Revelation 12:7-17

This is a little bigger than last time, but we have done chunks of 11 verses before. All there is more text, and we are here to study that text, so let’s get to it. The servant of God should love hard work, so let’s show we love it.

Michael is the next character that is introduced in our cosmic drama. Here, it informs us that he is an angel, but Jude 1:9 tells us that he is an Archangel, a command-structured upgrade from just an angel. Jude 1:9 reads, “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!'” The Dragon and the Woman will figure into these events as well. Some have taken the flood that the Dragon expels from his mouth as the Germanic tribes coming to destroy the Roman Empire. Maybe there was something to that, in that all commentaries at least mention it, the oldest of which is Matthew Henry, but it seems very post- or amillennial to me. In both of those eschatological frameworks, Satan is bound. That doesn’t happen until Rev. 20, so I don’t think that is our present-day experience. Again, this is my premillennialism coming out for a breath of air. Satan, if he is bound today, has very long chains. I prefer to think of this as a kind of metaphorical story that covers the events that will happen, some happening on earth, and some happening in heaven, not necessarily at the same time. Like I stated last week, verb tenses in Revelation are a bit of an issue because they may have more than one event in mind and those events are perhaps patterns, of which recognition is also a type of biblical prophesy. Either way, we will try to make sense of the text. I will remind you that this is sometimes metaphorical, meaning that it may have symbolic meanings. Here, I think metaphorical and literal events may interact, though I am at a loss to understand some of them. This can happen in the study of Scripture, and when it does, we must seek greater understanding from the Word of God itself in humble prayer and under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. We will have to lean on this at some point in this and future studies. As Paul restated a verse from Isaiah, “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?” (Rom. 11:34)

I don’t need to give any lessons in wrapping our heads around difficult texts. We all know that experience. So with Aspirin in hand, we will attempt to analyze the text.

I broke it down as follows:

KV10: The Beginning of the End

10: Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.

7-9: Michael Victorious over Satan

10-12: The Dragon is Cast to Earth

13-17: The Dragon pursues Israel

There is definitely an end-times vibe here. The way this is viewed will influence your eschatology. The best thing I’ve ever seen to explain this is a diagram I first saw produced by Chuck Missler.

I’ve shown this before, but the further you are to the right of the diagram, the more literal you take the Scriptures. In this case, we apply it to eschatology, that’s the bottom row. There are gaps and holes on purpose. I used to think of myself as falling into that space between pre- and mid-tribulation rapture positions. I have through my own study of the Scriptures fallen toward the right and a pre-tribulation rapture position to the point where I can no longer make sense of any kind of middle position. It will happen. The question is when. Someday, millions of us will vanish without a trace, and there will be all kinds of explanations for it, but the truth will be that Christ came and rescued us from this present evil age. Praise the Lord for that. Let’s get into the text.

KV10: The Beginning of the End

This is the moment. It is the point in time where God’s kingdom once again includes the earth and the Conqueror Himself, Christ our King, is imminently returning to set up His Millennial reign on the earth in short order. We know this from the Greek text, but we will say more about that when we get there. For me, this verse fills my heart with joy and hope (the certain expectation kind) that our Lord Jesus is returning to rule. Detractors are filled with anything but, from laughter to ridicule and scorn. They will not be then. Will this be audible on the Earth? I do not know. But I get the impression that there will be some who know who are not Christ’s. They will be terrified because they will have a hint at what is coming. But let’s look at the text as opposed to…reminiscing? What do you call it when you want to think with fondness of future events? Longing? I don’t know, maybe.

7-9: Michael Victorious over Satan

Remember, these are future events laid out so Christ’s servants would know what He was doing, probably so we would know what we are doing and how to behave. I spoke on Wednesday morning at my front door with Jehovah’s Witnesses who wanted to engage in debate about who Christ is. For the record, they believe that He is a created being, but we know from the Scriptures that He is the God-Man. See John 17:3-5, which says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” This says, in the words of Jesus Himself, that He Himself pre-existed the Earth and was with the Father, God. This is an important point because most of the world seems to think that Jesus is the “created equal” of Satan or Lucifer (same being) when He is NOT. He is God Himself in bodily form (Col. 2:9). “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form…” If Lucifer has a “created equal,” it would probably be Michael, who we know is an Archangel. I have heard it suggested, though I think it to be speculation, that Michael is one of the covering cherubim in the lid of the ark of the covenant. These two equals and their armies will wage a battle, but let’s see what the text says. I suppose He could do this as a created being, but then you have to account for the multiple passages where He was directly asked if He was the promised Messiah or identified Himself as such. Messiah being God was well established at that time, or Caiaphas would not have accused Him of heresy and worthy of death for saying that He was the Son of the Blessed (God).

7: And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,

There are some important points to note here. We will start with the idea that there was war in heaven. This verb is in the aorist tense, (“was war,” Καὶ ἐγένετο from the text). This is just registering the fact that the war happened without reference to an actual time. Maybe this happened ages ago, or maybe it will happen in the future, we do not know from this phrase alone. I do have a thought, and we will come to it shortly. It involves all of those verbs in the aorist tense (in English that is represented by simple past tense).
This verse defines the two sides of this cosmic conflict: Michael and Lucifer. This is a battle of two true Generals. Both are wise and powerful. Michael commands all of heaven’s forces and Lucifer commands an army of them also. If you will recall, it seems that Lucifer is outnumbered 2 to 1, the ratio of beings when the great dragon wept away a third of the stars (angels) of heaven, which we looked at last time. The dragon and his angels waged war. That’s how the verse ends. Does this suggest they attack first? Again, that is speculation, but I do think it is possible. So far, all we have are details. Next verse.

8: and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.

Some have suggested that this means that Lucifer and his forces will win. Maybe he even believes that. I don’t know, but we cannot determine that here. There is a linguistic argument that says that it is Lucifer and his angels that were not strong enough that goes like this: “They” here in context is “the dragon and his angels,” from the immediate context of the previous mention. If further context is needed, see v.9, which we will do right here.

9: And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Here we see that it was the “great dragon” who was defeated, and we determined who that was last time also, and we used this very verse to do that. That “great dragon” is that same serpent from the Garden of Eden (of old) who is called “the devil.” We know who that is, that’s Lucifer himself. He is also called “Satan” here, and that’s not a name, it’s a job description. Interestingly, the Greek word Διάβολος means “an accuser,” used 34 times as the title of Satan! It is also used once of Judas Iscariot, who in his act of rebellion toward God played the part of the Devil, perhaps being spiritually possessed by him, but I think willingly, though Judas failed to “play the tape forward” to see the possible consequences of his betrayal of Jesus.
The Greek word Σατανᾶς is how most of us know him, but as I said, it’s more of a description of his role. It is a Greek form derived from the Aramaic (Heb., Satan (pronounced I think “shatan”), “an adversary,” is used (a) of an angel of Jehovah in Num. 22:22 (the first occurrence of the Word in the OT). It is also used (b) of men, e.g., 1 Sam. 29:4; Ps. 38:20; 71:13; four times in Ps. 109 being the references if you want to fact-check here, although I found these in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. It is notably also used of (c) of “Satan,” the Devil, some seventeen or eighteen times in the OT; and in Zech. 3:1, where the name receives its interpretation, “to be (his) adversary…”. That’s just the Old Testament. In the NT the word is always used of “Satan,” the adversary of God and Christ, of men in general, especially those who are Christ’s people. I say men in general because the Scriptures tell us that “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5 19).” The disturbing picture John used in that passage is that of a newborn infant asleep in the arms of a wet nurse. And they are too helpless to do anything about that.
My whole point about these words is that they both mean “the accuser.” That’s what Satan does in the heavens now. He tries to separate in any way he can God from His chosen people. He cannot, but he tries, constantly. How fortunate that no one can move us or steal us from the hands of Jesus or God the Father. It is this accuser who will lose access to the courts of heaven and his ability to accuse the saints all the time. It’s almost as if Lucifer wouldn’t shut up, so he was forcibly removed and banished by his peers. More speculation on my part.
This is the earth’s loss. We will see why a bit later. But here is where the Devil and all his angels are cast from the heavenly realms down to an earth that is already under God’s wrathful judgment.

Is this part of the Wrath of God? Against the Earth, most certainly. It is almost as if God is saying to men who will not turn to Him in repentance in faith but want to remain in their own sin and serve Satan, “Fine. If you want him so badly, here he is. You have to deal with him and Me at the same time.” I don’t think that’s the entire reason, but maybe it is a part of it. Let’s move on.

10-12: The Dragon is Cast to Earth

We have just examined the narrative of that great evil angel cast out of Heaven and restricted to the earth. This has some important implications. Let’s look.

This is a voice that John heard. Was John on Earth or in Heaven? Either way, he heard this loud voice. The funny (humorous) thing is that that “loud” voice is expressed in Greek as a form of the word mega! That these events are large and anything surrounding them should be “large” in Greek μεγάλην, an adjectival form of mega, should not escape your notice. Whatever God does concerning this is big, and He wants us to know about that. My question is about who else heard that voice. Will it be audible from the sky to people at that time, or will it be simply restricted to Heaven? I do not even know how to go about answering that or if I can. But it says something very specific.
It starts with the word “Now.” Arti (ἄρτι, 737), expressing “coincidence” and denoting “strictly present time,” signifies “just now, this moment,” in contrast (a) to the past, (b) to the future, sometimes without necessary reference to either, [as in this verse]. A reasonable translation here would be “In this moment,” although “now” seems to be the best word we have to express the events taking place then.
What has come? First, the salvation [σωτηρία] and the power [δύναμις], and the kingdom [βασιλεία] of our God. Salvation in this sense of the deliverance of the nation of Israel at the second advent of Christ at the time of “the epiphany (or shining forth) of His Parousia.” (Vine). This verse is referenced by Vine in his work directly. Power here is the miraculous operative power of God. I know I have said it before, but this is where we get our English word dynamite. Used in this relative sense, it means used relatively, denotes inherent ability, capability, and ability to perform anything. Δύναμις here represents the power itself, not the right to use that power, that’s coming in a moment. Basilea denoting sovereignty, royal power, and dominion is used here, it isn’t a geographical thing, it is more of a conceptual thing, but either way, it is sometimes translated as “reign” into English (Vine’s). This Kingdom is God’s kingdom, He made it, He sets the laws, He expands or contracts it whenever and however He wants, it is His, and it is now coming to be shared with mankind, at least the righteous ones.
Then it says “and the authority of His Christ have come…”. That word for “authority is ἐξουσία in Greek, and it means the right to exercise power. Who has that right? The only begotten son of God, God the Son Himself. The word exousia (ἐξουσία, 1849) denotes “authority” (from the impersonal verb exesti, “it is lawful”). From the meaning of “leave or permission,” or liberty of doing as one pleases, it passed to that of “the ability or strength with which one is endued,” then to that of the “power of authority,” “the power of rule or government,” the power of one whose will and commands must be obeyed by others.
That isn’t us, it is Him, which is something we live under now in that “inaugurated eschatology” of G. E. Ladd in his Theology of the New Testament. (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, ©1993 Revised Edition) It is the concept that when Jesus was here the first time, he “inaugurated” or began that “eschaton,” meaning “last things,” with His resurrection. This is the end of that scheme we have called in other studies, particularly Ephesians, the “already but not yet” scheme of How we should live as citizens of this kingdom in the now (already) even though it has not yet fully come (not yet). This is all about how Christ will reign over us. It is well established that we will also reign, but it will be with Him, and only because of His finished work on the Cross of Calvary. To be a part of those who reign with Him, we must repent, that is, turn from our sins and toward Christ in Faith, which He supplies, so there is no excuse to not turn to Him. He has the authority here.
The Accuser of our brethren has been cast down! Rejoice and sing to God a new song, Beloved! This end should always be in our minds as the goal, the prize, where we will be allowed to be with Him for all the rest of all the ages of the ages! He can no longer accuse us before God, who has seen to it that his ability to do so is terminated. We have been washed in the cleansing water of the Word! Our sin no longer will hold sway over us, our flesh will be changed — we will be delivered in order from the penalty, power, and finally the presence of sin! All by our Loving Redeemer who paid the price for us! There are SO many places in Scripture we could turn to here, but there is more in the text, so we’ll move on.

11: And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

“They” here from the context is “our brethren” who were previously accused day and night. These ones overcame the world, the flesh, and the Devil! How? The text tells us:
- “Because of the blood of the Lamb.” This is the substitutionary sacrificial atonement Christ made for all of the sins of His people who would turn to Him on the Cross of Calvary. He perfectly paid the price for all of OUR sin and died in our place. God was so pleased with that, that He raised Him from the dead on the third day after His death, perfectly rescuing us from the perfect wrath of God!
- “The word of their testimony.” This speaks of the change in the way these ones lived, from living for themselves to living for Christ alone. The “testimony” is their “witness” that their lives and words made to others. It comes from the Greek word μαρτυρίας (Noun, Genitive, Feminine, Singular), meaning “evidence given.” What is the evidence we are supposed to give to the world? Ephesians 4:1 and five or six other places in Paul’s letters tell us that because Christ has saved us from the penalty of our own sins and original sin, we are to “walk in a worthy manner” by the principles and “laws” of His coming kingdom, which we have already discussed when we talked about Inaugurated eschatology and the already but not yet principle Ladd speaks of in his book.
- “They did not love their lives even when faced with death.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but Paul said it this way in Acts 14:22b: “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” Some of the saints in Paul’s day died as human torches to light the garden of Nero. Some were food for wild animals for public spectacle. Many were crucified, Peter upside-down, according to tradition. Paul was beheaded. I think if this is going to happen to us, God will provide the grace to face whatever it is, and then there will be a moment of pain, and we will be with Him forever. These martyrs we read of in Revelation 6 knew that. I don’t want to die this way, but if that is what God will, I am ready. Can we all say the same?
For what it is worth, God never asks us to face anything he will not give us His grace as that “way of escape” Paul talks about. Even death is not too big a price to pay to be with our Lord Jesus for eternity. That’s the message here, to those tribulation saints. Be faithful regardless, and we will see you there. There are things worse than death. More on that in future studies.

12: For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

Heaven and all of its inhabitants are commanded to rejoice that the dragon has lost the penultimate battle. The final battle we will see in Revelation 20 in the future. The insufferable Lucifer and all His bad-mouthing of those whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world is now over!
Earth is warned, I think in pity, because of the use of the word, οὐαὶ, or “Woe.” That big voice is still speaking here, and it says what has happened, that the Devil has lost. Maybe it is speculation on my part, but I imagine a little sympathy for the dwellers on the Earth at that time. Heaven can rejoice, but Earth will suffer more. He has been thrown down or perhaps compelled to withdraw to Earth. (It isn’t outside the possibilities. He is confined to Earth and its confines.) This will greatly anger him. He will have, well, mega-wrath. He will also know he only has a short time left of freedom. Why freedom? He is an immortal being. That and I’ve read to the end and I know what will happen to him ultimately. We will get there. Let’s move on because there are very specific ramifications here.

13-17: The Dragon pursues Israel

Who else will he pursue? In verse 17, we read that he will make war on anyone that follows the commandments of God, which will be the new spiritual Israel and Gentile tribulation saints, all of whom will have turned to Christ in the massive evangelism efforts of those 144,000 Jewish evangelists, and we will meet them again in 14:1. Many will have paid for that with their lives already, but the dragon is not finished yet. We will see more of this in chapter 13. Let’s look at the text because the draconic pursuit of believers begins here in earnest. By a real dragon.

13: And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

I wonder if it will take a few seconds or so for Satan to realize that he has lost access to Heaven. “When the dragon saw.” Maybe not, but at some point this new reality will dawn on him, and he will realize his new restrictions, and it will make him very, very angry. Angry enough to persecute something! Who does it say he will pursue? The woman who bore the male offspring. We determined that was Israel and that the child was Christ a couple of studies ago now. That will be a big persecution, and apparently a very productive one, but we will have cause to say more about that in future studies.

14: But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she *was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.

“Two wings of a great [more use of mega] eagle.” In my “brain-damaged theology” gained in the early 1990s, this was perhaps the nation of America aiding the nation of Israel. A better contextual interpretation of this phrase is Exo. 19:4: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.” I say this because it seems plain to see that now in 2025, that nation of America is only interested in helping itself. I will say here for the record that I do not believe that Donald Trump is the Antichrist. He’s from the wrong part of the world, and I will stand on that because the Antichrist is called by both Isaiah and Micah, the Assyrian. I don’t know precisely what that means, but the ancient kingdom of Assyria included the Caucasus Mountains, and this has been, by other theologians, somehow tied to the location from which he hails. We’ll talk more about him next time. My point in this reference to the two wings of an eagle is that this is a promise from God to Israel in the Old Testament.
True Israel, shall I say Believing Israel who has turned to Christ at last, will flee finally from this persecution (which I believe will be worldwide), and go into “the wilderness” and hide in a specific place (which I also do not know, though others have suggested Petra in Jordan, and the description fits somewhat). The two wings of an eagle may refer to possibly a technological rescue, or perhaps a supernatural one, and I have no idea which. These days will see a great deal of supernatural phenomena, including a real dragon, thrown out of Heaven and now contained on Earth!
Also, notice that this is mentioned again this span of 3.5 years. That would coincide with the last half of Daniel’s 70th week, a week of years, a time known as “The Great Tribulation” or “The time of Jacob’s trouble” in Scripture. It uses the coded language of “time, times, and half a time.” It may be that John was trying to obscure details from the Romans that had confined him on Patmos, to begin with, but I don’t really know. Moving on.

15: And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

The serpent (literally) “threw” a stream like a river out of his mouth after the fleeing woman. The text uses ἔβαλεν, which is the 3rd-person singular aorist indicative verb form of ballō, which means the dragon (serpent) used his breath weapon, in this case, water. He was trying to flood her out! Maybe drown her! We do know that he will be trying to cause her to be swept away in the flood of water. He really does not like her, and it is plain to see that. I suppose that serpent, being unsuccessful with the seed of the woman is now going after the woman herself. Wow, talk about FAFO for the dragon. (Fool Around and Find Out.). I almost could see this as a kind of counterfeit flood attempt. Clearly, the Dragon is not equipped for the task. God drowned the whole world because of his interference. Now maybe he is trying to do the same here. Unsuccessfully.

16: But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.

You see? God’s creation recognizes God’s chosen people! The earth itself helped the woman! The Earth opened up and drank up all the water with which the dragon was trying to wash away in his futile little flood. (Yes, it is still more than we as humans can do or deal with. It doesn’t make that untrue, because it is God who is defending His people here, as we have said, Believing Israel. Call it supernatural if you like, the point remains the same. God will help His chosen people, also called “the Elect” in case I slip into that terminology.

17: So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

What does this do? As one might expect, it enrages the dragon with God’s people because through divine help they escaped his wrath. His response is to try to get even with God’s people for being helped by God. There are plenty of examples of this that are reflected in modern culture. Have you ever heard the phrase, “No good deed goes unpunished?” I think it is related to this demonstrated principle. Who are the “children of the woman?” All those who follow Jesus Christ, that group I have already identified as “tribulation saints.” How do we know? First, they keep the commandments. What commandments? I think it means The Ten Commandments. Those are (Exo. 20:2-17):

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Yes, those commandments. That is the very heart of what Theologians call the moral law of God. These are what I believe all of the other laws in almost any society out there today are based on. When it is uncomplicated, they can be boiled down to these. The Lord Jesus summarized these into two laws: Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is written into the very nature of all believers in Christ. It doesn’t mean we don’t sin (violate that) occasionally, but the value that is inherent in those “laws” is apparent to every real believer.
I feel that it is necessary to mention here that it doesn’t mean that we are supposed to engage in self-love. It assumes that we DO love ourselves. We can demonstrate that by taking care of our own needs, working on repenting of our own specific sins, and worshipping the Lord God in the best way we know how. We should also do that with other believers also on this “faith journey” with us. I don’t like that phrase because of its overuse to mean any god of any religion at all, but what other phrase can we use?
I also think it a requirement to mention that we are speaking of that divine love (agapé) that puts the interest of everyone else in front of or of higher importance than those of ourselves. I am not speaking of any kind of feeling, because this is more than a feeling. It is the very testimony to Jesus that I think to which the verse refers. With those two things understood, that should be all saints anywhere left on earth in the context of this passage.
These people are the very thing that the enemy hates, and it is only natural that he will try to attack them in any way he can, just as he attempts today. I’m not certain of this, but his activities may now be limited when he loses access to heaven, but I won’t build a theology on that. He is now in a restricted environment. He may or may not be restricted by it. All we know is that he has lost heaven, but from here on, he will attempt to damage or thwart the will of God in any way he can to prove his point. We will continue to see this as we go on.

This is a huge turning point in the course of the Earth itself. I think this will happen at approximately the 3.5-year point because of the time references that are in verse 14. For those who think this is the point where the rapture occurs, I hope you are wrong, but the Spirit will help us prepare us for what is coming for the people of Christ if you are correct. Some have told me that makes me a pan-tribulationist because it will all pan out in the end. Those folks are right. It will all work itself out in detail in whatever way God sees fit. I humbly give you my own opinions based on my own studies here. I’m a guy who is reading and praying. You can be too. We call this the Berean Nation, and here, we study the Scriptures daily so that we can learn and do what they say and be more consistent and effective followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s what I saw in the text this time.

Next week, I will not be able to do the Study as usual. I have been called on at Bethany Baptist Church in Nepean in my capacity as lay pastor to preach Palm Sunday as part of my regular duty in the church, and I will need the time to prepare the service, not just the message I will be delivering. Please pray for me.

Next study in two weeks (April 17), we will try to look at Rev. 13:1-9, where we will see this beast that bears a striking resemblance to the mega Dragon rising out of the sea. I know verses 1-9 sound like a lot of text at the speed we have been travelling, but we just handled more text this evening, so I am confident we can do it. Until then, Beloved.