Wednesday: 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?
The 1,260 days in Revelation 12:6 are parallel to the time, times, and half a time in Revelation 12:14. This same time prophecy describing the same time period is found in Daniel 7:25, Revelation 11:2-3,, and Revelation 13:5. Because these are prophetic symbols (a literal woman with wings did not go into the wilderness), we apply prophetic time, the day-year principle (see, for instance, Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:4-6) to these prophecies. This means, simply, that one prophetic day equals one year. Commenting on this same prophetic period of time in Revelation 11:2, the Andrews University Study Bible states, “Historicist interpreters, therefore, have generally understood the period of 1,260 prophetic days to mean 1,260 literal years running from A.D. 538 to 1798” (p. 1,673 comments on Revelation 11:2). A corrupt church — together with a corrupt state — oppressed, persecuted, and at times slaughtered God’s faithful people.
Image © Phil McKay at Goodsalt.com
This fierce, satanic persecution of Bible-believing Christians was an extension of the great controversy between good and evil. Coming out of the darkness of the Middle Ages, at the time of the Reformation, men and women were faced with a choice. Would they be faithful to the Word of God, or would they accept the teachings of priests and prelates? Once again truth triumphed, and God had a people who were faithful to Him in the face of mighty opposition.
There are some fascinating and extremely encouraging expressions of God’s care in these verses. Revelation 12:6 uses the expression, “a place prepared by God” (NKJV). Revelation 12:14 declares that the woman was “nourished” in the wilderness, and Revelation 12:16 declares, “The earth helped the woman.” At times of severe persecution, God provided for His church. As He did then, He will do the same for His end-time remnant.
| Describe a time of trial or difficulty in your own life when you could easily have become discouraged, but God provided a place of refuge for you and nourished you in your challenges. How did God provide support when you needed it most? |
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That's a powerful visual illustration....
Here's one interpretation. The woman is the Church, having put on Christ's pure white covering of righteousness, and Satan the dragon is waiting to grab the new converts she is carrying. Breathing down her neck with "the counsel of the ungodly" (Ps. 1:1). The Church is nursing the converts so that they'll grow and flourish and become strong members in the Body. All the while the devil is advancing to devour these babes in faith. There are so many battles God fights on our behalf to protect the Church and the believers. There is so much we as a Body are to do after the baptism celebration to strengthen each other.
Sometimes God brings us into the wilderness to hide us away so that, just as Baby Jesus was whisked away to Egypt to escape the Bethlehem slaughter, we need that time in the wilderness to grow in His grace. God gives us that place where it seems nothing is happening as far as advancing in one's calling or mission, as a time to grow spiritually and prepare for the release date. For the future glory. God is aware of the perils around us, so He takes us away for some time. He did that for Moses. He did that for Joseph. David had a wilderness time. Elijah. Hagar. John the Baptist. The 100 prophets Obadiah hid. The Israelite nation for 40 years and again during Babylonian captivity. The body of true believers were hidden away during the Dark Ages of papal oppression. Wilderness happens for us individually, too. Those painful and difficult times in life filled with despair and hopelessness, and also times for great growth in our faith in God.
If our churches are in obscurity, may we be allowing God to use this time to strengthen and build us up and nourish us to ready us for that time in which we will be more severely persecuted from within and without. Church doors everywhere are shuttering: we can trust God's promises that He is preserving His children from extinction. It was the work of the Reformation to restore to us the Word of God. I'm so grateful for this forum as another place where we are hiding ourselves in the Word of God, relishing His breathed-out Word "day and night" (Ps. 1:2), bending our energies toward understanding the revealed truth, until our hearts begin to warm and burn within us, crowding out alternative worldly "delights" flanking us on every side (Ps. 1:1). We're pressing into Scripture, brothers and sisters, and it is becoming the sweet sap running through our every limb (Ps. 1:3). In Jesus' name, let it be so!
We typically view the Dark Ages as a time of enormous persecution for the proto-protestants. While I don't deny that, such an interpretation ignores the anti-Muslim crusades that lasted from around 1100-1300AD and the inquisitions that took place in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries that were often antisemitic. Nor does it include the conflict of the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches that occurred in 1054. On top of that, there were various occasions where kings within the papal system fought one another. I know of one instance in northern Europe where a third of the population of what is now Poland was wiped out in a battle which was between two Catholic kings, who disagreed with one another.
We tend to view the papacy in the dark ages as a monolithic entity but it was more like a boiling volcano with several erupting peaks. The really big sin of that period was that persecution was used as a coercion tool to enforce people to do the will of the rulers. For example, the crusaders were often forced to go on the crusades by their feudal Lords and promised absolution if they died in the process. Christianity was used as a control mechanism and had very little to do with faith.
The reformation period broke away from this control mechanism, rejecting the church's authority in matters of faith and science.
Even today, the secular mind often has this picture of churches as controlling organisations. Today, if I argue with my atheist friends by saying, "The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that...", their immediate response is that my thought processes are being controlled by my church. Their view of churches is largely based on the way the papacy operated in controlling people's beliefs in the dark ages. I prefer not to use the Church as a backup in such discussions for that very reason. The notion of personal faith is much more persuasive.
We sometimes use the dates related to the dark ages as justification for our existence as a church at the right time in history. While I am not denying that, perhaps that is a minor detail when we consider the excesses of institutional religion. The real spiritual enlightenment of the reformation is that we can have a direct relationship with God through Jesus; not a coercive one enforced on us by an institution to serve their goals.
Religious oppression is not limited to the Catholic church, absolutely! That’s why I believe it’s so important for the SDA Church to be careful about how it uses the 28 doctrinal interpretations. They are a helpful Bible study tool and useful for instruction, especially for new believers, but they should not be browbeaten into people and enforced as a creed, holding those being moved by the Holy Spirit back from baptism. Amen, “we can have a direct relationship with God through Jesus”, and through studying His Word directly.
Listen to this from Ellen White, Review and Herald, May 5, 1896:
I trust you never say to your atheist friends, "The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that..." 😉
And I trust that no one else reading this blog "witnesses" that way.
"I believe that ... " followed with, "here's why ..." is probably a better starter.
I kind of like to study the verses Rev. 12:13-16 in context and see what appears in each verse
Here we see the context is Satan's wrath against the woman (symbolic of Christ's followers)This forceful wrath is predicted in other passages like Mark 13:13
"And ye shall be hated of all for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."
The Dark Ages were dark for many reasons, as life without the light of Christ and His righteousness is dark in many ways. But the focus of the passage is on the light that is still shining during this time, in spite of the fiendish attempts to put it out.
The 1260 prophetic years are mentioned several times in prophecy, (Daniel 7:25 and 12:7, Rev. 11:2-3, 12:6,14; 13:5) representing a time when people were not free to worship God according to their belief in the scripture.
But notice, the light of truth, though persecuted and suppressed did not go out. God sustained it. Many hid in mountain communities because it was not safe to live in a society which was not tolerant of the gospel message. These people had to depended upon God to take care of them.
When armies sweep away cities or kingdoms it is often referred to as being "like a flood". ( Jer.46:7,8; Jer.47:2; Daniel 11:22) So too, during the 1260 years whole armies were sent out to exterminate those who did not believe like the established church. Indeed coercion in matters of worship and conscience is a serious wrong.
In rev. 13:11 we read of a beast with lamb like horns rising out of the earth. Earth representing a land with fewer people and without all the built up cities. Thus here, is generally referred to as America in its early years as it rises to a nation.
People found refuge from persecution by immigrating to America, the "land of the free". The Pilgrims took enormous risks to sail to the "new world" and find freedom, yet even they did not yet understand the importance of religious freedom. The concept of societal religion in which all in a society must believe the same was deeply rooted, and it took time for freedom to blossom in America. How precious that freedom is!
The enormously troubling development in America (predicted in Revelation 13:11-12) is that America's precious freedom is being eroded. The methods of the dark ages will return.
We need to remember God nourished His people when they had to flee into the wilderness.
God is amazing! His care is essential and I have to be thankful for my trials! God is love; in true love there is no fear.
Can anyone tell me where I could find the sermon that was mentioned earlier this week, by Pastor Nembhard, titled Matrix Unplugged? Is it online?
Also, does anyone have a suggestion for a book or Bible study that would be helpful to share with a Catholic to explain the Seventh Day Adventist Christian beliefs?
The 1,260-Day Prophecy of Revelation 12:6-14 not only symbolizes a Satanic attack on early Christians, and on their proto-Protestant and Protestant heirs, during the Dark Ages, but also symbolizes anti-Semitic persecution during the same time, symbolized by the parallel prophecy of Daniel 7:19-25. So, Jesus Christ separated church and state in John 18:36 and Mark 12:17, because Jesus wants people from all spiritual backgrounds to have freedom to learn divine truth, and to make intelligent choices about it, without state coercion or church-sanctioned violence against them. Thus, Joshua 24:15 and 1 Kings 18:21 emphasize that God gives all people freedom of choice, even if they are non-believers, and even when He advises them that wrong choices will have negative consequences. Therefore, Romans 12:19 reminds church members that taking vengeance on sinners is God’s job, not ours. For those reasons, churches have no excuse for persecuting people of any faith. God bless you.
Do we really need to hear each other’s experiences to believe the Word of God to be true? From the events recorded in Genesis to the times depicted in the book of Revelation, God has always protected His people, and their accounts are numerous. I do not anticipate anything unfolding differently during the end times. All accounts expressing the faithfulness of His people are based on the same truth that God loves His children and protects them from evil.
I greatly appreciate the prophetic exegesis which helps us see that our heavenly Father always stands true to His Word, and providing His people a safe place in the ‘wilderness’. I can see that His people’s 'place' has and always will be in some type of ‘wilderness’ during one's lifetime. All believers are travelers in a strange land, not shielded or protected from that which also tempts those yet seeking safe harbor, or those who are unaware of the pitfalls and snares in life. (The Pilgrim's Progress)
Thank God, through the Holy Spirit our eyes, ears, and minds are opened, providing the believer with a spiritual awareness and understanding that he cannot find in anything or any place in this world, to keep him safe, that only by being 'hid in Christ Jesus' – living by faith in the Word of God - the living soul finds protection. The closer we draw in spirit and truth to our heavenly Father, the more we are strengthened in our resolve to remain firm in our conviction that He is our Protector and Savior – Rom.8:38-39.
As the lesson writer states, it does not really matter whether the truth-abiding Christian lived during the “fierce, satanic spiritual and physical persecution” of the Middle Ages, or lives in this present time; all ‘times’ (events) move this world toward the 'end of time’. His people have been, and will continue to be, persecuted because they steadfastly refuse to compromise their spiritual integrity/conscience. Unwilling to abandon their path of living God’s Truth and Light by faith, they experience each one his own type of ‘cross - trial and tribulation’.
Thank you, Esther.