WATER AS A FLOOD

Both this chapter and the next take us to the mid-point of the seventieth of Daniel’s seventy weeks, cf. Dan. 9. 24-27. It is a tumultuous time in this the last period of God’s dealings with Israel and the world before He brings in everlasting righteous­ness in the manifested kingdom of our Lord Jesus. Then ‘a king shall reign in righteousness’, Isa. 32. 1, but, in the meantime, it appears as if the devil will have the victory.

The chapter revolves around four main characters. The woman clothed with the sun is Israel, depicted as having authority and governmental rule. She is seen as the mother of the man child, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall rule all nations with a rod of iron. The devil, the great, red dragon, opposes her and the child she bore. Michael, ‘the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people’, Israel, Dan. 12. 1, and his angels fight against the devil and his angels. Not for the first time these two personages are against each other, cf. Jude 9. This conflict results in the casting down of the devil from heaven, the sphere in which he has been active as the ‘prince of the power of the air’, Eph. 2. 2.

Now that he is cast down to earth the devil personally orchestrates the hatred of the nations against the woman, ‘of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever’, Rom. 9. 5. This is described as ‘water as a flood’ cast out of his mouth. Three passages all represent the actions of Israel’s enemies as a flood, Isa. 59. 19; Jer. 47. 2; Dan. 9. 26. Throughout their long history the prolific persecution of that people demonstrates the malignant hatred of the devil against them, but pogrom and holocaust are merely faint shadows of the intense persecution that they will know in this future day. ‘Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be’, were the words of our Saviour, Matt. 24. 21.

The aim of this persecution will not be realized, as, in the short term, the persecuted are sheltered by friendly nations and, in the long term, the Man Child will rule all nations. In the dark­est of times God is still in control and is worthy of trust.