_Son_ is given." (Is. ix. 6.) This _masculine_ son, however, is not to
be understood of Christ _personal_, but of Christ mystical,--of those
who are with him "called, and chosen, and faithful;" whom "he is not
ashamed to call his brethren." (ch. xvii. 14; Heb. ii. 11.) The "sealed"
company, (ch. vii. 4,) the "two witnesses;" (xi. 3), the "144 thousand,"
(xiv. 1,) are the "manchild." As many rulers constitute but one "angel,"
(chs. ii. and iii.,) so the two witnesses are one _manly Son_. The Lord
Jesus was _alone_ in the work of redemption; but he allows his faithful
disciples to share in the honor of his victories, (ch. ii. 26, 27; Ps.
cxlix. 9.) From the devouring jaws of the dragon, as it were, the "child
is caught up unto God, and to his throne." The leaders in church and
state supposed that they had "made sure" of the Saviour, when they had
"sealed the stone and set a watch." So thought the enemies of the
witnesses while their dead bodies lay unburied.--"He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." The Anointed
of the Father, the Head of the church, and Prince of the kings of the
earth, as the representative of his people, in defiance of the serpent,
is caught up to the throne of God, (Eph. ii. 6;) while the church flies
to her appointed place in the wilderness during the 1260 years. At the
beginning of that gloomy period the woman fled. This flight is not
mentioned "by anticipation," as some suppose; for the wilderness
condition of the woman, and the sackcloth of the witnesses, are
emblematical of the same depressed state of the church, and during the
same time. The witnesses prophesy during the whole period of the 1260
years; and the woman is fed in the wilderness during the _same_ time.
Her flight, sojourn in the wilderness, and feeding there, are allusions
to the history of Elijah as before, (ch. xi. 6.) when he fled for his
life from the wrath of Jezebel. (1 Kings xix. 1-4.) Jezebel has been
already introduced as an enemy to the church, (ch. ii. 20.) There may be
allusion also to the miraculous subsistence of the church in the