The prelude to the seventh trumpet.
“Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth.” Revelation 12:1 – 2, NET. The “woman in pain” is the nation of Judah, who suffered much from the kingdoms that occupied her territory. The invading kingdoms oppressed the nation of Judah. With help from the four successive kingdoms, Satan intensified his efforts to eliminate the people of Judah. The consecutive earthly kingdoms, Babylonian, Med-Persian, Greece, and Roman, were singled out because of their relentless evil acts concerning God’s people, Judah. However, because Satan could not destroy Judah, he attempted to assimilate the people of Judah into the Greek nation. He attempted to Hellenize the Jews. He failed because God was in charge. God fulfilled the promise to Abraham that “all the nations will be blessed through his seed.”
“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you obeyed my voice.” Genesis 22:18, The Septuagint. The noun seed in the above verse is singular, indicating that all nations will be blessed through one seed, the promised son, the Messiah, and not through Judah’s people. The nation of Judah was a channel through which the world’s blessing would come. God blessed the world through the Seed, the Messiah, who came into the world through Judah’s people. Galatians 3:16. Through the faithful remnant in Judah, God assured the helpless humankind that He would triumph over the evil. This message the remnant in Judah had to keep alive, as depicted in the little scroll.
We know that Revelation 12:1 – 2 refers to the nation of Judah because the nation of Judah suffered much. After all, the Messiah was to come through them. Yet, Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Messiah, did not suffer labor pains while giving birth to the Messiah. “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth! Before her contractions begin, she delivers a boy.” Isaiah 66:7, NET. That Mary did not suffer labor pains and remained a virgin is an extraordinary sign that the birth of the Messiah, Jesus, was not an ordinary event. It demonstrated, without doubt, that the Messiah was the Son God promised to the helpless humankind.
The seventh trumpet is next.
