In Exodus 15:12 Moses and the people described how the winds blew a dry path through the Red Sea so that the waters stood in a wall on either side and then crashed down on the Egyptian army to destroy them. Similarly, the Lord used the earth to frustrate the dragon’s efforts to drive a wedge between the woman and her dependence on the Lord. With the account of the blowing of the seven trumpets the Lord had used the earth to bring plagues upon humanity and destroy their sense of self-sufficiency. Now the Lord again uses the earth to swallow up the prosperity the woman could derive from the abundant water the dragon gave her in the dry and barren wilderness.
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.