Revelation 12:13-17

Satan is a very real and present danger to those who believe in Jesus Christ but we overcome him with the power of the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus Christ.


A time probably equals one year, so the period of protection here is three and a half years, which corresponds to the length of the two witnesses’ testimony in 11:3. It is also equivalent to the period of the beast’s authority (see “forty-two months” in 13:5), which includes his ability “to make war with the saints and to overcome them”. There is no way of determining whether this describes an actual flood or figuratively describes the onslaught of Satan against those protected by God.

Enraged by his inability to destroy the woman, Satan, the dragon, resorts to war against a related group. The rest of her offspring are believers in Christ, since they keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is not clear whether they are Jewish believers (physical offspring of the woman) or Gentile believers (spiritual offspring; see Gal. 3:29). In desperation, Satan opposes every trace of a biblically oriented faith in Christ.

Revelation 12:13-17

13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.