Revelation 12:13
http://www.dailybiblestudy.org
Please at your convenience, visit the Daily Bible Study Amazon Store athttp://www.dailybiblestudy.org/amazon-store.html
13 And[kai] when[hote] the dragon[drakon] saw[eido] that[hoti] he was cast[ballo] unto[eis] the earth,[ge] he persecuted[dioko] the woman[gune] which[hostis] brought forth[tikto] the man[arrhen] child. KJV-Interlinear
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. NASB
The dragon as we have already been told, is Satan. The woman is the symbolic representation of the nation of Israel. The male child is of course Jesus Christ who is the Son of God, the humanity of Jesus was born the son of a carpenter through the miracle pregnancy of Mary, both Jews, and descendants of David and descendants of Abraham.
Of all of the cultures and peoples in history, the Israelites have been the most persecuted group of people in all of human history.
Since the time of Pharaoh, they have been persecuted with ruthlessness and death, even of new born infants.
The nation was divided due to unbelief, and the Northern nation of Israel was destroyed, followed by the Southern nation of Judah, and then Rome destroyed them again in 70 A.D.
They were persecuted during the crusades in 1095 A.D. and following. They were persecuted across Europe circa 1100 A.D. King Edward I, banished all Jews from England in 1290. France persecuted them in 1306, followed by Spain in the 1490’s. The Jews were blamed for the Black Death, 1348-50. The Jews were blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, 1881. Millions of Jews died during Stalin’s reign. Millions more died during World War 2. And since 1948 they have been under constant persecution and pressure from their neighbors on every side in the Middle East.
But the worst of times is still future, when Satan is evicted out from heaven, and thus turns on Gods chosen people, specifically the Jewish people, during the last half of the Tribulation. Jeremiah calls this time, the time of Jacob's distress, Jer 30:7, and Jesus calls this time, the great tribulation, Matt. 24:21.
The word for persecute, ‘dioko,’ means to hunt with a passion and vengeance with murderous intent.
So, you can take all of human history past, and collect all of the atrocities that have occurred and throw them out the window as childs play, and start anew with even more brutal and horrendous atrocities yet to come. And that is the picture that is painted here in this verse.
God will be judging all unbelievers for their unbelief, in order to get them to turn to Christ. This includes Jews who are unbelievers. But too, Satan will be persecuting all Jewish peoples out of pure hate, and desperation. Satan’s entire eternal future depends on his destruction of the Jews.
He will fail, but many will suffer.
Daily Bible StudyQuick Links
Donations
http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/m-donation.html
