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We continue with our series on Revelation 12, an Exodus narrative in which the Woman—representing the people of God—flees from the error that proceeds from the mouth of the Devil, and seeks her place of safety in the wilderness. Her only food is the Word of God, her only loyalty, to her Savior. The Woman is depicted not only as National Israel in labor bringing forth the Messiah—”for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22)—but also as the post-Jerusalem gentile Church established by Christ—for the Kingdom of God had been “given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matthew 21:43). The Woman, having received Jesus’ words and instructions from the Apostles is like unto the “man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock” (Luke 6:48a). Persecution would shortly follow—first from the Jews (Matthew 10:17 ), then from the Gentiles (Matthew 10:18), followed by the most brutal persecution ever experienced by the people of God when the Devil was cast down to earth (303 – 313 A.D.), and the devil imprisoned the faithful (Revelation 2:10) and put them to death “with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8) when they refused to offer sacrifices to false gods. But “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:11-13).