The Moon Under Her Feet

The woman in Rev. 12:1 is a great wonder indeed. The Greek word semeion, here translated "wonder," is most often translated sign. Several of the modern translations do translate it sign in this verse. In the KJV, this same word is translated sign around 50 times, and only two other times as wonder. Sign is most likely what is intended here, as that is precisely what it turns out to be, for those willing to accept it. But unless we are attentive, we will miss it. The sign will appear; we will look directly at it, as the whole world does in awe, and we won't even know it; because we've been predisposed to mystify rather than rationalize symbolic Scripture. Let's consider it.

The whole verse reads, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Most agree that this mystery woman represents Israel and the crown of twelve stars the twelve tribes. Being clothed (or adorned) with the sun (its rays) is an embellishment that many nations enjoy. But having the moon under her feet is an important and exclusive distinction. In Revelation, John was seeing significant past, present, and future events flash before his eyes in visions. We might benefit from trying throughout Revelation to visualize what he was seeing in the distant future as he describes it within the confines of his first century AD vocabulary. In Rev. 12, he was apparently seeing Spiritual Israel from Christ's birth through the present and beyond. Verse 2 says the woman "cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." In verse 5, this birth through His death and ascension is noted, "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne."

What seems to be occurring here, though vague, is a dual prophecy; i.e., somewhat of a melding of Spiritual and biological Israel. The Israel God refers to throughout the Old Testament (Jacob's descendants) is biological Israel, while Christianity is Spiritual Israel. Suffice it for the present to say the two will someday be one and include the Jews (Hos. 1:10-11), though only the righteous will be saved. The earthly birthing of the Christ Child and His physical death and ascension was the beginning of a new era. At His death, the Christian body was still in its infant stages and in great peril, as many horrible historical accounts confirm. In Rev. 12:6, this woman/nation/Israel (not a sovereign state but a people) fled to a wilderness prepared by God where she and her child, Christianity or Spiritual Israel would be nourished (on God's Word) for a predetermined, limited amount of time (verse 6). Let us jump to verse 14.

It not clear whether verse 14 is a restatement of verse 6 in different words, or if it is a separate but similar event separated by time, maybe earlier biological and later Spiritual Israel; but both verses seem to have the same verse 1 woman with the moon under her feet in mind. I think that phrase in verse 1 is the key to understanding which nation is the subject of this and some other crucial end-time prophecies. That will be the central theme of this chapter. Spiritual Israel fled into a wilderness on "the two wings of a great eagle." A wilderness (largely unpopulated area) is what the United States was when Christians fled the horrible religious persecutions of Europe to a place where they could be free to be nourished on God's Word for a time, giving the Body of Christ (Spiritual Israel) an opportunity to grow, both in maturity and in number.

Most of Revelation is symbolic and difficult. Also, admittedly, for me often frustrating. There is much that I do not understand. Each thing we do understand is a step closer to understanding the next. I am aware of none other ever applying this interpretation to "the moon under her feet." And none I have shared it with has seemed to accept it. Maybe some of you will. Maybe I'm right. Back there in verse 1 and in verse 14, are two phrases that identify this woman/nation in no uncertain terms. In order of importance, I believe they are "the moon under her feet" and "the two wings of a great eagle." The Bald Eagle is the symbol of power of the United States; and when Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module onto the moon's surface on July 20, 1969, he was representing the United States of America, sealing her place in history and biblical prophecy as the only woman/nation to have prevailed over it and to have "the moon under her feet." Was it only coincidence or prophetic that the landing craft was named Eagle, and that when it separated from command ship Columbia, Mr. Armstrong announced, "The Eagle has wings," and later on touchdown, "The Eagle has landed"?

That all should make us feel proud (not arrogantly) and blessed, right? Well, but wait a minute. Note Rev. 12:6,14. Israel was to be nourished in that wilderness only for a limited time. As the scroll (words) John ate (assimilated into his mind) in Rev. 10:10 "was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it (assimilated privileged knowledge), my belly was bitter," so the reality of our divine heritage. Wisdom and knowledge is sweet, but it is ignorance that's called bliss, right? The reality of what he assimilated, when he understood it, was a bitter pill indeed. Yes, we are very fortunate and blessed on the one hand (recipients of the birthright promise), but on the other, we are the Israel of Ezekiel 38. That is our bitter pill.

We will get to Ezekiel 38 and more on Israel's location and identity later but let's do a couple of other things first. We need to be able to distinguish between the Jews, who are only one of the twelve tribes, and all Israel, an indefinite number comprising all twelve tribes scattered worldwide. What I just told you will help lend credence and support to this distinction. The greatest concentration of Spiritual Israel, at least as regards the birthright promise, is probably where the woman/nation fled to and was allowed to flourish and grow in freedom; namely, the United States; but as religious freedom spread to other nations, also Mother England's United Kingdom, and other free nations to a lesser degree. This will become clearer as we progress.

The word Jew is an English rendering (an apparent shortening) of the Hebrew "Yehuwdiy", meaning Judiate, or descendent of Judah (Yehuwdah). However, Judah was only one of Jacob's twelve sons, heading essentially one of the twelve tribes. We have come to equate the Jews with Israel. That is a grave mistake that we must correct in our thinking, or suffer great affliction and loss as a result of not doing so. I don't mean to seem contemptuous toward Jews - absolutely not, as God well knows. Jews are as much a part of Israel as any of the other twelve tribes, but they are not to be mistaken for Israel as such. Even if the word Jew has come to represent all Israel by post-biblical re-definition, that was not the case in the Old Testament and is a gravely wrong to presume in end-time prophecy.

The major problem with equating Jew and Israel is that it causes major translation and interpretation problems. It has us looking in the wrong direction and I'm afraid that if we don't realize that, our coming destruction will be more severe. God's Israel, of which the Jews are a part, makes up the most prominent nations on earth. We must rethink (rewash our brain) and re-train ourselves to make that distinction. Actually, there are three distinctions, if we are to understand even more clearly: all Israel, birthright Israel, and Judah, which has wrongly come to be known as Israel, but is so in name only. This biblical end-time birthright Israel is the envy of the world and a great wonder. She has helped make most of the world's merchants rich.

How could this world renowned and envied nation with the power to ward off all enemies (presently but weakening fast) and the greatest wealth and influence ever known, be a plot of land in the Middle East about the geographical size of New Jersey, with a population a little more than the state of Kentucky? It was even less than the state of Kentucky before the refuseniks migrated from the Soviet Union to Middle-Eastern Israel. National Israel would sit helpless, surrounded by hostile enemies that would devour her in a moment, and wouldn't even exist today as a nation, were it not that her larger family, the USA, UK, etc. has protected her and been a deterrent.

In a nutshell, after Solomon died and his son, Rehoboam, acceded the throne, Israel divided. The southern kingdom became known as Judah and the northern Kingdom was known as Israel. The southern Kingdom was made up of the tribe of Judah, part of Levi, and part of Benjamin. The other tribes that went north struggled with Judah for many years and were eventually scattered and their identity lost. Look to the nations north of Judah (now national Israel) and the rest of the world for the lost northern tribes, as well as the Jews not in national Israel. Since we have no recorded history, we can only extrapolate from what is revealed in Scripture. The Old Testament says that Israel is scattered throughout the world, that she has great power and influence, that by her great prosperity, etc. the whole world will be blessed. That should make it clear enough, even if we can't distinguish between each tribe; which is not necessary to know anyway. Regardless, those lost tribes make up the rest of Israel (God's People Israel), including but not exclusively the Jews.

Not all of the Book of Revelation is revealed yet. We will get more into what may be, later, but for now let's consider John's vision in Rev. 9:19; because it is interesting and may help us better understand what he saw in other visions. My main reason for including this segment, even though it may not seem very important, is that what John describes here resembles a Nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or, at least, some type of multi-warhead missile. Remember that God was flashing visions of future events before John's eyes, rather than speaking directly through him, as in prophetic messages. John didn't have the vocabulary to describe our contemporary war machines. The only modes of overland transportation known to him were things like horses, chariots, etc. Horses were often used symbolically as instruments of war in Biblical prophecy. So if John saw a modern tank, how might he describe it in the vernacular of his day? It would be like us seeing a vision of things 2000 years in the future. What would we call all those awesome new things? Let us try to begin to understand by breaking down that verse.

John says a lot about those things he called horses, for lack of more accurate terminology in his day. Remember, he was not quoting or prophesying, he was describing what he saw. I can't explain it all, but let's try to begin to understand. Rev. 9:19 "For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails [were] like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." The word mouth here is from the Greek "stoma." According to the Greek lexicon in Strong's Concordance, it can figuratively mean an opening, as the mouth of a river or cave, for example. It could mean the front or edge or face of a weapon.

So John was saying their power (the weapons) was in their mouth (singular), and in their tails (plural). Why would mouth be singular and tails plural? Maybe not significant, but it could be. Let's break it down further and try to visualize the tail(s). Note, he says, "For their tails were like unto serpents." He said they were like serpents, and had heads. In what way were they like serpents? The Greek word homoios in the sense of resemblance indicates that they looked like serpents. What could have tails (plural) like serpents and have heads (plural) and have power in their mouth (singular) and in their tails (plural) mean? Note, he says "and with them they do hurt." So their power is in their mouth and in their tails that have heads, which inflict injury.

I'm not good at drawing pictures, so the next time you look up into the sky and see the contrails of a large highflying jet, notice that the contrails are bigger the farther they are from the aircraft up to a point, and resemble a snake in the sky. Note that one source of power (the propulsion) is at the tail (small) end of the snake-like contrail where the engines are. But what might the mouth be? Might that be a different kind of power? What might John have called a bomb bay in his day, a mouth or opening? What might he call the mouth of an ICBM that opens for firing multiple warheads (plural) that inflict catastrophic simultaneous injury? We are still looking at it through John's eyes, but with the terminology to explain it. Revelation, by deliberate design, is a case study in ambiguity. As the nation with the moon under her feet was a great mystery until July 20, 1969, how could one know what John was describing in Rev. 9:19 without actually seeing it?

Rev. 9:16 "And the number of the army of the horsemen [were] two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them." 200 million is a very large army, two-thirds the total population of the United States. When ever in the past was there a nation or group of nations capable of mustering such an army, especially when horses were the standard literal mode of transportation? Never? But are there any nations now that could? Which ones? Sorry, I can't answer conclusively, but let's think. Maybe we can figure it out with God's help. Clearly it's not a historical prophecy, so it must be about the future. Rev. 9:13-15 "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men (humanity)."

In prophecy symbolism, angels (messengers, agents) often represent government or church leaders or other officials or messengers. The focus here is on two important phrases: "in the Euphrates" and "to slay a third part of men." The word "in" should be translated "by," as beside or near the Euphrates. The Euphrates flows through Turkey, Syria and Iraq. What other great nation is located by or near the Euphrates? Could it be reference to powerful Middle-Eastern nations, supported by their even more powerful allies? Could it be Iran or even Saudi Arabia? And "to slay a third part of men (mankind)." Slay them with what?

Rev. 16:12 "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." Could the drying up of "the water" (used figuratively of peoples) of the Euphrates refer to an alliance with (or defeat of) the peoples (nations) that are now serving as a buffer zone, hindering the greater giants farther east? Note: The foregoing was written before the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime, which acted as a buffer between the Iranian Shiite Muslims and national Israel. A little farther east, we find China, who in recent years has announced her ability to assemble an army of 200 million. Note the unsettling fact that if you draw a direct line from China through Iran and national Israel, you will end up nearly smack dab in the middle of the United States.

When I read in Rev. 9:17, "the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone," I visualize those WWII warplanes with their cowls painted to resemble the heads of ferocious beasts, their front-mounted guns timed to fire between prop rotations, appearing to spit out fire and smoke. As for the brimstone, the Greek word "theion" is usually defined as sulfur (which is an element of black gun powder) or brimstone; but theion could be a neuter of theios, meaning god-like in its original sense of flashing. Try to see those things through John's eyes as he tried to explain them with words he knew.

Next, with God's help, we will locate and identify the lost tribes of Israel..