Revelation 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God… "And the woman," there is the frailty of her nature; "fled," there is the uncertainty of her state; "into the wilderness," there is the place of her retiredness; "where she is nourished by God," there is the staff of her comfort; "a thousand two hundred and three score days," there is the term of her obscurity, and the period of all her troubles. 1. First her origin. 2. Her fruitfulness. The honour of women is their childbearing. The Church a fruitful mother, the mother of all that live by faith. 3. Her tenderness. Such is the temper of the militant Church, in fear always, weeping continually for her children, never out of trouble in one place or other. 4. Her weakness or impotency. Howsoever she be always strong in the Lord, and the power of His might. 5. Her frailty. All those usual similitudes whereby the Scripture setteth the Church militant before our eyes, show her frailty and imbecility. She is a vine, a lily, a dove, a flock of sheep in the midst of ravening wolves. What tree so subject to take hurt as a vine, which is so weak that it needeth continual binding and supporting, so tender that if it be pricked deep it bleedeth to death? No flower so soft and without all defence or shelter as a lily; no fowl so harmless as the dove that hath no gall at all; no cattle so oft in danger as sheep and lambs in the midst of wolves. This picture might leave been taken of the Church as she fled from Pharaoh into the wilderness, or as she fled into Egypt from Herod, or as she fled into all parts of the earth in the time of the first persecutions from heathen emperors, in all which her trials she gained more than she lost. For as rightly observed, "persecution is that to the Church which pruning is to the vine, whereby it is made more fruitful." (D. Featly, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. |
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