"13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea."
Revelation 12:13-17
As we have said the protection given to the 'woman' 'away from the face of the serpent' (14) does not contradict the emphasis in chapter 11, in which it was said that the two witnesses, representing the organised Christian Church, would be done to the death and crushed out of existence. For in chapter 12 what is before us is the whole dispensation of grace, from Christ's first Advent to His second, whereas in chapter 11 we were dealing with the events at the end-time, leading up to the great climactic conflict between Christ and the powers of darkness. The truth is that during the entire age of grace the theme for the Church will be: 'Persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed'; but in Satan's 'little season', at the end, and just prior to the coming of Christ, the organised witness of the Church will be broken. But Satan's triumph will last, to use Luther's words 'but an hour', and it will come not during but at the end of, the age. During the age of grace there will be the divine protection, albeit attempts from Satan will abound, as 15 indicates, to carry away the people of God. (Many commentators associate this satanic flood with the delusions and false doctrines and 'isms' that sweep across the minds of men. We have only to think of the deadly dangerous ideologies and heresies that have arisen in our time, both in the world and within organised religion, to realise the grim realism of these verses before us).
Such then is the experience of the Church of God in the whole dispensation of grace - Satan the great dragon standing ready to swoop, on the one hand, and on the other, the everlasting arms of God's grace and love and the bounty of his provision protecting us, until the last great and terrible time when Satan has his little season, then the end, and the establishment of the new heavens and the new earth, and the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.