{"id":10171,"date":"2022-06-04T05:37:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T10:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-revelation-12\/"},"modified":"2022-04-29T14:16:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T19:16:52","slug":"devotional-on-revelation-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-revelation-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Revelation"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16394\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16394\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/P9259744.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16394\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/P9259744-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/P9259744-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/P9259744-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/P9259744-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/P9259744-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/P9259744.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16394\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Grand Canyon, AZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Merry Christmas\u2026maybe<\/p>\n<p>Revelation 12: She was giving birth to a Child.<\/p>\n<p>John\u2019s vision shifts to new images including that of a dragon and war in heaven. It\u2019s my guess that his original readers better understand the symbolism than we do. Interpretations are all over the map but due to the fact this book is written to be read by first century Christians I lean toward understandings of it that keep their perspective in mind. Also, there\u2019s such a strong parallel to the story of the birth of Christ that I tend to think that John\u2019s using that well known story to illustrate something more. Mary, the most blessed of women, gives birth to the Son of God. Immediately, Satan tries to have him killed but, being warned in a dream, his earthly father, Joseph, takes them and flees to the desert, Egypt. Throughout his ministry there\u2019s a war for the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls. Ultimately, though, Satan&#8217;s defeated as Jesus goes to the cross, winning the ultimate victory for all who will come to him. It all fits, kind of. The question for Bible scholars is \u201cWhat does it illustrate?\u201d Most say that the woman represents the Church and that the battle represents the war waged by the enemy of our souls in an attempt to defeat the Church. If that\u2019s right the message here is one of divine protection and ultimate victory. Even readers like me, in spite of my struggles in understanding the passage, can conclude that, whatever the exact meaning here, God will protect his people and that ultimately, in Christ, victory is ours. I know I don\u2019t get everything that\u2019s going on here, but that\u2019s a pretty good place to start.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: We don\u2019t have to understand everything to have a firm grasp on the fact of the Lord\u2019s provision for, and protection of, us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merry Christmas\u2026maybe Revelation 12: She was giving birth to a Child. John\u2019s vision shifts to new images including that of a dragon and war in heaven. It\u2019s my guess that his original readers better understand the symbolism than we do. Interpretations are all over the map but due to the fact this book is written [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1528,1428],"tags":[1380,179,429,1055,1072,1131],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16396,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions\/16396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}