Revelation Unlocked #144

Events before the Curtain Call on this Planet's Rebellion.

While“And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children—all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus.” – Rev 12:17 NLT. 

The woman represents God’s chosen people throughout the ages. So, today’s passage talks about God’s preservation of both the woman and her offspring. It is not surprising then that in clarifying the marks of their total commitment to God we are told that they “keep God’s commandments” and “hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” This echoes the priorities of pre-cross and post-cross people, or the first and second covenant. Prior to calvary, God’s people were easily identified as those following His commandments. After Calvary, His people bear with absolute fidelity their testimony of Jesus, which is the reality of His saving grace. V17 is a beautiful, all-encompassing description of the people of God through all time.

But we are not finished yet. The conflict is ongoing. While satan’s fate was sealed at the defeat of calvary, God’s great victory over the dragon is yet to be declared. In the meantime, the devil sets out to use a different form of deception – a clever counterfeit of the Godhead.

The dragon – that ancient serpent called the devil and satan (12:9) has warred against Micheal and His angels (V:7). This is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” Micheal is Christ (c.f.Jude 9 with 1 Thess 4:16). Micheal is the archangel a word derived from the Greekarchangelos -(arch- + angel, literally “chief angel” or “angel of origin”).  It is this archangel who will summon the dead to life in 1 Thess 4:15-17 when He descends from heaven with the trumpet call and loud shout at His second coming. Revelation has already well established the deity of Jesus, so Michael is not a created being, but the leader (‘archon’) of the angels. This is like the president of the United States also being the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military. Michael is derived from Hebrew: meaning “Who is like God?”. Or “in the image of God.” This war that began in heaven with “the father of lies” (John 8:44) and continued on earth as the dragon wars first with Jesus, and then with the woman – the body of Christ on earth. 

He has pursued her down through the centuries. As noted yesterday, if he is warring against “the image of God,” he is warring against everything Jesus stands for: His character, His truth, His government(law), His people, His church, and those within it. The dragon is angry with the woman (the church)! Have we not seen that anger played out through 12 chapters of Revelation and 2,000 years of human history? This is now the last battle and the following chapters will detail the events to take place in the war that will bring the curtain call on this planet’s rebellion. Those who have the testimony of Jesus will once again “Love not their lives unto death.” (V:11) 

The balance of law and grace is summed up beautifully in today’s verse. Law has never been a means of being saved but is a measure of the saved. True Christianity is not faith plus works, but a faith that works.

In the book of Hebrews twice Paul says that in the New Covenant the law would be on our hearts not on tablets of stone. (Heb 8:10 and 10:16.) He was quoting Ezekiel 36:26 when he said this. Ezekiel had prophesied about the new covenant and the future role of faith and obedience for a recalcitrant nation.

But what does ‘keep’ mean? The Greek word for “keep” is “tereo,” and it includes the meaning of: watch over, preserve or guard. It would work like this; If I had an expensive car and I was going away for a while and I asked you to look after it until I return, what would you do with it? Look after it or abuse it? I would hope you could, upon my return, present it to me in pristine condition, untainted by abuse. You have ‘kept’ it for me.

Our verse for the day makes it evident that the dragon does not like commandment keepers. In fact, Revelation 13 will point out systematically his war on each of the various commandments. Concerning the last 6, we see in our world how he works to fracture families (#5), insight murder (#6), create immorality (#7), encourage theft, (#8) lying (#9), and coveting (#10).

The dragon’s war on the first 4 commandments are strongly presented in chapter 13 also. The 1st commandment is counterfeited in V:4 the 2nd in V:15 the 3rd in V:6 and the 4th in V: 16 & 17. These are the commandments that particularly focus on the worship of Yahweh. The first, Who to worship, the second – how to worship, the third – the approach of worship, and the fourth – the time of worship.

The keyword in the next 2 chapters is worship, occurring 9 times in chapters 13 and 14. As a spiritual exercise try highlighting them and noting their context.

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