SCRIPTURE:
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”
Revelation 12:1-6
OBSERVATION:
As many times that I’ve read Revelation 12, its often impacted me as a spectacular event with imagery like an epic occurrence taking place across the sky. As I did some inquiry, the imagery becomes so clear of what transpires. Symbolically, the “woman” is to represent Israel and by extension the people of God. The enormous red dragon is to represent Satan the devil, who wants to destroy the woman’s child. However, the Child that of Jesus Christ is destined to rule that nations who was then called to be at the right hand of God. All of this leads to a time when God’s people who are left behind are persecuted. Who then are God’s people that will be persecuted if the rapture precedes what we read in Revelation 12? In the “Pre-tribulation Interpretation” that we believe in, God’s people are the people of God of Israel who do not come to faith in Jesus prior to the rapture and will have to go through the Tribulation to find their faith in Jesus. It can also mean those that believe in who God is but have not made a choice to receive Jesus into their hearts and therefore are not raptured.
APPLICATION:
What a great warning to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Don’t play church. Don’t hang around Jesus (the church) but not believe in Him to receive Him as Lord and Savior; less one must go through the Tribulation of torture and torment; and then finally to have another opportunity to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Instead, do it now. We are in the “Last Days” of the “End Times” before the rapture and Jesus’ second coming. The future is being revealed before us to guide as in “what we are to do,” based on “what is to come.” So? Get ready, receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, walk in obedience, do His will, and repent when we fail.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord, I thank you for the preemptive teaching of what is to come and what I must do. May I walk according to your will with obedience and repent when I fail.
