(3) The woman’ s flight into the wilderness--12:6. 1. And the woman fled into the wilderness. The context of these visions surrounded the events prior to and including the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and the scattering of the church in Judea by onslaught of persecution. Jesus foretold such a flight in his description of the destruction of Jerusalem in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. This cannot be considered an application too light or limited or unimportant for this vision. The portent was tremendous. It was of extremely ominous and terrible proportions. In the Lord’ s warnings and in his own forebodings he exhorted them to pray that the flight might not come at a time when hindrances to the flight could not be overcome, and the difficulties of escape would be insurmountable i.e. to the woman with child, who could be greatly handicapped in flight; in the winter when the cold weather would add to suffering and misery; on the sabbath day, when due to the Jewish observance of the sabbath the exits of the city would be closed, its gates locked, barring an expeditious flight, and they would find themselves entrapped. (See GOD’ S WORD, p. 336-337) The period of escape from Jerusalem after the city was alerted would be so short that the Lord warned the one on the housetop not to come down to enter his house for even clothing or food; and the laborer in the field not to return to his house for such purpose, for the same reason. Describing the horrors of the siege Jesus called it “ the tribulation of those days; and quoted the prophecy of Dan 12:11 on “ the abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15) as being fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. During the siege one million one hundred thousand people perished. All the houses and underground chambers were filled with perishing bodies; famishing people ate the putrified flesh of human corpses; mothers ate the flesh of their own babies. Outside the besieged city the expatriated race of Jews throughout the empire were slaughtered. In his chronicles on the destruction of Jerusalem Josephus, the eye-witness historian, verifies the declaration of our Lord in Matthew 24:21 : “ For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Since the Lord Himself declares that no event of the future could exceed the tribulation, there can be no reason to search for events in later history, or to engage in speculation on events of future history to fulfill the identical symbolic descriptions of Revelation. The signs and symbols of Revelation were but the extensions of the twenty- fourth chapter of Matthew, spoken by the Lord Himself in Matthew’ s record and extended by his servant John in the visions of Revelation. In this chapter 12, verse 6 of Revelation, John stated that “ the woman (the church) fled into the wilderness.” This was precisely what Jesus commanded his disciples to do. When the signs which he had set forth should appear Christians in Jerusalem and Judea were to make hasty their flight. In Matthew 24:33 Jesus said to them: “ When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” In the parallel record of Luk 21:20, He said, “ When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh” --and they did know it. In Matthew 24:16 the Lord said, “ Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” In Luke 21:21, the parallel adds, “ And let them which are in the midst of it (Jerusalem) depart out"--and they did, they departed and fled. As generally known, Josephus was an eyewitness to the siege of Jerusalem and the events preceding it. In Wars, Book III, Section 3, page 3, he relates that after the armies of Cestius Gallius, Roman general, had besieged Jerusalem, they withdrew--and in this interval the disciples fled, according to the Lord’ s admonition. The historian Josephus was an unbeliever and admitted his inability to account for the cessation, but declared it was nevertheless a fact. All who believe the statements of the Lord in Matthew twentyfour, Mark thirteen and Luke twenty-one, know and understand the why-it was the Lord’ s doing. Another later historian, Eusebius, whose history bears date of 324 A. D., states in Book III, Section 3, page 3, that the church in Jerusalem, by divine revelation, fled to the mountain country of Pella, beyond the Jordan, which according to Josephus was largely a desert, mountain region. The Lord of the descriptions and signs of Matthew’ s record of the destruction of Jerusalem is the Lord of the portrayals and symbols of Revelation. There is no difference in the command for all the Christians in Jerusalem and Judea to flee to the desert region of Pella, in the record of Matthew and Luke, and the statement in Revelation, chapter 12:6, that she fled into the wilderness. 2. To a place prepared of God. The disciples’ flight was to a place where Jesus had directed them: “ Let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” But Revelation states that the woman fled to “ a place prepared of God.” The place where Jesus commanded is the place that God prepared. The descriptions are parallel. Furthermore, Jesus said in Matthew 24:34 : “ This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” All of the signs of Mat 24:1-51 are above verse 34. Jesus said they were all fulfilled in the generation of people who heard his words. (For further discussion on the destruction of Jerusalem, see GOD’ S WORD, pp. 246-260.) It is so with the symbols of Revelation. Jesus said to the disciples in Luke 21:31-32 : when "ye see” and “ know ye” ; and “ I say unto you." His emphasis was on the fulfillment of the signs in events of their own lives. The parallel in Revelation is verse 3 of chapter 1: “ Blessed is he that readeth (the one who read it to the churches); and they that hear (heed) the words; and they that keep (remember and observe); for the time is at hand.” If the time of these things was so remote as to be yet future, there was no point in this exhortation for them, and no application to them. As the signs of Mat 24:1-51 were fulfilled in that generation of living people, so the symbols of Revelation were fulfilled in the experiences of the existing churches. 3. That they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Here is an instance of a literal period of time, a specific date, introduced into a figurative and symbolic context. There is another identical example of a specific date connected with the context of prophetic language. In the seventh chapter of Isaiah it was prophesied that the ten tribes would cease. Ephraim was forming an alliance against Judah. The prophet said it would not stand, that Ephraim would be broken, cease to be a separate people, and become extinct as a nation. In fulfillment of it they went into captivity and never came out one people again. Now, read the prophecy of specific time period and historical dates from Isaiah 7:1-25, verses 5 to 8: “ Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.” The prophet stated that “ in threescore and five years (sixty-five years) shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people.” The date of this prophecy Isaiah 733 B. C., according to such authorities as Wordsworth, Adam Clarke and Pulpit Commentary. The event prophesied was fulfilled in 669 B. C.--exactly sixty-five years later. The date of Ephraim’ s decease was linked with the prophecy that the invasion of Judah by Samaria would fail. That invasion did fail. The prophet said Ephraim would cease to be a people. Ephraim did cease to be a people. It all occurred within the "threescore and five years,” between 733 B.C. and 669 B.C.--the specific time period and date. (For further discussion of Isa 7:5-8 see GOD’ S WORD, p. 409.) The context yields the same exact computation of a thousand two hundred and threescore days of the woman’ s flight into the wilderness. It was the same period of “ the forty and two months” of the preceding chapter eleven-- the same mathematical time period in which Jerusalem, “ the holy city” was trodden “ under foot forty and two months.” In the record of Luk 21:24, this period of the treading under foot of Jerusalem was limited by the phrase “ until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” It was the same period as the “ forty and two months” of Revelation 11:3, and the thousand two hundred and threescore days of chapter 12:6. The specific mathematical period designated, historically verified, follows this order: Emperor Nero delivered the mandate for the siege of Jerusalem to Vespasian, his imperial officer, in the month of February A. D. 67 when the war against Judea was declared. This was the beginning of the period which ended in August A. D. 70, when the city of Jerusalem was razed, ravished and destroyed; the temple was desecrated and demolished, bringing an end to Judaism and the Jewish state. This exact computation is attested, as mentioned previously, in the authoritative works of Jewish Testimonies, Volume VIII, by Lardner, and Wars of Jews, Volume VII, by Josephus. No further evidence is necessary. As in Isaiah’ s prophecy, the end of the twelve tribes was a specific mathematical period of sixty five years-so the time period covering the flight of the woman into the wilderness was chronological--the forty-two months or twelve hundred and sixty days in which Jerusalem was besieged. There is no need to look farther away for the fulfillment of these apocalypses. Every effort to bring them down through medieval history and “ the dark ages” has been anachronistic and impossible. But assigning Revelation to the same period as all the other epistles of the New Testament, all of which were written before the impending trial and tribulation and distress, lends coherency and harmony to its apocalyptic delineations.