The Eternal Battle: Revelation 12 and the Jewish Struggle

We're in Revelation chapter 12 tonight, and we'll be looking at verses 13 through

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

17, at least in our first focus here tonight.

And we're talking about the war of the ages.

And if you remember, we're talking about part three of that really is war on earth.

And we're going to look again, like I said, Revelation chapter 12, verses 13 through 17.

Revelation 12:13–17

And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth,

he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman,

so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished

for a time and times and a half a time from the presence of the serpent.

And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman,

so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up

the river, which the dragon poured out of his mouth.

So the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest

of her children who kept the commandments of God, or who keep the commandments

of God, and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

So one of the darkest stains on the history of mankind has been the persistent

specter of anti-Semitism.

In fact, over the centuries, the Jews have faced more hatred and persecution than any other people.

And much of that suffering, y'all, was chastisement from God,

for one, to turn the nation away from their sin and unbelief and back to him, right?

And God repeatedly warned Israel of the consequences of disobedience.

We see that, you know, in Deuteronomy chapter 28. And he punished them when

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

they failed to obey, 2 Kings 17.

And within that paradigm of God's sovereign purposes for his people,

Israel also suffered constantly, severely at the hands of Satan,

acting as God's instrument.

Because you remember God is sovereign.

God is in control. And if he allows Satan to be his instrument to do things

that need to be done as well, God's in control of it all.

And so, but unlike God, however, Satan's purpose in causing the Jewish people

to suffer, it's not remedial, is it?

It's destructive, it's his purpose. But God uses it for his purposes.

Isn't that great how God does that? But he seeks to bring them not to repentance

and salvation, but Satan's goal is to bring them to death and destruction.

But God's got other plans.

God's got other plans. In fact, Israel faced constant threats from her neighbors

during the period, if you remember, of the judges and the kings, right?

And later, first the northern kingdom of Israel, which was around 722 BC,

and then the southern kingdom of Judah, which was around 586 BC.

And they were conquered by their enemies, right?

And as a result, the Jewish people actually lost their independence and they

became subject to foreign powers.

Including Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome as well.

In post-biblical times, even, the story has tragically been much the same.

As we look back in the Bible, what happened, and now in post-biblical times,

so to speak, see what is still that same tragedy.

The history of the Jewish people for the last 2,000 years is just like a sad,

sad litany of prejudice persecution and pogroms and when i use that word i want to define that,

pogroms because that's where a group or like the jewish people or whatever would

suffer violently even at the hands of the authorities or the establishments

of the day right and so the first widespread persecution of the jewish people

we're going to do a little history tour here in Europe took place during the First Crusade.

That was 1095 to 99.

And as they made their way across Europe towards Palestine, mobs of unruly crusaders

actually destroyed Jewish homes and villages and massacred their inhabitants.

And so when they captured Jerusalem in 1099, the crusaders herded Jerusalem's

Jewish people, their population, the whole population there, into a synagogue.

And guess what they did? They set it on fire.

And most of the Jews perished, and the survivors were actually sold into slavery.

And King Edward I actually banished all Jews from England in 1290.

And so thus giving England the dubious honor, if you can say that,

of being the first country to expel its Jewish population.

They would not be permitted to return until the time of Oliver Cromwell.

In fact, nearly three and a half centuries later. And France followed in suit

in 1306, Spain in 1492, which is ironically the year of Columbus's voyage of

discovery to the New World.

And throughout the Middle Ages, the Jews were blamed for various natural disasters,

most notably the Black Death.

They were blamed for that in 1348 to 50 and savagely persecuted.

And the 19th century saw an outbreak of anti-Semitism in Russia,

in fact, where Jews were blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881.

And so those ensuing times over the next four decades of persecution or of that

attack of the powers that be, those pogroms there, tens of thousands of Jews were killed.

Hundreds of thousands of others were driven from their homes,

and nearly three million more were killed during Stalin's reign,

part of the tens of millions of people that were massacred by that notorious

dictator. It was horrible.

And 1894 also saw the scandalous Dreyfus affair, they called it,

in France, in which a Jewish army officer,

Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was falsely convicted of treason, and only after 12

years of public turmoil over the case was he exonerated.

But the darkest hour, the darkest

hour in the long history of anti-semitism was

yet to come right in the early 1930s the nazi party came to power in germany

and their insane racial theories became public policy and unlike others who

had persecuted the jewish people as history tells us the nazis and their,

maniacal leader, which was Adolf Hitler, right,

did not merely seek to persecute the Jews, but what did he want to do?

Eliminate them, right? In fact, in the Holocaust, that ensued when the Nazis

sought to implement their final solution, they called it, to the Jewish problem.

Church, six million Jews, more than half the Jewish population of Europe, were slaughtered.

But despite millennia of savage persecution, the Jewish people still survive.

In fact, John Phillips, the scholar, wrote this.

He He said, significantly, the turning point came in Moses's life when he saw

in the desert that mysterious burning bush, which flamed and blazed away,

but for all the crackling of the fire, it was not consumed.

And y'all remember that story he's referring to?

That bush clearly symbolized Israel, which cannot be consumed despite the ceaseless

hatred of her foes, he said.

He said, because God is in her midst, Israel cannot be assimilated into the

nations, nor can she be exterminated by the nations.

She is a burning bush in the wilderness.

And that's from his book that he wrote on exploring revelation.

But y'all, it's the fervent hope of the Jewish people that the horrors of the

Holocaust will never again be repeated. Amen.

I think we could all say, yes, don't let that happen again.

But tragically, however, guess what? They will.

In fact, as we think about this, the Bible warns that a time of suffering lies

ahead for Israel that will be worse. Get this, church.

It'll be worse than anything the nation has endured in the past.

In fact, Jeremiah actually called that time in Jeremiah 30, verse 7,

Jeremiah 30:7

the time of Jacob's distress.

Jesus actually described it, you know this, you've heard it as a great tribulation,

such as has not occurred, he said, since the beginning of the world until now,

nor ever will. And that's in Matthew 24, 21.

So the tribulation will be the worst of times for Israel for two reasons.

During that total seven-year period, God will pour out, as we've been studying,

his final theory on the unrepentant and unbelieving world, including the unrepentant rebels of Israel.

And at the same time, get this church, at the very same time,

Satan will make his last desperate attempt to prevent the promised reign of

the Lord Jesus Christ on Israel's throne and thus negate the salvation and kingdom promised to Israel.

Satan's going to want to wipe them out still. He wants to make God a liar and

he'll savagely assault the Jewish people seeking to destroy both those Jews

who've already come to faith in Christ and those who still might.

The devil will also do everything in his power to hinder the ministries of the

144,000 Jewish evangelists that we read about in chapter 7,

verse 4 and the two witnesses that we read about in chapter 11, verses 3 through 14.

Newsflash, church. Satan's efforts will not succeed. Amen? It's not going to succeed.

In fact, his worst fears will be realized.

When the Jews, the scripture says, look on the one whom they have pierced and

mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and wept bitterly over him like

the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

It talks about that church all the way back in Zechariah 12, verse 10.

Zechariah 12:10

The believing remnant of Israel will be saved.

Romans 11 tells us that. and their promised kingdom will be established,

it says in Hosea chapter 2.

Hosea 2 · chapter mention

You know, the prophet Daniel foresaw this tragic and triumph at time for Israel.

It was tragedy, but it was also triumph.

Listen to how it records it in Daniel here. It says, now at that time,

Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will

arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there

was a nation until that time,

and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake,

these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse

of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteous like the stars forever and ever.

I always like to say it this way. I got to pause there a minute.

You want to be a star? Shine like a star?

Lead people to righteousness, right? Point them to righteousness.

Point them to Christ. But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up

the book until the end of time.

Many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase.

Then I, Daniel, looked and behold, two others were standing,

one on this bank of the river and the other on that bank of the river.

And one said to the man dressed in linen who was above the waters of the river

how long will it be until the end of these wonders i heard the man dressed in linen and,

who was above the waters of the river, and he raised his right hand and his

left toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a

time, times, and half a time.

Similar language to what we just read in Revelation, right?

And as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people,

all these events will be completed.

As for me, I heard but could not understand. So I said, my Lord.

What will be the outcome of these events?

He said, go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.

Many will be purged, purified, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly,

and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.

For the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of

desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.

Daniel 12, 1-11. So Daniel, like Jeremiah Church and Jesus, saw essentially

the same scenario that John reveals in Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

A future time of unparalleled distress, persecution, slaughter for Israel.

Two-thirds of the Jews alive at that time will be killed as God uses Satan to

purge the rebels from the nation.

Talks about that again, Zechariah 13, Ezekiel 20. But the elect,

believing remnant, will enter the Messiah's kingdom.

Along with those, if you noticed too, back in Daniel, resurrected old saints

who at that time will awake to everlasting life.

Wow. And that's in Daniel 12, verse 2.

Daniel 12:2

But Satan's onslaught against the Jews during the tribulation will begin with the rise to power of who?

Antichrist, right? And during that first three and a half years of the tribulation,

this will be a little bit of review here, but Satan will work to extend Antichrist's power, right?

And once he becomes the ruler of the world, Satan will make use of him for his evil purposes.

So Antichrist will, first of all, pose as the protector of the Jews during the

first half of the tribulation.

The covenant mentioned in Daniel chapter 9, verse 27, is a protection pact,

Daniel 9:27

if you will, with the Antichrist that he will break in the middle of that seven-year period.

And it's literally going to be all hell breaking loose, right?

At that point, Antichrist will become Israel's persecutor for the last half

of the tribulation, which, as you noted, that last three and a half years.

He's going to reveal his true nature when he breaks the covenant and he sets

up what? the abomination of desolation, as we read in Daniel.

You read about it in Matthew 24 as well, Thessalonians 2, three and a half years into the tribulation.

And at that time, Antichrist's persecution of God's people, which has been going

on throughout the first half of the tribulation, we've talked about all that,

will focus on Israel, and it's going to intensify.

And this passage actually describes three attacks,

three attacks that satan's forces will mount against israel during the tribulation

there's going to be three different ones and so i'm going to look at attack

one we're going to take them we're going to split them up and we'll look at

attack one starting next sunday night.