Vs. 14-17. And the woman is given the wings of a great eagle to fly into the wilderness where God has a place to protect and nourish her. The Lord provided a way of escape for the persecuted church, which lifted it out of the reach of the Devil's power. The Devil is represented as a crawling serpent; but the church as flying on wings. Then the serpent cast out of his mouth a flood of water after the woman to carry her away with the flood. But he fails again. The earth helped the woman by opening her mouth and swallowing up the flood. God is never short of means. All the resources of earth and heaven are at his command. Here we see how the providences of the world are on the side of God's church. The stars in their courses fought against Sisera, which may refer to the storms that helped Israel win her battle; and here the earth puts forth her helping hand to save God's people and God's cause. The God of the church is the God of nature, and the God of providence; and he can command them in any exigency that may arise. The closing word of the chapter is that "the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed." The following chapters will show some of that warfare as it pertains to the next period of the church's life. The twelfth chapter has been setting the stage for the next era of persecution, which we are now ready to consider. The twelfth chapter began by bringing Christ upon the scene as the Messiah born of the woman. It proceeded to show the design of Satan to destroy the Saviour of the world. But Satan's eff'orts proved futile, for Christ was taken up to God and to his throne. Then Satan turned his attention to persecuting the church; and the next chapter continues the story.