Revelation Now :
Daily Devotional Bible Studies in Revelation
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Fight or Flight from the Dragon : Day 47 
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring, those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. (Revelation 12:13-17; 13.1a)
Being Chased
There is no worse feeling than being chased. One's very life seems to hang on the ability to outrun the predator. One's heart pounds and one's mind races through possible escapes to lose the hostile pursuer. This is how the woman in this part of John's vision must have felt.
Our chase begins in heaven as Satan is overcome by the Lamb and dispatched to the earth. Many believe that until this time, Satan still had access to God as he did in the Book of Job where he argued the case against the righteous man. Here, his access is forever barred. He can no longer accuse people before God and therefore proceeds to turn his wicked ways elsewhere.
The Dragon
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, "he pursued the woman." The woman was given the wings of an eagle in order to soar away from her pursuer to the desert. The dragon tried to wash her away with a torrent of water, but the earth assisted and opened up to drain way the threat. The dragon's pursuit of the woman is a parallel to the Egyptian's chase of the people of Israel into the wilderness in the story of the Exodus. The "two wings of a great eagle" echo the assurance of God in Sinai. "I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself." (1)
The dragon, that is the Devil, on being cast out of heaven and descending to earth, pursued the woman who was the mother of the man child. We have seen that the woman stands for the Church in its widest sense of God's Chosen People from the midst of whom God's Anointed One came.
The dragon can injure the child by injuring the mother; that is to say, to injure the Church is to injure Jesus Christ. The words of the Risen Christ to Paul on the Damascus road were: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (2). Paul's persecution had been directed against the Church; but the Risen Christ makes it clear that persecution of his Church is persecution of himself. When we deprive the Church of the help we might have given it, we strip Jesus of the help we might have given him; and when we serve the Church, we serve Jesus himself.
The Great Eagle
The woman escaped on "the two wings of the great eagle". Again and again in the Old Testament the eagle's wings are the symbol of the up bearing arms of God."Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone did lead him (the people of Israel)" (3).
We may note that, when the church started to allegorize Scripture, it saw in "the eagles' wings" the symbol of "the two holy arms of Christ outstretched upon the Cross." (4)
Floods of Water
The second picture is of the floods of water cast out by the serpent. We have seen how the old dragon of chaos was a sea dragon and, therefore, to connect the floods with him is quite natural. Again and again in the Old Testament, tribulation and persecution are likened to an overwhelming flood. "All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me" (5). It is God's promise to the Psalmist that "the rush of great waters" shall not come near him (6). "If the Lord had not helped him, the waters would have overwhelmed him and the streams would have gone over his soul." (7). "When he passes through the waters, God will be with him." (8).
The chapter finishes with two further pictures. When "the serpent spewed water like a river", the earth swallowed them up and so the woman was saved. It is not difficult to see where John got this picture. It quite often happened in Asia Minor that rivers were swallowed up in the sand only to reappear after travelling a distance underground. There was, for instance, a case of this near Colossae, an area which John must have known well. But it is not so easy to see what the picture means. The symbolism is very likely this. Nature itself is on the side of the person who is faithful to Jesus Christ. "In the world there is a moral order and in the long run it is well with the good, and ill with the wicked." (9)
Finally, John has the picture of "the dragon" going to war with the rest of the family of the woman, with the rest of the Church. This tells of the coming spread of persecution all over the Church. As John saw it, Satan cast down to earth is in his last terrible convulsion and that convulsion is going to involve the whole family of the Church in the agony of persecution.
Words to meditate on
"I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself." (10)
Words to pray
"On eagles' wings they mount, they soar, their wings are faith and love,
Till, past the cloudy regions here, they rise to heaven above." (11)
Notes
(1) Exodus 19.4 (2) Acts 9:4 (3) Deuteronomy 32:11, 12 (4) Hippolytus (5) Psalm 42:7 (6) Psalm 32:6 (7) Psalm 124:4 (8) Isaiah 43:2 (9) The historian Froude (10) Exodus 19.4 (11) Unknown
"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place."
