The Emphasis and Intensity of God (3)

 Three’s (3) Denote God’s emphasis and Intensity. Three scoops of ice cream are better than one or two scoops! If you want to impress upon someone, give them three scoops. That will be about as much as most people can handle. Emphasize three scoops of someone’s favorite flavor and that will wake up their taste buds … now that is intense! God uses three’s (3) to say what he means and to mean what he says.

Three-fold Reference to the Child (Christian Church):

1. … “And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” (Rev. 12:2). (Emphasis added).
2. … “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast 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.” (Rev. 12:4). (Emphasis added).
3. … “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” (Rev. 12:5). (Emphasis added).

Commentary: These three verses, along with other verses in Chapter twelve (12) of Revelation have come under intense scrutiny over the 2017-2018 time period in light of the actual celestial fulfillment and occurrence of Rev. 12:1 on September 23/24, 2017; … “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.” It is not my intention to go into great detail regarding who, what, why, where, when and how of this prophetic fulfillment. There are a number of excellent resources available online, by others who are more experienced in commenting on this subject matter and in providing proof of its occurrence. Personally, I go on record in believing that this celestial phenomena in fact did occur, in the manner described in Rev. 12:1. I only bring this up now, because it weighs heavily on our understanding of end times events when taken into context with the supporting verses referenced above (12:2, 12:4, and 12:5).

The “woman being with child” referred to is Israel. The “child” is the Christian Church. Israel/Judaism gave birth to Christianity. Genetically speaking, Israel gave birth to Jesus Christ through the lineage of David. Thus, both Jesus Christ and the Christian Faith were born from Israel. When the Jews/Israel rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Christ then proclaimed his message of salvation to the rest of the world (Gentiles) which was accepted and became known as the Christian Faith. Verses 12:1 through 12:5 use symbolism to describe the characters/entities being referenced. The imagery suggests that the woman (Israel) is pregnant, in labor, and about ready to give birth to the child (Church). In an attempt to not get lost in the forest explaining this, the child (Christian Church Age Believers) has not been born yet. The Christian Church was conceived at Pentecost over 2,000 years ago. As a child, it has gestated for a long time and undergone various permutations of development as exhibited by Christ’s seven letters to the seven churches in Asia-Minor. It is a somewhat commonly held belief that at some point (only known to God), that the child will be ready to be born. It will have gone through the process of being conceived, growing and developing and coming to the point where it can be born and brought home. As stated elsewhere in my commentary, the devil or Satan wants to devour or destroy the Church and to deceive men into not coming to the knowledge of the saving grace of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. As such, the dragon is waiting to devour the child as soon as it is the process of being birthed or born. Miraculously, just as the child is being born, it is caught up and taken home (throne of God) to heaven before the devil can cause it any harm.

This is also known as the blessed hope or the rapturing/harpazo of the Church. Verse 12:5 tells us that the child was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. We know this to be the Church, or redeemed believers from the Church Age because there are many supporting verses that indicate overcomers or Christians will be granted authority to co-rule with Christ, during his Millennial Kingdom. This may come as a surprise to many Christians, but Christ does in fact promise that we will co-rule with him. The Bible is silent on who from Christendom will be granted authority to co-rule with Jesus Christ, or in what capacity. That is to be determined, probably at the Bema Seat of Christ when he judges what each of us have done for his kingdom, while on earth. It is possible that co-ruling with Christ will a special reward or role for a Christian, based on something they did for Christ. We don’t know.

The important thing to understand in the three verses is that Israel is ready to give birth to the Church. That the devil is waiting to destroy, consume or otherwise devour the church once it is deemed full-term by God. And God then rescues the church supernaturally as it is being born. Only God knows how many souls it will take to fill his Church’s nursery or birthing room, or when the conditions for birthing are just right. These three verses also provide strong support to a pre-tribulation rapture of the child, or the Church.