The moon speaks of God's creation. The moon has no light of its own. It is dead. But the light of the sun reflects from it and therefore the moon is able to give light and govern the night.

The created realm, including ourselves, is dead apart from Christ. But when His glory is reflected from us, we of the Church are able to give light and to rule in the midst of darkness and death (II Corinthians 3:18; 4:6).

The world of itself is a place of darkness. The light that enables mankind to distinguish good from evil is that which is reflected from the people of God as Christ shines from Heaven in them.

Moonlight is a pale light. We see partially—"through a glass, darkly." But moonlight is better than no light at all. When the Day of the Lord dawns and Christ comes to us "as the morning" (Hosea 6:3), the world will understand how dark the present age actually has been.

The created realm, the material universe, is under the feet of the woman, the Church, the Body of Christ.

Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; (I Corinthians 3:22)

The two witnesses of Chapter 11 are given authority and power over the entire earth for a season as a preview of the rule of the Church during the thousand-year Kingdom Age; but then the witness is overcome by Antichrist.

When the Lord Jesus Christ appears in and with His Body in the Glory of the Father, the whole earth will be ruled by God in Christ in the saints. This is the beginning of the eternal government, the Kingdom of God.

Christ is that Adam who is in the image of God and who has been given dominion over all the works of God's hands (Psalms 8:3-8). As Christ is formed in us we too are assigned our Divinely ordained places of fruitfulness and dominion.

This world belongs to the saints.

To mankind has been assigned the dominion over all things—all is "in subjection under him" (Hebrews 2:8).

And upon her head a crown [garland] of twelve stars: (Revelation 12:1)

The twelve stars represent God's "stars," His heroes of faith, His mighty men, His conquerors, His kings and judges of the ages to come.

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)

What do the stars do? They guide travelers at night.

Are we dividing the Body of Christ, that seamless robe of Christ, into the Church and the "stars"? Not at all. The heroes of faith are as a crown on the head of the Church.

The Church of God always has produced outstanding men and women of God. We think of Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Job, Paul, Peter, Elijah, David and so forth. Are they separate from the Israel of God?

To be continued.