Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

John continues explaining his vision to us today, and it's filled with lots of signs and symbols.

That means many of these things aren't literal, they're symbolic.

And while there's some debate now about what these things mean if we try to figure out how to apply them to future events, John's original audience probably wasn't confused at all.

They saw this vision through the lens of Israel's history. And as you know, Jewish literature

loves signs and numbers and symbols, so we'll unpack some of that today. First, we see a

woman giving birth to a child that would rule the nations. There's a beast that doesn't like this

who tries to put a stop to it all. She goes to live in the wilderness where God takes care of her. Does any of that

sound familiar? Most people think this woman is Israel and that Satan is the dragon and that the

stars that got swooped down by the dragon's tail are the angels who joined him.

War breaks out in heaven between the elect angels and Satan's angels,

and the elect angels win, so Satan and his angels are evicted.

Since they can't stay in heaven, they mount an attack on earth,

but God miraculously protects Israel.

Thwart it again, Satan's angels go off to attack

God's other kids, and in John's time, they likely would have seen this as referring to the Gentiles,

or maybe the church at large, or maybe the remnant of Israel. In Chapter 13, John sees a sea beast.

It sounds a lot like the dragon, seven heads, ten horns. And if you were with us in the Old Testament,

you may remember that horns symbolize kings or kingdoms. They're a sign of power. Everybody on earth

thinks the beast is awesome. And if you're alive during John's Day, you're probably thinking,

oh, right, Rome. Because everyone worships this beast except for God's kids, according to verse 8.

And for the Jews in John's day,

...