God's Kingdom Is Born! -A Rival Woe!

A Rival Woe!

Chafing because of the third woe, Satan is now intent on afflicting mankind with his own particular brand of woe.  It is "Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time."  (Revelation  12:12b)  Satan's ouster from heaven does indeed  mean woe for the literal earth, which is being ruined by selfish humans under his control.  (Deuteronomy 32:5)  Even more so, Satan's policy of 'rule or ruin' brings woe to the symbolic earth, the structure of human society as well as to the symbolic earth, the structure of  human society, as well as to the symbolic sea, the turbulent mass of mankind  itself.  During the  two world wars, Satan's wrath was reflected  in the wrath of the nations subject to him, and similar explosions  of  demonic rage continue to this day -though not for much longer!  (Mark 13:7, 8)  But terrible as the Devil's woeful effect that the third woe-action by God's Kingdom-will produce on Satan's visible organization!

Since Satan's catastrophic ouster, Christ's brothers still on earth have borne the brunt of his wrath.  John reports:  "Now when the dragon saw that it was hurled down to the earth, it possessed the woman that gave birth to the male child.  But the two wings of the great eagle were given the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place; there is where she is fed for a time and times and half a time away from the face of  the serpent." -Revelation   12:13, 14.

Here the vision picks up the thought introduced in verse 6, which tells us that after the birth of her child, the woman flees into the wilderness, away from the dragon.  We may wonder how the dragon can persecute the woman, since  she is in heaven and the dragon has now been cast down to earth.  Well, remember that the woman  has children here on earth, her seed.  Later in this vision, we are informed that Satan expresses his rage toward the woman by persecuting  her seed.  (Revelation 12:17)  What happens to the woman's seed  here on earth may be regarded as happening to the woman herself.  (Compare Matthew 25:40) And the growing number of companions of the seed here on earth would also experience these persecutions. 

Next time: God' Kingdom Is Born! - A New Nation

From the Book of Revelation