Isaiah 42 & Revelation 12

Isaiah 42

    Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
        my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
    I have put my Spirit upon him;
        he will bring forth justice to the nations.
    He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
        or make it heard in the street;
    a bruised reed he will not break,
        and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
        he will faithfully bring forth justice.
    He will not grow faint or be discouraged
        till he has established justice in the earth;
        and the coastlands wait for his law.
    
    
    Thus says God, the LORD,
        who created the heavens and stretched them out,
        who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
    who gives breath to the people on it
        and spirit to those who walk in it:
    “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness;
        I will take you by the hand and keep you;
    I will give you as a covenant for the people,
        a light for the nations,
        to open the eyes that are blind,
    to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
        from the prison those who sit in darkness.
    I am the LORD; that is my name;
        my glory I give to no other,
        nor my praise to carved idols.
    Behold, the former things have come to pass,
        and new things I now declare;
    before they spring forth
        I tell you of them.”
    
    
        Sing to the LORD a new song,
        his praise from the end of the earth,
    you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
        the coastlands and their inhabitants.
    Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,
        the villages that Kedar inhabits;
    let the habitants of Sela sing for joy,
        let them shout from the top of the mountains.
    Let them give glory to the LORD,
        and declare his praise in the coastlands.
    The LORD goes out like a mighty man,
        like a man of war he stirs up his zeal;
    he cries out, he shouts aloud,
        he shows himself mighty against his foes.
    
    
    For a long time I have held my peace;
        I have kept still and restrained myself;
    now I will cry out like a woman in labor;
        I will gasp and pant.
    I will lay waste mountains and hills,
        and dry up all their vegetation;
    I will turn the rivers into islands,
        and dry up the pools.
    And I will lead the blind
        in a way that they do not know,
    in paths that they have not known
        I will guide them.
    I will turn the darkness before them into light,
        the rough places into level ground.
    These are the things I do,
        and I do not forsake them.
    They are turned back and utterly put to shame,
        who trust in carved idols,
    who say to metal images,
        “You are our gods.”
    
    
        Hear, you deaf,
        and look, you blind, that you may see!
    Who is blind but my servant,
        or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
    Who is blind as my dedicated one,
        or blind as the servant of the LORD?
    He sees many things, but does not observe them;
        his ears are open, but he does not hear.
    The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake,
        to magnify his law and make it glorious.
    But this is a people plundered and looted;
        they are all of them trapped in holes
        and hidden in prisons;
    they have become plunder with none to rescue,
        spoil with none to say, “Restore!”
    Who among you will give ear to this,
        will attend and listen for the time to come?
    Who gave up Jacob to the looter,
        and Israel to the plunderers?
    Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned,
        in whose ways they would not walk,
        and whose law they would not obey?
    So he poured on him the heat of his anger
        and the might of battle;
    it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;
        it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

(Isaiah 42 ESV)

Revelation 12

    And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

    Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

    And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

(Revelation 12 ESV)

Revelation 12: Satan is relentless in his historical pursuit to devour God's people and destroy God's plan. We would be wise to recognize the war waged against us in the spiritual dimensions behind the scenes of our everyday lives. Fortunately for us, we have a conquering Commander who has wielded His sword of sacrifice and through the cross has crushed the serpent's head.

Through Christ, we have salvation from Satan by the blood of the cross and by our affirmation of faith. This doesn't mean that we are exempt from the havoc he may bring, but we can rest assured that eternal protection and peace is the promise guaranteed for God's people no matter what we may suffer here during Satan's short time on earth. 

Terry Evans

I work to create safe, unhurried, relational spaces to come alongside others in their journey and help them see themselves, Jesus and the Bible in fresh, new, compelling ways.

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Isaiah 43 & Revelation 13

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Isaiah 41 & Revelation 11