The Gates of Hades Fail

Series on Revelation

II The Viewpoint

C Cycle Three, Seven Symbolic Histories

2 The Personages

b The Spouse

Text: 12:13-17

Introduction

The gates of Hades fail; so says Jesus. They cannot overcome His church, His body, His bride and wife. Here we see the visionary portrayal of that fact in verses 13-17, When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Every Christian man understands that it is his job to defend his wife to the death because that is what Jesus did as Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:25, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. Here we see Jesus Christ doing exactly that. Every man knows that he would do anything to protect his wife and can Jesus do any less? This is what every man promises to do at the altar of marriage in the vows and as the hymn writer wrote in that old favorite, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” Jesus has promised the same thing. “Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, But the church of Jesus constant will remain. Gates of hell can never ‘gainst that church prevail; We have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.” In this Scripture we look at the church, the spouse, the bride of Christ preserved through persecution and plight and we should take note of three things, the pursuit, the preservation, and the plan.

I The Pursuit

The pursuit is described in verse 13, When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The devil on earth seeks to destroy the church, the body of Christ. Jesus and his followers are one body, as Saul, attempting to kill the Christians, learned when Jesus asked him, “Why do you persecute me?”. Christ is the head and we are his body so to persecute believers is to persecute Christ. If Satan is powerless to assail Jesus, he vents his wrath on his followers. His persecution of Christians is evident not only throughout the centuries but also today. He pursues them to the death. He did it through the Roman Empire in the first four centuries of the Christian era. He did it through the rise of the Ottoman empire and through the French revolution. He continued through the governments of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. And he is doing it today in Africa in Sudan and Somalia, and in the far east in China and North Korea and Indonesia, and in India through militant Hindus. He is especially accomplishing his evil tortures in Islamic nations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and others. It is easy for us to look at history and see what happened in the past, and if we read the right news sources we can also discover where it is happening now around the globe, but we never expect it close to home. However we are not exempt from the Devil’s designs and devices. Psalm 2 :2 reminds us, The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. This is talking about every manifestation of human government, whether a monarchy such as Nebuchadnezzar, or Artaxerxes, or Caesar or tyrannies such as Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, or Iraq, or democracies such as our own. All human governments oppose the cause of God and the truth. Do we realize we are seeing that in the United States right now. Recently Alan Keyes wrote, “ The Era of Persecution Has Begun.” He quoted the words of the founder James Madison, “It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution.” Writing about recent developments of the current administration he says, “Whatever the outcome of the political tempest being stirred by this latest entirely predictable disregard for the rights of conscience, this is only the beginning of the era of persecution. Where the substance of right is endowed by the Creator, there can be no right that in substance contradicts His provision of justice for all. Up to now, however, the elitist faction has successfully moved to sever the concept of civil and political rights from that founding principle. They have redefined “rights” to include exercises of freedom that violate or have no regard for right. So in the name of “abortion rights” (the freedom to murder our helpless nascent offspring) government may deny security for the unalienable right to life of our posterity; may discard and violate the conscientious liberty of medical and other workers; may trample upon the free exercise of religion; may abuse the powers of legislation and law enforcement to force people, as individuals and in their rightful associations with one another, to take actions that we can, by God and America’s own founding principles, clearly and rationally demonstrate to be against both human and all natural justice.” Clearly in your backyard Satan is pursuing the woman who gave birth to the child. The very pride that impels tyrants to defy the boundaries of decent conscience rouses their resentment against those who, by standing apart from their rituals, announce their condemnation of its crimes. Thus it has always been.

II The Preservation

Fortunately for us we have a defender on earth as well as in heaven for God is in control of the world as we read in verses 14-16, The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. The woman is protected for a time, times and a half time, or three and one half years, 42 months, 1260 days, or in other words, for the entire time that the dragon and his fellow henchmen are pursuing. Like Israel in ancient times in Exodus 19:4, the woman is carried by the two wings of a great eagle to her place of protection. Here is the promise of Isaiah 40:31, that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. The Church flies to a place that is remote,isolated, devoid of people. The word desert in our Bible does not designate an area like the Sahara which is full of nothing but sand dunes, but rather is a wasteland. No one can grow crops there, but animals such as camels and sheep and goats can find forage. Israel in Egypt asked Pharaoh for permission to go into the wilderness to worship Jahweh. John the Baptist like other prophets before him, ministered in the desert as the voice of one crying in the wilderness and we read in Ezekiel 13:4, O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Basically then the desert was a place isolated from human intrusion. It is a place where the Church is protected from greater trials than it is able to withstand. But then there is the flood the Devil sends to swallow them up. Now the Devil is called, in Scripture, the god of this present evil age, and he does exercise certain powers over natural occurrences, although never without God’s permission in the first chapter of Job, with God’s permission, among the afflictions sent upon Job’s home and family are a fire that fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and a sudden mighty wind that swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house causing it to collapse on the children and kill them. Yet here Satan’s flood is thwarted by the very earth he thinks he controls and the earth itself opens and swallows the flood. God encourages his people not to fear even when the flood waters threaten to overwhelm them. Isaiah 43:2 says, When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. His people are not swept away by the torrents swirling around them but are kept safe. God causes the earth to swallow up the waters that come forth out of the serpent’s mouth. His people sang the song of Moses in praise to God, in Exodus 15, You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. They may suffer physically in many ways, but God protects his own from permanent spiritual harm.

III The Plan

The passage concludes in verse 17 with the reminder that all true believers continue to be pursued by the wicked one, Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. In all of this visionary description of satanic strategy we can see a plan, and Satan continues to use it. The plan is two pronged. On the one hand it is an attack on the body. Man is body and spirit. First the body is attacked through pain and death. So the family of Jesus was pursued by wicked Herod, John the Baptist was murdered by another Herod. The Apostles were faithful unto martyrs’ deaths. Listen to Paul recount the damage done to him physically as a result of following Jesus in II Corinthians 11:23–29, Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? Such was Satan’s continuing effort to devour the seed of the woman. Throughout history Christians have died for their faith by crucifixion. burning at the stake, in the arena destroyed by wild beasts, and today in places like Iran, beheading. But the other prong of Satan’s attack is against mens’ spirits. So we read, Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. This is a torrent of words and ideas, falsehoods, false doctrines and heresies, unbelief, heterodoxy, liberalism accommodating modern secularism, false religions and so on. Islam has the Koran, but it is filled with distortions of the Hebrew-Christian Scriptures. Mormonism has the Book of Mormon alongside of the Bible which, again, it distorts. The New Testament frequently warns about false teachers and false doctrines which tickle the ears of men. These are all part of the torrent of words that come out of the Devil’s mouth. This vision is a warning to all Christians, past, present, and future not to be taken in by the Devil’s lies. There is another little known verse of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” that is not in most hymnals. I love it and it is apropos, “What the saints established that I hold for true. What the saints believed, that I believe too. Long as earth endureth, men the faith will hold, Kingdoms, nations, empires, in destruction rolled.”