Close to the end of the 1st century, John received a vision that gave the readers hope in the midst of suffering while pointing toward the end of history. Here’s the CliffNotes version.
The historical setting is conflict in the last days, which is simply they time between the first and second coming of Jesus. Front and center for John’s audience were the fearsome power and seductive allure of the Rome (Babylon/Egypt) and its (assumed or believed to be) divine emperors.
The values of empires like Rome/Babylon are beastly rather than divine. The god-like rulers are only pretenders to the throne.
Revelation begins with, “This is the revelation of Jesus the Anointed,” and ends with, “the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Revelation is about Jesus above all else as the source of our hope.
Only God is worthy to receive worship, so check your allegiance – which will “mark” you as a follower of the Conquering Lamb or the devouring Dragon.
Faithfulness will cost you; God will be with you, and indescribable goodness and beauty of an eternity with God awaits the faithful.
So far, we have covered 7 letters that addressed threats coming from inside and outside the church; 7 seals that revealed the forces of evil unleashed against first believers and then the world in general; and 7 trumpets that heralded God's judgment on hardened humanity modeled after the god-toppling plagues of Egypt, with the hope of repentance.
In all of this, the souls of God’s people are kept safe, even when their bodies were not. It’s the history of the church. None of these things can separate God’s true people from His love or their eternal reward. And one day, there will be a final reckoning as the cycle ends in this life and world and we move into our existence in the next.
Ch. 12 begins the second half of Revelation. As always, it’s going to be thick with ‘hyperlinks’ to Old Testament references, which is our primary tool for understanding this text (along with extra-biblical Jewish literature and culture events that formed John’s audience).
12:1 Genesis 37:9-11
12:2 Isaiah 26:17; 66:7; Micah 4:9-10
12:3 Isaiah 27:1; Daniel 7:7, 20, 24
12:4 Daniel 8:10
12:5 Psalm 2:8-9; Isaiah 66:7
12:7 Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1
12:9 Genesis 3:1; Job 1:6; 2:1; Zechariah 3:1 12:10 Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5; Zechariah 3:1
12:14 Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11; Isaiah 40:31: Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Hosea 2:14-15
12:15 Hosea 15:10 12:17 Genesis 3:15
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12:1-5(ish)
As I looked, a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman came into view clothed in the radiance of the sun, standing with the moon under her feet, and she was crowned with a wreath of twelve stars on her head. She was painfully pregnant and was crying out in the agony of labor… She gave birth to a male child, who is destined to rule the nations with an iron scepter
The Woman
John clearly says this is a sign, a symbol pointing toward something else, just like the other women in Revelation. So, what is this symbol pointing toward? Some people favor the woman being Eve because of this reference:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise (crush) your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).
There will be war between the lineage of Eve (the mother of Life) and the serpent (the father of chaos). That is the story of the Bible. Revelation12 has a woman, the Serpent (Satan), and their offspring at war. There is clearly a correlation.
But… in the Old Testament, Israel is constantly pictured as the wife of God (Is. 54:5, 6; Jer. 3:6–8; 31:32; Ezek. 16:32; Hos. 2:16), a mother giving birth (Is. 26:17, 18; 54:1; 66:7–12; Hos. 13:13; Mic. 4:10; 5:2, 3; Matt. 24:8) or as the mother of the leader who embodied Israel’s restoration (Isa 9:6; Mic 5:2- 3). So is Zion (Isa. 54:1–3; 61:9–10; 65:9, 23; 66:10, 22.) This mother had agonized and suffered for centuries, longing for the Messiah to come and destroy Satan, sin, and death, and usher in the kingdom. ,
There’s Mary too, of course. A very real child who “rules the nations with a rod of iron” is a clear reference to Jesus (Psalm 2). But the details that follow after the birth don't match the timeline of Mary’s life, the Bible never describes her as ‘travailing in childbirth,’ and the upcoming reference to the woman’s children is clearly more than just Mary and Joseph’s biological kids.
This is ‘lineage of Jesus’ symbolism, “seed” language if you will. The descendent of the promise will crush the serpent. So, from what women is the serpent-crusher descended: Eve? Israel? Zion? Mary? Because it’s a sign, I lean toward this woman in Revelation 12 being the true Israel, the true children of Abraham who are the true people of God, through whom both Jesus and the church are birthed. And in the end, the child is the point, so let’s not get too hung up on who the woman is ☺
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Then a second sign appeared in heaven, ominous, foreboding: a great red dragon, with seven crowned heads and ten horns. The dragon’s tail brushed one-third of the stars from the sky and hurled them down to the earth. The dragon crouched in front of the laboring woman, waiting to devour her child the moment it was born.
Before the dragon could bite and devour her son, the child was whisked away and brought to God and His throne. The woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place of refuge and safety where she could find sustenance for 1,260 days.
A battle broke out in heaven. Michael, along with his heavenly messengers, clashed against the dragon. The dragon and his messengers returned the fight, but they did not prevail and were defeated. As a result, there was no place left for them in heaven. So the great dragon, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was cast down to the earth along with his messengers.
The Dragon (drakon)
Recalls OT descriptions of the sea monster Leviathan, representing chaos and God’s enemies (Ps 74:13–14; Isa 27:1; Ezek 29:3)
In Isaiah, God promised the suffering, pregnant Israel that she would bear new life in the time of the resurrection (Isa 26:17 – 19) when God would slay the serpent (Isa 26:20 — 27:1).
Isaiah 27:1, referring to the future Day of the LORD. “In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan (livyathan; drakōn) the fleeing serpent (nachash ), Leviathan (livyathan; drakōn) the twisting serpent (nachash), and he will slay the dragon(tannin; drakōn) that is in the sea.”
Remember the tie-in to the Exodus motif? “Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a drakōn” (Ex 7:9). It’s Egypt in Psalm 74:13-14. “You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters (tannin; drakōn) on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan (livyathan; drakōn) you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.”God crushed this monster when he brought his people through the sea (Isa 51:9 – 10).
The dragon is clearly Satan under all names and aliases. He can’t destroy everything (remember our discussion of “a third” language with the trumpets?), but he can wreak havoc either in the heavens (if stars are celestial beings) or on earth (if stars at God’s people), or both.
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Then I heard a great voice in heaven. “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Anointed One have come. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who relentlessly accuses them day and night before our God has been cast down and silenced. By the blood of the Lamb and the word of their witnesses, they have become victorious over him, for they did not hold on to their lives, even under threat of death.
Therefore, rejoice, all you heavens; celebrate, all you who live in them. But disaster will befall the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to your spheres. And he is incredibly angry because he knows his time is nearly over.
The victory predicted in Genesis is now explained as having happened. Jesus threw down/cast out the Dragon when he was lifted up at the cross-resurrection-ascension (Revelation 12:5). Look at what Jesus said in John 12:30-33:
“ ‘Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.”
This is a part of the “now and not yet” dynamic we have discussed before. The fate of Satan (not yet) was assured and inaugurated (now) in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (v. 12; John 12:31; Col. 2:15). Satan is now being repeatedly crushed since the death and resurrection of Jesus. His final and complete destruction has not yet happened, but will happen when the Lord returns to establish the New Heaven and Earth.
The present eschatological period between Christ’s two comings is often compared to two decisive events in World War II—D day (a term for the day it happens) and V(ictory) day. D day marked the landing of Allied troops in Europe. This decisive operation guaranteed the final defeat of Germany. The beach has been taken. The war’s outcome has been decided. However, the final surrender of the Axis forces did not occur until almost a year later on V day. The land still needed to be taken.
Think of D day as the first coming of Jesus portrayed in Revelation 12. Christ’s second coming—the V day for the church—remains a future event.
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When the dragon realized he had been cast down to the earth, he pursued the mother of the male infant. In order to escape the serpent, she was given the two wings of the great eagle to fly deeper into the wilderness to her own special place where she would find sustenance for a time, and times, and half a time.
Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a raging river that chased after the woman, trying to sweep her away in the flood. But the earth came to her rescue. It opened its gaping mouth and swallowed the river that spewed from the dragon’s mouth.
Revelation loves stuff coming out of people’s mouths. With God, it’s a sword (His word). With Satan, it’s chaos words, deception leading to death and persecution. , Scripture poetically depicted the defeat of Israel’s pursuers in the sea as the earth swallowing them (Ex 15:10,12). The targum (Aramaic paraphrase or interpretation of the Hebrew Bible) of Moses’ great Song of the Sea says,
“The sea spoke to the earth, Receive your children: but the earth spoke to the sea, Receive your murderers. And the sea was not willing to overwhelm them, and the earth was not willing to swallow them up. The earth was afraid to receive them, lest they should be required from her in the day of the great judgment in the world to come, even as the blood of Abel will be required of her. Whereupon You, O Lord, did stretch forth your right hand in swearing to the earth that in the world to come they should not be required of her. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed [the Egyptians].” (Ex 15:12).
It just means God fights for His people in language John’s audience understood.
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As a result, the dragon was enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children —those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the testimony of Jesus.
The offspring are “those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” So, that’s the true church ☺ The targum (Aramaic paraphrase or interpretation of the Hebrew Bible) of Genesis 3:15 says,
“When the children of the woman keep the commandments of the Law, they will take aim and strike you [the Serpent] on your head ...”
The offspring of Jesus – the true church, the true children of Abraham – participate in serpent-crushing through the power of the blood of the Lamb, their faithful testimony, and their commitments to living in the path of righteousness.
There are times when we read of visible spiritual warfare: Elijah and the prophets of Baal; Moses and Pharaoh; Jesus casting out demons, stories throughout church history of the clash between the power of the Holy Spirit and other spirits. I have seen this with my own eyes and have heard incidents recounted from trustworthy friends.
That is important, but it’s not where John lands for his audience on the primary means of doing spiritual warfare in their time and place. You want to participate in crushing the head of the serpent? Keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the testimony of Jesus.
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Two things stand out to me in this section.
First, the Satan's chief role as ‘adversary’ or ‘accuser’ in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, was directed toward accusing God's people of disobedience to God. The framework in the Old Testament seems to be that in God’s court, the Satan had a role allowed by God. He tested people, then reported to God how they were doing and apparently demanded that justice be meted out. At least some of these accusations were true– why else would Old Covenant sacrifices and Jesus’ eventual death establishing the New Covenant be necessary?
But the crucified Savior provided the required satisfaction of God's justice regarding our sins (1Jn 2:1-2; 4:10). The Satan no longer has a place in the divine courtroom, He has been cast out – and he’s pissed. In his anger, it become quite clear that he was not an impartial adjudicator advocating for justice - he was a hostile accuser bent on unleashing pain and suffering. He comes after us like a dragon. He has lost his voice in heaven, but not on earth. The flood that pours from the dragon’s mouth is his ongoing accusatory hatred poured out into the world. Satan's not tattling to God (fairly or unfairly) anymore - he's whispering self-condemnations and lies to everyone who will listen.
The good news: if you have trusted your life to obedience to and worship of Jesus, you are no longer being accused of your sin before the court of heaven. Instead of an accuser, you have an advocate. Advocates don’t ignore wrongdoing – Jesus doesn't pretend our sin didn’t happen – but He is there to offer Himself as the price that needs to be paid on our behalf.
Second, the Apostle ends his letter to the Romans by saying,
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Rom 16:20).
We have been delivered from the penalty of sin (the Accuser’s voice is no longer accusing us in the heavenly court, because our eternal debt has been covered by Jesus). In addition, the chaining power of sin has been broken: that dragon cannot control us as slaves because Jesus has broken that power. However, we will not be free of the presence of sin or the pursuit of the dragon until V day.
As we live between D day and V day, we are called by God to overcome the dragon and his forces by putting on the spiritual armor that he has given us (cf. Eph. 6:10–18) and crushing his power by keeping the commandments of God and holding fast to the testimony of Jesus.