Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: Matt Lawson
Company: GDC

The Concept of Freedom by the Founding Fathers	10-03-03.TG09-47 /

John’s Double Entendre in Rev 12:1–4, Herod Is Lucifer’s Hit Man; Negative Volition to Messiah Has Caused Periodic Holocausts; the Ultimate Holocaust: the Time of Jacob’s Trouble in the Great Tribulation, Jer 30:4–7; Gabriel Instructs Joseph to Go to Egypt in a Dream, Matt 2:13
John points this out in a double entendre in Revelation 12:1–4.
Revelation 12:1 -		A great sign [ a miracle ] appeared in heaven: a woman [ the nation Israel ] clothed with the sun [ Jacob ], and the moon [ Jacob’s wives: Leah, Rachael, Bilhah, & Zilpah ], under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars [ the 12 tribes of Israel ].
v. 2 -		Nevertheless she [ double entendre: the virgin pregnancy of Mary & the Tribulational pregnancy of Israel ] having been with child, screamed [ Mary at delivery & Israel in the Tribulation ], suffering labor pains [ literal & the holocausts of history ] and in pain to give birth [ the desire to deliver the Messiah & to be delivered from anti-Semitism in the Tribulation ].
NOTE:	John’s symbolism illustrates Jewish blindness to the Messiah’s First Advent.  The historical delivery of the Jesus in Bethlehem is contrasted to the historical misery, e.g., labor pains of periodic holocausts that occur due to rejection of the First Advent.  Whereas Mary’s pregnancy is real, the Jewish pregnancy is false.  The Messiah has already been born.  The intensity of the holocausts only increases as time wares on and is maximized in the Tribulation.
Revelation 12:3 -		Then another sign was seen in heaven: and behold a great red dragon [ Lucifer ] who had seven heads [ the seven historic kingdoms opposing Israel ] and ten horns [ the Revived Roman Empire’s ten-nation confederation ], and on his heads were seven diadems [ di£dhma, diadēma ].

“[yn!x* (saniph) A masculine noun indicating a turban. … a headpiece worn by persons in authority in ancient Near East”  (The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament, s.v.: “[yn!x*” [6797]).  “di£dhma (diadēma)” … not a crown but a filament of silk, linen, or some such thing tied around the head as a symbol of royal dignity” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, rev. ed., s.v. “di£dhma” [1238]).

This is a description of the Satan’s influence on seven national entities that oppose Israel.  Historically they are Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome.  Presently for John it was the Roman Empire and, prophetically, the Revived Roman Empire.

R. B. Thieme, Jr., Armageddon, 2d ed. (Houston: R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 2002), 15.

Revelation 12:4 -		And his tail [ a dragon’s power is in his tail; illustrates Lucifer’s power ] dragged away a third of the stars of heaven [ stars is a pseudonym for angels in Scripture, either elect or fallen; this refers to the angelic rebellion ] and threw them to the earth.  Then the dragon stood before the woman [ Mary & Israel ] who was about to deliver [ labor ] for the purpose that when she might give birth [ the virgin birth ], he might devour her Son [attempted regicide by Herod ].
John wrote the Revelation in c. a.d. 96.  The apostle looks forward to the ultimate Luciferian Holocaust that will occur in the Tribulation and compares it to the attempted singular holocaust of Jesus as a Child.  Mary had labor pains prior to delivery and strained to rid herself of the fetus.
Throughout its history, Israel has rejected the teachings of the Old Testament Scripture that revealed the Messiah in the rituals mandated in the Torah and continued its blindness throughout the Incarnation.
Because of this reversionism, Israel has exposed herself to numerous Luciferian attempts at genocide.  The most recent is known as The Holocaust, the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II.
The word holocaust is derived from the Greek verb ÐlokautÒw (holokautoō): to burn whole.  In the New Testament it makes reference to the burnt offerings among the various sacrifices offered at the Temple.  It was gruesomely applied to Germany’s anti-Semitic carnage between 1933 and 1945.
Various expressions of anti-Semitism have plagued the Jews throughout their history, all designed to eliminate them from history and thus make it impossible for the Lord to fulfill the unconditional covenants given to them as a nation.
These assaults are dramatized by John as the birth pangs associated with childbirth.  Israel is the pregnant woman of the Tribulation.  The midpoint of Daniel’s seventieth week is called the Great Tribulation in Revelation 7:14; Jeremiah describes it thusly in:
Jeremiah 30:4 -	Now these are the words which the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah:
v. 5 -		“For thus says the Lord, ‘I have heard a sound of terror, of dread, and there is no peace.
v. 6 -		‘Ask now, and see if a male can give birth.  Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth?  And why have all faces turned pale?
v. 7 -		‘Alas! For that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it.’”
The nation Israel is characterized in Revelation 12 as a woman but the people in this passage are the citizens who are men—men who desire to give birth to peace but their negative volition has permitted the discipline of the ultimate Holocaust to transpire during the period of the Great Tribulation.
Charles L. Feinberg’s comments on this passage are instructive:
Verses 4–6.  Jeremiah is stating that before the just-mentioned promise of restoration can be fulfilled, the nation must be severely disciplined, but not to the extent of final calamity.  The words “fear” and “terror” (v.5) not only point to war in contrast with peace but, as will presently be seen, have further implications.  The awful terror that will come can be compared only with the travail of a mother in childbirth (v.6), a figure of extreme distress.  (p. 203)
The passage is referring to … the time of tribulation in the end time before Israel’s final restoration.  The reference is to the Day of the Lord.  “That day” (v.7–8) … is the day … of God’s comprehensive judgment.  The prophetic Scriptures are replete with references to this unique time of Jacob’s distress; e.g., “There is none like it” (cf. Matt 24:21 with the earlier prediction in Dan 12:1).  Notice that the travail will issue in both physical and spiritual deliverance and that liberation will be such that never again will Israel be enslaved by any nation.  This could never be said of any deliverance to this present hour; it must refer to eschatological times.
The phrase aWhh^ <oYh^ (hayyom hahu’, “that day”) is frequently used in the prophetic Scriptures to introduce information concerning the Day of the Lord, a significant eschatological theme.  This passage is important (1) in linking Israel with that time, (2) in portraying the excruciating agony of the experience, and (3) in stating unequivocally Israel’s deliverance from it.  (p. 203–204)

Charles L. Feinberg, Jeremiah: A Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), 203–204.

Although Israel has remained blind since the 3 b.c. arrival of their Messiah and although as a people they have endured multiple Holocausts because of it, they will not face the intensity of Lucifer’s wrath until the last half of the Tribulation—“the time of Jacob’s distress” (v. 7).  The nation Israel is depicted by John as a woman in labor trying to give birth and gain release from the pains of demonic torture but yet unable to give birth due to negative volition.
Yet there is the remnant—the Israelite pivot that emerges in the Tribulation—which will inherit the unconditional covenants given to Abraham and David.
The major attack on those covenants, on Israel, and on the Source of eternal salvation occurs in Bethlehem when Herod, Lucifer’s designated hit man, sends out his squad of assassins.
Matthew 2:13 -	Now when the Magi had gone, behold, the angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up!  Take the Child and His mother and hurry into Egypt and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is on the verge of deploying a search and destroy mission to execute the Child.  (CTL)
v. 14 -	So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.  (nasb)
In verse 13, Gabriel issued a mandate to Joseph: ™ge…rw paralamb£nw (egeirō paralambanō):  “Get up; Take the Child and His mother into Egypt.”  Verse 14 begins with these same Greek words but on this occasion the verb is not an aorist imperative but rather an aorist indicative.  Gabriel issued the order and it is a fact that in response Joseph got up and took his family out of Bethlehem.
The future of the human race’s option for eternal life hangs in the balance of Joseph’s orientation to authority.  When God dispatches Gabriel, a seraph-rank angel who heads the Angelic College of Heralds, to warn Joseph of impending danger, Joseph responds immediately.
Remember that “the imperative mood is the mood of intention.  It is the mood farthest removed from certainty.  The imperative moves in the realm of volition (involving the imposition of one’s will upon another) and possibility.”

Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar: Beyond the Basics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 485.

Joseph could have decided to get a little more sleep, wait until morning, have a nice breakfast, load up the donkeys, and then casually head out to Egypt.  This was not the desired response to an imperative issued by a messenger of God.

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