Beth Elohim Messianic Synagogue
Response to questions concerning the woman and the seed described in Revelation Chapters 12:13-17
We start with Revelation Chapter 12:13 “ And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he pursed [persecuted] the woman which brought forth the man-child (14) And there was given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, unto her place, where she is nourished there a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
Thus, the wilderness will, as of old, afford a refuge for Israel; for the coming Exodus is to be like the first (See Is. 11:16; Ezek. 20:35-8). “There will I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.” These words are significant. I want you to research Petra and see how it is also described as a place in the hills or a wilderness. We have similar words in Hosea 2:14,15, where we read that the valley of Achor (which was the first place on the road from the wilderness to Canaan, (Josh.7:26) shall prove ‘a door of hope.” “Therefore behold, I allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfortably to her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, And the valley of Achor for a door of hope: And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, And as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt” (Hos. 2:14,15 and see Ex. 15). “The woman fled into the wilderness just as Yahshua speaks of when He said in Matthew 24:16 that those in Judea are not to tarry but flee to the mountains. This is also an expression of Petra. This is a literal fleeing just as it was in the day s of old. And at that time, such passages as Ps.35;1-5 and Lam. 4:19 will find their fulfillment. They shall be hid in the day of the L-rd’s anger” (Zeph. 2:3). This flight is from Jerusalem and Judea, for this is the central point where the two witnesses had been slain; and the final testimony borne to the doings of the beast. The woman (nation) flies because of the persecution of the Dragon. If none might buy or sell save those who have the mark of the Beast, some miraculous sustenance must be provided, it is at Petra, where G-d once again will “furnish a table in the wilderness.” Of old, He fed them there. In Exodus 19:4 He appeals to them and says:
“Ye have seen… how I bare you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself.” Again, in Deuteronomy 32;11,12, in the song of Moshe, he mentions the same form of Divine help. The eagles’ wings are “a sign” which signifies the miraculous swiftness, by which the Divinely given help will come to them. They are no Roman eagles. It does not say eagles, rather eagles’ wings. The Roman eagles possess no wings and had to be carried themselves! Fleeing first to the “mountains” then to the “wilderness,” the people will be fed for the remaining 3 and ½ years of Daniel’s 70th week. See Daniel 7:25 and 12:7.
12:15 “And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman, water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” At the first Exodus it was the sea through which she went into the wilderness with its 42 stations. It is a “flood” which drives her into the wilderness for 42 months. The deliverance from the sea was miraculous; as will be the deliverance form the “flood.” Why should one not be as literal as the other? Observe that it does not say “like a flood” as in Jer.46:7,8. Nor does it say an army like water; but ‘water’ like a river.” The first is literal, and its likeness is given. It does not expand into a lake but rushes forward like a “flood.”
16: “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.”
Why should this not be so? The sea helped the same woman when it swallowed up the armies of Pharaoh, so why shouldn’t the earth help the woman again by swallowing up the forces of Satan? It is to be as it was in Exodus. And it will be a time of earthquakes and great physical disturbances (See. Is.11;15,16). In Isaiah 59:19, we read of the enemy coming in like “a flood,” just before “the Redeemer shall come to Zion,” and when Gentile times shall be fulfilled. The earth once opened to swallow the host of Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16); and so it is written: “According to the days of the coming up out of the land of Egypt, I will show unto him marvelous things” (Mic.7;15).
17: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who kept the commandments of G-d, and have [or keep] the testimony of Yahshua.” Being baffled in his attempts to destroy the seed of the woman who has been, ere this, “caught away to G-d and His throne,” he turns his forces against the remnant of her seed. The description of this remnant is given and agrees with that spoken of in other parts of this book. While the bulk of the nation is safe and nourished in Petra, a faithful remnant on earth is having wat made against it.
We have these two seeds in Chapter 7. First, the 144,000 sealed for testimony in the earth; and, afterwards, the great multitude caught away to heaven. IN the next chapter they are called “saints;” and we have the two bodies again, the former in 13;15 and the latter in 6:9.
In the Texas Receptus, from which the B’rit Chadashah comes (3 scrolls were picked out and translated), the first sentence of the first verse of Chapter 13 is the concluding sentence of the 12th chapter. But is wrongly transposed in the AV and is put as the first sentence in Chapter 13. The translators were no doubt mislead by the wrong reading of the Texas Receptus, which has (…) (estathen) I stood, instead of (…) (estathe) he stood (i.e., the dragon). The Revised version of the KJB has restored the sentence to its proper place at the close of the chapter 12;17; and omit “Christ,” which keeps the passage in harmony with the expression in other parts of the Book. Given the correct reading “he stood,” in accordance with all the critical Greek texts; oldest and best manuscripts.” The structure shows that this must be correct, as that sentence is necessary in order to balance the first sentence of 12:13.
It is the dragon who has been cast into the earth (12:13); and it is the same dragon who stands on the sand of the sea (13:1). Foiled in his attempts to destroy the woman’s seed, he has been foiled in his assault on the woman herself. He is now seen by John standing on the sand of the sea and from thence, as it were, calling up the first of the two Beasts from the Abyss to carry out his final plans. So, this section ends with the words: “And he stood upon the sand of the sea (i.e., upon the shore). Daniel saw this same “great sea” and the four winds of heaven striving upon it (Dan. 7:2).
The woman in these verses represents Israel. What relationship does Israel have to the Bride of Yahshua? We must clarify that Israel in the context of the woman represents the nation Israel from whom Yahshua came as the Seed. Israel as the Bride of Yahshua will include not only biological Jews who carry the testimony of Yahshua and follow the commands of G-d mentioned at the beginning of this paper, but the grafted in Gentiles who also meet those two criteria. Not all biological Jews will be saved and not all Gentiles will be saved. When the Torah speaks of “all Israel shall be saved [Rom. 11:26-7]”; that is the bride of Yahshua, will include the faithful of Jerusalem, the 12 tribes, and gentiles grafted into one stick described in Ezekiel 37. That is Ephraim Israel and Judah Israel, one, under the kippur(covering) of Yahshua’s blood.
Shalom v’brachas,
Rabbi Tamah Davis-Hart