Revelation 12:17

And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus:

And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman ... What is meant here is not an intensification of Satan's wrath, but an extension of it. Progressively, Satan had persecuted Israel (the woman) before Christ was born, and then the Christ himself, upon whom the fullest anger and hatred of the devil reached its most intense and bitter climax on the cross; and, at this point, his wrath was directed to the destruction of the infant church, a project inherent in the activity both of Saul of Tarsus and of Herod Agrippa II; but when the church fled into the wilderness (the scattering that arose upon the martyrdom of Stephen), Satan extended and continued his persecution of God's people, called here "the rest of her seed," and meaning the Christians of all ages.

The rest of her seed ... This suggests Galatians 3:16,29, where Paul spoke of all Christians as "the seed of Abraham." Thus the woman is both the old Israel and the new Israel, but in both cases, only the true Israel. "The rest means the whole body of Christians, not merely those who are contrasted with the church in Jerusalem."[90] "The church is every believer's mother. She precedes us and brings us forth as her seed."[91] The signal to Christians in this is that satanic hatred, persecution and violence are to be expected throughout the whole life of the church on earth.

That keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus ... This makes a distinction between the false and the true Christian. The world indeed may love "and help" the church in the person of its weak and compromising members (as in view 2, above); but those who really honor the word of God and the testimony of Jesus shall suffer persecution. "These are the true members of the body, not merely worldly professors."[92]

Revelation 13:1a, and "I stood upon the sand of the sea." (KJV)

Rist was of the opinion that the RSV should be followed here (also our own version the ASV); but we have followed the KJV for the sake of the following comments. The reading "He" stood upon the sand of the sea gives the meaning that, "the dragon is summoning help from the sea, and is going to give up his authority to the beast that comes up out of its depths."[93] In this chapter, Satan, the great enemy of mankind, depicted here as the dragon, has been introduced; but he will appear repeatedly in several different guises in the subsequent chapters of this prophecy.

This picture of the dragon halting on the seashore to call his terrible ally is one of the highest interest, and forms a real feature of Revelation. The student must not think of the sea as calm and peaceful, but as restless and troubled (It is a symbol of earth's populations).[94]

[90] Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 630.

[91] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 386.

[92] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 90.

[93] Martin Rist, op. cit., p. 459.

[94] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 90.