Trumpet Ministries, Revelation 12:6
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And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (Revelation 12:6)
This verse represents the period of time during which Antichrist is allowed to suppress the Christian testimony, just before Jesus returns and destroys the reign of Antichrist. The Church will be protected and nurtured throughout that period of tribulation.
"The woman fled." At various times throughout the history of the Christian Church the saints have fled from persecution under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Fleeing from danger when the Lord warns us is a Scriptural concept.
One has only to think of the story of the Baby Jesus to realize God is able to save His elect from the Satan-inspired ambition and envy of those who would rule God’s people apart from God’s will and blessing.
The angel of the Lord warned Joseph to flee with Jesus and Mary to Egypt in order to escape the envious Herod—a notable forerunner of the Antichrist.
And when they [the wise men—also warned of God to avoid Herod’s envy] were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. (Matthew 2:13)
When the danger was past, the angel of the Lord directed Joseph to return with his family to the land of Israel.
We see then that God will protect Christ, and those who bring forth Christ, in the hour of Antichrist’s rage.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, Jesus warns the elect who will be living in Judea in the days when the man of sin begins to claim he is God, to flee into the mountains.
It is our point of view that God has prepared various places and areas in the earth where His saints will be preserved throughout the reign of Antichrist.
God is a God of preparation. When He saw the worldwide famine coming He sent Joseph in advance to prepare a place in which food could be obtained. In the hour of tribulation, Jacob and his family left the land of promise and fled to Egypt, there to be fed by Joseph throughout the time of famine.
God will provide for His saints in the last days of this age, not by taking them out of the world but by guarding them from the evil one. He will prepare a place for them where they can be fed until Christ appears and destroys Antichrist with the power and glory of His appearing.
Elijah was fed in the wilderness when he was fleeing from the murderous Jezebel. Elijah, along with many others of God’s "stars," is a type of the activities of the Lord’s remnant during the latter-rain witness of the end time. The incidents of his life and Elisha’s life are rich in typical significance.
But he himself [Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, it is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. (I Kings 19:4)
Elijah did not die in the wilderness, an angel of God fed him. Elijah continued to live and bear witness of God until it was time for him to ascend in the whirlwind.
Elijah was sustained in the wilderness, just as the Christian Church will be sustained during the period of time when God permits Antichrist to suppress the testimony of Christ.
Jesus warned those in Judea to flee when they saw the abomination of desolation—a man enthroning himself as God Almighty in the Most Holy Place of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Those who flee in obedience to the Lord will be nourished in the wilderness by the Lord. If not, why would He advise them to flee? So they would be sure to perish? If they will pray, God will watch over them so their flight from Judea will not be "in the winter, neither on the sabbath day," for that would greatly increase their hardships (Matthew 24:20).
This passage (concerning praying that flight would not be required in the winter or on the Sabbath) teaches us that we always should turn to prayer, even in the most difficult of circumstances, so God will guide and help us in our hour of need (Psalms 46:1,2).
The Scriptural concept of fleeing is a practical message. The hour may be approaching when we Christians will have to choose between remaining in the comforts of civilization and watching our children be turned into monsters of lust and violence, or else leaving the comforts to which we have become accustomed and making a place of survival for our families in remote wilderness areas of the earth.
Fantastic? Incredible?
What shall we say, then, of the Puritans who left the comforts of the English home and hearth and struggled against the cruel bleakness of the New England countryside?
Are we better than they?
What of the five million Christians whose bodies were buried in the catacombs of Rome? Should they have remained in the comforts of the Roman cities with their children and worshiped that former Antichrist—Caesar? Were those Christians as precious in God’s sight as we? Were their children as deserving of fresh air and fresh vegetables as our children?
Did they have as much right to live on the face of the earth, under the sun, moon, and stars, as we do?
Or is it true, as some claim, that God loves us more than He does them and will "rapture" us out of difficulty before He would ever allow us to be forced to flee to any kind of forest, desert, or catacomb? Are we so much more righteous, holy, and obedient than the Puritans and the saints of the Roman Empire? Are we God’s "favorites" that we should be treated differently from all the other saints down through the ages?
Perhaps it is true that we have been deceived already by Antichrist because we have refused to take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Revelation 12:6 does not identify the "they" who are going to nourish and sustain the Church throughout the three and one-half years of Antichrist’s rule over the earth.
Following the type of Joseph, we believe the "they" may be the Lord Jesus in the victorious saints (in His Gentile bride, typified by Joseph’s bride—Asenath, the Egyptian).
During the great tribulation, the devout Jews will be driven into hiding. Also, the true remnant of saints will be forced to flee from the cities of the earth.
We think the Lord Jesus will come in the Spirit and minister through those who are closest to Him (perhaps including some of the saints who have died and are in the spirit realm). The Lord will nourish and sustain His people who have fled from the ungodliness of the civilization of Antichrist (similar to the flight of the godly during the early days of the Christian Era).
During the darkest hours of the tribulation, just before the Lord sheds His glory on His saints in conjunction with His appearing in the clouds, there will be deliverance "in Mount Zion."
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. (Joel 2:32)
During those terrible days when no man can work, the King and His princes, His mighty men, shall be a protection from the onslaught of the enemy.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (Isaiah 32:1,2)
Other translations suggest that "a man" should be rendered "each one of them," indicating that the hiding place of the last days will be the King and His princes.
In any case, the Man is the Lord Jesus, and each one of them would be Jesus in His victorious saints.
During the last days no person will be able in his own strength to serve the Lord. Only those saints who are filled with the Presence of God in Christ will be able to offer deliverance to the peoples of the earth who flee from the ungodliness of Antichrist.
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