31 Oct THE COSMIC CONFLICT
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon . . . And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child . . . Revelation 12:1-4
John’s vision on the island of Patmos depicts the cosmic conflict that is driving world history. (1) The woman clothed in the sun with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars is Israel, symbolized similarly in Joseph’s dream of the sun, the moon and the stars bowing down to him. Joseph’s father, recognizing the symbology, curtly admonished him, “Shall your mother and I and your brothers bow down before you?” The twelve stars are the twelve sons of Israel. The Child about to be born represents Jesus, who was born of Mary, a young Jewish virgin. And the huge red dragon represents the serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan. Dragons are dreaded in ancient mythology, and in John’s vision, God uses a dragon to depict His archenemy and the enemy of all mankind,
God foretold this cosmic conflict in His first promise of the Messiah. (Genesis 3:15), “I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head [strike a deadly blow], and you shall bruise His heel.”
The dragon stands ready to devour the child as soon as it is born. When Jesus was born, the dragon was behind Herod’s slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem. He was there with the Arab armies surrounding Jerusalem on the first day of Israel’s statehood, And he is driving the anti-Semitic madness exploding today.
Genesis 1:14 tells us that the stars serve a purpose other than lighting the night sky. “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:.” Wise men in the first century used the constellations to pinpoint where and when Jesus would be born. And a star guided them to the exact location of the baby. There are 12 constellations that reveal the gospel in the heavens, One of those is Virgo, which means maiden, virgin or young girl. In December of 2022 an asteroid named 3241 Yeshuhua—akin to Jesus’ Hebrew name, Yeshua or Yehoshua—passed through the reproductive area of Virgo. Approximately 9 months later, in late September 2023, another asteroid named “Child” (2) passed through the “belly” of the constellation Virgo. With the innumerable asteroids, planets, and stars moving silently above our planet, what is the chance these associations would be made and imply nothing? Yes, I see God speaking through asteroids and constellations to tell us that Israel is coming into a season of travail.
On October 7th, just a few days after this sign, an unprecedented massacre of Jewish people took place, launching Israel’s war against Hamas, Her enemy has said that he will not live in the land with her, but he will live in the land instead of her. I’m not sure we equate the gruesomeness of war with birth pangs, the precious lives lost, and cities blown up. But WWI birthed the Balfour Declaration, the horrors of WWII and the holocaust birthed the state of Israel, and the 6 Day War birthed the reunification of ancient Jerusalem with the Jewish exiles. There are no “good guys.” If the truth was known, we are all “bad guys.” But God is speaking to ALL of us from another kingdom far above and beyond the gross injustices we commit against each other here. None of us is innocent. He has made Israel the center of this cosmic conflict, and she is entering into the pain and agony of giving birth to that which will advance her own deliverance . . . As Mary the mother of Jesus advanced her deliverance by giving birth to the Messiah . . . As in Paul’s cryptic message to Timothy, “But women will be saved through childbearing.” (1 Timothy 2:15). . . As in Micah’s message to Israel telling her that her travail would lead to her future deliverance:
Now why do you cry out aloud? is there no king in you? is your counselor perished? for pangs have taken you as a woman in travail. Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shall you go forth out of the city, and you shall dwell in the field, and you shall go even to Babylon; there shall you be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies. Micah 4:9,10
Israel laboring to bring forth that which will lead to her future deliverance is taking place today. It has taken place in history past; and it will take place in what is yet to be. Present day Israel is a nation where many remember the holocaust and do not believe in God. Their unbelief will not last, We are “catching up to the Bible” (3) as an alliance of nations is forming against Israel, prophesied from ancient days. In.Ezekiel 38:16 God tells His enemy, Gog, that He is going to drag him down to Israel, to “come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.” The present war may or may not be this Ezekiel 38 war, but we are moving toward that day when God will make Himself known in the sight of the nations.
For our sake, He is allowing the cosmic struggle to unfold, to prove Himself, so that whosoever believes will be saved. It is not Israel vs Palestine. It is what God has said vs how the dragon has deceived us. In the cosmic drama, Israel’s travail to bring forth the the child in her womb is God, bringing her to Himself, in her desperate hour of need.
But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts., And I will be their God, and they will be My people. Jeremiah 31:33
This is God’s heart–that out of the cosmic conflict driving history–He would draw to Himself those who recognize Him, believe Him, and are made new by Him . . . that He would be their God and they will be His people. The dragon’s unique hatred for the Jews is a reflection of his loathing for God.
Do we understand that in this cosmic struggle, we are choosing our parts AS MUCH AS WE ARE BEING CHOSEN by the parts we will play? As a Christian, I cannot begin to recognize how difficult it is to be a Jew. My Jewish friends, the part you have been chosen to play is both the bane of your existence and your greatest honor. In you, through you, using you the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will prove to the world that He is God and that He has loved you. He Who is as merciful as He is severe has spoken of you what He has said of no other people on earth: “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.” Isaiah 40:1,2
***********************************************************
(1) https://israelmyglory.org/article/the-fiery-red-dragon/
(2) Interestingly, this asteroid was discovered back in 1989 by an American Astronomer with the initials J.C., Jack Child
(3) Jack Hibbs, Happening Now, October 25
.