Joel’s Revelation Commentary–Revelation 12: A Woman, a Child, and a Dragon…O My!

I best some of you were wondering when I would get around to tackling the second half of Revelation. Well, here it is.

Revelation 12 marks the beginning of another major section of Revelation. When one compares it to chapters 4-11, one should notice a number of things. First, the basic unfolding of events falls into the same patter as chapters 4-11. In both sections:

• The scene begins in Heaven, then shifts to earth (Ch. 4-5; 12:1-12)
• There is turmoil on the earth (Ch. 6; 12:13-13:18)
• Then there is something mentioned about the 144,000 (Ch. 7; Ch. 14)
• The seven trumpets (8:1-5) and seven bowls (Ch. 15) are prepared
• The first six trumpets are blown (8:6-13) and the seven bowls are poured out (Ch. 16); the result of both is that there is no repentance, and the people curse God
• A pause in the action in 17:1-19:10 has no parallel in part one
• The events in chapters 10 and 11 correspond to 19:11-21 and 20:1-15 respectively
• Finally, the consummation of God’s salvation comes (11:15-19; 21:1-22:6)

Chapters 12-22, though, are not simply a rehashing of 4-11. Yes, the basic structure and “tune” is the same, but there is a definite intensification of events. In short, if chapters 4-11 are like a string quartet, chapters 12-22 is the entire symphony—everything is on a grander scale.  The scope of chapters 4-11 is simply that of the servants of God being persecuted by the kings of the earth (although in 9:11 we are given a hint that something bigger is going one—this is where we are told that the locusts from the Abyss have a king over them—the angel of the Abyss, whose name is the Destroyer). The scope of chapters 12-22 tells us that the battle is not simply between Christians and the evil kings of the world, but is ultimately between the Lamb of God and the Dragon himself. The stakes are much higher than first expected. In short, chapters 12-22 show the cosmic significance of this earthly struggle between the saints of God and the evil kings of the earth.

The Scene in Chapter 12
That being said, chapter 12 opens with quite an interesting sight: a woman clothed with the sun is giving birth and is in great pain, while an enormous red dragon with 7 heads, 10 horns, and 7 crowns stands ready to devour the child as soon as it is born. The child, though, is snatched up to God, and the woman flees to the wilderness. Meanwhile, there is a great war in Heaven, and the dragon and his angels are hurled down to earth. Once on earth, the dragon pursues the woman, but she (as previously stated) escapes to the wilderness. And so, the dragon goes off to make war against the rest of her offspring.

So what does that all mean?

In short, chapter 12 gives us the cosmic significance of the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The easiest way to go through chapter 12 is by identifying the main characters in it. But before we do, it would be best to quickly review something in Genesis 3:15-20. After the man and woman sin, the LORD God tells the serpent that He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring. The woman was told that her pains in childbearing would increase, and later on we learn that she is named Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

This small section in Genesis 3 has a tremendous impact on everything in the Bible, especially here in Revelation 12. Old Testament Israel saw themselves as the woman’s offspring, and the Gentiles who persecuted them as the serpent’s offspring. In addition, the king of Israel was seen to represent all of Israel—he was the figurehead. He was the one “offspring” who represented the entire number of the woman’s “offspring” (i.e. Israel). Therefore, when the Jews began hoping for a future Messiah (i.e. a future Davidic king who would make Israel great again), they  viewed this future Messiah as the embodiment of all Israel who represented them all.

If you don’t yet see the relevance of that to Revelation 12, hang on…you will.

The Woman Clothed With the Sun
Any Jew would have recognized this woman to be symbolic of the Heavenly Zion (12:1-6), of which the Old Testament people of God (12:13-16) represented. Her crown of 12 stars alludes to the 12 tribes of Israel. Not only that, but the scene here has echoes all the way from Genesis 3:15-16. She is also seen in light of Eve, the mother of all the living who gives birth to the offspring who strikes the serpent’s head. To simply say that the woman is Old Testament Israel, though, is not to fully understand the scene. More accurately, it is the Heavenly Zion, the true people of God, of whom Old Testament Israel was a representation. Consider what we see here also as an allusion to Isaiah 66:7-9:

“Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came upon her, she delivered a son. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be delivered in one moment? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she delivered her children. Shall I open the womb and not deliver? Says the LORD; shall I, the one who delivers, shut the womb? Says your God.”

The Dragon
We are told who the dragon is: Satan, the ancient serpent, who leads the whole world astray. The fact he is pictured as a dragon, and is called the ancient serpent, should call to mind images of Genesis (and if you’re a really learned Old Testament scholar, other Old Testament references like Job 3:8; 41:1; Psalm 74:4; 89:10; Isaiah 27:1; 51:9). The great serpent obviously relates back to Genesis 3, for it is a serpent that deceives the woman, and it is between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring that war is declared. God will defeat Satan in a war fought through the woman’s offspring, whose representative is ultimately Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, and through the serpent’s offspring, whose representative (as we shall see) is ultimately the Beast.

But the dragon in Revelation represents much more than just the serpent in Genesis 3. The serpent was a mythological symbol used in the ancient world to denote the great sea monster, the ruler of the watery chaos and evil: Leviathan, Rahab. Let’s just look at one instance of this elsewhere in the Old Testament: Isaiah 27:1—“On that day, YHWH with His cruel and great, cruel, and mighty sword, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will kill the dragon that is in the sea.”

This is a promise that on the Great Day of YHWH, when He comes to redeem His people, He will kill the great serpent (Leviathan), defeat evil, and put an end to the war that was begun back in Genesis 3.

Let’s also consider Isaiah51:9-11—“⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago! Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? ¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to cross over? ¹¹ So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Again, this is a promise that, just as YHWH delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, and made a way for them to escape through the great sea (i.e. the Red Sea in this case), so will He once again provide a way of salvation for His people—this time out of the Babylonian exile. Rahab here is a reference to Egypt, the nation who oppressed Israel. It is also a term used to describe the great serpent. Consequently, by calling Egypt “Rahab,” Isaiah is saying that the oppressive power of Egypt ultimately comes from Satan himself. “Just like God saved Israel back then,” Isaiah is saying, “so will He again save His people.”

There are many more Old Testament references that show how Old Testament Israel, and the early Christians as well, viewed Satan. We in the modern world see him as a horned devil with a tail and pitchfork. They saw him as the great and terrible mythological sea serpent of chaos.

The Male Child
The child born to the woman is Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. The mention of the fact that he will “rule all the nations with a rod of iron” is a reference to Psalm 2:7, a psalm that looks forward to the coming Messiah. Early Christians would have easily seen the child being taken up to God’s throne as a reference to the ascension, vindication, and glorification of Christ. The point is simple: Satan tried to defeat and kill Christ all through his life (and particularly at the cross), and failed. Christ has now ascended to the throne of God, Satan has been defeated in Heaven (12:7-9), and is hurled down to earth. The battle in Heaven is already decided, but now the battle has to be played out on earth.

A Brief Statement on 12:10-12
This little declaration by a voice in Heaven is quite significant. The declaration, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ,” echoes a similar declaration in 11:15: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” The point is this: with Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension, the decisive battle in Heaven is won, and the Kingdom of God has now come to earth.

A good example of what is going on here is that of D-Day, when the Allies invaded Normandy, beat back the Nazis, and got a foothold on the European continent. Once the Allies won D-Day, once they had gotten that foothold in France, the war against Hitler was all but over. There was still going to be months of hard fighting, but for all practical purposes, the war had been won on D-Day, on the beaches of Normandy. The rest was just a mop-up job. With the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the decisive battle was won. Satan’s power was broken, and death was overpowered. The Kingdom of God had come, it was just a matter of time to finalize the job.

What comes next in 12:11 is this: “How is Satan defeated?” By three things: (A) the blood of the Lamb (Christ’s saving work on the cross), (B) the word of the saints’ testimony (our witness and faithfulness to Christ, and (C) the fact that the saints did not shrink from death (our willingness to sacrifice our lives, just as Christ did). This is very important to realize. Yes, Christ defeats Satan, but we have a part in the war, too. We cannot sit back and do nothing.

Final Comments on 12:13-17
A few things must be mentioned here. First, this passage clearly shows that although Satan is defeated, he’s not dead yet.  He’s wreaking havoc on the earth, the earth in which we are living today. Second, hopefully you noticed the reference to the woman being cared for by God in the desert for 1,260 days, or “a time, times, and half a time.” Does that sound familiar? Three and a half years? 42 months? It should. This is the time of the “trampling of the Gentiles” (11:2), and the time of the two witnesses (11:3). This is the time, as 12:17 clearly states, when the dragon makes war “against the rest of the woman’s offspring”—namely the followers of Christ. The point is that ever since Christ’s ascension, we have been living in the “1,260 days.” Christians have been in tribulation, and are warring against Satan. One last thing, isn’t it kind of ironic that the way the dragon tries to destroy the woman is with…a flood? Hmmmm….