In the midst of all the serial action, the series of seals, the series of trumpets, the series of bowls, there are snapshots of characters and situations that the Spirit wants you to see. One of the most memorable pictures is in the 12th chapter. There one finds a woman, a child, then more children, all of which are threatened by a 7-headed dragon. I'm usually a literalist, but the Spirit Himself tells me not to be in this chapter, and even gives me identities of most characters.

The woman (1-2) at first glance seems to be Mary. Who else could have given birth to a male child that would rule all nations (5)? Hold that question until you read verse 6 and verses 13-17. There, the very same woman is airlifted to a secret destination where she is protected from the dragon's wrath for three and one half years.

The three and a half years in Revelation is the time of tribulation. Sometimes the number is 42 months. Sometimes "a time, times, and half a time." Sometimes 1260 days. But the time period is the same. I personally believe that the entire story of earth's destruction bit by bit , Revelation 4-19, takes place in three and one half years. Seals, trumpets, bowls, everything.

Well, Jesus' mother was not whisked away into a wilderness. That picture is reserved for another entity of Scripture. God promises Israel in Hosea 2 that He will "allure her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her..." I believe that it is at this juncture of history, the Tribulation, that God calls a remnant of Jews, 144,000 to be exact, and personally appears to them and saves and forgives them.

Israel goes to the wilderness, therefore Israel must be the woman who brings forth the child Jesus into the world. Yes, a woman that is sun and moon and 12 stars can only be the same thing Joseph of Genesis saw in his dream: the people of God.

The woman has other children. The nation of Israel, approached by the Son of God in the first century, by and large rejected the message. But the first disciples and the first churches and the Scriptures and the Messiah Himself: all Jewish. All Israel. Truly, "Father Abraham had many sons..."

So a woman has some children. One is caught up to Heaven. The others are chased by the dragon. And the woman herself is protected from further harm. The only unidentified creature now is the dragon himself. But that one is taken care of by the text. He is identified as the old serpent, as in the Garden, the Devil or evil one, and Satan or the enemy.

Yet even here, in dragon form, we know he does his work through humans. That Devil-filled king called Herod is alluded to as the one who sought to devour Jesus as soon as He was born. Later in the text the same dragon will be using, we know from other texts, the antichrist.

The context of the chapter is war in Heaven. This is a war that Satan loses. He is stripped of his heavenly credentials and dumped on Earth, angry as anyone has ever been. At this very juncture, the similarly angry man of sin who has been waiting all these centuries to be released, leaves the pit. The restrainer lets go. The captive rises and is inhabited by the fallen angel himself.

He is especially violent against the woman and any of her seed, as they represent the thwarting of his attempt to gain again world domination. He has lived in anger during the centuries as he was stopped in his quest and humiliated before Heaven. No more of this. He knows his time is short, and he begins conquering immediately. All Christians must go. Jews he pursues first, but the elect are carried away from his reach, as we saw earlier.

One intriguing bit of information is hidden in verses 15 and 16. The enemy will somehow unleash a flood to destroy the hiding Jews. But a natural phenomenon will keep the flood from having any effect.

Some have said this is a flood of lies or a flood of people as in Jeremiah. But there is a sense of factual truth to it.For John is not alone in predicting a flood. Daniel says (9:26) that one of the end marks of the destruction of Israel in the last days shall be a flood. Amos 8:8 and 9:5 predict a time when flooding as in the Nile River will affect God's people. The place of hiding hinted at by one prophet is the Valley of Achor, surely a geographical spot prone to flooding.

So we have the final condition of Israel and the Church. Some of it is no different than today. Israel is hated worldwide. True Christians - the ones who preach sin, and judgment, Christ the only Way, Truth and Life - those kinds of Christians, are also despised. Those who despise them are exposed as Satan-inspired in Revelation 12.