Revelation 12:1-6; 13-17 A great 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 its heads. ⁴ Its 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 it might devour her child the moment he was born. ⁵ She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. ⁶ The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. ¹³ When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. ¹⁴ The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. ¹⁵ Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. ¹⁷ Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

In the following of only 820 words, I will give you a very simple paradigm of how to interpret the things that have happened, the things that are happening now, and the things that will happen in the future. If you please, it is the big picture of what is really going on behind what is being played out in the natural world. In order to understand it better, think of what happens at a puppet show. What everyone sees are the puppets, but as we all know, the reality is the personalities behind the puppets! What is written in the above scripture is the reality of what has happened in our world, what is happening in our world, and what will happen in our world! It is imperative to understand this truth if you are going to be victorious in the days that are ahead.

The “Red Dragon” is the devil; “the woman” is the nation of Israel; and “the woman’s offspring” is the Church. The question that must be asked is this: why does the devil desire to destroy Israel and the Church? For one reason: to keep himself from being judged and banished forever (Revelation 20:1-10). Let me say this in the simplest terms possible. THE ANSWER is found in two scriptures. The first is Matthew 23:39, “For I (Jesus) tell you, you (Jewish leadership) will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” The devil hates Israel and has tried and will try to annihilate them so that this scripture cannot be fulfilled. If there is no nation of Israel then Jesus cannot be welcomed back; and if Jesus does not return, then God is liar and the devil wins and will not be banished. This is why the devil worked so violently and maliciously through Hitler and Nazism in attempting to destroy the Jews! And that is what he is trying to do through Islam today—destroy Israel! The second scripture is Matthew 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” It is predicted that by the year 2015 the whole world—all peoples—will have heard the Gospel! Consequently, the devil is seeking and will seek to destroy the Church because he doesn’t want “the end to come.” Only the Church is capable of preaching the gospel to the whole world, and by so doing bring about the end. This is not the end of the world but rather is the end of the age and the beginning of the end for the devil! So there it is in plain language. So the next time you see Israel or the Church being attacked, you know who is really behind it and why. The good news is that the devil will lose and God and His people, Israel and the Church will win. It is written!

I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord!

Jimmy Hammock

Basic Rules of Interpretation

When handling the Word of God, there are rules of interpretation that must be followed. This is important so that what you end up with is exegesis: “leading out” what is in the text. If these rules are not followed, then what you will end up with will be eisegesis: reading something “into” the text that is not there—such as your own presuppositions or preconceived ideas. Although there is always some subjectivity in Bible interpretation, the goal of the interpreter is to be as objective as possible. II Peter 1:20-21 says, ^“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.  For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” With that said, I will list below some of the basic rules for interpreting the Word of God.

1.      Have at least a working knowledge of the original languages the Bible was written in. The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, (a few chapters in Ezra and Daniel, and one verse in Jeremiah, was written in Aramaic); the New Testament was written in Koine Greek (“the common” language of the people). The importance of being able to understand the original languages is that when you translate from one language to another you can lose some of the original meaning of a word or words. For example, the Greeks had several words for love that we translate as only one word in English. In Greek, there is “philos,” meaning “brotherly love,” (Philadelphia is the combination of the Greek words for love and brotherly, hence “the city of brotherly love.” And then there is “agape,” meaning the “unconditional, willful love of God.” Therefore, a working knowledge of the original languages of the Bible is an invaluable tool in the exegesis of the scriptures.

2.      A second rule of interpreting the Word of God is to give careful attention to what the text meant in its original setting. This would require an understanding of who the author of the text was as well as the people to whom he was writing. For example, understanding that Matthew was writing to a first century Jewish audience to convince them that Jesus was the promised Old Testament Messiah would explain why he quotes so much from the Old Testament. That would obviously be very important to a Jewish audience and important to the one interpreting the text of Matthew.

3.      A third rule of interpretation is to understand the Jewish culture and mind set. With the exception of Luke, who was a Greek, the entire New Testament was written by Jews! It is important then to think like a first century Jew. How do you do that? First and foremost, learn to love the Old Testament. The Jews who wrote the New Testament did. It is very difficult to understand the person of Jesus the Messiah without understanding God’s revelation of Him in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was the prophecy and preparation for the New Testament. Therefore any serious interpreter of the New Testament must know the Old Testament.

4.      A fourth rule for interpreting the Word of God is to compare scripture with scripture. Or said another way, let scripture interpret scripture. For example, when you are studying the end times, it is essential to get a complete view of what the Bible teaches on this subject. Study what Jesus taught about the end times as well as what the Holy Spirit also said through the other Old Testament and New Testament writers. For example, it has been said that Daniel is essential to interpreting the book of the Revelation. Consequently, a sound New Testament theology and exegesis on the Second Coming of Jesus is dependent on this rule of interpretation. If this rule of interpretation is ignored, then you are likely to have a wrong as well as a dangerous end time theology!

5.      The fifth and final rule of interpretation that should never be ignored by anyone desiring to  properly interpret and exegete the Word of God is to always pray and be dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Although written over a period of 1600 years by forty different writers, The Holy Spirit is the ultimate Author of the scriptures. It is He and He alone who can take what is written and make it life and revelation to your soul!

The above list is not all inclusive, but is the basics of exegetical, Bible Interpretation. I hope this will help you in some small way to better know and understand “The Greatest Story” ever told! Shalom friends.