He is filled with terrible anger, for he knows that he only has a little time!”
12:13 Now when the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 12:14 But the woman was given the two wings of a giant eagle so that she
could fly out into the wilderness, to the place God prepared for her, where she is taken care of – away from the presence of the serpent – for a time, times, and half a time. 12:15 Then the serpent spouted water like a river out of his mouth after the woman in an attempt to sweep her away by a flood, 12:16 but the earth came to her
rescue; the ground opened up and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth. 12:17 So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus.
The last section ended in 12:9 with the Devil being thrown down to earth along with his angels after his defeat by Jesus upon his resurrection. We saw how the view in heaven also portrays this as a battle with the angel Michael. In apocalyptic literature, Michael appears in our Bibles in Daniel 10:13-11:1 as an angel fighting the prince of Persia, then going on to fight the prince of Greece. Given that this information came in a vision to Daniel as did John’s vision in our text, one would gather from the context that these are cosmic wars being fought and that these princes are probably demons defending successive empires. Empires all do become evil in time, so this connection need not be surprising.
Indeed, in Daniel 12:1-4, Michael is identified by the heavenly being speaking to Daniel as ‘the protector of your people, meaning the people of God, in this case Israel. The description of the battle in Daniel sounds very much like that in our text from Revelation 12. However, now we understand the people of God to include Christians. It stands to reason that, as people of God, Michael is also our protector, as seems to be the case in Revelation 12. The only other biblical reference to Michael is in Jude 9 in the New Testament, where he is called an archangel. This is the title given angels such as Michael, and Gabriel who came to Mary and Joseph, because of the key role they play in the scriptures and apocalyptic literature as one of the few named angels.
After the Devil is thrown out of heaven, John hears a loud voice in heaven (12:10). Among other things, this voice is heard in 12:12b warning the inhabitants of the earth that Satan is “filled with terrible anger, for he knows that he has only a little time”. Remember, the Devil, Satan, is here described as a dragon. The serpent of Genesis 3 has morphed in apocalyptic literature into a dragon.
We see that the dragon is still bent on destroying this child but now that it is safe in heaven, where Satan is not, he turns its attention to its mother. Remember, we said this woman could represent the people of God, past, present and future. Past would include the first human group to be so identified, the Jews. One can interpret what the Jews have suffered all through history, right up to our time, as the result of Satan’s extreme hatred for them because they figure so centrally in God’s plans, and as such, gave birth to the Christ. We saw why the devil wanted to destroy him before he gave his life as the sacrificial Lamb, and so corrected what Satan had done to the world by defeating him with that death and the resurrection that followed.
However, we are told again, as in 12:6 that the woman had not only fled into the wilderness as stated there, but been helped to get there by being given the wings of an eagle to fly to the place in the wilderness prepared by God for her. Suddenly the dragon is again a serpent and now tries to flood the woman out of the wilderness, but fails when the earth itself comes to her aid and absorbs the flood the devil created.
The dragon then turns its attention away from the woman to focus his anger on her children. Now her children are not one son who was snatched up into heaven, but the many “who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus.” This could refer still to the Jews, “those who keep God’s commandments”, as well now as Christians, those who “hold to the testimony about Jesus.” This testimony is, of course, that he is the long-promised Messiah, our Redeemer, Savior and risen Lord.
These verses show that Jews and Christians alike will not have an easy time on earth. We see that in history and still. However, we have already been learning that we are victorious with Christ. We also know that the defeat which occurred at the cross will be finalized when Christ returns. Knowing that should encourage us, strengthen us and perhaps even allow us to experience joy in the midst of tribulation. That is one of the key aims of this book, this letter to the seven churches, and to us.
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