God has blessed the Israelitish people to such an extent there has never been a power on earth that can even begin to rival them. Make any kind of comparison you want, whether it be the Roman Empire, or China at its greatest, despite those hundreds of millions of people that are in China, nobody can hold a candle to Israel. That is why the United States and Britain just blew Europe off. There is nothing that they could do about it except yell at us. So does God just write Israel off in the most significant end-time book of all? I think not. It's there, but it is prophetically hidden.
I believe that Herbert Armstrong correctly identified the woman as symbolizing the nation of Israel. Every commentary that I have ever looked into, they too identified Israel as being revealed here in Revelation 12:1. Let's go back to Genesis 37 where some of the same symbolism is used. In this case it appears in the dream or the vision of Joseph.
Jacob clearly understood that he was the sun, his wife was the moon, and his twelve children were the stars. There's Israel. There is the root of Israel. Back in Revelation, those symbols are used for two reasons. One is to signify the root of this woman that is being portrayed here, that it is Israelitish: sun, moon, stars—Jacob, Rachel, and the twelve sons. But the sun, moon, and stars also have a secondary meaning here, and that is to give indication of glory. We are looking at a glorious woman here—one that can be associated with the glorious things in the heaven—the sun, moon, and stars.
Before we go any further, I want you to mark this thing in your mind, in your memory about the glory, because as God is looking at Israel at this time—that is, in the prophetic sense, the time within the prophecies—Israel is glorious. Israel's beginning, if I can put it that way, is glorious—glorious as the heavenly bodies.
I connected Revelation 12:1 to the symbolism that was used at the time Joseph had his dream, and which was very clearly interpreted by Jacob as being a reference to him, to Joseph's mother, and to Joseph's brothers from whom the children of Israel sprang. Therefore, Revelation 12:1 is interpreted by the symbolism there—the sun, the moon, and the stars—as being Israel.
A further proof is in verse 4. This is why I read it. Everybody recognizes that Jesus Christ was born out of Israel. She [Israel] is the woman who is the subject of Revelation 12. I also connected this to prophecy. The promises that were made by God to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 is just one example. There are many promises God gave to Abraham regarding those who would come from him.
The nation of Israel (as every one of us should very clearly understand) did not keep the commandments; yet the reference is made at the end of Revelation 12 that Satan was going to persecute those within Israel who do keep the commandments. That is the church! But a couple of verses before that we saw the woman fleeing. The woman that was fleeing was not the church. It was the nation of Israel. Verse 15 of Revelation 12 makes this exceedingly clear. Verses 15, 16, and 17 pertain to the same woman as do the beginning verses of chapter 12.
The nation Israel is by far the major subject of Revelation 12. This strikingly confirms that in the end-time God is still seeing Israel as a single nation, and as a woman, despite its present end-time scattered condition. It is the nation of Israel that is shown fleeing from the face of the Serpent, and the one the earth helps by swallowing up the flood.
I connected Revelation 12:1 to the symbolism that was used at the time Joseph had his dream, and which was very clearly interpreted by Jacob as being a reference to him, to Joseph's mother, and to Joseph's brothers from whom the children of Israel sprang. Therefore, Revelation 12:1 is interpreted by the symbolism there—the sun, the moon, and the stars—as being Israel.
A further proof is in verse 4. This is why I read it. Everybody recognizes that Jesus Christ was born out of Israel. She [Israel] is the woman who is the subject of Revelation 12. I also connected this to prophecy. The promises that were made by God to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 is just one example. There are many promises God gave to Abraham regarding those who would come from him.
This is the foundational promise and prophecy regarding the fortune of those who come from Abraham. From Abraham came Jacob, and from Jacob came the twelve tribes of Israel.
What we have here is an encapsulated history of the true church. It begins by showing a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun. That is the church. And so we see the origin of the church is in heaven. This is much more condensed than what appears in Revelation 2 and 3, because it covers a great deal more time. It leads us up to the birth of Christ. He is killed. He is caught up to heaven. The church flees into the wilderness (a type of the place of safety) and away from the events of the Middle Ages (a type of the fifth seal). And then there is the Tribulation at the end; and the events come all the way up to the end time, where Satan is really persecuting the church in the Tribulation then.
The book of Revelation sums up the ambivalent image of woman found elsewhere in the Bible. On the one hand, woman is an emblem of evil in the form of the terrifying whore of Babylon—drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs, defiant against Christ. On the other hand, woman is mother of the Messiah (according to Revelation 12:1-5) and the church (according to Revelation 12:17). What a contrast that is! She, as herself, is a type of the spotless church—the Bride of Christ.
The reason that I picked that last verse is because I wanted to show you that the twelve stars were men - depending upon your interpretation of that. I think probably the most common interpretation is that the twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel, which were started by twelve men. That's what the symbolism there is, of the twelve patriarchs.
I do not know that he has been fully cast down yet, but he drew a third of the stars with him. The number of these angels is around fifty million. This, brethren, is the enemy that we in the church today face, and they are all intent on our destruction. Do you understand that that is your destruction and my destruction?
You know the woman is associated with heaven, and that is only to be expected because it was God who made Israel what Israel is. And we should not forget that God married Israel. So, certainly Israel has a heavenly association. Its origins were not in the earth per se, but in God.
Israel is the woman clothed with the sun and moon and wearing the crown of stars. It is tying the symbol to Joseph's dream in Genesis 37 that does this. You look in all the Protestant commentaries, and they agree on this unanimously.
