Sabbath Afternoon - March 25
Memory Text:
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” KJV — Revelation 12:17
God’s faithful few throughout the ages were willing and even glad for the sake of Truth and righteousness to face the reproach of their blind and unfaithful brethren. Ought we not be just as glad to do as much? They won the race and the crown, and there is no reason why we should not. Indeed we cannot afford to lose our reward at this late hour.
Micah 6:5 – “O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.”
Here we are told that to know the righteousness of the Lord is to remember God’s dealings with our forefathers, for His love toward us is not less than it was toward them. He reminds us of the incident when Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel, and how He caused Balaam to speak for Him and to bless His people, that for their sake He brought the king’s aim to nought and caused Balaam to proclaim to Balak: “And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.... There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies: and Israel shall do valiantly.” Num. 24:14, 17, 18.
In effect Balaam said to the king of Moab: “I have tried my best to obtain your favor and to curse Israel, but God has prevailed. Israel has won; you and I have lost. And further, let me tell you what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days: He that is to rule Israel shall smite Moab on all sides, and Israel shall do valiantly.”
Thus was Balaam impelled to predict Christ’s birth and His ruling, causing Israel to do valiantly against Moab and his neighboring peoples in the latter days.
To know all this is to know the Lord our righteousness; that if He is for us then no one can win a thing against us; that the battle is the Lord’s; that we have no need to fear our enemies; that whatever we do shall prosper regardless who is for or against us.
Sunday - March 26
The Battle in Heaven
Read Revelation 12:7–9, which describes this cosmic conflict between good and evil. How, possibly, could something like this happen in heaven? What do these verses imply about the reality of free will, free choice?
“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born….
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.” Verses 4, 7-9, 13.
Here are described two different “castings out.” Note that in the first instance, the dragon drew the angels with his tail. But, you wonder, why not with his claws? – Simply because such would falsely indicate that Satan defeated the Lord and consequently dragged out of heaven a third of the angels. But since he drew them with his tail, the true significance is clear – that a third part of the angels voluntarily followed him. They clung to his tail, so to speak, while he led the way. “They turned from the Father and from his Son, and united with the instigator of rebellion.” – Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 115. The dragon persuaded the angels and they followed him from heaven to earth, whereupon he sought to devour Christ.
This incident of verse 4, the dragon drawing down the stars, preceded the incident of verse 9, the Lord casting down the dragon. The former took place before the Lord was born and the latter after His resurrection. This is made manifest in the following paragraphs:
In the days of Job Satan still had access to heaven, for we are told that “…there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Job 1:6, 7.
Satan, then, was not cast out of heaven immediately after he rebelled or even when he caused Adam and Eve to sin. Rather, it must have been after Job’s time. But to determine just when, we shall read Rev. 12:13: “And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.” He therefore was cast out before he went to persecute the church. This he did at the “time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.” Acts 8:1. This fact is again borne out by the Spirit of Prophecy:
Triumphantly the Lord was caught up unto God and His throne. “…all are there to welcome the Redeemer. They are eager to celebrate His triumph and to glorify their King… He presents to God the wave-sheaf, those raised with Him as representatives of that great multitude who shall come forth from the grave at His second coming…. The voice of God is heard proclaiming that justice is satisfied. Satan is vanquished. Christ’s toiling, struggling ones on earth are ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ Before the heavenly angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared justified.
“Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.” – The Desire of Ages, pp. 833, 834, 761.
Indeed, realizing that he had brought an end to his ever again in heaven accusing the brethren, and knowing that his stay even on earth was to be very short, --- SATAN DROPPED DOWN WITH GREAT WRATH.
Monday - March 27
Satan’s Attack
Read Revelation 12:4–6, 9; Ephesians 5:25–27, 32; and Psalm 2:7–9 and define the following symbols: Dragon, Woman, Male Child, Rod of Iron
It is clear to see that this “woman” was clothed with the sun and attacked by the dragon even before her child, Christ, was born; yes, years before the Christian church and the Gospel came into being. To say, then, that she represents the New Testament church clothed with the gospel of Christ, is indeed as ungrounded and as illogical a theory as to say that the chicken is hatched before the egg is laid.
“Clothed with the sun,” the woman is, of course, God’s everliving church, clothed with the Light from Heaven, the Bible. “Thy Word,” says the Psalmist, “is…a light unto my path.” Ps. 119:105.
The moon, as we know, is the medium by which sunlight is reflected and the night lightened. Being under the woman’s feet, it is a most fitting symbol of the period before the Bible came into being, the period from creation to Moses. This phase of the symbolism very definitely points out that the woman was emerging from the period in which the Word of God, “the sun,” was indirectly reflected, was passed on from father to son, and that she was entering into the period in which she was clothed with God’s Light, the Bible.
Moreover, she was with child at the time she was clothed with the sun, and the moon stood under her feet. This in itself positively displays that at her outset she represents the church after it had received the promise to bring forth the world’s Redeemer, the “man child, Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” He “was caught up into God and to His throne.”He, of course, is Christ, the Lord.
The twelve stars that comprise the woman’s crown, most obviously bespeak God’s government upon earth, the church’s cumulative authority – that of the twelve patriarchs, of the twelve tribes of the twelve apostles, and of the 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel (the 144,000).
It is also to be observed that she portrays the everliving church of God while in combat with the enemy.
“And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.” Verses 3, 4.
If the student of Heaven-inspired Truth is to know the object lesson that is taught by this symbolism, he should now carefully notice the significance which the dragon’s crownless horns and his crowned heads carry. Also, if the student of Truth is to profit by what the Scriptures teach, he should fully realize that the preceding as well as the following Scriptural and logical considerations must be heeded.
To begin with, since the dragon’s horns are a group of ten, they must depict all the kings or kingdoms then present, just as the ten toes of the great image of Daniel, chapter 2, and also the ten horns of the beast of chapter 7, represent the kings or kingdoms existent universally in their respective periods.
Neither should be overlooked the fact that all the horns, heads, and crowns, were there grouped together when the dragon stood ready “to devour her Child.” Exactly as the symbolism reveals, they do symbolize a coalition of two separate and distinct parties (horns and heads), both existing at the same time, not one following the other. It is well to remember, too, that though horns grow up and drop out, heads never do.
It can be clearly seen that in order that consistency be maintained, the Biblical interpretation of the dragon’s heads and horns must be that the former are religious bodies, and the latter, civil governments. And how many of them do the dragon’s horns and heads depict? – All the civil governments and all the religious bodies at that specific time. How do we know this? – Because there are ten horns and seven crowned heads, and because the Biblical number “ten” denotes universality, and the number “seven” denotes completeness.
From the aforementioned examples, we already see that the time has come for all faithful Bible students, students after saving Truth, to realize that Inspiration never does anything vain or careless. Its work is ever accurately constructed, always dependable at face value, and explicit beyond improvement.
It is a recognized fact, too, that crowns always stand for kingly authority. And as they appear on the dragon’s heads, not on his horns, it is especially noticeable that while the dragon ruled both the civil and religious worlds, yet he crowned the religious.
In other words, the church held the sceptre; the church sat on the dragon’s throne. And the fact that the number of the dragon’s horns represents universality and the number of his crowned heads, completeness, coupled with the fact that both the Jewish church and the Romans persecuted the Lord, shows that the dragon as a whole represents a complete Satanic-ecclesiastical world, that Satan had taken the world captive. As conqueror of it and armed with horns and heads, he moved upon Herod to kill the newborn children as soon as he learned of Christ’s birth. This he did with the hope of destroying the Saviour, devouring the child and thereby perpetuating his own kingdom. Such was the condition of the world at Christ’s first Advent, and thus was the church enabled to crucify the Lord, to stone Stephen, to behead others, and yet to escape the penalties of the civil authorities.
For this very reason the Son of man, the world’s Redeemer, came just when He did. The dragon, though, to defend his Satanic dominion, patiently waited and carefully watched for the arrival of the world’s promised Redeemer. So it was that while the everliving church of God was with child, and crying to be delivered, the dragon with his seven crowned heads and ten horns, stood ready to devour the child as soon as He was born.
Just such apostasy had gripped the world in the days of Noah, too, and made it necessary for the Lord to do something to save the world. For the sake of mankind, the Creator sent the flood to bring an end to the wickedness. In like manner the terrible apostasy of the Jews in the days of Christ’s first advent, demanded another disaster as thoroughly destructive as the dreadful deluge in order again to blot out wickedness. But, if for no other reason than to keep His never-failing promise to His faithful servant Noah, God could not thus overthrow the world the second time. And so He sent His Son to die in the world's stead. In this light, how much brighter than ever stands forth the Redeemer's mission! By His death did He indeed save the world from destruction at that time, and by His resurrection did He make possible for it to stand today.
Tuesday - March 28
Accepting Jesus’ Victory
Read Revelation 12:10. What encouragement should you get from the fact that your accuser “ ‘has been cast down’ ” (NKJV)?
“Satan’s accusations against those who seek the Lord are not prompted by displeasure at their sins. He exults in their defective characters; for he knows that only through their transgression of God’s law can he obtain power over them.” – Prophets and Kings, pp. 585, 586.
Satan, we see, encourages the sinner to unconsciously commit transgression, and thus to secure his condemnation, not necessarily on earth, but in heaven. Before the righteous Judge, Satan accuses the transgressor of “being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin.” But when the Spirit of God prompts reproof, It reveals sin and rebukes the sinner through His church.
Read Revelation 12:11. What assurance of victory does Christ give us in this passage?
God’s people should ever be on the alert for the voice of the Spirit of Christ, as well as be on guard to discern the spirit of Satan. When the two clash, the one strives for obedience to God’s Word, while the other excuses the sin and sympathizes with the sinner. In this latter subtle way Satan often gains ground and wins the sinner to his ranks, for the sinner naturally loves his sin. The faithful, though, overcome him “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” They love “not their lives unto the death.” Rev. 12:11.
Wednesday - March 29
The Woman in the Wilderness
Read Revelation 12:6 and compare it to Revelation 12:14–16. Notice carefully the time period, Satan’s attack on the “woman” (God’s church), and God’s provision for His people. What are these verses talking about?
Since a wilderness is just the opposite of a vineyard, the statement “that she might fly into the wilderness” emphatically implies that she must have left the vineyard. And that is precisely what she did: Shortly after the resurrection, the church (the woman) left the holy land (the vineyard) and went to the land of the Gentiles (the wilderness).
Besides these historical facts, we have also the Biblical meaning of vineyard: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant.” Isa. 5:7.
Unquestionably, therefore, the wilderness, where the woman was nourished for the time being, is the land of the Gentiles. And the woman’s having to flee from the face of the serpent in her homeland, shows that the dragon had made the holy land his headquarters. Not satisfied with this, though, he even followed her into the wilderness.
“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” Verse 15.
In the hope of destroying the woman, the serpent at first persecuted her. Failing, though, to reach his goal, he suddenly reversed his tactics. He ceased the persecution and began instead to befriend her. But at what cost to the woman! Cunningly he cast water as a flood after her, seeming to put forth a mighty effort to refresh her, when in actuality it was a mighty effort thereby to destroy her.
The figurative words of Inspiration explain that the compulsory Christianizing of the Gentiles and the pouring of them into the church during the fourth century of the Christian era, was not in reality a friendly act. Rather it was like a devastating torrent to drown the saving power of Christianity. In other words, Inspiration predicted the period in which the dragon clothed Pagan politicians in a garb of Christianity and then led them to compel the non-Christian pagans to join the church, that they might thus paganize her rather than she Christianize them.
In confirmation, we quote a partial description from Mr. Gibbon’s work: “By the edicts of tolera-tion, he [Constantine] removed the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity; and its active and numerous ministers received a free permission, a liberal encouragement, to recommend the salutary truths of revelation by ev-ery argument which could affect the reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the two religions [Christian and Pagan] continued but a moment....The cities which signalized a forward zeal by the voluntary destruction of their temples [the Pagans’] were distinguished by municipal privileges, and re-warded with popular donatives... The salvation of the common people was purchased at an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year, twelve thousand men were baptized at Rome, besides a proportionable number of women and children, and that a white gar-ment with twenty pieces of gold, had been promised by the emperor to every convert.” This was “a law of Constantine, which gave freedom to all the slaves who should embrace Christianity.” –Gibbon’s Rome,Vol. 2, pp. 273, 274.
“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.” Verse 16.
The “earth,” God’s mighty weapon, is finally to help the woman. It is to swallow up the “flood”; that is, the same Divine means which, according to the parable, takes away the tares and burns them, likewise takes away all who have joined the church but who are still pagan at heart. And what happens then? – The Scriptures supply the answer:
Thursday - March 30
God’s End-Time Remnant
Read Revelation 12:17. What characteristics of God’s remnant, His last-day church, are found in this verse?
The term “remnant” discloses that her seed is divided into two parts: The one is taken, the other is left. Nehemiah, for example, explains: “The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.” Neh. 1:3. A “remnant” always represents one part of the whole, either large or small.
And notice that the dragon wars, not against a remnant of the “flood,” but against the remnant of her seed. Christ being the woman’s only child, her seed are therefore the Christians, those who are born into the church through the Spirit of Christ. Accordingly, the act of taking the first fruits to Mount Sion (Rev. 14:1) brings about a condition which makes a remnant of those who are still left among the Gentiles. In this instance, therefore, they, the second fruits, are the remnant.
Let it be remembered that it is after the earth swallows the flood that the dragon is to be wroth with the woman, and “to make war with the remnant of her seed [not with her personally], which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12:16 17. Clearly, then, there is no escaping the conclusion that the doing away with Satan’s flood is doubtless the purifying of the church, the destroying of those who have joined the church through the aid of the serpent. This purifying is the very thing that enables the church as a body to keep the commandments of God and also to have the testimony of Jesus Christ, the living Spirit of Prophecy (Rev. 19:10), in her midst. This is her only hope, her only strength, her only deliverance. In this light, Inspiration now puts new life into the words-
“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” Isa. 52:1.
The church’s purification, therefore, will not bring the millennial time of peace. Indeed not but it will bring the end of the wicked in the church, and with it Satan’s greatest wrath against the remnant, against those who, while still among the Gentiles, dare thereafter to take their stand on the Lord’s side. They shall, nevertheless, be delivered if they, as it were risk their lives – if they take their stand on the Lord’s side and thereby put their names in the “book.” Dan. 12:1.
The dragon cannot war with the woman, the church that is made up of the first fruits, because at that time she is with the Lamb on Mt. Sion (Rev. 14:1), out of the dragon’s reach.
Friday - March 31
Further Study
“The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words: ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 12:17.” GC 592.3