Revelation 12:17 - Exposition

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed; waxed wroth … went away to make, etc. (Revised Version). Having failed to prevent the mission of' the man child—Christ Jesus—and having been foiled in his attempts to overwhelm the Church of God, Satan proceeds to attack the individual members of the Church—the seed of the woman. The method by which he endeavours to do this is related in the following chapters. Wordsworth points out an analogy between the means which Satan employs to destroy the Church as described here, and those described in the seals. The "rest of her seed" (Revised Version) signifies all the children of the woman, excluding the man child of Revelation 12:5 . All members of the Church of God are thus referred to, those who are brethren of Christ (cf. Hebrews 2:11 , "For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren"). Which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (nearly all manuscripts omit "Christ"); hold the testimony (Revised Version). This plainly points out who are the "rest of the seed"—they are those who are God's faithful servants. We may see in the description a reference to the Church of God, both Jewish and Christian. The members of the Jewish Church were they to whom "the commandments of God" were specially revealed, and Christians are they who specially "hold the testimony of Jesus." (For an explanation of the latter phrase, see on Revelation 1:2 .)

We have now reached another stage in the history of the warfare carried on by the devil against God. Revelation 12:7-12 of this chapter describe the origin of the hostility of Satan towards God; Revelation 12:4 and Revelation 12:5 relate the attempts of the devil to destroy Christ and to thwart his mission; Revelation 12:13-16 refer to the attacks of Satan upon the Church of God, by which he hoped to destroy it as a whole, before there was time for the "seed" to spring up. Having failed in every attempt, the dragon now sends other agents by whom he hopes to destroy the individual members of the Church—the other seed of the woman—the brethren of Christ.