Revelation 12: 6 Commentary

THE CHURCH FLEES INTO THE WILDERNESS

“Because the woman flees into the wilderness, the church (which is represented by the woman) cannot be identified with the great denomination, that is visible to the world, with its head in Rome, or in some other cities on earth.
The image of the woman fleeing in the wilderness suggest that the churchat times has been hidden from the world…As Puritan scholar William Fulke said, no great denomination has fled to the wilderness literaly.”

Source: vinyl2.sentex.net/-tcc/GR/ww.html.

By TIUCHE (wrote 2756 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/25/2011 14:24 pm

Verse 5. “And she brought forth a man child, Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” This great son is the promised Manifestation Who was born of the Law of God and reared in the bosom of the divine teachings. The iron rod is a symbol of power and might — it is not a sword — and means that with divine power and might He will shepherd all the nations of the earth. This son is the Báb.

Verse 5. “And her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.” This is a prophecy of the Báb, Who ascended to the heavenly realm, to the Throne of God, and to the center of His Kingdom. Consider how all this corresponds to what happened.

Verse 6. “And the woman fled into the wilderness” — that is to say, the Law of God fled to the wilderness, meaning the vast desert of Hijaz, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Verse 6. “Where she had a place prepared of God.”[1]
[1 Cf. Rev. 12:6.]  71 

The Arabian Peninsula became the abode and dwelling place, and the center of the Law of God.

Verse 6. “That they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” In the terminology of the Holy Book these twelve hundred and sixty days mean the twelve hundred and sixty years that the Law of God was set up in the wilderness of Arabia, the great desert: from it the Promised One has come. After twelve hundred and sixty years that Law will have no more influence, for the fruit of that tree will have appeared, and the result will have been produced.

Consider how the prophecies correspond to one another. In the Apocalypse, the appearance of the Promised One is appointed after forty-two months, and Daniel expresses it as three times and a half, which is also forty-two months, which are twelve hundred and sixty days. In another passage of John’s Revelation it is clearly spoken of as twelve hundred and sixty days, and in the Holy Book it is said that each day signifies one year. Nothing could be clearer than this agreement of the prophecies with one another. The Báb appeared in the year 1260 of the Hejira of Muhammad, which is the beginning of the universal era-reckoning of all Islam. There are no clearer proofs than this in the Holy Books for any Manifestation. For him who is just, the agreement of the times indicated by the tongues of the Great Ones is the most conclusive proof. There is no other possible explanation of these prophecies. Blessed are the just souls who seek the truth. But failing justice, the people attack, dispute and openly deny the evidence, like the Pharisees who, at the manifestation of Christ, denied with the greatest obstinacy the explanations of Christ and of His disciples. They obscured Christ’s Cause before the ignorant people, saying, “These prophecies are not of Jesus, but of the Promised One Who shall come later, according to the conditions mentioned in the Bible.” Some of these conditions were that He must have a kingdom, be seated on the throne of David, enforce the Law of the Bible, and manifest such justice that the wolf and the lamb shall gather at the same spring.

And thus they prevented the people from knowing Christ.

(Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 69)

By V. James (wrote 132 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/3/2011 19:49 pm