Introduction
Blog comment: Some of you will recall that I began to write on The Revelation about a year ago on my blog. My initial efforts faded over time. However, with the lessening of other responsibilities since then, I am taking up the work again. I believe The Spirit prompted this after New Years (2021) and I am excited to dig in and learn further about The Joy of Revelation. Her is what I share about Revelation 12:1-9). My apologies for the alternating 'bold' and 'normal' font. It's a glitch I can't seem to correct, it bears no meaning on importance of sections.
Now we come to some of the most dramatic and climactic portions of The Revelation. These passages recount the efforts of Satan to defeat Christ and his people all through the ages. Some of these descriptions refer to recurring situations the Church has found itself in since Christ’s resurrection. Some point to the future and what would appear to be final battles between Christ and Satan. However, these battles might not be what you have likely been taught to expect.
The significance of these wars is evidenced by their being covered in eight of The Revelation’s twenty-two chapters. We have by now come to understand that The Revelation is not so much a chronological account as a record of scenes played out in different settings and seen from different vantage points, as well as in varying degrees of depth and complexity. Some of the passages we will study here seem to be expansions of chapters six, eight and nine. What the seven seals of chapters 6 – 8 and seven trumpets of chapters 8 – 11 introduce, are in some ways dealt with here again, in the sometimes bizarre seven signs or symbols of chapters 12 – 14. Finally, the accounts of the ‘wars’ wrap up in the latter half of chapters 16 – 18 and the latter portions of chapters 19 – 20.
Signs 1 & 2, The Woman in Heaven and The Dragon.
12:1-9
12:1 Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. 12:2 She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth. 12:3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. 12:4 Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 12:5 So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, 12:6 and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days. 12:7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 12:8 But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels. 12:9 So that huge dragon – the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world – was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him.
This is a cosmic description of what began with the birth of Jesus and ended with his resurrection. As with many apocalyptic images, these pictures are drawn from different sources and thus combine different elements. To begin with, the first symbol, the woman, would appear to be Mary of Nazareth. We’ll come back to her description and its meaning later. She is pregnant and about to give birth. She does gives birth to a male child, a son, who is to rule all the enations with a rod of iron. This child must be Jesus.
The second symbol, the dragon is none other than Satan. This is the moment he has been waiting for. He knew God had a plan to rectify the damage Satan began to wreak on God’s good creation from the beginning. He sees that this child, the description of which would line up with the human, Jewish, Messianic expectations of the time of Jesus’ birth, has a key part in that plan. So, Satan wants to kill this child. We know he tried unsuccessfully to accomplish this through King Herod, as described in the tragic account in the Gospel According to Matthew, 2:1-18. This killing of all male children in the area of Bethlehem under the age of two is referred to in Church History as The Slaughter of the Innocents. It is still remembered much more in the Eastern churches of our faith family. If you go to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, you will see it memorialized below the complex on which this Church stands.
Not to be deterred, Satan tries again and this time succeeds in killing this Son, not through Herod but through the efforts of the Jewish people themselves, with the aid of their Roman overlords, and Jesus is killed, crucified on Calvary. The Child is snatched up into heaven, to God and to his throne. This refers to Christ’s resurrection, his vindication and his exaltation to sit at the right hand of God, as described on numerous occasions throughout the New Testament. Satan is foiled again.
The woman meanwhile, flees to “the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God”. How many times have those who were part of God’s plan not had to spend time in the wilderness. Indeed, sometimes we all feel as though that’s where we sometimes are. However, here this is seen as a place of security. It is prepared by God to protect the woman from Satan. We do well to remember that when we feel we are in the wilderness, God is still there with us. He can still protect us and see us through whatever our wilderness experience is.
Indeed, this brings us to see this symbol in another light, referring it would seem, to a different, later period of time. This woman can also be seen on another level as Christ himself, symbolized as a woman, the Mother of The Church. We can now turn to the description of this figure. We know Christ is described as Light. When he showed himself as he really was to his three closest disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration he was so bright they could not look at him. He would be the one entitled to wear a crown with twelve stars, which could stand for his rule over the twelve tribes of Israel as King David’s successor, or, following that, the twelve Apostles representing The Church. The moon is sometimes understood in biblical times as having evil aspects, so it is under the feet of this portent, indicating evil’s subjection (Psalm 121:6: “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”).
Now, we can see how the comments in the paragraph preceding this last really can apply to us as Christ’s children. The Church is not really fully at home in this world. We can be said to be in a wilderness. We are not lost but we are pilgrims, wanderers, looking for our future home when the Kingdom of God, of which we are already citizens, will fully come into being. God is looking after us though, just as he did look after Israel those forty years in the wilderness of the Old Testament. Our wandering will end, as did Israel’s.
Satan is furious. The war he waged on earth against the Christ is now seen as it appeared from a heavenly vantage point. Satan wages war on a cosmic scale, in heaven itself, with Michael and his forces. Satan loses and is thrown – not the to his eternal punishment, but to the earth with his angels, which we sometimes refer to as demons. This tells us that Satan and his forces are already weakened by the death and resurrection of Jesus. This was meant to comfort and encourage Jesus’ followers at the time this was written. The text is reminding them that although they might be facing hostility, persecution and even death now, they are on the winning side with Jesus, and their vindication and reward will come, as did Christ’s.
We today, in the face of all we as believers see and experience in today’s world, should be likewise heartened and able to feel joy in the knowledge that we too shall overcome through Christ our Lord. As the Apostle Paul writes, we are baptized into his body, so we die and rise with Christ (Romans 6:3-11). Praise be to God!
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