And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. [14] But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. [15] The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. [16] But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. [17] Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
The Dragon is greatly frustrated. I have to say, I think I am frustrated here too. Brighton’s commentary is not helping me on this one. He identifies the woman as the church. I think it is Mary, certainly Mary is representative of the church. He child died and rose for her too. But I’m hesitant to identify the woman as the church. I don’t know much of Mary’s life after Christ died. In any case the serpent grows frustrated with his attempt to destroy the woman, nothing more than revenge at this point, her task has been accomplished, she gave birth to the child, the Child has conquered. Not being able to exact revenge there, he turns his attention to the rest of her offspring “those who keep the commandments of God, and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
Now that is the church. The church is made up of all those who believe in Jesus Christ for the forgivenss of sins, and only with this faith, this holding to the testimony of Jesus Christ, can it be said that they in any way keep the commandments of God, for that is certainly by faith in the forgiveness of sins. There is no other way for us who are simultaneously saint and sinner. As the Lutheran confessions say, the church is the sheep who hear the voice of the Shepherd and listen to him. And these are in a way just as much the offspring of Mary as is Christ, because they are born of the same faith with which Mary took on the task of being the Mother of our Lord, it is faith in her Son, that makes us the body of Christ.
The Dragon is not happy with us, and will do what he can to destroy us. He forgets about attacking Mary, and goes after us.
5 comments:
I noticed that you are going with the interpretation that "the woman" is Mary. I'd only heard this from Catholic commentators in the past. I never heard that she is the Church. I've heard several commentators say she is "Israel" (I would think it more accurate to say "Judea") or Judaism.
I'm no thrologian. My background is in history, but from a historical view, this last interpretation makes sense to me. I don't know if you've heard this or what you think of it.
Yep Scottydog, makes perfect sense. I think you changed my mind on that one. Old Testament Church, Israel. Perhaps that is what Brighton was getting at, though it wasn't clear to me.
I am one that distinguishes between legomena and antilegoumena. Revelations is the latter. I have never dwelled on it too much. That was helpful.
The one problem I see, and through a glass darkly, here with this interpretation, Scottydog, is that the dragon does not seem to be able to get Israel even after the child is born. Most of "Isreal" refuses to believe in Christ as the messiah, so why is the devil in a rage.
Yet, on the other hand, When the Child is born the Time, times and half a time are up. Perhaps it is more the dragon was frustrated that he could not get the woman before her mission was accomplished, so that would make sense, He is no longer concerned about the woman but her offspring, she had foiled his plan. I could ramble.
I'm reluctant to reply with my 2 cents worth on this, since Lutherans tend to misinterpret what I say as believeing that Jews can be saved without faith in Christ. To start out, I must emphasize that I beleive no such thing. However, I do beleive that the Jewish people still hold a special place in God's heart (Zech 2:8, Jer 31:36-37, Luke 13:34, and Romans 9:1-5). Anything that God loves, Satan hates. Thus his motivation for persecuting even non-believing Jews. Maybe I'm interpolating too much.
scottydog,
It isn't that he persecutes them he gives up on persecuting the woman whaoever or whatever she is. that is the point. Satan likes to persecute all, believers and non believers alike. Adn God loves all. of course he has not turned his back on Israel, or the Jews. You are right though they are no more saved than anyone else without Christ. I hesitate to say they have a "special" place. But neverthele3ss God loves them as he loves all.
I think that is why I'm going to go with the second part there. In frustration, that is he failed, he turns from the woman and pursues the children. The Old Testament church doesn't need to be dealt with, the attention must turn to the Believers in Christ, the Church as we know it. Though he will be no more successful here than he was with the woman.
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