We came to the end of the timeline in the last chapter, well very near the end. Jesus had returned to reign.

We’re going to try and keep our broad view of things. Our goal isn’t figuring out what’s going to happen, but to understand God and His ways and our place in them. It seems we break out of the timeline with this story.

The pieces we have in Revelation 12 seem to be Israel, the devil, Jesus, and believers.

We have Israel, I believe, with the twelve stars on the crown representing the twelve tribes.

We have the devil and his demons, the dragon and the stars.

Israel produces a male child who will reign with a rod of iron. That’s a prophetic description of Jesus found elsewhere.

Satan wants to destroy this Child, but fails. The Child is taken up to God’s throne. This could be referring to the cross, resurrection, and ascension.

Israel is preserved from destruction.

Satan makes war against the saints.

That’s been the story of the saints ever since Christ came.

We then have this picture of one whom we usually refer to as the Antichrist, though the Bible says there are many antichrists and have been since the time of Christ.

There’s a ruler given great authority by the devil. But, we know that ultimately they couldn’t have authority apart from God granting it. This is supposed to happen. It needs to happen. God is only and always good. His motivation is only love. That’s what’s going on in all this. He’s preparing us to be His forever.

This leader is arrogant and blasphemous. I think the devil has always been raising up leaders for this. He didn’t know the date for the end. He’s continually worked to raise up evil leaders and other religions and so on. He’s always been trying to rule the world because he has always wanted to be God.