revelation 19 is all about this seven-year period. Revelation 19, Christ returns to earth and establishes the kingdom we'll have in Revelation 20-22.

So between verses 5-6 we have 2000 years. The Old Testament prophets didn't see the shaded area and John is talking about His program for Israel. Remember 70 weeks, 490 years are determined for your nation Israel. Well, following the ascension of Christ to heaven we have the establishing of the church in Acts 2. God was not focusing His work in the world in the salvation He was accomplishing any longer in the nation Israel. It wasn't a change in God's plan, this had been planned from eternity past, but it had not been revealed before. So we are being taken here in Revelation 6-19 through this period of time. So he talks about the ascension of Christ, then God's work in focusing in the nation Israel came to a halt. Acts 1, Christ ascends to heaven; Acts 2 we have the church. And we will have the church until the Rapture of the church takes place which is yet future. Then we can talk about what is going to go on in this seven-year period, the 70th week of Daniel before Christ returns to earth.

“The woman fled into the wilderness,” well that takes place, we are right here in the middle of the tribulation. So you see what is going on, so we keep our perspective. Why don't you put the other chart up while we are doing this, Steve. We have Randy Price coming to speak to the men's retreat, then here on Sunday morning. I have pulled this chart as I have told you from a very helpful book he did with a man named Wayne House. You can get it in Sound Words and it has all kinds of charts on prophecy. And this is just one I put because he is right, I agree with him. In the first 3½ years of that seven-year period, so this is that 70th week, Revelation 6-19. We had the seven seal judgments followed by the seven trumpet judgments. Now with Revelation 10-14 we have an interlude, a break in the flow. Then we will pick up with the seven bowl judgments.

So what he is doing now in Revelation 10-14 have to do with events that relate to this middle period and the last 3½ years. And they particularly focus on the nation Israel. These judgments that we have seen here, the seals and the trumpets have been poured out on the whole world, the bowls will be poured out on the whole earth. But we need to fill in here, what is going on with Israel because this 70th week, remember, is primarily about Israel. It involves judgment on an unbelieving world but it is to bring the nation Israel to their knees to experience God's salvation in preparation for the kingdom. So we need this material that particularly focuses on what happens in the middle and the last half as regards Israel. Then once we have Israel's situation firmly fixed in our minds, then in Revelation 15 we will pick up and have the final judgments poured out here on an unbelieving world.

So this is what we are doing in Revelation 12. You'll note in verse 6, “The woman fled into the wilderness,” and the woman is Israel, “and she had a place prepared by God,” we're going to pick this up at the end of the chapter where we are going in a moment, “so she would be nourished for 1,260 days.” That's talking about the last half of the 70th week of Daniel. On the chart the bowls, we have that last period right here, 1260 days. A prophetic year in Scripture is 360 days, rounded off to that; 1260 days, that's 3½ years. We're going to pick that up in Revelation 13:5, forty-two months. We had it in Revelation 11:2, forty-two months; the end of verse 3, 1260 days; we'll have it in Revelation 12:14, time, times and a half time; a time, two times and a half time from the book of Daniel, 3½ times. So we are primarily focusing now, this has been about Israel but during the first 3½ years things have been relatively good for Israel. God's wrath has been poured out on an unbelieving world, but Israel has rebuilt the temple, is flourishing in the land. And things will change here dramatically.

So Revelation 12:7 we saw, “there is war in heaven, Michael and the archangel,” and angels following him do battle with Satan and the angels who have joined him in his rebellion. His rebellion was recorded in Revelation 12:4 where a third of the angels, we saw, followed him in his rebellion. Satan still has access to heaven to this day, but with this conflict in heaven, heaven will be closed to Satan and the demons, the angels who followed him in his rebellion. And we are told in verse 9, “the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil, Satan, deceives the whole world, thrown down to the earth.” Now he is active on the earth to this day, but he also has access to heaven. But now the access to heaven is closed so he is limited to the earth. And heaven rejoices, verse 10, “Now the salvation, the power, the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ has come.” Why? Because with this action all the host of heaven realized we have come to the end.

You see the 70 weeks chart, because when you hit this period where Satan is cast from heaven, all of heaven realizes this is the final step. All the way back to when the fall occurred and so on, and then the promises and covenant of God with Abraham. With this action where Satan is cast from heaven there are 3½ years left. So they are celebrating in heaven because for thousands of years, and now we are only 3½ years away from Christ returning and establishing the kingdom.

Satan also knows time is running out. The end of verse 12 tells us, “Satan comes down to earth with great wrath,” and you'll note the last statement of verse 12, “knowing he only has a short time.” Well why doesn't he just go ahead and read the rest of the book and he'll see he loses? And we talked about sin isn't rational. Why did he rebel against God in the first place? Do you think a created being could overthrow the Creator? But he did attempt it.

Why do people reject Christ today? God has written the last chapter for us, you will end up in hell if you don't place your faith in Christ. Why do people go to church and think because they were baptized they will go to heaven? Because they choose not to believe God. They are no more rational in their thinking than the devil.

You can't win against God. The only way you win is submit to Him and He in grace gives you victory. There is no rationale to sin. We see a world in rebellion against God? Why? He put it down in black and white, Jesus said, “unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.”

What does it mean to perish? We'll get to that in Revelation 20, you are cast into hell for eternity. Why wouldn't you say I will accept the free gift of life God has given me, recognize I am a sinner and place my faith in Christ, the One who loved me and died for me and I won't have to perish. No, thank you. What do you mean, no, thank you? You are a child of the devil and you are spiritually stupid, like all of us were at one time. You would think people would be falling on their faces before God everywhere. No.

So this is the period of time we are in, we are in this last 3½-year period, we are on hold. The seventh trumpet has sounded, out of that will come this series of seven bowl judgments but it is sort of like we have a pause here. We have to fill in and explain things, what is going on with the nation Israel, judgments are being poured out on the world. What about the nation Israel? The 70 weeks have to do with Israel, that's what we are talking about.

So we can pick up with verse 13, “And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.” Who is the woman? Back in Revelation 12:1-2, Israel. It's not the virgin Mary, it's not the church. It represents Joseph's father who was Jacob. The promises given to Abraham were repeated to his son Isaac, were repeated to Isaac's son, Jacob. And remember Jacob's name was changed to Israel, that's where we get the name Israel. And Israel, Jacob, had twelve sons and descended from the twelve sons are the twelve tribes of Israel.

So the woman is Israel and Satan now, knowing, remember the end of verse 12, “he has great wrath, knowing he only has a short time.” So when he was thrown down to the earth he knows this is a significant event. It's not that the devil doesn't know the Bible, I have no question he could quote it word for word in the original languages from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation. Remember we talked about God, when He created him filled him with great wisdom. When he tempted Christ in Matthew 4, beginning of Christ's public ministry, he quoted Scripture to Christ. It's not that he doesn't know the Bible, he doesn't believe the Bible. You can have Bible verses memorized and be on your way to hell, Scripture memory doesn't save you. Believing the truth of the Scripture saves us.

So here he says, on the plan of God we are to this stage. If I don't do something, His plan will be complete. What does he have to do? We just looked at Genesis 12 and noted the promises, and they pervade the Scripture. God has made a promise to Abraham and his descendants, the Jewish people, that He would bless them, that they would rule on the earth. He makes clear that the Messiah would be a descendant in going back to Abraham and we would have a kingdom. Well, if I am going to frustrate God's plan, I have to annihilate the Jews; if I can successfully destroy the Jews there can be no Jewish kingdom, there can be no fulfillment of the promises God made. He loses, I win.

Yes, that makes a good story but it's all fantasy. It's not fantasy to the unbeliever. I keep bringing you back to today. It's fantasy that the unbeliever thinks that he will be all right, he will get to heaven without bowing before God, recognizing his sin and trusting Christ alone. It's a fantasy, why would you believe that? God has told us. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.’” Well am I being uncouth and narrow minded when I say that means Muslims are not going to heaven? Hindus are not going to heaven? Liberal Protestants are not going to heaven? Roman Catholics aren't going to heaven? Who are you to say that? I am nobody, I am a nobody of nobodies, but God said it. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. You either believe God or you don't. When He says “all have sinned,” “the wages of sin is death,” it's only by faith. When you say faith plus my works, faith plus baptism, faith plus, you are on your way to hell. Don't get angry at me, I'm just the messenger. Where are you?

I say this because we read this and say it is hard to believe Satan would do this. But you have family members and friends that do it. We have the same Bible that the devil is reading, the problem is he doesn't believe it. I mean, that is the issue. You can grow up in this church and die and go to hell. Going to this church doesn't save you, being baptized here doesn't save, none of those things can. The Bible tells you it won't, only believing the Gospel saves you.

So we have the same Bible, the devil is reading it, he says I know there is a short time. So what I have to do is destroy Israel, if I do that it will work out the way I want it to work out, not the way God says it will work out. So he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. It's a logical plan. Yes, if you destroy Israel, God cannot fulfill the promises He made. He fails. If He fails, you win. But that can't happen.

Verse 14, So God intervenes here to protect His people. “But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so she could fly into the wilderness to her place where she was nourished for a time, and times and a half time.” Back in verse 6, “The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God. She would be nourished for 1260 days.” So when we talk about a time, and times and a half time, don't have a dual in this language so it is just a plural. But we know from the context 1260 days, and we saw forty-two months, a time, times and a half time drawn from the book of Daniel. She is protected there from the presence of the serpent. So the devil now has an all out attempt. We saw something like this in somewhat recent history in World War II with the attempt to annihilate the Jews. Millions of them died. A mini-preview, if you will, of what is going to happen in these last 3½ years as the devil roams the earth with determination to destroy every Jew. You know the Jews, they are, I was going to say lose/lose situation in one sense. If you are a Christian, a Gentile and you are a Christian, you are the enemy of the devil. If you a Gentile and not a Christian, not a believer in Christ, you are a child of the devil and he is okay with you. If you are an atheistic Jew, he still hates you because you are a Jew, because there is an election of the nation Israel as well as an election to salvation for the individual within the nation.

So just by virtue of being a Jew makes the Jew an enemy of the devil. That may be a Jew who is going to spend eternity in the devil's hell, but he has to hate them because God chose those people. So for example World War II, Hitler and his allies weren't determined we have to kill every Jew who is a believer in Christ, we have to kill every Jew. And that's where the Jews have no place to go. You can be an atheistic Jew and say I don't believe the Old Testament Scriptures, that doesn't matter, the devil will still hate you. You have to go. Now that doesn't mean you are saved because the devil hates you. The devil has no love, even for his own followers. He is happy to destroy them, too. But the Jews have to go because as long as the Jews are in existence, the prophecies can be fulfilled for the kingdom. All right, have I repeated myself enough?

Verse 14, “Nourished for a time, times and a half time.” God is going to make provision for her, He has a place. Verse 6 said “a place prepared by God.” See how controling he is? Seems like things going on everywhere, what is going to happen. We had a fear this week that maybe there was some kind of nuclear weapon that had been set off and was flying and then it was . . . It doesn't take much to put the world into panic. And God already has the place prepared for Israel to go in that future time. You see the sovereignty of God in the detail. That's why the book of Revelation is a great comfort to us as believers. That doesn't mean we don't have trials today and difficulty. You know God is in control.

So what happens when these Jews flee? Come back to Matthew 24, Jesus is talking about this same 7-year period of time in preparing for the disciples. But they know nothing about there is going to be a 2000-year break before we get to this. They were interested about events He had said were going to take place with the destruction of the temple and so on, and so down through verse 8, and verse 8 says “there are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” That's the first 3½ years of that seven-year period. Then in the middle, where we are in Revelation 12, “then they will deliver you to tribulation, they will kill you, you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away, they will betray one another, hate one another,” all that is going on. Then you come to verse 15, verse 15 picks up with what He said in verse 9. “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation,” here is what will be revealed that you'll know tribulation is breaking out. “When you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place.” We'll get into this in Revelation 13. “Let the reader understand.” So there will be Jews in that period of time and the Spirit of God will be directing them and there will be believing Jews. The two witnesses, the 144,000 that were sealed in Revelation 7, we'll see them again in Revelation 14. So directed toward the words, and all of a sudden let the reader understand. This is it, we have to run. “Those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, whoever is on the housetop, don't go down to his house.” And on and on. Verse 21, why? “For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world nor until now, nor ever will be. And unless those days had been cut short, no one would survive.”

So that's where we are in Revelation 12, come back there. The devil has read, he knows by heart Matthew 24 and 25, that this period will culminate with the return of Christ in power and great glory to establish the kingdom. So we have to get rid of the Jews, so he has a worldwide press on now. And some of the Jews, in light of what was prophesied, have fled Jerusalem. They are going to the wilderness. Verse 14, “Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so she might fly into the wilderness.” Now there is symbolism here. It doesn't mean that they were picked up by an eagle and rode on the wings or got special wings to fly. It's a symbol, it's like on a summer or spring day you get a torrential rain. You say it is raining cats and dogs. You might have a little two-year-old who runs to the window to see that phenomenon, but we know it is a figure of speech. But it has a literal meaning, that it is really pouring out there. It's a figure of speech. Doesn't mean we don't take things literally, doesn't mean it's not raining. It is pouring.

So the wings of the eagle. Come back to Exodus 19, we only have time to look at this one passage. When Israel left Egypt, God brought them out of slavery in Egypt, this is where we are. Exodus 19 opens up, “In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the Wilderness of Sinai.” Now you see what happens here, Israel leaves Egypt and they go to the wilderness, similar to what we are having in Revelation 12. Israel is going to be saved, they are going to flee to the wilderness. We are at Mt. Sinai here. You come down to verse 4, what does God say? “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself.”

Now we know how Israel left Egypt, they left on the ground. But what is the picture God gives to show His deliverance? It's like I put you on eagle's wings and brought you over here. It's a symbol to picture God bringing His deliverance to them. So it seems like if you are a Jew reading this and you do know the facts of the Old Testament, in Revelation 12:14, “The two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so she could fly into the wilderness.” That's just like God providing deliverance for our people when He brought them out of Egypt and it is the same picture. So they won't get on the wings of an eagle but they are going to take off on the ground to get into the wilderness region where God has prepared a place. So they will be supernaturally led there. How did they get to Sinai? They checked their GPS. No, God led them. So that's the point here.

Well, the devil doesn't quit so Revelation 12:15, “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood, but the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.” Now here we have a decision and it won't change things. But are we talking about the river being a symbol or a literal river of water? It can be either because under the authority of the triune God we know of no other created being that has greater power than the devil. The triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—obviously is the one God, they have ultimate authority and power over everything. But even Michael the archangel, remember in the book of Jude, has a deferential attitude toward Satan and wouldn't rebuke him. He called upon God to rebuke him, recognizes his authority.

In the book of Job when God gives Satan authority, he can control the weather. Satan just made the wind blow so strong that it blew the house down on Job's children. Ability to control the weather. He can cause great sickness. When God said He would give him permission, he could afflict Job from head to toe with boils and bring great pain to him. This idea people have of this little figure dancing around, trying his best to do something, that's not the devil of the Scripture.

So here it could be a literal river poured out and God could just open the earth and cause it. So perhaps he causes a great flood. They flee to the wilderness, other passages, we won't take time, in later studies we will get to them, but it is said it is east of the Jordan. So Moab, present-day Jordan, down where Petra is, where some of you have visited, perhaps that region seems to be where these Jews who believe the word and respond to it and flee for safety and God protects them. Because remember what is going on during this seven-year period, God is bringing salvation to the nation Israel. His work with the church is done, now He is back to working with Israel as He did in the Old Testament.

So the serpent poured out water like a river from his mouth. So it could be a literal river of water, a flood he causes, thinking I will just wash them out. And he could do that but he can't accomplish his goal because God can just open up the earth and swallow it up, like He did, remember, Korah? Those who joined him in the rebellion, the ground under them, Numbers 16, just opened up and down they went.

Another possibility, and this could be a symbol or a picture of Satan moving the Antichrist and the armies of the Antichrist to attempt to pursue the Jews and destroy them wherever they are, including the wilderness. Come back to Jeremiah 46, just for point of interest. And in Jeremiah 46, Jeremiah is giving a prophecy concerning the nations and he addresses Egypt. “To Egypt concerning the army of Pharaoh Necco, king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish,” and so on, in which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated. And you have a description of the army here. You come down to verse 7 for time, “Who is this that rises like the Nile? Like the rivers whose waters surge about? Egypt rises like the Nile, even like rivers whose waters surge about. He has said, I will rise and cover that land, I will destroy the city and its inhabitants. Go up, you horses; madly drive, you chariots,” and so on.

We have a picture here of a human army, but it is like a river as it comes up on the land. I mean, you have thousands and hundreds of thousands. Remember when the Assyrian army invaded Israel? One night God struck 180,000 Assyrian soldiers dead, and that wasn't the whole army. So when an army like this and of these sizes comes sweeping up on the land, it would be like a flood of water as they conquer everything in their way. So it could be that is what is being pictured.

Turn over to Jeremiah 47, the chapter opens up, here is Jeremiah prophesying about the Philistines and he says. “Thus says the Lord, behold waters are going to rise from the north, become an overflowing torrent, overflow the land and all its fullness, the city and all who live in it. The men will cry out, every inhabitant in the land will wail because of the noise of the galloping hoofs of his stallions, the tumult of his chariots, the rumbling of his wheels,” and so on. So you see he talks about the waters rising, overflowing as a torrent, but he is really talking about the army pouring in.

So when you come back to Revelation 12, and there are other passages, it is one of those things that it could be either. The point is it doesn't change. Satan is pouring out his energy or his focus to destroy these Jews who are fleeing to a hiding place, but God has prepared for their protection. So whether it is literal water in the flood or armies, temember Elijah sitting on the top of the hill and the fifty soldiers come and say, get down, we are taking you to the king. And he says, if I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. They are done. The next fifty come, they are done. So no problem.

It could be an army and it would be like Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16, the earth opened under them and they are swallowed up. The devil could move the Antichrist to send armies to pursue Israel, now I have them, they are trapped in that wilderness region. The earth opens up, what happened to my army? I don't know, nobody can find them. Can't get anybody to respond. Send another one, they are gone. The devil knows what is happening, that's why he is going to concentrate, redirect his energy.

So verse 16, “The earth helped the woman, the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon . . .” Whether there is a literal river of water or the incoming army, the point is God is protecting these Jews that have fled. They will be preserved.

So verse 17, “The dragon was enraged with the woman.” You'll note nothing has changed here. The end of verse 12 said he had great wrath. Then we see he is attempting to destroy her. Being defeated, it's amazing how resilient sinners are in their rebellion against God. They are children of their father the devil, all of us are. Think about how stubborn you were until God's grace melted your heart and turned you to salvation by faith in Christ. We are resilient in our sin, we are stubborn. We are like the children of Israel, their Messiah came and walked in their midst and they rejected Him and had Him crucified. The devil is resilient. “The devil was enraged with the woman.” His anger hasn't gone down, it is going up because a defeat like this where the devil is protecting those who fled to the wilderness just is more frustrating. So he has to turn up the heat where he can.

“He went off to make war with the rest of her children.” He realizes as he did with Job when God put a hedge around Job, I can't do anything. You won't let me in. Well the devil realizes he can't do anything here. You think, then I will lose. No, I will destroy the rest of them in other places, then I will come up with a plan here. Sinners always have an idea how it will work out for them. So “the dragon was enraged with the woman, went off to make war with the rest of her children who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” You know what is happening here, Jews are being saved.

Come back to Romans 11. There is something here you don't understand apart from the revelation God has given in His Bible, our Bibles. Verse 25. Romans 11 opens up, “I say then, God has not rejected His people has He? May it never be.” Greek expression, magnoito. It could never come to pass, it can't happen. King James says God forbid, the word God doesn't appear here in “may it never be.” But He cannot reject the Jews, they are His people. He can't replace the Jews with the church. There is no magic here that He promised to the physical descendants of Abraham but it's really the church. No, He can't do it.

“God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew,” whom He chose. You come down to verse 25, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery.” You can't understand it apart from the Word of God and you won't understand it even if you say I believe the Bible is the Word of God but then you allegorize it, spiritualize it, don't take it at face value. Then you make it whatever you want. This is a mystery, something that cannot be understood apart from God's revelation, and God is giving the revelation. “This is so you,” you Gentiles, “will not be wise in your own estimation.” God has rejected the Jews, they deserve their suffering. No. “A partial hardening has happened to Israel.” There are Jews being saved to this day, but the nation as a nation continues in its rebellion against God. That's what that seven years is going to do, particularly the last 3½. They are going to begin to break down the Jews and Jews will begin to be saved through the testimony of the two witnesses, the 144,000 and so on.

“Partial hardening has happened to Israel until,” that word until is important. “A partial hardening until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Do you know what that is? That's the church age. With the Rapture God now, remember He broke off dealing primarily with Israel and moved to the Gentiles. What did Jesus say at the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28? Make disciples. That's not the thrust, they had been making disciples. Make disciples of all the nations. His attention is turning away from Israel as the focal point of His work in salvation in the world to the Gentiles. But now the fullness of the Gentiles with the Rapture of the church will be concluded while we go back to Israel. “And so all Israel will be saved.” That's the goal, there will be a national salvation by the time we get to the end of the 70th week.

“The deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant I make with them when I take way their sins.” This is where it is going to go, the nation will turn and call on Christ as their Messiah. We are stubborn in our sin, it is going to take a lot. The tribulation is destroying the world, the Jews dying at the hands of their persecutors. “So from the standpoint of the Gospel they are enemies for your sake.” In other words the fact that God now has set Israel aside is a benefit to us Gentiles. I'm not going to ask, but if I ask in this auditorium, how many of you are Jews? There might be one, two or three, but basically we are Gentiles. That's the church in the world today. So we benefit. But from the standpoint of God's choice, and that word choice is the word election. From the standpoint of election, God's sovereign choosing of them, “they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.”

I cannot for the life of me understand how anybody who says they believe the Bible can say God has replaced Israel with the church. You might as well say God replaced Israel with the family dog. I mean, it is just as much possibility as that. “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” God elected Israel. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Now just tell me, what don't you understand about that? The church has replaced Israel, that is common doctrine, even among professing believers today, because they don't take things related to prophecy literally. They take things regarding the first coming of Christ literally because they don't have any choice. When it comes to future prophecy they say that's not meant to be taken literally, the church has become Israel. I can't tell you how many commentaries I have that say that.

God's work will be done, it is sure, it is settled. Can't be frustrated, can't be changed. We've been through this in so many passages of Scripture.

So all of this is so we can know about the future? No, so we can heed what was written. How do I heed it? I'm not even going to be here. It shapes the way I live. I understand the importance of having the right relationship with the Savior God has provided. I understand that I live my life in a world that is under the control ultimately of a sovereign God who is going to bring it to completion with His salvation and the eternal condemnation of the devil and all who belong to him. It ought to shape my life every day as we sang in the song, so we can live without fear. Am I a pessimist? You think the world is going to hell. It is, we will see that when we get to Revelation 20 and the Great White Throne. It's a terrible end and ultimately Israel will be redeemed. It helps me understand when I watch the news. Our President says we are going to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem and the Jews are ecstatic, they think they have maybe at least a little Messiah. Other people in the world, they have been saying it should be in Jerusalem for a long time, but you are going to do it? That's terrible. And you understand why anti-Semitism breaks out. Where it is, the devil still hates the Jews. They have been set aside by God but he still hates them and would like to destroy them, because the sooner he can destroy them, the better.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, he hates you and the world hates you. That's what Jesus said, “don't be surprised if the world hates you. It hated me before it hates you,” and really the reason it hates us is because we belong to Him. So the message is God wins. The message is God is gracious. Look at us in our comfort today. Some people thought it was too cold to get up and come out. They didn't have to get the horses ready and the buckboard going. It becomes a casual thing for us. It is matters of eternal significance. God is a God of salvation, today it is free, we have received it as a free gift. What did you do? Nothing, really, I just said I believe what God did for me in Christ, I'm trusting Him alone. And He cleansed me from my sin and made me new. Do you think it's that easy? Well, God said it is and I believed Him and it happened. So the war goes on, but we know how it ends. God wins and we who are God's children win with Him and sadly everyone else loses because they choose to follow the devil.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your grace. Thank You for Your love in unfolding for us Your purposes and plans. How awesome You are. And Lord, our finite minds cannot grasp Your greatness in a world of such confusion, such diversity. Sometimes it seems like it is out of control. One day it is this, another it is that, the solution is this, the solution is that. And Lord we walk in calmness, without fear in our hearts. We belong to You. We look around us and see the hand of our God at work, everything being moved according to Your eternal plan, culminating with the glorious return of Your Son. Lord, may we be clear in our testimony in these days, may we be faithful in our walk with You. We pray in Christ's name, amen.