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