Read Revelation 12
Ed's note: Dr. David Jeremiah's new book "Agents of the Apocalypse" is a recent read of mine and I highly recommend it.
The technique that Dr. Jeremiah uses in this book, is to capture a "player's scene" in Revelation and through the interaction of the players, helps you better understand the associated scripture passage. Each of the prominent Revelation players are each featured in their own dramatized cosmic roles, and then Jeremiah explains the scripture behind the story. This helps you better understand and apply the scripture.
Let's look at a few paragraphs from the chapter called "The Dragon", which in my opinion has everything to do with Christmas, ...albeit a behind the scenes look at what's really happening!
Chapter 5 - THE DRAGON
Golden light danced around the angels as they gathered in the second heaven. The vast assembly waited expectantly as Lucifer, the greatest and most beautiful of the archangels, made his way to the front. In moments he would take his seat at the head of the great angelic congress to report God's latest instructions to them.But instead of mounting the steps to the marble dais, Lucifer took aside his closest aide, Michael, an archangel like himself.
"The congress will have to wait," Lucifer said. "Dismiss the assembly. We must speak immediately."
Michael made the announcement and the gathering dispersed, leaving the two archangels standing alone. Michael could see by Lucifer's dark countenance that he was not here to discuss a light matter.
"You are troubled, Lucifer. What has happened?"
"As you know, I have just returned from the high heaven, where God is enthroned. He has revealed to me His most recent project - a vast and daring one. He has created a new physical world beneath the lowest heaven. It is utterly glorious - perhaps the most beautiful thing He has ever made aside from ourselves. He is populating this world with a new race of creatures, and He has modeled them after Himself, granting them intelligence, free will, and creativity. He will charge them with the rule and care of His new world and infuse them with His own Spirit."
"Lucifer, you baffle me. Why is this not good news? Why does it disturb you?"
"Why does it disturb me? I'll tell you why!" Lucifer shouted. "God wants us, His angels to minister to these new creatures. We are to be messengers to them, protecting and assisting them in their little endeavors. How can He expect us, the highest order of creatures in all of the universe, to stoop so low as to become errand runners and servants to inferior beings? We should be ruling them, not serving them. I tell you, Michael, this is not to be tolerated!"
A short time later, Lucifer reconvened the great council of all the angels. When they were assembled, he mounted the steps to the dais and addressed the legions of mighty beings before him. He first explained the new assignment God had charged them with, and then, to their amazement, he spewed out his disdain: "We run God's errands, We watch over and protect His creation. Why should we be required to forever submit to His will and stifle our own? I tell you, my oppressed comrades, we must not accept this degradation any longer. Hear me, and hear me well: we possess the power to seize the throne of God."
Michael, positioned in the first tier beneath the dais, stepped forward immediately. "My dear captain, think about what you are saying. Have you forgotten who we are? Like these newly formed earth beings, we, too, are God's creation. He gave us a vital role in His universal Kingdom and made us to find joy in serving Him. Who are we to defy our Creator?"
As the debate between the two mighty archangels escalated, so did Lucifer's rage. His rising anger began to infect some of the angels in the assembly, and as he ranted on, the rebels' cries swelled until a great chorus of voices echoed their leader's outrage. Such vocal support bolstered Lucifer's belief that he had won the unwavering loyalty of the other angels. At last, he raised his hand, and the entire host fell silent.
"Your affirmation confirms that you are with me. Therefore I call all of you to battle," he commanded. "We will depose that arrogant tyrant who humiliates and oppresses us. We will take His throne, and we will make His high heaven our dwelling place. Are you with me?"
His words were met by a roar of assent.
Lucifer, however, had miscalculated his support. The angels who had cheered him on were merely the most vocal ones, numbering only about one-third of the whole. But Lucifer remained undeterred, assembling his army and leading the march forward. He immediately found his way barred by Michael, who had rallied the rest of the angels against him.
The two armies clashed in a titanic supernatural battle. Michael's army drove the rebels back and hurled them from the second heaven.
The fallen leader heard the voice of Michael speak from high above him: "Lucifer, you have been my friend, and it grieves me deeply that you have severed our unity. You have chosen hatred over love, pride over humility, evil over good, and darkness over light. Therefore, God has decreed that your name shall no longer be Lucifer, the bearer of light. From this day forward you shall be called Satan, the adversary. No longer will you be a creature of love and beauty. You will be a dragon, a hated, loathsome creature whose utterances and deceptions will deliver those who heed you into eternal fire."
In an instant, a smoldering Satan sat brooding beside a stream on the newly created planet. One thought obsessed him: How can I spite God and regain power? After a great deal of scheming, he arose and called his lieutenants to him. He presented a detailed plan by which they could wrest from God the new world He had made, annihilate its inhabitants, and make it their own domain.
"While it is much too small a kingdom for a being of my stature," he bragged, "it will serve as a power base from which we can launch subsequent attacks, until we have wrenched the entire universe from the hand of God."
"But how can we do this?" one of his minions asked. "You told us that God has placed His own Spirit within the two humans. That gives them power we cannot overcome."
Satan smirked. "When God explained this new creation to me, He said that if the human couple ever disobeyed Him, His Spirit would depart and they would die. Our task, then, is to get the man and woman to disobey God. I will deceive them into thinking He is not their benefactor but a selfish tyrant."
Satan left his lieutenants and disguised himself as one of the more cunning earthly creatures. And using a mix of lies and half-truths, he seduced the couple into rejecting their Creator. But to his consternation, they did not immediately die. God confronted them with their disobedience and revealed the pain, sorrow, and eventual death that would come as a result. But He also promised something their seducer had never anticipated - that one of their future descendants would restore all they had lost and would crush Satan's head.
When Satan heard this prophecy, new outrage boiled in his heart. He charged a full battalion of his fiercest demons to conduct a guerilla war to prevent the promised Redeemer from coming. Throughout the centuries, they attacked the family, the kings, and the nation charged with bringing God's promise to fruition. But neither Satan nor his legions could keep the promised Child from being born.
-excerpted from Chapter 5, "The Dragon" - "Agents of the Apocalypse" by Dr. David Jeremiah
- This book available through the Dr. David Jeremiah, Website
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Wow! I can better understand some aspects of the Christmas story now that I've been behind the scenes. When the prophesied Child was finally born, Satan instilled fear and hatred in King Herod, who had all the babies in Bethlehem murdered under Satan's influence. He thought that thereby surely the promised seed would be slain. (Matthew 2).
Israel (or "the woman") is pictured in Revelation 12:4 : "....and the dragon (Satan) stood before the woman (Israel) who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
Can you now better understand why Satan has such a hate on for Israel?
1). Israel is where Christ was born and
2). Israel is where he will rule from in His Millennial Kingdom after His Second Coming. Satan is trying to destroy this country so this will not happen! Satan has attempted and is attempting to foil every aspect of God's Salvation Plan for mankind.
I trust that this will add a new dimension to your appreciation this Christmas, of what God has done for us through sending Jesus Christ! His love for us, and the lengths He will go to on our behalf to redeem us to Himself is incredible.
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