In
Chapter 12 of the book of Revelation a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman “arrayed
with the sun and the moon beneath her feet” and in labor pains (Revelation
12:1-5). The description borrows language from Joseph’s dream in which he
saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars rendering homage to him; the stars
represented the twelve tribes of Israel paying homage to the twelfth star,
Joseph (Genesis 37:9, Revelation 12:1-5).
This Woman represents the
people of God. Elsewhere, the number twelve is associated with the saints, the
redeemed people of the Lamb; she is the covenant community of God from both the
Old and New Testament eras (Revelation 7:4-8, 21:12-14).
The labor pains symbolize the persecution of
the covenant community in the era before the birth of her Son; it has the promise
made to Adam and Eve in view, along with a prophecy from Isaiah:
(Genesis 3:15-16) - “I will put enmity between
you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: he
shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said,
I will greatly multiply your pain and your conception; in pain you
shall bring forth children.”
(Isaiah 7:10-14) – “A sign...in the height
above...a sign, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son.”
Likewise, in this passage, John sees a “great
sign in the heaven, a woman…with child…and she brought forth a son.”
John then saw a second “sign,”
a great red dragon with “seven heads and ten horns” poised
to “devour” the Woman’s “child” as soon as she gives birth to it.
This description associates this “dragon” with the fourth
beast from the sea of Daniel’s vision, a creature that also had “ten horns”
and “devoured.” In the book of Daniel, that beast represented a
political power that persecuted God’s people (“The little horn made war with
the saints and prevailed against them” - Daniel 7:21, 7:7-8, Revelation
13:1-4, 13:7).
The Woman gave birth to a “son,
a male, who is going to shepherd all the nations with a scepter of iron;
and her child was seized toward God and toward his throne.” Two Old
Testament passages are alluded to in verse 5. The shepherd who is to rule the
nations is a messianic promise from Psalm 2:7-9 (“You
are my Son…You will break them with a rod of iron”). The
Woman then brought forth a “son, a male,” an image derived from Isaiah
66:7 where “Zion,” a female figure, “brought forth a male.” (Septuagint
- eteken arsen). To this latter clause, the book of Revelation adds the
noun “son” or huios, which links both Old Testament passages to Revelation
12:5; what was promised in the past era finds fulfillment in the birth of
this Woman’s “child.”
This messianic psalm was used
previously to promise that overcoming believers will participate in Christ’s
rule over the nations, a position he “received of my Father” (Revelation
2:27). It is applied to Jesus again when he is portrayed as a Rider on a
White Horse who wields a “shall shepherd them with a rod of iron” (Revelation
19:15).
This “son” born of the Woman is
none other than the Messiah who came from the messianic community. The identification is made explicit when a
loud voice proclaims, “Now has come the salvation, and the power, and the
kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ” (Revelation
12:10).
The Dragon’s attempt to
destroy the son backfires. This attack occurred, not at Christ’s physical birth
or when King Herod slaughtered the male children of Bethlehem, but at his
execution on the cross. By resurrecting Jesus,
God turned Satan’s effort on its head and the death of the Son became his
victory over the Dragon. Upon his “birth,” the “son is seized toward God and
His throne.” Elsewhere, Christ’s installment on God’s Throne is linked to
his sacrificial death (Revelation 1:4-5, 3:21, 5:5-10).
The
Woman’s flight into the Wilderness evokes images from Israel’s escape from
Egypt. Following the exaltation of the son, the covenant community begins another
exodus in the “Wilderness.” The victory of the “son” does NOT mean the removal
of the Woman or God’s people from the earth. Instead, He provides protection
and “nourishment…in the Wilderness” (Revelation 12:6).
John next
saw a “war in heaven,” a pictorial representation of the “heavenly
battle” that lies behind events on the earth. A much larger conflict is transpiring
behind the scenes that is not readily apparent to individual saints and
congregations. This manifests on the earth in attempts by the Dragon’s earthly
allies to deceive and persecute the church; most immediately, in the daily struggles
of the seven churches of Asia against apostasy, false teachers, false accusers,
and persecution by local authorities (Revelation 12:7-12).
A “loud
voice heard in heaven” interprets the vision (cp. Revelation 1:10, 19:1).
It declares Satan’s defeat because of the victory of the Son achieved by his
death and resurrection. The Devil has lost his legal basis to accuse the saints
before God. They are declared “not guilty” in the heavenly court and are exempt
from the “second death” (Revelation 2:11, 20:6).
With the
victory of the Messiah, Satan’s traditional role of the accuser has come to an
end. His ultimate defeat is assured but he is not yet out of the fight. With
his expulsion from the “courts” of heaven, he assumes the role of the deceiver
of the world, the one “who is deceiving the whole habitable earth” (cp. Job
1:9, 2:5, Zechariah 3:1-2, Luke 10:18).
A voice
declares “woe” to the earth and the sea because the Devil has come down “having
great fury.” Note well: this warning is to the “earth and the sea,”
not to the unrepentant inhabitants of the earth. It portrays the Dragon’s impending
attacks against the saints. The Greek noun used here for “fury” (thumos)
is a different one than the term rendered “wrath” elsewhere in the book (or orgé).
In the
book of Revelation, “wrath” is directed against the “inhabitants of the
earth” at the instigation of God or the Lamb, not the Devil (Revelation 6:1-8,
8:5-9:21, 16:1-21). In contrast, Satan’s “fury” or thumos is
thrown against the saints (Revelation 11:7, 13:7-10).
(Revelation 12:13-17) – “And when
the Dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he pursued the Woman who had
brought forth the male. And there were given to the Woman the two
wings of the great eagle that she might fly into the Wilderness to
her place where she is nourished a time, times half a time from the face of the
Serpent. And the Serpent cast out of his mouth water like a river after the
Woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. And the earth
helped the Woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river
that the Dragon cast out of his mouth. And the Dragon was angered against the
woman and went away to make war with the rest of her Seed, with them who were keeping
the commandments of God and holding the testimony of Jesus.”
The Dragon is enraged; he is
unable to destroy the Son. His final defeat is assured and he knows he has only
a “short time” remaining to inflict destruction. He vents his rage by
persecuting the Woman, not the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.
God’s “nourishing” of
the Woman alludes to the story of Yahweh feeding Israel in the wilderness with
“manna.” Jesus previously promised to give “hidden manna” to saints
who overcome. God sustains the woman through the persecuting activities of the
Dragon. The “two wings of the eagle” is an allusion to the Exodus story
where Yahweh declared to Israel, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians
and how I bare you on eagles' wings”
(Exodus 16:15-35, 19:3-4, Revelation 2:17, 11:1-2).
The reference to the “Serpent”
is a verbal link t0 the story of Eve in the Garden of Eden when she was “deceived”
by the Serpent’s lies. The image of the “Serpent casting water like a
river out of his mouth” does not refer to literal floodwaters but to Satan’s
flood of deception poured out against the Woman (Genesis 3:13).
The churches of Asia
experienced such deceptive onslaughts from the Nicolaitans, “false apostles,”
“Jezebel,” and the “doctrines of Balaam.” In each case, the
attack was associated with Satan: the “synagogue
of Satan,” the “throne of Satan,” and the “deep things of Satan”
(Revelation 2:2, 2:9, 2:13-14, 2:20-24, 3:9).
But God intervenes to thwart the Serpent
assault against the Woman. Enraged further, he turns his fury against the “rest
of the Woman’s seed, to make war with them who were keeping the
commandments of God and holding the testimony of Jesus.”
“To make war with them” is a clause
from Daniel 7:21 where the “Little Horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them.” It is also a
verbal link to the Two Witnesses against whom the Beast from the Abyss “will
make war with them, overcome them, and slay them” (Revelation
11:7).
The description at the end of Chapter 12 of
Revelation forms a transition to the next section. The story of the Beast from
the Sea in the next chapter will provide a more detailed picture of this
onslaught against the Woman’s “seed.” It is also another link to the previous destruction
of the Two Witnesses by the Beast from The Abyss. That is, the three images
portray certain aspects of the same set of events; all three visions are
closely related (Revelation 11:7, 12:17, 13:1-10).
The saints who make up the “rest of the
Woman’s seed” are those who “keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus.” This clause is a link to the martyrs seen under the
altar when the Lamb opened the sixth seal: “Who had been slain because of
the word of God and because of the testimony they had.” They were told that
they must wait until the full number of their brethren “who were going to be
slain as even they” were gathered in by God. (Revelation 12:17).
The Woman’s “seed” represents the
saints who follow the Lamb. They are identified with Jesus because they have the
“testimony of Jesus.” This company is not Israel or a group of ethnic
Jews, though many individuals among their number will be of Israelite descent.
The war against the woman’s “seed” includes several verbal links to other
passages in Revelation where the Devil or his agents waged war against
followers of Jesus described variously as “saints,” the “two
witnesses,” and they who have the “testimony of Jesus.”
In short, the vision of the Dragon
persecuting the “seed of the Woman” represents Satan’s ongoing "war" against the saints of God, the men and women redeemed from every nation by the
Lamb. This group is comprised of individuals who have overcome the Dragon by
the “blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and because they love
not their lives unto death” (Revelation 12:11). God vindicates their
overcoming faith, not by removing them from the earth, but by sustaining them through
the onslaughts of the Dragon.
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