October 5 Choose Life?

Revelation 12:1-4 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
 
WE have seen Revelation point us to both contemporary and future views of sin’s suffering against God’s creation. Here God shows John the history of this cosmic battle. 
    The woman represents the people Israel. The twelve stars on her head are Israel’s twelve tribes. God’s glory is in the sun and the moon. God formed Israel as a mother, to be the womb for his Savior. In this vision, Israel is pregnant with the Messiah. Satan is the red dragon. He awaits the Messiah’s birth, intent to destroy God’s Savior because he knows the Messiah will one day destroy him.
    God promised Satan his time is limited: Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Out of a woman will come one to “crush” Satan’s head, to destroy him completely. Yet, God would allow Satan to inflict pain on the Messiah.
    The prophets sometimes referred to Israel as a woman or God’s wife: Isaiah 54:5-6 “For your Maker is your husband –  the Lord Almighty is his name – the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. 6 The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit — a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God.  
    The dragon’s seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns represent the authority God had given Satan to rule over certain parts of the earth. The devil spiritually “stood in front of the woman”. He tempted Israel into great sin that caused terrible physical and spiritual suffering to God’s people. The woman’s pain is Israel’s suffering as God judged their sins. Sin destroyed all but the tribe of Judah, Jesus’ tribe. God protected a remnant from evil, so the nations would be saved.
    As the perfect husband, God had promised his bride Israel so much more. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  
    Disobedience would be death. Obedience would be life. Tragically, under the “dragon’s” influence the bride chose death. Israel groaned in the pain of its sin as it awaited the Messiah’s birth. The devil, it seemed was winning the war.
    Today the world groans in pain as it awaits Jesus to come again. Meanwhile, what do you choose this day?
 
Prayer: I pray, Lord, your church today chooses life. Amen.