Truth Matters 11 29 21: Satan's Assault on the Earth

This is Truth Matters! Daily devotion with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project whose mission is to empower men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and the marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth in sharing the message of Jesus.

Learn more about the ministry of The Truth Project at www.projecttruthmatters.com. We continue with Revelation chapter 12. More about Satan's assault on earth.

Here's Dr. Davis. Not only is the devil's assault on the earth aggravated, anti-Semitic, it is aggressive. And we see in verse 15 that he actually tries to murder the woman by spewing water out.

The serpent spews water out. Some take this literally as a massive flood, but I don't know if this is the case. This will likely be an aggressive assault put forth against the Jewish nation. The concept of a flood is used in scripture to describe an onslaught of the enemy or suffering, and is probably used here that way as well. Maybe a more organized effort that Satan makes to destroy people.

And I believe this will be even much greater than in World War II. And we know that this is also an angry assault. It's an aggressive assault, anti-Semitic assault. Satan's rage toward Israel is on really two levels during the Great Tribulation. It is towards Israel as the people of God, but also it's towards the remnant. If you remember, there will be 144,000 that are anointed and marked to do a great work, and they refuse to take the mark of the beast. They will be the evangelists during the tribulation, and they keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So I'm pretty sure Satan will make war against them. But really, on the first level, it doesn't matter if you are a believer or not.

If you are a Jew, that is sufficient. But on the second level, he has a specific goal of preventing those 144,000 Jews from getting the gospel out during the tribulation. So I think he will target the Jews as well as he will target these Jewish evangelists. And we know that they have a powerful anointing, so how powerful their anointing is will be a direct reflection of the effort that Satan will put towards trying to defeat them and persecute them. And lastly, we saw the praise of God.

We saw the wrath of the enemy on the earth or the persecution on earth. And here we see the protection of God. And we've seen God's protection and his providence throughout the whole Bible. But in verses 14 through 16 of this chapter details the protection God provides for the woman from the persecution of Satan. Verses 14 through 16 says that the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time and times and a half a time from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like the flood after the woman so that he might cause her to be carried away, but the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth and swallowed up the water. We don't know how, but it is clear from this part of Revelation that God intends to remove his people from the direct attacks of Satan and take them away to be protected. And he does this for Israel.

The length of the time in their protection is time, times and half a time, which we know is three and a half years. Donald Gray Barnhouse once told the story of a wealthy man who was hated by an enemy. In order to trouble the man, the enemy slipped onto his estate under the cover of darkness and cut down one of his giant trees, which the man loved, only to find out that the trees needed to be removed anyway for the construction of the owner's new house. In bitterness and anger, the man had slaved only to discover that he had been accomplishing the very purposes of the one that he hated. And such is the role of Satan in the plan of God.

We got to know that he's on the lease. He has been defeated legally. He's still going out trying to enforce, trying to really thwart the purpose of the church, but know that Satan's authority is limited, that Christ is all powerful. And even as Satan tries to accomplish his work, really, he's accomplishing his own destruction, which is the plan of God for him. You've been listening to Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, a North Carolina-based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to these messages on demand, go to ProjectTruthMatters.com and click on the podcast link. Dr. Davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function. She can be reached by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Or if you'd like to send a letter, the address is Project Truth Matters, Post Office Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina 28384. You can hear Truth Matters weekdays on this radio station at 8 20 a.m. and 5 20 p.m. with a full-length teaching program on Saturday afternoon at 12 30. Until next time, let's all work together to teach a biblical truth, to assist, equip, edify, and encourage one another, and bring the gospel to the world, because truth matters.