.
Now, we get to The Fourth Vision, which is, "on Earth" (Revelation 12:13 thru Revelation 13:18).
This Vision, as a whole, is occupied with the Result "on Earth" of the "war in heaven" (Revelation 12). Now pay attention , it is two-fold: First, the effect is given as it concerns Israel, and then, the effect as it concerns the Earth as a whole; and all forming part of this parenthesis or Episode, which takes us back to the period before Revelation 11:13, and shows us how the Beast came to be on the earth. It is he, the Beast, who makes war against the "Two Witnesses" (in Revelation 11); and it is against him and his armies that the judgments and plagues of Revelation 6-9 are directed.
Now, we are taken back to have these prior events further made known and explained to us. This Parenthetical Episode does not end till Revelation 15:8. The Structure of this fourth Vision "on Earth" is presented in two separate parts, because they concern two separate Peoples (the Jew and the Gentile), which are never "reckoned" together (Numbers 23:9). So, from Revelation 12:13 thru Revelation 13:1 we see the effect of this War in Heaven on earth as it effects Israel. Then in Revelation 13:1-18, we see the effect on the Earth as a whole.
Now, The Dragon, as soon as he is cast down into the earth, and LIMITED to the earth and the sea, at once proceeds to make war with the Woman, and the remnant of her seed. He does this by bringing up the Beast in his superhuman form.
So let’s turn to Revelation 12:13-14, “And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he pursued (or persecuted) the woman which brought forth the man-child. And there was given to the woman THE two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, unto her place, where she is nourished there a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
Thus the wilderness will, as it did in the days of old, afford a refuge for Israel; for the coming Exodus is to be like the first. Let’s go and turn to, and read Ezekiel 20:35-38, "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD."
These are significant words. And we have more words like these in Hosea 2:14-15, actually the whole second chapter of Hosea is amazing along these lines, where we read that the valley of Achor, which was the first place on the road from the wilderness to Canaan, see Joshua 7:26, shall prove "a door of hope.”
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt."
"The woman fled into the wilderness." As we see in this portion of Revelation. So of old "it was told to the king of Egypt that the people fled” (Exodus 14:5, and Joshua 24: 6). Now, THAT flight was literal. And so will this be! And at that time such passages as Psalm 35:1-5 and Lamentations 4:19, and so on, will find their complete fulfillment. Ok, they "shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger" (Zephaniah 2:3). The LORD Jesus spoke of this "flight" in Matthew 24:15-28 and Mark 13:14-23. This flight is not the same as that which He spoke of in Luke 21:20-24, for that took place at the destruction of Jerusalem, long "before all these things" (Luke 21:12) which the LORD spoke of in Matthew and Mark.
THIS "flight" is from Jerusalem and Judea, as this is the central point where the two witnesses had been slain; and the final testimony given to the doings of the Beast. The Woman, the Nation of Israel, flies because of the persecution of the Dragon. Now, if no one might buy or sell save those who have the mark of the Beast, some miraculous sustenance must be provided. And God Himself will again "furnish a table in the wilderness." Of old, He fed them there. In Exodus 19:4, He appeals to them and says: "Ye have seen... how I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself." And so again, in Deut. 32:11-12, in the song of Moses, he mentions the same form of Divine help. The eagles' wings are "a sign" to His “SIGN” people, which signifies the miraculous swiftness, by which the Divinely given help will come to them. They certainly are not "Roman eagles"! It does not say eagles, but eagles' wings. The Roman eagles possessed no wings, and had to be carried!
Fleeing, first to the "mountains" and then on to the "wilderness," there the people will be fed for three years and a half. The period is expressed exactly as in Daniel 7:25 and Daniel 12:7. And it has already been mentioned in this book in different forms, as in Revelation 11:2-3.
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In Ephesians 1:13 the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares that men are saved and sealed by hearing and BELIEVING the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation. Therefore, here, now, is declared unto you the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation: "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. BELIEVE today. The time is short.
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide.
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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