Well, I guess I'm one of the suckers that fell for Mary, Jesus' mother, as the woman. Even after I realized it wasn't her but the church, I still fell back into that understanding in vs.6 when "the woman fled into the desert." I need to look at the bigger picture! Thank goodness for the guidance of this devotion book and my other resources!!
The direction now shifts in this section to Christ vs. Satan. And let me just say that I'm so glad the visions of this battle come after what we just previously read - that Christ wins and we are safe with him singing "Hallelujah!" Otherwise, I may be very panicked at this point!
"Know your enemy" - and so the information about Satan given here somehow offers comfort to me. Maybe because his limitations are clearly defined and I don't have to worry or fear about the power he may or may not have. I am assured that the war has been won with Christ's resurrection. The People's Bible says, "We can be sure, however, that the power for every victory over the dragon was ensured by Jesus' death and resurrection." Thank you, Jesus!
While the war has been won, we are reminded there are still battles to fight. Satan tried to foil God's plan of salvation many desperate times (more than we know, I'm sure!) but to no avail. He was "stripped of his authority in the spiritual realm" (TPB) and now he turns his attention to the church. You can only imagine how enraged he is at this point, only to realize that Jesus is protecting his church too! And so he tries to pick at us individually. "Accuse, accuse, accuse. But that's all he can do, his accusations have no power over us. Jesus our Saviour has taken our sin and guilt and blame on himself, has carried it all to Calvary, and has suffered the full price that God's justice demands for sin. It's been paid in full!" (Behold ..)
My prayer then is:
Lord, let your Spirit give me the wisdom to recognize the enemy's attacks on me when they come so that I can see him for what he is and recognize the tactics he uses. Hedge me in (Job 1:10) from his evil attempts and protect me. Comfort me with your truth, knowing that my God reigns and the victory is won! I am His ...
4 comments:
I know the deceiver's lies all too well...Accuse. Accuse. Accuse. On that note, in verses 9-10, my Bible made some points I thought worthy of sharing. Maybe y'all knew these things, but I didn't. Here's hoping it will help all of y'all too!
In verse 10, it mentioned that:
"Job 1-2 provides the crucial background here. There, Satan is depicted as a prosecuting attorney in the heavenly court (cf Job 1:6-11: 2:1-8). "Satan" means "adversary" in Hbr (as in courtroom accuser). Similarly, the Gk term "devil" comes from a verb meaning "bring charges with hostile intent."
These notes helped me see the malicious, horrible, vileness of Satan even better. Granted, I've never thought of him as good, but my mind just hasn't delved into the grotesqueness of all that is this deceiver (and I'm thankful I can't grasp it. If anything, the study of Revelation has opened my eyes to depth and images that I just can't understand or explain!). Yet, I have sensed an on-going theme within the whole book of Revelation: Stand guard! Be alert! Watch for the schemes and evil and wily ways you can be deceived! (emphasized in the books to the churches @ the begg. of the book) The devil is a deceiver and those who see him as anything else or trust in anything other than Christ fall victim to his schemes! Stand guard and stay strong in Christ; he will NOT fail!
I find it encouraging that as the images John sees are portrayed, evil and truth are never mixed, like our book mentions from a previous lesson (p. 29 on the 6 Trumpets) that "While truth has only one form, false doctrine, which destroys people's souls eternally, can take on innumerable forms."
On another note, but related, my notes quoted the words of Luther in his Large Catechism where he reminds readers that "[The devil] has a serpent's head [Revelation 12:9]. If it finds an opening into which it can slip, the whole body will follow without stopping. But prayer can prevent him and drive him back." (LC III 111) There it is again: Accuse. Accuse. Accuse.
Another thought I had was about how much I dismiss prayer! Like somebody mentioned before, to think that our prayers can pour forth and that God would answer them to halt this disgusting foe from harming his people is baffling to me! As Revelation mentioned all the ways God provided for His church: He "prepared a place" for his church-12:6; took her to "where she is to be nourished"-v.14; and alluded to the deliverance of God's people from Korah's rebellion and the false teachers (Num 16:31-34) when God allowed his creation to help his church- v.16)
Just as Christ told his disciples in the garden before his death for you and me, I encourage y'all to join with me to view Satan as the nasty accuser he is and:
"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41
PS- On a completely different note and after chewing on the images today, did anybody think of the great flood and Noah with v. 16? I am not even gonna try to propose that was the case, but I do wonder. AS always, when I'm going off the deep end, just reign me back in...
It seems this vision is to impress upon us that although the victory is won, Satan still has influence on earth. His time and his power are limited, but he is working furiously, and so we must watch out.
cre8ev, thank you for being courageous to share your ideas, and the connections you see with other parts of the Bible and with the catechism, etc. RE: the great flood, while the faithful - Noah and his family - were saved from the destruction of the flood just as the woman is saved from the waters that Satan spewed, there are two reasons why I would say that the connection there is weak. One thing is that the great flood happened in OT times, and Satan's spewing is pictured in the vision in NT times. Secondly, because the waters this vision depict come from Satan's mouth, this leads us to the interpretation of the waters being something related to his lies - false doctrine, accusations, etc. I too sometimes come up with my own interpretations of different aspects of the visions and see where they lead. My thoughts often tend toward the physical world, as your "great flood" interpretation does. I am thankful that we have the guidance of many theologians who are faithful to the truth of Scripture to help us interpret these things, encouraging us to focus on the spiritual interpretations.
Back to the whole message of Revelation 12, though... I will close by saying thanks be to God for victory that is ours in Christ Jesus, and also echoing Luther's morning prayer: "Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me."
Thanks, cre8ev, for sharing your notes that provided insight into the vileness of Satan! The courtroom setting of God as Judge and Satan as the courtroom accuser is again something we can relate to. We know that this accuser does NOT have the desire to expose the truth because if he did, he's know that he's got nothing to stand on. His purpose is to falsely accuse! Vile, indeed!
The whole concept are there being good and there being evil without all the mix-up used to be a common concept in books and movies, etc. Now they like to blur those lines of what is good and evil and sometimes they are depicted as no different. Study of literature is extremely impressionable of these concepts! But I digress - that's a topic for another day:)
On your thoughts on prayer - our adult Bible study touched upon this topic Sunday as we worked through 2 Peter. Yes, the power of prayer! That too is a topic of a whole other study! But for now, we know that God hears and answers our prayers. How he answers them in his wisdom we will not always know. "Watch and pray" ... praying with you!
And I'll be praying Luther's Morning Prayer too! So good!
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