Book of Revelation Explained 40: War In Heaven Against the Dragon (Revelation 12:1-6)

how many of you have ever kept scored a baseball game or a basketball game I mean you're forced to do it you didn't really want to do it and they came to you and they handed you this score book well if you kept score at a baseball game or a basketball game you know what a score book is and you also know that the first thing that you have to do is you have to write down the roster for both sides in fact I kept score for basketball a little bit this year getting so Envy did you notice my grunt when I leaned down to pick that up but anyways the first thing that you have to do is you have to write down the roster on both sides of the book now roster is a list of players and next to each player's name you have a place for their number and the position that they play well chapter 12 in the book of Revelation is kind of like a score book all of the key players on both sides are listed along with the road that they play in the last half of the tribulation so you need to think of it as kind of or I'm talking about the last half of the tribulation you kind of think of it as the last half of a game now if you looked at the score book in Revelation you would find a list of these players on God's side and you would find a list of players on the enemy's side you've got on God's side the woman the child the Archangel Michael in the remnant on the enemy side of course you've got the dragon the Antichrist in the false prophet though the Antichrist and the false prophet aren't really mentioned until we get to chapter 13 but immediately when we get to chapter 13 verse number 1 we see them come on the scene now chapter 12 also explains why there's so much hostility and animosity toward the Jews and the Christians today in this world you see it all goes back to the age long conflict between God and Satan and even though the battle was won when Christ was resurrected from the dead Satan continues to fight and in this fight there are two groups that Satan wants to target the Jews and the Christians and in Chapter 12 we find out why if you've ever studied the history of the Jewish people you'll find that they've always been persecuted and it doesn't matter where they go they've always been persecuted and so the United Nations as a result of the Zionist lobbying Ford actually created their own nation went back and went to where God had promised them the land and people God promised it to them they went back there because they realized that everywhere they've been in the world that they've been persecuted in a chapter 12 we find out why and we'll also see that Satan's persecution of the Jews and Christians is only going to intensify during the last half of the tribulation you see there's going to be this battle in heaven and of course Satan is going to lose the battle but once he loses the battle he's expelled from heaven and as a result of being expelled from heaven he's going to pour out his wrath upon the Jews and when that fails because it's not gonna produce the fruit that he wants he wants to completely exterminate them and when that fails he's going to turn his wrath upon the Christians now let's look at the key players that play a major role in the last half of the tribulation so turn with me if you would to the book of revelations chapter 12 let's read verses 1 and 2 it says and there appeared a great wonder in heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars and she being with child cried travailing in birth and pained to be delivered now the woman of course symbolizes the nation of Israel the imagery is actually taken from Joseph's dream in Genesis chapter 37 verses 9 through 11 if you don't mind go ahead and turn back to Genesis chapter 37 and as you're turning there in your Bible let me kind of give you some background information that you need to know Joseph was actually God's favor of God's favor let me just take that back was his father's favorite and we all remember that and as a result of being his father's favorite the brothers didn't like him but Joseph realized that God's favor was upon him and so Joseph had these dreams and if Joseph ever made a mistake the mistake was in him telling his brothers in his family about the dreams that God was giving him because God was actually kind of showing him what was going to happen in the future so he has this dream and he not only shares it with his brothers but he shares it with his father's so read with me if you would verses 9 through 11 soon Joseph had another dream and again he told his brothers about it listen I have had another dream he said the Sun Moon and Eleven stars about lo before me this time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers but his father scolded him what kind of dream is that he said will your mother and I and your brother's actually come and bow to the ground before you now here's what's interesting his father Jacob already knew who the son represented he understood had the moon represented he understood who the stars represented and he actually realized it was him his wife and his children so notice what it says but while his brothers were jealous of Joseph his father wondered what the dreams meant in other words why is God showing him this now in Joseph's dream as I've already said the Sun represented Jacob whose name was later changed to Israel the moon represented Rachel and the stars represented Joseph's brothers the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel now this family which is represented by the Sun the moon and the stars in Joseph's dream actually are the beginning of the nation of Israel and because God always referred to Israel as a woman the imagery lets us know that the woman represents or symbolizes Israel the nation of Israel now in verse number 2 the woman is pictured as being pregnant and in labor about ready to give birth and not just labor we're talking hard labor in fact if you go back to Revelation chapter 12 verse number 1 and 2 you see that the word pain is pained is translated from the Greek word bassinet so which means agony over an extended period now how many of you women had hard labor and it went on for hours well you know what's kinda interesting is this Greek word is actually or I should say also used to describe torture and I'm sure some of you women has had a hard labor and it went for a long extended period of time you probably thought you were being tortured I can't get this baby out of me but this is what this is saying it's saying that this woman who represents the nation of Israel was in hard labor for a very long time and people this is a great picture of Israel's struggle as a nation to bring forth the Messiah you see Satan knew that the Messiah was going to come from the nation of Israel those were God's chosen people so Satan did everything in his power to try to destroy the nation in order to keep the Messiah from coming but of course Satan failed Israel prevailed and they brought forth the Messiah essence the woman gave birth to the child Israel produced the Messiah and and that's what this is telling us now move on if you would to verses 3 and 4 says and there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven Crown's upon his heads and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and he casts them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born now we know who the dragon represents because John tells us in verse number nine if you kind of skip on ahead you'll notice in verse number nine it says and the Great Dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this red dragon represents Satan but it's interesting as you look to see how John describes this red dragon that was in his vision look verse number three again Susan there appeared another wonder in heaven behold a great red dragon having seven heads ten horns and seven Crown's upon his heads now he's the color red which is the color of blood now if you remember the second Horsemen of the Apocalypse which brings wool or with what color red why red because war brings death the color red symbolizes death and more specifically murder and that's why the dragon is red he's a murderer if you remember jesus said that Satan was a murderer from the beginning notice what is what Jesus said in John chapter 8 verse number 44 he says for you are the children of your father the devil and you love to do do the evil things he does he was a murderer from the very beginning he has always hated the truth because there is no truth in him when he lies it is a consid is consistent with this character for he is a liar and he is the father of lies now notice that the dragon also has seven heads ten horns and seven Crown's on his head all of those things represent specific things the seven heads symbolize the seven world empires that Satan has led since the beginning of creation the seven world empires are the Assyrian Empire the Egyptian Empire the Babylonian Empire the medo-persian Empire the Greek Empire the Roman Empire and there's one Empire yet still to come what empires that the revived Roman Empire now Daniel lived during the time of the Babylonian Empire that's why his vision only includes the last five empires he didn't include those before him because he was prophesying about the future so the two before him weren't relevant in his vision all he wanted to do is to tell you what's going to happen after him in the future but John's vision is going right along with the vision the Daniel had that's why as we were going through the book of Revelation I took a little time out we went back to the Book of Daniel and we looked at the visions that Daniel had because what Daniel saw is the exact same thing that John saw in his vision the ten horns represent a coalition of ten Kings that are going to rise in power and they are going to rain during the tribulation now of course that's the the ten nations that's going to comprise this revived Roman Empire Daniel described them as the ten toes on the statue the Antichrist is going to subdue three of the ten kings remember Daniel already told us that so their power will ultimately be concentrated into seven crowns but all of these kings are going to give their authority to the Antichrist though they retain their autonomy now if you read ahead and this is what's interesting you'll notice that the Beast that comes out of the sea in chapter 13 verse number 1 looks a whole lot like the red dragon it's almost like they're twins look at verse number 1 in chapter 13 and I stood upon the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy not so similar the red dragon is to the Beast that comes up out of the sea why are they so similar why in the world when John saw the red dragon that we know is Satan why did he also look like the Beast that comes up out of the sea well here's why they're so similar it's because Satan is going to be controlling this beast just as he's controlled all of the world empires before this last Empire comes into being as I said he will cause the ten horns which are the ten rulers to give their authority to the Antichrist who's going to be possessed by Satan himself so ultimately Satan will be running the show through the Antichrist and so in John's vision when he sees Satan he actually sees him the epitome of this vision of all the nations that's been and it's going to culminate at the very end because Satan's been behind all of this from the very beginning and he will be behind the final showdown in the last half of the tribulation now look back at the first part of verse number four and chapter 12 of Revelation says in his tale talking about the Dragons tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth now what is this talking about well this is talking about the initial rebellion of Satan as I've said many times as we've been going through this study on the book of Revelation stars represent angels the very first time that I mentioned it is in the in the first chapter of Revelation verse number 20 when John saw this vision notice what John says in verse number 20 the mystery of the Seven Stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the Seven golden candlesticks the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and of course we went into that what it means but I want you to notice the stars represent angels many times so when Satan rebelled he took a third of the stars with him in other words he took a third of the angels with him now that was the very first instance of sedition that's also why God hates sedition because it's from the devil now does everyone know what sedition is sedition is the undermining of constituted authority it's when someone's in charge and God has placed authority in this earth it's really for our good but when we come down and we tear down the authority of that person and we create rebellion now the reason God hates that is because Satan is the one who first began the first instance of sedition was when the devil said you know what I want to exalt myself I want to be higher than God what makes God so special and he tried to exalt himself he led this seditious movement and rebelled but here's what's interesting he was able to convince a third of the angels to follow him now those angels that followed Satan are now referred to as fallen angels why do we refer to them as Fallen Angels well they were cast down to the earth they fell from their original place it's one of the reasons why we talk about the fall of Adam and Eve what do we mean about when we say the fall of Adam Eve will they fail from their position where they were supposed to be we were never meant to die but because of sin we have fallen we are now in a condition that we shouldn't be in now the last part of verse number 4 and of course Revelation chapter 12 really gives us insight into Satan and his true objective you see from the time that Adam and Eve fell to the time that Jesus Christ was resurrected or I should say Jesus Christ came and just take his ministry as a part of that Satan really had one main objective and that one main objective was to keep the Messiah from coming look at the last part of verse number four and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born Satan knew that if he could keep them aside from coming the world would never be redeemed and he would be able to foil God's plan of redemption so from the time that Israel became a nation Satan has tried to destroy her to keep the Messiah from coming and when that didn't work he set out to destroy the Messiah himself he said not to destroy the child and so when he saw that the child was coming he was ready to devour the child and how did he try to do that what was his attempt well he worked through Herod Herod tried to kill Jesus when he was born but Joseph was warned in a dream he took Mary and Jesus and they went to Egypt and they didn't return until after Herod died now when that didn't work Satan then tried to bribe Jesus he took him to a very high mountain he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and he told Jesus he said if you'll just fall down and worship me I'll give you all of these kingdoms and here's what's kind of interesting Jesus didn't say those aren't your kingdoms to give oh yes they were that's why when Jesus comes back and he takes the title deed to earth he had to redeem the earth only he was worthy enough to do that but he couldn't do it unless he first redeemed the earth because man had sowed it out had transferred it to the enemy and it had to be redeemed and so he took Jesus to the high mountain so if you'll just bow down to me I will give you all of these kingdoms but Jesus refused and Jesus rebuked him so when that didn't work he finally had Jesus crucified which was a part of God's plan to redeem mankind and to redeem the world Jesus had to die for our sin and of course that's what we're always talking about there but Jesus didn't just have to or I shouldn't say Jesus didn't have to just die for us Jesus had to die in a specific way Jesus had to be crucified for us because cursed is the man who hangs upon a tree and Jesus had to be cursed so that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law if you're taking notes I want you to write this down because this is very important and most people don't understand this every punishment that our sin deserved Jesus had to endure in order for us to be redeemed let me say that again because that's so important most people don't realize that every punishment that our sin deserved Jesus had to endure in order for us to be redeemed our sin brought upon us a curse so Jesus had to become a curse for us and in order to do that he had to be crucified but had Satan known that had he known that by crucifying Jesus he was actually fulfilling God's plan of redemption he never would have done that do you remember what Paul wrote in the book of first Corinthians chapter 2 verses 7 through 8 go ahead and turn there if you don't mind let's read that he says no the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God his plan that was previously hidden even though he made it he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began but the rulers of this world had not understood it if they had they would not have crucified our glorious Lord now some people misunderstand what that saying they think it says that we know with the Jewish leaders if they would have understood that he was the Messiah they would have embraced him they never would have crucified and that's not what that saying when it's talking about the rulers of this world it's talking about the spiritual rulers the principalities the powers the rulers of darkness it's talking about the Prince Satan and actually what this is saying is if Satan would have known about the mystery of God now what's the mystery of God we've gone into detail what the mystery of God is we looked at it in chapter 10 we looked at it in chapter 11 what is the mystery of God because now it's time for the mystery of God to be fulfilled what is the mystery of God God's plan of redemption you're right the mystery of God is God's plan of redemption and the reason God had to keep it a mystery and the reason he had to actually just share it a little bit at a time to his profits and kind of keep a secret and hidden because Paul tells us had Satan knowed had the rulers of this world known they never would have crucified Jesus so it's Satan known the crucifixion was a part of God's redemptive plan he never would have crucified him but he didn't know until it was too late until Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead look at verse 5 and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with the rod of iron now of course the red dragon is there to devour but he doesn't get a chance to and her child was caught up into God into his throne the child of course is the Messiah Jesus Christ he will rule the nations with a rod of iron during the Millennium now I want you to notice something John does something that probably none of us would have done in fact I don't believe that John did it on his own of course he's just writing down what he sees in the vision but if you noticed what John omitted what John left out the Messiah was born and he ascended to heaven what's the two most important things that Jesus did he died and he was resurrected people we're gonna have we're gonna have ease Easter a week after Sunday we're gonna focus we're going to concentrate on the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and the resurrection so you would think that he would say the child was born he died he was resurrected and then he ascended to God he doesn't do that John omits the death and the resurrection of Jesus and he goes right to the ascension look at the last part of verse 4 and her child was caught up into God and to his throne and people there's a reason why God or why John omitted the death and resurrection of Jesus and went right to the ascension it's because he wanted to emphasize the child's destiny you see the destiny of Jesus Christ is to rule over God's kingdom upon this earth which is what the book of Revelation is all about and the Ascension of Jesus to heaven and to God's throne emphasizes Jesus being exalted to his rightful position look at Hebrews chapter 10 verses 12 through 13 but our high priest who's he talking about he's talking about Jesus Christ offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins good for all time then he talking about Jesus Christ sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand there he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet and people I'm telling you Jesus ascension to the throne of God emphasizes the fact that his part in the redemption process his part in the mystery of God is finished so why on the cross he said it is done now he's talking about the curse he still had to go to hell still had to be resurrected still had this into heaven still had to take his blood sprinkle it on the throne of God to turn it from a judgment seat into a mercy seat but once that was finished in that Ascension he sat down on the right hand of the Father so he ascended for this purpose to sit on God's right hand and now his destiny is to rule over the kingdom of God upon this earth so now the only thing that is left to do is to Humble his enemies and to put them under his feet and that's what revelation is all about so the thing that John focuses in on is this child ascended to the throne of God he has taken his rightful place and this is what revelation is all about and he's sitting on that throne but he's only there waiting until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ he's waiting for his enemies to be defeated and for them to be placed under his feet now once Satan's plan to devour the child was foiled he redirected his hostility and you can guess where once he figured out that he'd been foiled once he figured out that part of God's redemptive plan was for Jesus to be resurrected and he led him into his own place of Dominion which was hell and he was resurrected once he realized that he redirected his hostility and he redirected it towards the woman the nation of Israel now I told you that Revelation chapter 12 explains why the Jews have always been persecuted ever since they've been a nation and here's why they were persecuted before Jesus Christ came because Satan wanted to wipe them out to keep the Messiah from coming if the Messiah never came to redeem the world the world would continue on in a sinful condition forever that would remain his kingdom he would be able to do whatever he wanted but most of all what would make him the most happy is that God's plan would be foiled the guy that's always right the guy that's omniscient omnipotent omnipresent he's going to be goofed up and that was his main objective but then once Jesus comes and he realizes I've been duped that was God's plan all along to be the sacrifice for the people's sins he died for their sin he paid the punishment and he was resurrected and all those who believed her joined with him and are locked into a covenant and once he realized that now all he can do is redirect his hostility and he's redirected his hostility to the woman who gave birth to the child that's why the Jews have always been persecuted before Jesus came to keep him from coming and after Jesus was resurrected because the woman brought forth the Messiah and that's something look at verse number 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days now you need to understand something from verses 1 through 5 he's dealt with things in the past John wanted to explain number 1 why there's evil in this world number two why Satan's done what he's done number three why have the Jews always been persecuted and so he's actually kind of talked about everything that's in the past but when he gets to verse number six all of a sudden he brings his up to date we're talking about when I say up to date to the point of the seventh trumpet being blown we're at the midpoint of the tribulation and I'm gonna show you why I know that in just a second but notice what it says and a woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God or or by God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days now the reason the woman is fleeing to the wilderness is because the abomination of desolation has taken place remember we've already studied that notice that God has prepared a place for her in the wilderness and how long is he going to feed her and who does the woman represent Israel how long is he gonna feed her in the wilderness 1260 days which is three and a half years that tells us that Israel is going to flee to the wilderness at the midpoint of the tribulation so all of the sudden John kind of stops from his history lesson and he says alright now you kind of know the background you know what's taking place you understand about the woman who she represents you understand the child you understand the dragon and what he's trying to do now let's bring you up to where we're at in the book of Revelation we're at the midpoint of the tribulation and the woman has to flee to the wilderness but God is there to take care of her and he's gonna feed her for 1260 days which means that the woman the nation of Israel is going to remain in the wilderness for the duration of the last half of the tribulation now how long were the last half of the tribulation last 1260 days three and a half years but the reason that Israel flees to the wilderness is because of the abomination of desolation Jesus spoke about that and we've read it before but we're gonna read it again look at what Jesus said in Matthew 24 verses 15 through 16 when you therefore see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the Holy Place whosoever eateth this let him understand then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains so the Jews in Jerusalem those in Judea are going to flee when the abomination of desolation occurs and again I know this is repetitious but I want to drive it home when does the abomination of desolation take place according to Daniel at the midpoint of the tribulation we're getting all of this down I mean God is just continually pounding it into us how long this tribulation is going to be how long the first half will be how long the second half will be who's going to be persecuting who's going to be the persecuted now where do you think Israel is going to flee to it just says the wilderness well most scholars believe that it's Petra and I believe that - Petra is located about 20 miles south of the Dead Sea it's located in present-day Jordan in the mountains this is this is mountainous terrain actually from the Dead Sea all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba and inside of that there's this natural valley with mountains surrounding it but it's a perfect place to go in the wilderness to seek safety first of all there's only one way in to Petra and it's through a crack in one of the mountains that surrounds the city of Petra that crack is one mile long if you go back to Israel with us we're going to extend it if you have the time we'll go for either 10 or 14 days we're trying to get the best deal that we can but we'll try and see Petra at the end when you start walking to Petra it takes a mile or you walk a mile kind of downhill it's a nice little thing the wind is really coming through there it's nice and cool because the cliffs are so high and and the sun's not really hitting you that's when you start coming back right mom that's when it hits you but it's about a mile long and at times this crack in the mountain that you're walking through is only about five to six feet wide and at other times it's 30 to 40 feet wide now from the ground when you're walking in this crack from the ground or the floor to the top of the mountain it's about a thousand feet so tall sometimes you're completely shaded from the Sun we went about noon twelve o'clock and you know because the Sun should have been right at the top sometimes where you got you couldn't even see it it was just shaded where we were now here's a good picture if you don't mind of the entryway to Petra go ahead and pop that up we're just starting to come into that in fact let me just see if I can in the day of the Nabataeans who actually carved this city into the into the rock and we're going to see this a little bit later they actually had an arch you see that arch that's starting to come it's since falling down but if you'll notice this crack and what's kind of interesting is the way the contour of the rock is if when you're walking through you notice the contour the other side fits it like a glove literally this is just a crack in the mountain now it starts off kind of wide but as you begin to walk through there you begin to see it someplace it's there's only five to six feet as I say it another place this is thirty five a thirty to forty feet here's some more pictures of the crack in the mountain that leads to Petra let's go ahead and go through that if you don't mind here's kind of a wide spot you can see it now move on to the next one if you don't mind now starting to get narrow can you see that right through there so we were in a wide spot and we were in a narrow spot and what's interesting if you'll notice this kind of leans back this way this leans towards it literally now of course some things have been eroded by wind and by rain but you can see we're literally it just cracked and if you remember you're walking through this crack in a mountain that's over a mile long now once you get to the very end you've walked about a mile all of a sudden you come to this very narrow spot and the first thing that you see is the Treasury now let me tell you what our guy did our guide had us walked to a certain place where we couldn't see the end of it he said okay I want three people to get in the front just form a line three lines or three columns right behind them and so we had three people that that got in the front and then everyone else had to put their hands on the show judge the person in front and we closed her eyes he said okay don't open your eyes and he said March and we marched about 20 feet he says okay stop open your eyes and we came to the end of that crack the end of about a mile let's put that up there and the first thing that we saw was a part of the Treasury carved out of the mountain now if you don't mind let me show you two more pictures of the Treasury let's pop the next one in I don't know if you can see how big this is but look how small we look compared to this this is just carved into this with this huge room behind it go ahead and go to the next one here's kind of a different angle that we're back and let's show the last one different angle of it nope that's not it that was the last one okay and then as you go on you turn to the right and you see this valley begin to open up or at least it's it's kind of this wide place it's going towards a big valley and as you're going through this valley you begin to see other structures that are carved out of the mountain on both sides now some of these were actually places where they would bury people but a little bit further because our guide kind of made it sound like every one of these places were tombs and it wasn't true in fact about a few books stayed a little bit deeper talked with others went through it no no they actually carved this city and so many of these rooms into it and so as you go you begin to see all of these other structures that are carved so let me show you some more pictures here's some little rooms see these little bitty rooms these are the little bitty rooms that are just kind of carved inside you'd be able to go in summer tombs but some are not - and then you go in a little bit further let me show you a larger structure here's a larger structure see how big it is and and these are just all over inside this natural Valley that's surrounded by all of these mountains here's some more that's up in here in fact I believe this place was actually called it was the prison along with where they would ho court because what they did is actually had bars on these place and inside was their court so if you had someone maybe that got out of hand they would be cutting they would come to the courthouse and then they had places to lock people up let's move on to the next one here's some more structures and you can see how large these are because here we're standing a long ways these people are standing a long ways away look at these people next to the structure can you see how huge these things are now as I said the valley of Petra in fact it kind of it moves along and it's not just one big valley it kind of goes off into branches but there's mountains and these mountains are such that you can't get through them you can only get through to Petra through this one way now I'm not saying an individual couldn't climb over the mountains and take enough food and he climbs down and continues to climb but let me show you some of the mountains that are surrounding this these are the mountains that are actually these are the type right here that are surrounding it so literally you could not take an army to go and attack Petra in fact what's kind of interesting is the way the Nabataeans were actually conquered by the road by the Romans as the general came and they tried to take it there's this mile-long crack in the walls he took his troops down and he thought man I would be able to just take them my men are trained but what he didn't understand was when you came to these places that were narrow they just had all the other things there and his men were just being slaughtered and he had to pull back and he did not understand how can I take this and they scattered all around and they realized we can't get in and there's 25,000 people in this place that's just laughing at him and then one of his in our leaning up against the side and when he does he breaks a tile piece that's been covered over by dirt and when he breaks he looks in there and there's water running through it and they realized the water that's going to Petra is coming from a spring and if we cut off the water supply we can force them to come out and that was the only way that the Romans were able to conquer the Nabataeans now some of you are probably thinking well won't the Israelites be in that same condition I'm going to explain why they aren't going to be in the same condition or situation that Nabataeans were in in just a minute now let me show you a map of the valley where Petra is all right basically this is the visitor center this is where we had all our buses and then we started right there that's the crack now here's what's interesting you follow this crack through the mountains for 1 mile - you open up right here and this is the valley right through here in fact how many of you know that Abraham Abraham I'm sorry Aaron's tomb you get through from Petra my horse so it's there you actually go up there can see it but we didn't get there and Emmy explained why because it took a mile to get to this the very first thing that we see when you come out is the treasury now all these little things here are major buildings that are carved into the rock and then actually you come all the way in before the valley really gets big but here's the sad thing we were there maybe six hours is that right surely by the time we got there by the time we came out maybe six hours something like that because we had time it took us a long time to get there we had time to go in but then you had to start back and the interesting thing is as far as we got was right there now you see that blue line there would you like to know what that is that's a theater they carved a theater out of this rock and it seeded about 5,000 people in fact let me show you a picture of the theater if you mind look at this theater here's what's kind of interesting if you're rich enough there's your boxes oh yeah and they have this elevated floor and of course it's been torn down since then and came in but this seated about 5,000 people now can we go backwards to look at the map okay that's where the theater is we entered in right here to see that the Treasury and that we went about right there and and I bet we've went another half a mile to get to that point and we still didn't get to the point where it opens up now they had all of these homes places for cattle all of these people actually lived in this huge Valley and the the wilderness was there protection no one ever built a better fort than what they had and that was as far as we got now when we had to go back because if you were not at the bus and let me tell you we had a person on our in our group that got left twice same guy I couldn't believe it but if you didn't get back to the bus man we're on a we're on a time frame and so they would leave so on our way back I want to show you what the crack looks like let's hit that okay now the Treasury is on this side and we're getting ready to go back out and that's the crack and these isn't as tall as it gets as you get further on in the middle of that but notice these people here and there's the crack as we get ready to head back now if you remember it said and God will feed them for 1260 days when it says that God will feed them it means that God will supernaturally take care of their needs it means that God is going to take care of it now I personally believe that God is going to feed them with manna just as he did the first time the children of Israel were in the wilderness and I believe just as Moses struck the rock and water came out God is going to supernaturally provide the water and they're gonna have their eyes opened because I believe that a few of the remnant the 144,000 be there with them and he's got a perfect theater for when they come together and different places to begin to say just as Moses did this and he'll be able to take them through the Word of God and show them we're at the midpoint of the tribulation we're gonna be here for three and a half more years and God's gonna supernaturally take care of them and their eyes are going to be opened and when Jesus Christ returns they're gonna look up on the one they pierced but they're gonna receive him as their Lord now at the precise time that Israel is fleeing to the wilderness a battle takes place in heaven not on the earth in heaven

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

Views: 15,189

Rating: 4.8559999 out of 5

Keywords: the book of revelation explained, the book of revelation explained bible study, the book of revelation in the bible summary, apostle john, four horsemen, apocalypse, torah, is this the end, holy ghost power, bible mysteries, how to understand the bible, how to understand the bible better, the resurrection of jesus, 666, yom kippur, the feast of the lord, messianic, bible stories, allen nolan, end times ministries, revelation explained, the book of revelation, end times 2019, bible

Id: ZiiuXO-mhgY

Length: 43min 0sec (2580 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 26 2020