The Seven Mystic Figures — Part 3: First Attack

Only once in world history has an entire generation served as a picture of a future generation. The apostle Paul said this was true for the generation alive during Israel’s Exodus from Egypt (1 Cor. 10:6, 11). The events of that generation were “types” (or pictures) of events during the “last days” of the Mosaic Age (Heb. 1:2). We documented this in our Typology and Inmillennialism post.

These pictures play an important role in the application of our prophetic model, inmillennialism, to John’s visions in Revelation. The third vision—Seven Mystic¹ Figures—describes the birth and ascension of Jesus, Israel’s Deliverer (Rev. 12:1–12). After Jesus’s Exodus, John sees Israel after the Spirit enter the wilderness.²

Inmillennialism teaches this wilderness experience matches that of Israel after the flesh under Moses. It also lasted forty years, from Jesus’s ascension in AD 30³ to his destruction of the Temple in AD 70. This leads us to look for events during this time frame that match the symbols in John’s vision.

Here is our outline of the Seven Mystic Figures vision. We have expanded it to highlight the subdivisions in the vision’s Wilderness section.

I. The Exodus (Rev. 12:1–12)

II. The wilderness journey (Rev. 12:13–14:13)

A. Satan’s first attack (Rev. 12:13–17)

B. Satan’s recruit: the Sea Beast (Rev. 13:1–10)

C. Satan’s recruit: the Land Beast (Rev. 13:11–18)

D. Worship: The Lamb and his Army (Rev. 14:1–5)

E. Witness: Three voices from heaven (Rev. 14:6–13)

III. The kingdom entrance (Rev. 14:14–20).

This post will examine “Satan’s first attack (Rev. 12:13–17).”

Exposition

John provides the setting and timeframe for this part of the vision: And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the [land⁴], he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child (Rev. 12:13). The distinction between “earth” and “land” is important in this context. Satan’s wilderness persecution of Israel begins in her land. It begins after Michael dethrones him during Christ’s lifetime (Rev. 12:7) and after Jesus has ascended to heaven. The book of Acts describes what happened next, so we expect John’s symbols to match its account of events during the AD 30–70 generation.

John sees that God protects Israel: And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place (Rev. 12:14a). He did the same fifteen centuries earlier. At the start of the Exodus wilderness journey, God said, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself” (Exod. 19:4; emphasis added). Near the end of this period, Moses used similar language: God found Israel “in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness. . . . As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD alone did lead him” (Deut. 32:10–12; emphasis added). The type (Moses and Israel after the flesh) matches the vision (Revelation and Israel after the Spirit). Both agree with the history (Acts) as we shall see.

In the vision, John again links the start of a period to its end. We saw him do this in our last post regarding Christ’s birth and ascension (Rev. 12:5) and the wilderness journey (Rev. 12:6). Now, John sees Israel in her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent (Rev. 12:14b). God protects her during the “great tribulation” period Jesus foretold in the Olivet Discourse. This refers to the 3-1/2-year period (AD 66-70) that preceded the destruction of the Temple (cp. Matt. 24:1–3, 21, 34; cp. Rev. 7:14).

Satan knows he has but “a short time” to defeat the messianic-age Israel before she enters the kingdom. So, the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood (Rev. 12:15). This is common prophetic imagery for the opposition of Satan—and men under his control—to God’s people.⁵ David said, “the floods of ungodly men made me afraid” but God “drew me out of many waters” (Psa. 18:4, 16; emphasis added. Cp. Psa. 124:1–5).

Isaiah uses this imagery in two passages that are important for our interpretation of John’s vision. He describes the king of Assyria as a flooded river overflowing its banks. God uses him and his armies to judge Israel in her land (Isa. 8:5–8). The prophet also uses this imagery in a passage describing the coming of the Messiah (Isa. 59:16–21). The Messiah brings salvation, but he also puts “on the garments of vengeance” (Isa. 59:16–17). Inmillennialism interprets these as events that happened during the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. During this time, Christ brought salvation. He also poured out vengeance on apostate Israel after the flesh using Roman armies (cp. Luke 21:20–22). Isaiah saw this as the time “when the enemy shall come in like a flood” (Isa. 59:19; emphasis added).⁶

The flood did not hurt Israel because the [land] helped the woman, and the [land⁷] opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth (Rev. 12:16). The book of Acts matches John’s vision. For several years after Jesus ascended to heaven, the Dragon’s opposition to messianic-age Israel occurred in the land. After Jesus “was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9), the flood against her began in Jerusalem. “The priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold” (Acts 4:1–3). “Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison” (Acts 5:17–18). Stephen lost his life in the flood (Acts. 6:12–7:60).

Soon, the flood spread beyond Jerusalem and into adjoining regions. “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1–2; emphasis added). Saul “persecuted them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26:11), meaning “he obliged them to fly to strange cities, where they were foreigners and strangers; though he himself might not follow them there, since we don’t read of his going anywhere but to Damascus.”⁠⁸

An interesting development arrested the Dragon’s flood against “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). God cast his primary instrument of persecution “to the land”⁹ (Acts 9:4). Saul, once the great tormentor, became the apostle Paul. God changed his allegiance from the Dragon to Christ. “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied” (Acts 9:31).

The Dragon made another attempt in the land. He used a second member of the Herodian Family¹⁰ to oppose God’s kingdom. “Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also” (Acts 12:1–3). Once more, God thwarted his attempt and “the word of God grew and multiplied” (Acts 12:4–24). God caused the land to help the woman (i.e., Israel after the Spirit).

In the imagery of the vision, the land swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. Being frustrated with his efforts there, the Dragon looked elsewhere. In Act’s sacred history of this period, the focus shifts from Jerusalem and the land to Antioch and the Roman Empire (Acts 13:1–3). In the language of John’s vision, the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17). This shift in focus occurred about mid-way through the generation of Jesus’s prophecy in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:34). Paul’s first missionary journey was “between 44 AD and 50 AD.”¹¹ The Dragon then began to persecute the seed of true Israel scattered throughout the Roman Empire. He did so from the beginning of Paul’s work among the Gentiles (Acts 13:4–13) and throughout that generation (Acts 21:27–29).

Conclusion

Inmillennialism connects three different types of literature: Paul’s typology (1 Cor. 10), John’s apocalyptic vision (Rev. 12), and Luke’s history (Acts). The woman of John’s vision flees into the wilderness just as Israel did when she left Egypt. The vision’s Dragon pursues in a failed attempt to destroy her in the land. Having failed, he looks elsewhere. The history shows apostate Israel persecuting Christ’s followers in the land through the first half of Acts. Then, the focus turns to other parts of the Roman Empire. This agreement reinforces the validity of this prophetic model.

In our next posts, we will see the Dragon recruit and enable other agents to assist him in his persecution of the woman’s seed outside the land.

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1. Meaning “symbolic,” not “occult” throughout this post.
2. We saw all this in our last post, The Seven Mystic Figures — Part 2: Exodus.
3. A. T. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ, (New York: Harper, 1922), 173.
4. Gk. gē. See Land or Earth?
5. The digital file for the image at the beginning of this post (here) is in the public domain (PD-1923).
6. For other examples of prophets using this imagery to describe God’s judgment of a nation, see Jer. 46:7–8; 47:2, and Hosea 5:10. This list comes from David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation, (Tyler, TX: Dominion Press, 1987), 322.
7. Gk. gē. See Land or Earth?
8. John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, The Baptist Commentary Series (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 8:380.
9. Gk. gē. See Land or Earth?
10. In our last post (here) we saw the Dragon as another Herod at Christ’s birth.
11. W. P. Armstrong, “Chronology of the New Testament,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1956), 649.