Revelation 12:15,16

We have not means for interpreting this description in detail. All we can say certainly is, that it describes the providential foiling of Satanic attempts at the destruction of Israel. Perhaps the most plausible suggestion of a definite meaning of the "flood" [better translated river] is that the Christians of Jerusalem, in their flight to "the mountains" (St Matthew 24:16 &c.) of Pella, were delivered by a miracle or special providence from the dangers of the passage of Jordan: if they fled immediatelybefore the siege was formed by Titus, this was just before the Passover, when the river was in flood (Joshua 3:15). But of such an event we have no historical notice: and it is likely that the Christians fled when they had first"seen Jerusalem compassed with armies" (St Luke 21:20), in the unsuccessful assault of Cestius Gallus, three years before the fall of the city.