Revelation 12:6

Where she has a place prepared by God. Be to me, he says, a God of protection, and a place of refuge to save me.

That they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. This number of days, which makes three and a half years, encompasses all times of Christianity, because Christ, whose body this is, preached for that time in the flesh.

And the woman fled into the wilderness. The Church, living under the hope of eternal things, rejoices in the pilgrimage of the present wilderness, having received the power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the red dragon, like the …

She fled into the wilderness, a place prepared both for her safety and her sustenance. The church was in an obscure state, dispersed; and this proved her security, through the care of divine Providence. This her obscure and private state was for a limited time, not to continue always.

And she brought forth a man child - Even Christ, considered not in his person, but in his kingdom. In the ninth age, many nations with their princes were added to the Christian church. Who was to rule all nations - When his time is come.

In this wilderness, God had already prepared a place; that is, made it safe and convenient for her. The wilderness is, those countries of Europe which lie on this side the Danube; for the countries which lie beyond it had received Christianity before.

And the woman fled into the wilderness,....

Instead of overcoming, she was overcome by the world [AUBERLEN]. Thus, the woman is "the one inseparable Church of the Old and New Testament" [HENGSTENBERG], the stock of the Christian Church being Israel (Christ and His apostles being Jews), on which the Gentile believers have been grafted, and into which Israel, on her conversion, shall be grafted, as into her own olive tree.

And the woman fled into the wilderness - The account of the woman’s flying into the wilderness immediately follows that of her child being caught up to the throne of God, to denote the great and rapid increase of heresies in the Christian Church after the time that Christianity was made the religion of the empire. Where she hath a place prepared of God - See on Rev 12:14 (note).

And the woman - The woman representing the church. See the notes at Rev 12:1. Fled - That is, she fled in the manner, and at the time, stated in Rev 12:14. John here evidently anticipates, by a summary statement, what he relates more in detail in Rev 12:14-17. He had referred Rev 12:2-5 to what occurred to the child in its persecutions, and he here alludes, in general, to what befell the true church as compelled to flee into obscurity and safety. Having briefly referred to this, the writer Rev 12:7-13 gives an account of the efforts of Satan consequent on the removal of the child to heaven. Into the wilderness - On the meaning of the word “wilderness” in the New Testament, see the notes on Mat 3:1. It means a desert place, a place where there are few or no inhabitants; a place, therefore, where one might be concealed and unknown - remote from the habitations and the observations of people. This would well represent the fact, that the true church became for a time obscure and unknown - as if it had fled away from the habitations of people, and had retired to the solitude and loneliness of a desert. Yet even there Rev 12:14, Rev 12:16 it would be mysteriously nourished, though seemingly driven out into wastes and solitudes, and having its abode among the rocks and sands of a desert. Where she hath a place prepared of God - A place where she might be safe, and might be kept alive. The meaning is, that during that time the true church, though obscure and almost unknown, would be the object of the divine protection and care - a beautiful representation of the church during the corruptions of the papacy and the darkness of the middle ages. That they should feed her - That they should “nourish” or “sustain” her - τρέφωσιν trephōsin - to wit, as specified in Rev 12:14, Rev 12:16. […]