The Outcome of the Child and the Woman (verses 5-6)

“She bore a male Child Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”

The woman who had born the male Child, God’s Messiah, now is provided a place that has been prepared by God where she may feed for “one thousand two hundred and sixty days,” verse 6, for SHE is still the object of the devil’s wrath.

Now, we talked about this “1260” days before. We’d seen this number of days, or this period of time, mentioned in chapter 11, verse 2and 3, and we’ll see it again in chapter 12 here, and verse 14. You’ll recall that we had described this as being a period with a beginning and with an end—no, not that it’s specifically 1260 days, or 3 ½ years, but it is a period with a beginning and with an end. It represents the period of tribulation, the period of time when the people of God, the children of God, will be oppressed and persecuted.

But during all of this time, she, the woman (and, if you will, the people of God) will be protected and will be cared for in the providence of God—she will be nourished in her place in the wilderness [Providence: the foreknowledge that allows appropriate provision: Philippians 4:19: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”]. In the Old Testament, the wilderness wandering was the period in Israel’s history when God nourished her [Israel], as a people, and was a period when God led her. In the same way now, God’s people will be nourished, will be led, by His Own power.

It would appear from this that following the ascension of Christ to God’s throne, the woman [representing the redeemed of God of every age, the faithful of God of every age] begins the time when she is fed and cared for by God in “the wilderness.” The time would be representative of her great trials, and this would continue until the end, that is, until the coming of the Lord the second time. And this is the time of “the great tribulation.” In this symbolic way, in this term, the whole of “the last days,” or “the Christian Age,” which we are currently in, is included, is embraced. As we have seen, other interpreters refer to this term as “the final time,” the final period of distress, of oppression, of persecution—the time that we are in even to this day.

There is a reference that we could make—the description of the dragon resembles a figure, a vision that is in Daniel, the seventh chapter.

[Daniel 7:1-8: “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.

2 Daniel spoke, saying, ‘I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it.

5 ‘And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: “Arise, devour much flesh!”

6 ‘After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

7 ‘After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8 I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.’”]

There, four beasts are described, and those represent the successive world powers in history, where the seven heads are divided among the four beasts. All of those are concentrated into this one image, this one picture, this one overwhelming image of evil here in Revelation, chapter 12. My point is, that while in Daniel the picture there of four beasts represented four independent or separate secular empires that were evil, here in Revelation 12, those four are sort of boiled down, or concentrated down, now into this one image of Satan himself. While those empires were the workers of Satan, now here we have this image of Satan concentrated in this dragon.