With God the Future is History!

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: ² And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. ³ 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. ⁴ 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. ⁵ And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. ⁶ And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. ⁷ And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, ⁸ And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. Revelations 12: 1-7

The Book of Revelations is full of symbolism and profound timeless truths about the nature of God.  Timeless is an apt word to use in this case because the seven verses read above move us from the birth of the nation of Israel backwards to a time prior to Adam, to a period of time in when there was a war in heaven and the devil and a third of the angels were caste to the earth.  Then we are fast forwarded to the future in a time of great tribulation when the devil and his human partners try to destroy Israel.  That is a lot of movement back and forth so let me take these verses one at a time and try to bring out the truths contained therein. Then we can make application to our faith as we progress though whatever number of blogs it takes to get through this chapter.

Revelation 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

The woman is Israel; the twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel.  In order to learn this we need to travel back to the time of Genesis and look at the dreams of a young man named Joseph.

Then Joseph had another dream. He told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said. “I had another dream. This time the sun and moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me.”  ¹⁰ He told his father as well as his brothers. Then his father objected. He said, “What about this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers really do that? Will we really come and bow down to the ground in front of you?”¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him. But his father kept the matter in mind.

We know that the sun and the moon in the context of Joseph's dream are his parents. The moon is Rachel, Joseph’s mother, the sun is Jacob, his father, and the 11 stars are his brothers.  This dream is fulfilled when Joseph is placed in charge of Egypt and his family bows before him in a time of famine.  If we can read a passage in the Bible that relates to history and the future shouldn’t we pay attention to such a book? If God controls history and tells the future, then truly He is God. In Isaiah 42:22 the Lord challenges his people and says,

“Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Have them tell us what happened in the beginning. Then we will think about these things, and we will know how they will turn out. Or tell us what will happen in the future.”

The Lord has revealed the beginning of the story of creation and shown us the summation of history.  Because this is true our faith in him should be steadfast and strong! We need to be steadfast and strong and trust his word because the devil has been trying to destroy mankind and in particular Israel, and the Messiah, since the beginning of time.  The Lord says to the serpent (the dragon)

I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel. Genesis 3:15

The decedent whose heel the devil bit was none other than Jesus the Nazarene. The one promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The one the Mosses told Israel to look for and the one the prophets wrote about throughout the Old Testament.

   

The dragon is the devil: In order to understand the seven heads and ten horns you have to reference another prophet familiar with dreams, that being Daniel.  The seven heads represent seven great kingdoms that have ruled the earth. They are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and a Future Revived Roman Empire. The 10 horns are placed on this Empire, based upon Daniel 7:23-25.  The 10 horns are 10 kings which arise in the future (Dan. 7:24).  This is the kingdom from which the Antichrist will arise.[1]

God made a promise to Abraham,

I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.³ I will bless those who bless you, and I will place a curse on those who harm you. And all the people on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3

History has been the unfolding of story of those who have blessed or cursed God’s beloved. You might ask why Abraham was so beloved?

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

We are asked to do the same.  Not based on blind faith, but based on a faith that has been repeatedly demonstrated by God throughout all of human history!  Spiritual things are spiritually discerned! I pray you have eyes to see his work in history, eyes to see His work in your life, and hope in future filled with promises!  With God the Future is History!

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[1] http://www.raptureready.com/featured/crockett/beast.html