The events in chapter twelve take place on both sides of the veil at the same time, both on earth in the physical realm, and in the spirit. Here is a time line of the major events in the chapter for easier understanding.
Verses one through four: In the spirit. A child is about to be born; the dragon awaits His appearing. Note: the dragon’s tail sweeping one-third of the stars is not a time signature as used here. That event took place at the beginning, before man’s dispensation. Rather, it is a symbol identifying the dragon as Satan and the location as in the spirit.
Verse five: On earth, the child is born.
Verse seven: The war in heaven.
On earth, Satan causes the Child to be crucified by the Romans. Satan thinks he won; with the Child dead, he believes God’s plans are defeated. So he takes his army up to heaven to overthrow the vanquished armies of God.
Back on earth, an echoing sound is heard, a stone being rolled away from an empty tomb.
In heaven, Michael’s army springs an ambush. The battle is furious, but short. The child won the victory on earth. While Satan is invading heaven and gloating over his supposed victory, the real victory has been won on earth!
Verse eight: In heaven, Satan’s army is defeated and cast out. On earth, the crucified Child in the tomb is resurrected.
Verse eleven: The Child is caught up into heaven. Like a loving Father, God would not allow His pure, innocent Son to come home while the place is overrun by vermin, terrorists, and other demonic rabble. He kicked them out, swept up and fumigated the place, then called His Son home.
Verse twelve: Satan returns to earth. He is still a spirit being, but no longer allowed in heaven. Satan is trapped on earth, but hidden behind the veil. His wrath is great. The scene switches to the physical world.
Verse thirteen: On earth, the dragon goes after the woman fleeing his wrath.
Verse fifteen: The dragon tries to wash away the woman with a flood of evil.
Verse sixteen: The earth helps the woman by absorbing the flood.
Verse seventeen: We learn the woman’s true identity.
Now let us find out what is actually taking place. Remember, things are happening in the spirit world and the physical world at the same time.
Satan is Defeated
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and sea! For the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time.”
Verses ten through seventeen appear to be a repeat of verses one through nine. They are not. John is showing us the same events from both sides of the veil. The first half of the chapter takes place in the spirit, the second half on the physical earth. Verse ten is a dividing line between the spirit and the physical.
In verse ten, a loud voice announced the victory! This defeat of Satan in heaven signals the end of the battle for the souls of mankind, and the beginning of the physical Kingdom of God on earth. Before this, the Kingdom of Heaven existed in the spirit, hidden by the veil from the sight of man. The Church, the body of Christ, has upheld the Kingdom on earth by faith until this time.
With the defeat of Satan, the Kingdom of Heaven will become a physical one on the earth.
Satan can no longer stand in the presence of God and accuse the brethren. Why? The accuser of the brethren is cast down. (Verse 10)
The war in heaven did not defeat Satan. The innocent Child’s sacrificial death on the cross won the victory. As Verse eleven tells us, They overcame him by the blood of the lamb. Satan’s war in heaven was a waste of time, a delaying tactic by Satan to give him more time. God set up Satan for defeat before He created him. Satan tripped himself up with his own arrogance and ego.
In verses ten through seventeen, John is showing us the same events as verses one through eight, but from the earth side of the veil. The first half of the chapter takes place in the spirit, the second half on the physical earth.
Having lost his last opportunity, Satan is come down to you in great wrath. The dragon represents an enormous, overpowering, fantastic, irresistible serpent. He lost the war in heaven, and lost the Child. Now his time is short. He will concentrate all his wrath on the remaining peoples of the earth. (Verse fourteen)
The Woman Persecuted
13 Now when the dragon saw he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of an eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
Having failed to destroy the Child, Satan turns his full attention on the woman, seeking revenge. (John 15:18-20, John 16:1-4) The word translated as woman in verse thirteen is the Greek gunē, a wife, a betrothed woman. Here is more evidence the woman is the Bride of Christ, the Church. This would mean the child is Jesus and His body, the infant church.
The woman is given two wings of an eagle for her escape. The eagle is symbolic of divine transport. She is brought into the wilderness for safety.
Refer to Verse six. These two time intervals are the same. Several things appear to be going on in this chapter, but the time line doesn’t line up. Events seem to be repeating themselves. Remember, time in heaven is irrelevant since God is eternal without start or finish. Humans are temporal creatures; we cannot comprehend eternity. Like a scene shift in a movie, these are two different scenes with different characters. They are taking place on either side of the veil.
The time spans in verses six and fourteen are the same.
1260 days = 42 months = 3 1/2 years
In verse fourteen, the woman is protected for a time and times and half a time. The word translated a time is ekei, meaning: there, in, or to that place. To say “a time,” is not a good translation.
Times is the Greek word kairos, meaning a set or proper time, the right time. One half is one divided by two. It is symbolic for unity of witness. The woman, representing the Church, will be unified in the witness of her escape for the perfect and appointed amount of time (again, kairos). This phrase could be translated: the woman is protected by being taken to her special place for the perfect amount of time to perfect her witness.
Refer to chapter eleven verse three for the meaning of one thousand two-hundred sixty days. The woman, representing the Church, is whisked away for her protection for the right amount of time. (Raptured!) She is in heaven preparing for the wedding supper of the Lamb, until the judgement of mankind and the cleansing of the earth is completed. At that time she will return to earth as the spotless bride of Christ. This whisking away corresponds with the in-gathering at the seventh trumpet. All the world will see her go. This will be her witness.
Examine verses seven and eight. In verse eight, the dragon is identified as Satan, the serpent in the Garden of Eden. In verse seven, Satan is called a dragon. Why two different descriptions?
The Greek word is drakon, from the root derkomai, to look. Drakon is defined as a fabulous, powerful kind of serpent, one who fascinates. Snakes, especially constrictors and vipers, are said to hypnotize their prey before striking. Animals seeing a mortal threat are frozen with fear. Satan the dragon is able to fascinate and intimidate his victims into submission by his power and presence.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle (for protection), that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
In verses fourteen and fifteen, Satan is called the serpent. This is not coincidence; nor does it mean John couldn’t keep his story straight. The Greek word used in these two verses is ophis: a snake, a cleaver, malicious, sly and cunning person. In verse fifteen, Satan the serpent, with fear and cunning, tries to destroy what he couldn’t take by force as Satan the dragon.
The word translated as mouth is the Greek stoma, mouth, verbalization. By implication, language, speech. The word also refers to the edge of the sword. In Revelation chapter one verse sixteen, we are told of Jesus; Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. . . . The sword represents the Word of God. Stoma is the same word translated mouth in chapter one verse sixteen.
The serpent spews water out of his mouth like a flood. Water is symbolic of the restless nations of the earth, and is also symbolic of the spirit. Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38) This is a picture of the spirit of evil and persecution Satan unleashes on the church to try to drown out her witness.
The water comes from his stoma. This is reminiscent of the orations Adolph Hitler used to whip Germany into a frenzy against enemies of “Das Vaterland.” This persecution is verbal and will appear everywhere; in print media, social media, movies and television, and word of mouth on the street corner or in the market. The flood will be unavoidable. This persecution coincides with the war against the witnesses in chapter eleven. The woman’s escape into the wilderness is found in chapter eleven verse twelve, the calling up of the witnesses, and the “gathering in” at the seventh trumpet, chapter eleven verse fifteen. Remember, time is irrelevant in the spirit.
Things happening on either side of the veil are quite often mirror images of each other. Here is Satan’s imitation of the divine flood which destroyed mankind in Genesis seven. Noah was a type and shadow of this future event. As God saved Noah from the flood by lifting him above the waters, so will the Church be saved from the waters of Satan’s persecution when God lifts her up. 2 Peter 2:4-5, Galatians 4:26
16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The earth helped the woman. Helped is the Greek word boētheō, meaning to aid or relieve. Satan’s power is defused, and he cannot wash away the woman. The ungodly people of the world absorb all the serpent’s venom like dry sponges. Boētheō is an active verb, showing how the people of the earth will be involved. I am reminded of Anne Frank, protected and hidden from the Nazis during the Persecution of Jews in Germany.
In verse seventeen, Satan’s war against the church continues. . . .