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Metaphors and Parables In The Bible: Revelation 12
Posted : 27 Jul, 2011 05:08 AM
Metaphors and Parables In The Bible: Revelation 12
"I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets." Hosea 12: 10
"...without a parable spake he not unto them...I will utter my mouth in parables..." Matthew 13: 34-35
The parable of the wheat and the tares is a picture of the "church" where people who were born again mingled with those who were not. This is not a difficult parable to understand. The use of leaven as a parable or metaphor is harder for some to grasp. Leaven refers to something like baking powder which makes bread rise.
Sometimes a city or country which actually exists, or did in Biblical times, is used metaphorically to stand for a cultural system or spiritual condition. The Babylon of prophecy is a complex concept which has its financial, political and religious meanings. There was a literal city of Babylon in ancient times. Then there are metaphors in the Bible which use insects, animals, birds or plants. For example, "I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions...(Luke 10: 19)." Serpents and scorpions are metaphors for people, not literal snakes and insects. Matthew 23: 33 shows who the serpents are, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers..." Christ was talking to the Pharisees, and there are present day Pharisees. In Ezekiel 2: 3-6 the children of Israel are said to be a rebellious nation and in verse 6 are called scorpions. And there are modern day scorpions.
Then in Bible prophecy one person is sometimes mentioned, but this person stands for many, as in II Thessalonians 2: 3, "that man of sin." The second beast of Revelation 13: 11-18 sounds like one man, but it refers to many false prophets. There can't be just a one man false prophet because Jesus said in Matthew 24: 11 that many false prophets shall rise. This use of something almost like a metaphor where one man is spoken of to stand for many of that type has caused those who are taught that scripture must be interpreted literally to go off into false ideas of there being a one man "anti-Christ," or one man as the False Prophet, or a one man "666" from Revelation 13: 18. Pop "prophets" are running around talking about who the "anti-Christ" is, when, in fact, there have been people with the spirit of anti-Christ in them all along, though in the final days some with that spirit will will have more power from the devil.
And there are chapters in the Book of Revelation that present us with metaphors which are hard to understand.
What has been called the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" of Revelation 6: 1-6 presents a set of four horses with four riders. But what or who do they represent? There are all kinds of different answers. Pop Christian prophecy now says the rider on the white horse is the dispensationhalist one-man anti-Christ. Some have claimed it is Christ. If you interpret this set of four by Daniel 7: 4-7, as four kingdoms which are the most powerful governments of the modern era, then you have something that is prophecy, and which connects with what has been happening in the real world and is happening now and will happen in the future. Daniel chapter eleven can also be interpreted in places to connect with present day world reality. This is better than comic book interpretations of pop prophecy about a one man anti-Christ world ruler figure going into a re-built Jewish temple in Jerusalem to kill a pig.
Revelation 11 about the two witnesses who can kill their enemies with fire coming out of their mouths and can stop it from raining and can turn the waters to blood (Old Covenant type judgments), who are killed by the beast who comes up out of the bottomless pit, and then their bodies lie in a city called Sodom and Egypt, but they are resurrected after three and a half days sounds like fantasy fiction. Its very hard to interpret, but pop "prophets" claim the two are Elijah and Moses. Everything must be literal to them.
But Revelation 12 has references to Biblical texts and identities that can be used to interpret it. The questions are who is the women, who is the man child, who are the remnant of her seed, and what does the wilderness stand for?
The woman gives birth to the man child and to the remnant. Verse 5 says " 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."
The man child will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Revelation 2: 27 says "And he shall rule them with a rod of iron," referring to Christ.
The woman, though, it not the literal Mary, the physical mother of Christ. The woman is Israel, but she is not physical Israel. She is that Israel of Romans 9: 8, "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." The woman is the children of the promise, the promise to Abraham, which Paul in Galatians 3: 28-29 explains. The woman is also in Galatians 4: 26, the "...Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." The woman is not the Jerusalem of Galatians 4: 25, the "...Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.' "Jerusalem" is a kind of metaphor itself; it stands for Israel, but there are two Israels as Paul says in Romans 9: 6.
Revelation 12: 17 says "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
The remnant of the woman's seed is found in Zephaniah 3: 12-13, "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies...." It is the remnant of Romans 9: 27, and Romans 11: 5. But it is the remnant of that Israel which is the Israel of the promise, and the Jerusalem which is above, is free and is the mother of us all. It is not the remnant of the Israel which are the children of the flesh. In other words, its Israel born again in Christ.
The wilderness where the woman goes, to a place prepared by God for her, where she is nourished for a time,, and times, and half a time (or three and a half years) is a metaphor for a special spiritual place like that of Isaiah 26: 20, "Come, my people, enter thou into thou chambers...hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." And - look at Revelation 18: 4, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Who is "her?" It is the woman of Revelation 17: 1-11, who is "Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots..." This is the Babylon of false religion; its the church following the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3. This is after the churches have been thoroughly leavened by false doctrines. Luke 13: 21 says a woman hid leaven in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. The whole of the church was leavened.
The wilderness is outside the churches.
Church Christians may want to say that serpents in scripture represent only demons and not people, and that Jesus would not tread on people.
When Christ called the Pharisees serpents and vipers was he saying they were demon spirits?
He said in John 8: 44 that the Pharisees were of their father the devil. So the Pharisees of Christ's time
were people, but they were inspired by the chief demon.
"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Luke 10: 19 We can assume that by serpents and scorpions as metaphors he means the same thing that other scriptures meant by serpents and scorpions, that serpents were like the Pharisees in Matthew 23: 33, and the scorpions had the same meaning as they do in Ezekiel 2: 6. However, he goes on to say he gives this group of Christians power over the enemy, which suggests he also gives them
some kind of power over demons. The text does not support the interpretation that the serpents and scorpions are only demons, but are probably both demons and the people they inspire. And tread on them doesn't mean to stomp the people to destroy them. We must not pull
up the tares. Tread on means to walk over them without being harmed by them, and this is the meaning also for treading on demons.
In Revelation 9: 3 are the scorpions only demons? Or are they both demons and the people
the demons inspire. Scripture is almost always consistent in its use of metaphors. When a text
indicates, like Ezekiel 2: 6, in some way that something is not literal, for example, that the "scorpions" talk, we know they are people and not literal insects. But the context of Revelation 9: 1-3, the opening of the bottomless pit, and smoke came out of the pit,
suggests demon spirits also. But demons inspire that group who are called scorpions, who following Ezekiel 2: 6, are
those who claim to be God's people in rebellion. They are apostate.
Church Christians would not like the idea that present day Pharisees, as serpents, have led the churches into the falling
away of II Thessalonians 2: 3 and have leavened the whole according to Luke 13: 20, meaning the whole of the churches with false doctrines.
So, serpents as modern day Pharisees cannot be people. They must be demons.
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