"The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who "will rule all the nations with an iron scepter." And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne."
Revelation 12:14b, 15 (NIV)
God creates humans. He started with Adam, then Eve, and ever since then, in each mother, He works in their womb and forms the child to be born (Ps. 139:13). The devil is a murderer and a liar (Jn 8:44), and he does all he can to bring death to every child that God forms. Yet these verses in Revelation are speaking of a special child; a Son who will rule all the nations. Clearly this is the Lord Jesus Christ. What this text teaches us is that the devil is actively involved in trying to destroy the King of kings, before he has a chance to be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords.
2 Kings 11 tells the story of how close the devil came to destroying the line of David. It came down to a royal aunt and a nurse to hide little Joash and protect him from his grandmother, the murderess Athaliah. Isaiah declared, "the zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this" and our text says the same thing, "the child was snatched up to God."
When you consider history and the amount of "royal" families who ended and disappeared, you start to understand how powerful God is and how powerful His promise to David was! He, by His own right arm, protected the royal blood line of David until the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ who is Jesus of Nazareth, was born to Mary 2,000 years ago.
I look forward to meeting Eve, Sarah, Bathsheba, Jehosheba and the unnamed nurse, and thanking them for their role in bringing the Saviour of the world into Bethlehem so many years ago. I wonder if they knew the eternal consequences of what they were doing?
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