Marcus Mecum - God's Wonder Woman
Revelation 12:1, "Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a garland of twelve stars. Then being with Child, she cried in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign, or wonder, appeared in heaven. And, behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, and he stood there to devour the Child," capital C, if you're reading it, "As soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and his throne".
I'm gonna go through this entire chapter but I wanted to start off with those first five verses just talking about this wonder woman that Revelation 12 talks about, that the entire end time prophecy will be centered upon this particular wonder woman. And we're gonna focus in on that because that wonder woman is the nation of Israel. Let's pray:
Father, we thank you for all that you've deposited in our hearts over the last several weeks. I've sensed a shift in my own spirit, an excitement, an expectancy, God, about all that you're wanting to do through this place and through these great people and we are living in those last days. And we thank you for the privilege of being able to hear your heart on some of these things. And, Father, teach us today. Lord, you word says, "Grace teaches us," and so, I pray that the grace of God teach and instruct us so we can know exactly what we're to do daily, every day. Encourage us in our daily life through some of these ideas that you gave us in the Book of Revelation in Jesus' name. And once again, we thank you for the special blessing that comes on those who read this book. And we all said, "Amen".
I do believe that it's important to consider as a Bible believing Christian if that suits you, that it's almost impossible, I would say it's very difficult at a minimum, to disregard the nation of Israel. Israel has had a special place in God's heart from the very beginning. You can't read the Bible without seeing that God has a heart and a plan for the nation of Israel. In the beginning we see this. We see that after the fall God wants to create for himself a people that he can show himself to, that he can reveal himself to, and that he can reveal himself through.
And so, he goes to Abraham and he says, "Abraham, I'm gonna promise you a son. You're old, but I'm gonna give you a son. And the result is through your seed, I'm going to give you a nation, and the nations of the earth will be blessed through this particular seed". And we all know Abraham, or I guess, Sarah has the child Isaac, and, of course, Isaac then, you know, goes on and the 12 tribes of Israel come. And the nation of Israel is a result of God's promise to Abraham. And everything you read in your Bible, you're gonna begin to watch, if you read the Bible, you're gonna begin to see God's hand in a special way in the beginning and all through scripture on the nation of Israel.
And the reason I say this is because now here we are in the very end. This is in front of us. This is out in the future. This is a book of prophecy and what we're reading about is Israel is also in the end. It's important that you consider that Israel never has, nor will she ever cease to be a part of God's master plan to restore and redeem all of creation back to himself. It's important that you consider she was relevant in the beginning, and she is also now relevant in the end.
Israel, in verse 1 it says that, "There is this wonder woman, or this sign, this woman that's clothed with the sun". This is speaking of the nation of Israel. And we know this because it says, "Her crown has twelve stars," that speaks of the twelve tribes of Israel. She's in labor and it says that, "She gives birth to a male child". Our Catholic brothers and sisters interpret this as Mary. And yes, the virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, but this is speaking about something different. This is speaking about the nation of Israel. So, yes, Jesus came through the virgin Mary. But remember, that he is also known as the son of Israel, or the child of Israel. Isaiah in Isaiah 9:6 he's prophesying to the nation of Israel and he says, "Unto us," who? "Israel, a Child will be born".
We know that in Hebrews Jesus is called the seed of Abraham. And so, I'm hoping that you can understand that Revelation 12 introduces once again, that Israel is not Old Testament, it's not old covenant. They didn't fall out of relevance because of their unbelief. They always have and always will be a part of God's plan and we find this is New Testament prophecy. This is important for four reasons to every single person in this room. Four reasons you should respect this wonder woman that we read about in Revelation 12.
Number one, Israel has favor with God. Deuteronomy 7:6-9 says that she's a holy people, that God has chosen Israel and that he's called her to be a special treasure above all the people of the earth. And it says not because she's great in herself, she's actually the opposite. It goes on to say that she's the least of all people, but God chose to show his love to her. And because God showed his love to her, they became, Israel became a great people. And as it is with the natural Israel, so it is with the spiritual Israel, that's the church. We would know that God favors us, not because we are special, but we become special because of God's favor.
God doesn't love us because we're valuable. We become valuable when we recognize God's love for us, and Israel was the first recipient of receiving the idea that God chose this special people. He revealed himself to this special people. He revealed himself through this special people. And he has never, nor will he ever stop favoring Israel. Isaiah 4:3-5 says that Israel is favored. Israel is called. Israel was God created and is God protected. All you have to do is go study the basics and you can see that God has and always will protect Israel.
Romans 9:4, "God chose Israel. He chose to show Israel his glory. He gave Israel his covenant. He gave them the law or your Old Testament. He used them for service, and he also gave them the promise of the Messiah". Verse 5 of that same chapter says, "In the natural or the flesh, Israel gave you and I Jesus". So ultimately, yes, God was the one who had a plan to in Genesis 3, he had the plan to produce a seed that, "Satan would bruise his heel, but he would crush the head of satan". Yes, that's ultimately God's plan, but who did God chose to use to bring that about? He chose Israel. And so, Israel gave you the Bible that you read. They gave us Jesus. They gave us the word on paper, and they gave us the word wrapped in flesh.
So, the bottom line is Israel matters and is favored by God. Israel is a nation God created. They are God decreed. God loved. God called. God elected. God protected, and God favored. They gave you the Bible. They gave you your Messiah, so your faith is directly connected. John 4 says, "Salvation has come through the Jews". Genesis 12:2-3 says, "I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing". Watch what God will do. "I will bless those who bless Israel. I will curse those who curse Israel. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed".
What did God tell us? He said, "If you wanna find out how the blessing of God works is you go find what God's blessing and you bless it. When you do that, God blesses you. You find what God's favoring. You don't question it, you don't debate it, you don't fight it, you don't argue it". You say, "Man, God's favoring that. God's favoring them and I'm gonna favor what he favors and then God's favor comes on you". But if you go after something that God has blessed and God has favored, and you start cursing it, the Bible says you cannot curse what God has blessed.
And so, the opposite happens, that curse bounces back on you. What's curse? It means to speak down to, speak negatively to, say they don't deserve to have a future. That's what curse means. I'm gonna say, "They don't deserve to be a people". When you do that, that jumps back on you. And so, we have to as God's people, say, "God has always loved Israel. God has always favored Israel. And I want his favor. I want his blessing so I'm gonna bless what he's blessed, and I'm gonna favor what he's favoring". Remember in the story of Joseph there were two Pharaohs. The first Pharaoh that is introduced in the story, the Bible says, "Favors Joseph".
Of course, Joseph and this Pharaoh had a great plan. Joseph interprets his dream. Joseph comes up with this divine plan to build these massive silos and store harvests so they can have it during the seven years of plenty. They can be prepared for the seven years of famine. As a result of the this plan the nation of Egypt becomes incredibly blessed. This Pharaoh sees that Joseph is a key to this massive prosperity and so, this Pharaoh begins to bless Joseph. He gives Joseph land. He gives Joseph's brothers land. He gives Joseph's dad land. That land becomes the geographical area that now we know is the nation of Israel.
That favor faith, that Pharaoh favored Joseph and he blessed Joseph. His whole life, that's what was going on. The result was because he was blessing Israel, notice what happens, Egypt expands its empire. Egypt becomes the mightiest economy, has the mightiest military on the planet because of their desire to favor what God had favored. As long as that happened, Egypt expanded. As along as Egypt favored Israel they expanded. They were blessed. God gave them favor. But that Pharaoh died, another Pharaoh was raised up, and this Pharaoh did not favor Joseph and the Bible says he actually did the opposite. He thought the children of Israel are too blessed, they have too much.
"I wanna take away what they have. Let's enslave them. Let's not only enslave them, let's oppress them. Let's take all the male children under the age of two because they become too many, too populous". And so, that Pharaoh took all the male children under the age of two, threw them, killed them, he threw them in the river Nile, destroyed, killed, all those male children.
Now, watch what happens. This is the Pharaoh that God swallows up in the Red Sea. At one moment he's the mightiest man on earth, the next moment he's fish food, because he thought you could curse what God has blessed, and then God cursed him. Israel is favored by God whether you like it or not and I'm gonna walk you through it. You're gonna get it by the end. But it's important that you stay careful in your own heart to say, "I don't completely always understand God, but what I do know is when God's blessing something, my responsibility is to bless what God has blessed".
Number two, so Israel has favor. Number two, Israel has foes. Verse 3 of Revelation 12 introduces the fiery red dragon. Verse 9 says, "The dragon is a depiction of the devil himself". His color is red which represents that he is blood thirsty. John 8:44 introduces the devil as a murderer. Jesus calls the devil a murder that, "He was a murderer from the beginning". In Luke 4 we see the devil trying to use an angry mob to kill Jesus. We see the devil trying to talk Jesus into throwing himself off of the high pinnacle and commit suicide.
So, the devil is blood thirsty. Verse 4 describes what we see in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 where, "The tail of the dragon," it explains, "Takes one third of the stars," that's symbolic, "Of the angels from heaven and that dragon's tail brings those angels with him and they fall from heaven to earth". Know this, the devil and his fallen angels don't go to hell. They end up on earth. The good news is this for those of us who are here on this planet. This is the good news. Leonard Ravenhill said that, "Two thirds of the angels did not fall".
So, you have two angels for every demon. Every time the devil attacks you know more are for you than are against you. Verse 4 says that, "This dragon is intent on bringing suffering toward the child, the male child. He desires to devour the child". This speaks of how Herod waited for the child, Jesus, to be born and then he issued the order to kill all the male children under the age of three. This is the picture of the dragon, that he's always looking to devour God's son, God's seed, God's plan because he knows the plan was that this child, the seed, would come and crush his head, crush his authority, and crush his dominion.
And so, he waited, he watched, he looked, and then finally, the child is born, and he doesn't know exactly who the child is so he just says, "I'm gonna try to kill every child I possibly can". The Bible says in verse 3 that "He has seven heads," which teaches us that satan is very, very wise. Is he corrupt and evil? Yes. But dumb. No. He is very wise and that's why as the people of God we must become much wiser in these days than we've ever been before. We have to become discerning, and we have to know what the Bible teaches about these things so we can see the enemy's tactics and strategies in these last days.
And so, Jesus said of satan that he is the prince of this world. He's not the king, but he is the prince. He is looking to be king. He's looking to rule and reign. So, Israel has a foe. That foe is not flesh and blood. That foe is spiritual. Any hatred that is against the Jewish people is started in the heart of the devil and is from hell. And he does everything he can to deceive, and lie, and corrupt, anybody he can and put the same hatred he has for the Jewish people, and the Bible goes on to tell us why.
So, very clear, let's watch this. The end chapter 12, satan is the antichrist. He is anti semitic. He's anti-faith, and he's anti the church. Satan hates Jesus. He hates the Jews. He hates Israel, and he hates you the spiritual Israel or the church. So, because Jesus loves me and because I love Jesus, I love what Jesus loves. So, I love the Jewish people. I love Israel. I love the Palestinian people. I love the Egyptian people. I love all the Syrians, all the people of the Middle East because Jesus loves them. But if there is an attack on Israel, I have to know where that attack comes from.
Again, that is not flesh and blood. That is a hatred from hell and my job is to simply say, "I cannot sit back as a Christian and say that there is any reason for any hatred to be towards the Jewish people except the spiritual reasons". Why isn't the world against the French? Why isn't the world against the Australians? Why isn't the world against the European? Why is the whole world focused on this small little nation and a small group of people? Why is the whole world attacking them? It is spiritual. So, understand that the devil hates Israel because Israel gave you Jesus.
Now, it goes on to say that Israel has to fight. Verse 7 says there's two battles that take place in this chapter. There's a war in heaven and a war on earth. The first battle is spiritual. "Michael and his angels fight with the dragon and his angels, and satan loses this fight". He falls from heaven to earth, but he knows that this is not the final fall. Eventually, he falls from earth to hell. So, he keeps going down. Verse 12 and 13 says, because he knows this, "He is violent, he is full of rage because he knows his time is short".
How does he know his time is short? Because he has access to the same prophecies you do. And so, you go to Matthew 24 and you read that Israel had to become a nation, and once they did, that we were at the door of the end times. That happened in 1948 so, that's 71 years ago. Your Bible in Matthew 24 that, "A generation shall not pass from the earth after that day happens". A generation in the Bible is 70 to 80 years, anything after that's a benefit. I'm not here to predict anything 'cause the Bible says to not do that. But I'm just here to say it's been 71 years since Israel has become a nation and the generation is wrapping up.
So, the devil hears that, the devil reads that, the devil hears sermons like this and what does he know? His time is short, so his rage is increasing. His deception is increasing. His attacks are increasing. And the more you see the world focused on Israel and attack Israel, know that a spiritual sign that the devil knows his time is almost up. The Bible says, "Woe to those who live on the earth in these times because of the desperate rage we will experience from the enemy". But it goes on to say, "We will overcome that rage by the blood of Jesus".
So, his blood not only cleanses us. His blood gives us victory and gives us the ability to conquer anything that tries to attack us. So, there's a war in heaven and there's a war on earth, and verse 13 tells us why. "This woman Israel gave birth to the male child," capital c, "That's Jesus". And satan hates Israel because Israel gave you and I Jesus. It's important that you understand that, that there is a reflection when you see the hatred for Israel that that refle, any conflict is a reflection of what we read about when Jesus came, and he died on the horrible cross, and then he went to hell and he took back the keys of death, hell, and the grave. He crushed the head of the enemy.
And because that happened the enemy hates Israel because Israel was what birthed the seed that crushed his head. Verse 14 speaks of a great eagle with two wings that protect Israel and nourish Israel. Many people believe that that could be America in these last days, and I pray that it is, and I pray that we'll always stand with God's people. Because if we bless her, God blesses us. If we favor her, God favors us. So, not only is satan dead set on destroying Israel but he's also dead set on destroying anyone that loves Jesus.
So, don't be naive that the hatred that you see there isn't the beginning of a hatred that's gonna bleed over into anybody who loves and follows Jesus. So, it's a key for a Christian in the last days to know that we and the Jewish people, every Christian and Israel, we are in this all together whether we like it or not and the same devil that hates them is the same devil that hates you. The same devil that's trying to steal, kill, and destroy them is the same devil that's trying to steal, kill, and destroy you.
Number four and we're done. Israel has a saving faith. Zechariah 12:10 says, "I will pour out a spirit of grace upon Israel", that's Jesus. It says that, "They will look upon the one whom they have pierced". So, part of the last day revival, the scripture is clear. Part of the end time revival, the end time pouring out of God's spirit. Israel will be included, and God will pour out a spirit of grace upon them, and they will look upon the one whom they have pierced. So, they do not see Jesus as the Messiah now, but according to the prophet Zechariah, "They will see Jesus the one whom they have pierced, and God will pour out the spirit of grace on them".