The Second Exodus; Rev. 12:3-6
This is the chapter,
probably, in all of Scripture that gives us the window into the war between
Satan and Israel. That war began in Genesis chapter twelve when God first
called Abram and told him to go to a land that He was going to give him. With
that announcement and want God revealed to Abram at that point it became clear
that that seed of promise that God had begun in Genesis 3:15, the seed of the
woman that would crush the head of the serpent, and that seed began to move
forward down through history. When we come to Revelation chapter twelve that is
the backdrop for understanding this: that there is the promise that God gave
which focuses on the role that Israel has in God’s plan, and in that role it became obvious
that Satan knew that he had to do something to attack Israel in order to block God’s plan. In the Old Testament
the focus was to prevent the birth of the child, to somehow wipe out that seed
that would come through the house of David. So there were various attacks in
the Old Testament against the southern kingdom of Judah
in order to destroy the line of David. Then after the cross, once Satan was
defeated at the cross, Satan’s last ditch effort is to somehow destroy the
descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob so that God is unable to fulfill the
promise that He made in the Abrahamic covenant. Satan reasons that if he can
wipe out the Jews then God cannot fulfill His plan and therefore Satan wins.
This why the Jews have, as it were, a target on their backs for Satan, and this
is the source of their persecution down through the ages.
So we can just imagine
that through time Satan is going to develop various philosophies and religions
that are going to have as their focal point the destruction of Israel. This is the very center if Islamic theology. We are
of the firm conviction that in all false religions and all false gods as
clearly stated in various passages of the Old Testament, the worship of idols
is the worship of demons and that Satan and the demons lie behind all false
religions. 2 Corinthians 4:4, Satan is the god of this world, of this age.
Satan energizes these false religions ultimately to target Israel. That is why we have this tremendous battle going on
today over the temple mount. Ultimately the real issue is the temple mount and
who controls it. Of course, Satan is going to get it—Revelation 11, the
measuring of the temple of God
is a sign that at the first part of the Tribulation there is still a measure of
protection on the temple mount. But once the Antichrist sets himself to be
worshipped in that mid-point of the Tribulation—the abomination of
desolation—then Jerusalem is completely under the dominion of the Antichrist
and of the Gentile powers. So we are always going to see Satan moving in
history to accomplish that. That is why there are always these rumblings in the
Middle East, the fighting that goes on, and the war on terrorism
is just an aspect of that. We must have the Bible as our frame of reference to
be able to discern what is going on, and to even understand what is going on in
Islam and in Islamic theology and how that fits within a broader scope, and how
ultimately that goes back to this battle between Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob. We
need to put on our biblical glasses so that we can evaluate the pushes and
pulls, the tugs of war, that are going on in the Middle East, in light of that.
One of the ways that we
see Satan constantly working is in the promotion of these ideas of anti-Semitism.
An example of this is found in the King James Bible. The first part of 1
Corinthians chapter 10 begins with a rehearsal of the failure of the Jews in
the wilderness after the Exodus. It refers to their passing through the sea,
the baptism into Moses by means of the cloud and by means of the sea. The cloud
was the representation of God’s presence. Leading Israel during the daytime there was a pillar of cloud and at
night it was a pillar of fire, representing the presence of God, and in the sea
as they went through the Red
Sea they were leaving the
shackles of slavery behind. It is a picture for us, a type, of what happens
when the believer is baptized into Christ; He is identified with His death
(Romans 6:3). And that is a break with the old life of slavery in Egypt and their new life in freedom. That is the
significance of that identification and it is focusing on the fact that now
they are going to be free from physical slavery and this is a type—the Greek
word tupos [tupoj] indicates an impression made on something, so if it is the impression
of a hard seal on soft wax there is one image on the hard seal and another on
the wax. On one it would be the type which is the shadow image or reflection,
that which would be on the stamp itself, and then the image it produces would
be the antitype. But the Bible doesn’t really use that word tupos in the way that later theology
developed it as a technical term of specific things in the history of Israel,
in their worship, that specifically pictures something related to the person or
the work of Christ. So that a type becomes, theologically speaking, much more
than simply a pattern or foreshadowing, or something of that nature. A type
means that in terms of being a literal, actual event is not so important as that
God has sovereignly designed something to be the way it is so that it will
teach something about Christ and will teach a lesson. The conclusion from that
would be that it really doesn’t have any volition in being the way it is, God
designed it that way. So a lamb or a sheep is the way it is, and was created
that way from the very beginning, because God knew that lamb to be a picture of
what His Son would do on the cross. So a type is different from just an
example.
The baptism into Moses and
in the cloud and in the sea is a type of the believer’s baptism into Christ, so
that we have new life. God designed history that way to bring the Jews out
through the Red Sea so that would be the picture of this break with the
past, moving from slavery to freedom.
Then verse 3 speaks of the
“same spiritual food,” which is manna, and this is related in Exodus 16:13;
John 6:35 with Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life. So manna is a type, it is the
way it is to teach something about the person of Jesus Christ. Verse 4, the Rock
was Christ. The Scriptures identify these things so we don’t guess at them.
Some take typology too far.
Verse 6, “Now these things
were our examples. The word “examples” could be translated as “type.” In the
old KJV it was translated “ensamples,” and old English word meaning the same
thing as example. Question: How do we decide, when the Bible uses the word tupos, if that is what we mean by type?
In most places it is not, it is not a technical word, it is more the idea of an
example. But in the group of 54 translators that were set aside by James 1st
of England, men who were incredibly gifted in their knowledge of
the languages of Greek, Latin and Hebrew, there was a tremendous debate between
them as to whether to translate this word as “type” or as an example. What was
the issue? The issue was that if Israel is a type for us then they didn’t have any volition
in being disobedient because God made them that way to be a type. So that
justifies anti-Semitism. A number of these translators were anti-Semitic in
their orientation and they wanted it to be a type because that would give them
a rationale and justification for the idea that Israel was created disobedient in order to be a type for us.
But if they are an example then that would mean that they were just exercising
their own volition to be disobedient, and so they are just an example and it
would not justify anti-Semitism. So anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head down
through the centuries among Christians and in the church, and in various
theological systems, mostly within amillennialism or post-millennialism, which
have been used to rationalize it under the idea that they were the
Christ-killers, the ones who rejected their Messiah, and that now God was
punishing them and has permanently removed them from any position of blessing.
It is important to understand all of that because that is the backdrop for what
Paul says in Romans 9-11.
Today we have a problem
because anti-Semitism has been disguised as anti-Zionism. Anti-Zionism is basically
a position that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend herself against her enemies in the
same way that everybody else does. That shows a clear double standard against Israel. Zionism is just basically the position that the Jews
have a right to a homeland. And through legal processes beginning in the early
part of the 20th century up through their declaration of
independence on May 14th 1948, they achieved a nation status and independence
legally through the authorization of various documents. Constantly the Arabs
have refused to acknowledge that they exist and will not even validate them as Israel. This attitude isn’t just limited to Gentiles, there
are many Jews who are anti-Zionist, especially some of the more orthodox and
religious Jews. They don’t believe that the Jews have a right to go back to the
land until the Messiah actually returns and takes them there. They would view
the presence in the land as being illegitimate.
Revelation chapter twelve
really lays the foundation for the future of ant-Semitism. Revelation 12:1 NASB
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon
under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”—corporate Israel as a nation, those who have descended from Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, those who are the recipients of the Abrahamic covenant
promises. [2] “and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in
pain to give birth.” That depicts the fact that historically
Israel was going to bring forth the seed that would be the Redeemer of the
nation and it is a picture of her suffering historically as Satan has assaulted
and attacked Israel from the time that it was known that she would be the
instrument for the Savior, up until the birth of the Savior and beyond. [3]
“Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having
seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads {were} seven diadems.” This is
where things get a little confusing. But we have to come to the Scripture with
the assumption that God isn’t confused and God did not reveal these things to
us to obfuscate or cloud the truth but to reveal the truth, to enlighten us. It
just means that we have to think a little bit.
Revelation 12:3 NASB
“Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having
seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads {were} seven diadems.” We see the
dragon appear and there are three elements mentioned in this verse—the heads,
the horns and the diadems. We will compare that with some other verses that
have the same thing, and in each one of these verses a different element is
added. How interesting! But we can’t figure out what they refer to unless we
put it all together. In Revelation 13:1 when we are introduced to the
Antichrist, the first beast—he comes out of the sea, which is generally
understood to be Gentile nations—he has seven heads, ten horns, and on his
horns are ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names. Now we have new
information. Previously the seven heads had the seven crowns and there were ten
horns. In 13:1 we see there are seven heads but the crowns are now on the ten
horns. The heads have crowns; the horns also have crowns. The presence of the
crowns is to indicate that these represents kings or kingdoms or dynasties. So
both the seven heads represent seven kingdoms and the ten horns must represent
ten kings or ten kingdoms.
To understand this we have
to go to the Old Testament—Daniel. We can’t understand Revelation until we have
worked our way through Daniel because almost all the symbols that come out in
Revelation are first identified in Daniel. Daniel chapter seven has an
interesting structure. God is being meticulous in making sure we understand
this because this isn’t the kind of prophecy we get in some sort of astrology
column in the newspaper that is just so general that it could mean anything to
anybody. It is very specific and it is all going to tie together perfectly with
no contradictions, showing how accurate and precise God is. In the first part
of the chapter Daniel has this dream while he is asleep at night and he sees
four creatures who come out of the great sea. In Revelation 13:1 the first
beast comes out of the sea. So these four beasts come out of the sea and they
are pictured as beasts because in this chapter the kingdoms of man and all of
the glory that we think they have they are bestial, ravenous. This is not a
positive image, it is a horrible image. The fourth beast that comes along,
mentioned in verse seven, is seen rising up out of the sea. NASB
““After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It
devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was
different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.” We
remember that the lower legs of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in chapter
two were iron, and then later iron and clay. So the iron teeth is a picture of
an empire that seeks its own glory and power for its own sake and it doesn’t
matter who gets crushed in the process. It was different from all the other
beasts that were before it and it had ten horns.
We have to look at that is
being described here and it is the same thing that is depicted over in
Revelation 13, it is the same context in terms of human history, and so we can
make the connection that the ten horns here have something to do with the ten
horns that are mentioned there. Daniel 7:8 NASB “While I was
contemplating the horns…” He is thinking about this. And then there is another
horn and this would be the eleventh horn, a little one. This is often referred
to by Bible teachers as Daniel’s little horn, and the little horn is the
Antichrist. The ten horns, as we will see, represent these ten kings or kingdoms
that form the confederacy of the Antichrist’s kingdom in the end time. They are
depicted in the statue in Daniel two by the ten toes. “…behold, another horn, a
little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by
the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a
man and a mouth uttering great {boasts.}”
We don’t have to guess
what this means because the angel is going to interpret this for Daniel. Daniel
7:23 NASB “Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a
fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the {other}
kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it’.” We
have the history of the four kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece and then Rome. This devouring of the whole earth is not necessarily
in the first manifestation of this kingdom but in its final manifestation. The
ten horns are ten kings, and that did not happen historically under the first
manifestation of the Roman
empire. Daniel 7:24 NASB “As for the ten horns, out of this
kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them [the eleventh],
and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.”
There are two stages to this kingdom. There is a first stage when it doesn’t
have this division of the ten and then there is a subsequent stage when it is
divided into ten. What we are going to see in history is the organization of
these ten nations in this confederacy and then following that this other
king—the eleventh, that will arise after them—and he will be different from the
first ten. Probably in a military manner he will defeat three of these kingdoms
to consolidate them into an empire. The seven horns that are left over here are
the same as the seven heads.
Daniel 7:25 NASB
“He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the
Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and
they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.” He is
going to be anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-Christian, and he is going to ultimately
set himself up to be god, and he will persecute “the saints of the Highest
One,” the Tribulation believers, and especially the Jewish Tribulation
believers. “… a time, times, and half a time” is three and a half years. [26]
“But the court will sit {for judgment,} and his dominion will be taken away,
annihilated and destroyed forever.” What we see in this chapter is a continuity
between these kingdoms. There are things that develop in the Babylonian kingdom
that even when Babylon falls and the Personas take it over they have absorbed
certain attitudes, technologies and other things into the Media-Persian empire,
and so that continues. Then when the Persians are defeated by the Greeks there
are things that the Persians had developed from what they had taken over from Babylonia that continue. There is this stream of continuity based on human
arrogance and hostility to God. Then when Rome conquered the area of Greece these things continue to have their roots going back
to Babylon. There is this continuity that runs all the way
through historically. There is a view of these kingdoms that runs down through
time; it is chronological in its progression.
We also see in Daniel that
in the end time there are ten kings that form the basis of that ten-nation
confederacy, three of whom will be destroyed by the Antichrist and then are
consolidated into his empire. He then uses that to go after believers in the
Tribulation. In Revelation chapter 12 we
have seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads are seven kings. Question: Are
those seven kings those that are left over after the Antichrist wipes out the
three. They are not! In 13:1 we have seven heads and ten horns, and the horns
have crowns. So the conclusion here is that both the seven heads represent
kingdoms and the ten horns represent ten kingdoms. So there are two different
sets of kingdoms.
In Revelation chapter
seventeen we are going to see another view of this end-time kingdom. Revelation
17:3 NASB “And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness;
and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having
seven heads and ten horns.” At the end of chapter twelve we know that the
wilderness it outside the boundaries of Israel, out in the desert. Now we run into the seven heads
and ten horns again and this time it is on this red beast. The beast
immediately connects us to the first beast and the second beast which is the
Antichrist and the false prophet. The woman sitting on the scarlet beast is
just a picture again of the future cosmic system. The red beast is a reminder
of the red dragon that is Satan. We have two different groupings here, a seven
grouping called heads and then another grouping of horns. Revelation 17:10-13
gives us the interpretation.
Revelation 17:10 NASB “and they [the seven heads] are seven
kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes,
he must remain a little while.” All of a sudden we now learn about the heads,
that they are progressive or chronological. The five that have fallen are five
kingdoms that have fallen. What is the essence that defines these five
kingdoms? These are the kingdoms that are pictured historically in the Old
Testament as being hostile to Israel and that Satan used Satan used against Israel in the Old Testament. What are they? It is not early Babylon in terms of the tower of Babel. The first kingdom that is hostile to Israel is Egypt. The next that was hostile to Israel was the Assyrian empire, then the Babylonians, the
Persians and the Greeks. Those are the five. And “one is.” John is writing
during the initial stage of the Roman
empire and that is the one
that is. The other has not come yet and that is the future revival of the Roman empire. So the seven heads represent the continuity through
history of the kingdom of man in its hostility to Israel.
Revelation 17:11 NASB
“The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is {one} of the
seven, and he goes to destruction.” That sounds like the ten horns and then an
eleventh one pops up that is going to take out three of them. This is not part
of the seven but another that comes up—the Antichrist. There is something
unique and distinct about him, he is often the seven but he is the eighth, “and
is going to destruction.” This is the same word that is used to describe Judas
Iscariot as the son of perdition. In the Greek it is the word apollumi, [a)pollumi] the word for those who do not trust in Christ and
will “perish”; those who will perish in the lake of fire.
Revelation 17:12 NASB “The ten horns which you saw are ten
kings who have not yet received a kingdom…” So the ten horns can’t be the seven
kings because five of the seven kings have already come. The ten horns of verse
12 are all future. “… but they receive authority as kings with the beast for
one hour [the Tribulation period].” So this takes us to the future kingdom. The
seven heads takes us through the chronology of anti-Semitic kingdoms and the
ten are the end-time manifestation of the revived Roman empire that is based on that ten-nation confederacy.
Notice you will hear—Walid
Shoebat is one of them, and there are others—Muslim background believers that
are becoming a little more vocal in their view that the Antichrist’s kingdom is
Arab, Muslim. They come out of a Muslim background and when they read prophecy
and look at all the nations that are there—Persia, Turkey, Lybia, etc., and their conclusion is that the
Antichrist has got to come out of a Muslim background. There are those who
argue for an Assyrian Antichrist. This isn’t just a silly notion. When we look
at the Roman empire we see that the eastern half is all under Muslim
domination today. We think in terms of the European side but there is a huge
section of the Roman empire that was North Africa and the
Middle East. So they make a very good argument.
But the issue here is that
the beast is the eighth and he is out of the seven. Daniel 9:26 “Then after the
sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of
the prince [Antichrist] who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary
[temple].” That is 70 AD, the Romans. So the prince who is to come has to be
European. So it doesn’t fit within the technical exegesis of these passages to
try to argue that Islam is the final form of the Antichrist’s kingdom or the
beast at the end time.
The seven heads are said
to be in Revelation 17 to be seven mountains, and these are seven kings. Five
have fallen—Egypt, Babylon,
Assyria, Greece, Persia. One is—Rome; one is to come--revived Roman empire. The ten horns are different. They are future, the
ten future kings of the revived Roman
empire. Daniel says that the
little horn is the eighth that comes out of the ten, not one of the seven in
terms of conquest, but he subdues three. So he is really the eleventh.
Revelation 12:6 NASB
“Then the woman [Israel] fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so
that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”
Why is she going to flee into the wilderness? The three and a half years relate
to the second half of the Tribulation period. It can’t relate to the first half
because then Israel is in a time of peace based on the covenant that the
Antichrist signs to begin the last week of Daniel’s seventy weeks. Jesus said
in Matthew 24:15 NASB “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet,
standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), [16] then
those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.” Is an unsaved Jew going
to flee to the mountains? No. But remember when the two witnesses were taken to
heaven in chapter eleven and there was this great earthquake and seven thousand
died. That is when they gave glory to the God of heaven; that is when the
remnant gets saved. They believe Jesus is their Messiah. This is when they get
justified. There is a difference between when individual Jews get justified and
when the nation gets saved. There were individual Jews who accepted Jesus as
Messiah the first time but the corporate nation rejected Him. So they went out
under divine discipline because of the decisions the leaders made. What we are
going to see at the end times is that for the Messiah to come the nation has to
reverse its rejection to acceptance and call upon the name of the Lord to come
and save them.
Matthew 24 points out that
there are going to be a huge number who have to flee to the mountains for
protection. Matt 24:17-22 NASB “Whoever is on the housetop must not
go down to get the things out that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his
cloak. But woe to those who
are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
But pray that your flight will not be in the winter,
or on a Sabbath. For then
there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning
of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no
life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be
cut short.” Where do they go? They head to a place the Scripture calls Bozrah,
down in the area where Petra is. The term Bozrah is usually translated as a proper
name on the Bible but it is a Hebrew word that means “sheepfold.” It is a place
to protect the sheep from the marauders.
Isaiah 34:6 identifies
this area as the place where something spectacular is going to happen. NASB
“The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is sated with fat, with the
blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a
sacrifice in Bozrah And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.” This is located to the south-east of Israel. Isaiah 63:1 NASB “Who is this who comes
from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is
majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? ‘It is I
who speak in righteousness, mighty to save’.” This can only refer to the
Messiah. [2] “Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who
treads in the wine press? [3] I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from
the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them [the nations] in My
anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My
garments, And I stained all My raiment. [4] For the day of vengeance was in My
heart, And My year of redemption has come. [5] I looked, and there was no one
to help, And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; So My own arm
brought salvation to Me, And My wrath upheld Me. [6] I trod down the peoples in My anger And made them
drunk in My wrath, And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
God is going to protect Israel down in that barren wilderness that is around Petra and Bozrah.
Illustrations