Sunday, the first day of Revelation's week, is called the Day of Preparation because it is the day that God prepared the world for the coming of his Son, Jesus Christ. More specifically, it is the day God created the world, the day sin entered the picture, and the day God began the process of atoning for the sins of mankind. He did this by choosing a man, Abraham, through whom all nations of the world would be blessed (GEN 22:18), by choosing a nation, Israel, through whom he would reveal himself to the world (ISA 41:8-9), by giving the Law through which sin and its consequences would be revealed (DEU 30:19-20), and by promising to send a Redeemer through whom all who believed would be saved (ISA 49:6-10).
The Old Testament describes all of this in detail, and, except for a few prophecies about the future, is devoted exclusively to this period of time. Since the Old Testament comprises more than three-fourths of the Holy Bible, we can conclude that Sunday is quite important from the Biblical point of view.
Nevertheless, all aspects of Sunday are not emphasized equally in the Bible. For example, the Bible tells us almost nothing about what happens during the eternity prior to creation. And it tells us very little about the events between creation and Abraham. The only part of Sunday that is emphasized in the Bible is the part that begins with Abraham and continues through the birth of Christ.
More specifically, the Old Testament emphasizes the 1500-year period between the time of Abraham and the return of the exiles from Babylonian captivity, while the books of the Apocrypha shed light on the subsequent 500-year interval. Although the books of the Apocrypha are not part of the canonical Scriptures, the Inter-Biblical period they describe is an important part of Sunday because it sets the stage for the coming of Christ. So the Biblically important part of Sunday lasts for a total of about 2000 years, almost exactly the same amount of time that has elapsed since the coming of Christ until today.[1]
Of course, you already know most of this if you are familiar with the Old Testament because that part of the Bible describes this portion of Sunday in full detail. So there is really no point in continuing our discussion of Sunday except to see how the above summary fits into the Harmony of Revelation.
As stated previously, Revelation hardly mentions Sunday. In fact, only four verses in only one of the seven parallel accounts refer to this Day of Preparation. These verses read as follows in the King James Version of the Bible:[2]
IV
REV 12:
1 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:
2 And she being with
child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared
another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and
ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew
the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the
dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour
her child as soon as it was born.
As you can see, Revelation's reference to Sunday is very brief and cloaked in mysterious symbolism. Naturally such extensive symbolism is subject to debate, but the meanings of some of these symbols are made quite clear in later verses of Revelation.
The first of the two great signs mentioned in this passage concerns a woman with child. The identity of that child is clarified in the verse that follows this passage (12:5). There we find that the child is destined to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Since no one but the Messiah is so destined, this Child can be none other than Jesus Christ.
Therefore, the initial temptation is to identify the woman as the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. But such an identification is inconsistent with the rest of the symbolism in the chapter. For example, what then would be the significance of such things as Mary being clothed with the sun, having the moon at her feet, wearing a crown of twelve stars, having a dragon standing before her, and (later in the chapter) such things as being given two wings of an eagle, flying into the wilderness, being nourished, and having a remnant of her seed persecuted?
Conversely, all of this symbolism makes sense if we assume that the woman represents the nation Israel. The reason for making this assumption is rather straightforward.
Notice that the description of the woman includes a reference to the sun, moon, and stars in a context that clearly should not be taken literally. There is only one other place in the whole Bible that such symbolism is used. That one place is in Genesis 37:9-10.[3]
GEN 37:
9 And he dreamed yet
another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a
dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made
obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to
his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him,
What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren
indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
As you can see, this passage describes a dream that Joseph had as a boy -- a dream his father, Israel, had no difficulty interpreting -- a dream whose interpretation was literally fulfilled in later years (GEN 42 - 50). Therefore, there is no doubt as to the meaning of the symbolism in this passage: the sun symbolized Israel, the stars his sons, and the moon Joseph's "mother".
But this "mother" could not possibly be Joseph's genetic mother because she was already dead before Joseph had the dream (GEN 35:18). Therefore, the "mother" in Joseph's dream had to symbolize the rest of Israel's clan, for it was these people who "mothered" Joseph and who eventually bowed before him in Egypt.
Now, if we apply this interpretation found in Genesis to the same symbolism found in Revelation we can see that the woman in Chapter 12 is completely encompassed, from top to bottom, with Israel! On the top of her head is a crown of twelve stars, symbolizing the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel; girding her body is the clothing of the sun, symbolizing Israel himself; and underneath her feet is the moon, symbolizing everyone else who belongs to Israel. So the woman represents everyone associated with Israel; namely, the whole nation of Israel.
Actually, we could have come to this same conclusion simply by recognizing that this passage in Revelation is a symbolic summary of the Old Testament. Then it follows that the primary subject of this passage (namely, the woman) must represent the primary subject of the Old Testament (namely, the nation Israel).
Once this identification has been made, we can begin to understand the rest of the symbolism associated with the woman. For example, consider verse 2 where the woman is described as being with child, travailing in birth, and crying out in pain to be delivered. This passage shows how Israel was chosen by God to deliver his promised Messiah into the world,[4] and how the whole nation suffered greatly and cried out in pain in order to accomplish this delivery.
As is normal for labor pains, the suffering that Israel experienced only intensified as the time of Jesus’ birth approached. This intensification of suffering during the Inter-Biblical years was a direct fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy of seventy weeks.[5]
DAN 9:
24 Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and
to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and
understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and
threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even
in troublous times.
As you can see from this prophecy, the purpose of the Inter-Biblical years was to provide time for the little remnant nation of Israel to get ready to receive her Messiah. Furthermore, these years were prophesied to be "troublous".
Just how "troublous" is documented in various portions of the Apocrypha and the Gospels. These records demonstrate that most of the suffering during the Inter-Biblical years was not the result of God's judgment against sinners, but rather Satan's persecution of the faithful and the innocent.[6] Obviously, Satan was trying every means possible to turn the hearts of God's people away from God before the coming of the Holy One.[7] And he succeeded quite well in the hearts of many.
He made very sure that the birth of Christ did not come easily for Israel. From the problems of rebuilding Jerusalem (Ezra and Nehemiah) through the massacre of the children in Bethlehem (MAT 2:16) Israel suffered greatly for her part in bringing Christ into the world.
The second great sign in Revelation's description of Sunday is that of a fiery red dragon who wants to devour the Child. The dragon himself is identified as Satan later in REV 12:9. The seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns associated with this beast surely have the same significance here as they do when associated with similar beasts in Chapters 13 and 17.[8]
Therefore the only mystery remaining is the reference to the dragon drawing a third of the stars from heaven and throwing them to the earth. Surely this reference pertains to the time before time when Satan rebelled against God and enticed a third of the angles to follow him (ISA 14:12-20, JAM 2:19).
So we see that Revelation's brief description of Sunday mentions only the fall of Satan and the preparation through Israel for the coming of Christ. It ends with Satan hovering over Israel, waiting to devour Christ as soon as he is born. In other words, Revelation pictures Sunday as the day in which sin enters the world, God works through his chosen people, and the stage is set for the battle of eternity.
[1]This coincidence -- if you want to call it that -- will be explored later when we discuss the prophecies concerning the duration of the Church Age.
[2] Again, I encourage you to read all of these King James passages in a more modern version of the Bible.
[3]Once again we see how Genesis and Revelation, the first and last books of the Bible, contain complimentary information found nowhere else in the Bible. Other examples of such similarities are the seven days of each book and the presence of the tree of life.
[4]In fact, this delivery was prophesied to happen through the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David.
[5]Seventy weeks of time means 70 x 7 = 490 days of time. Historically, these 490 days of symbolic time amounted to 490 years of actual time. In other words, each day of symbolic time corresponded to one year of actual time.
[6]One horrible example of this occurs in 2 Maccabees 7, where the Greek conqueror Antiochus tortured and killed seven brothers and their mother for refusing to deny their faith in God. The king cut out the tongue of the first brother, scalped him, cut off his hands and feet, cast him alive into a caldron of boiling oil, and fried him while his other brothers and mother were looking on. The last and youngest bother was offered tremendous riches and honor if he would deny his faith and was treated even worse than the first when he refused. Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.
[7]Notice that Satan is doing the same thing today. He is trying very hard to turn the hearts of God's people away from God before the second coming of Christ. Although the intensive persecution has not yet begun on a worldwide scale, the pressures of modern living and the attractions of worldly pleasure have caused the hearts of many Christians to grow lukewarm, a condition Christ considers even worse than being cold (REV 3:15-16).
[8] We will discuss this symbolism later when we consider these chapters.