We've just finished reading about the part of the eschaton where 7 judgements from God happen on the earth, most or all of which are warning judgements, like the plagues were in Egypt, and we learned that just like Pharaoh, the nations largely don't repent of their wickedness. UNTIL the witnesses (which could represent us the church) pour out their lives, in obedience to God and love for the world - then people do repent.
Now we're transitioning into the next section (chapters 12-14) where John is going to describe the cosmic battle we as humankind find ourselves amidst. He's going to demonstrate the reality of spiritual warfare using several different signs/symbols/visions. SOME people categorize the next section as 12-15:4 meaning they include a victory song of the saints from the beginning of chapter 15, which is cool cause it gives the section SEVEN parts. But in the outline i created, which I'm happy to send you if you'd like, i just say chapters 12-14.
Tim Mackie says of this section (chapters 12-14) that we're "exploring the message of the open scroll in greater depth."
Beale says "It goes into deeper dimensions of the spiritual conflict between the Church and the world, which has been developed progressively in chapters 1-11... Chapters 12-22 tell the same story as chapters 1-11, but explain in greater detail what the first chapters only introduce and imply. Ch 12 now reveals that the devil himself is the deeper source of all evil... The devil is the grand initiator of the trials and persecutions of the saints."
Eugene Peterson titles each of the visions: 1) The Woman, Her Son, and The Dragon 2) The Beast From the Sea 3) The Beast from Under the Ground 4) A Perfect Offering 5) Voices from Heaven and 6) Harvest Time
Chapter 12 is all #1, The Woman, Her Son, and the Dragon, and in a way it contains the same story told from 3 slightly different angles (vv 1-6, 7-12, 13-17). So let's read it.
First I'll read the message paraphrase:
12 1-2 A great Sign appeared in Heaven: a Woman dressed all in sunlight, standing on the moon, and crowned with Twelve Stars. She was giving birth to a Child and cried out in the pain of childbirth.
3-4 And then another Sign alongside the first: a huge and fiery Dragon! It had seven heads and ten horns, a crown on each of the seven heads. With one flick of its tail it knocked a third of the Stars from the sky and dumped them on earth. The Dragon crouched before the Woman in childbirth, poised to eat up the Child when it came.
5-6 The Woman gave birth to a Son who will shepherd all nations with an iron rod. Her Son was seized and placed safely before God on his Throne. The Woman herself escaped to the desert to a place of safety prepared by God, all comforts provided her for 1,260 days.
7-12 War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his Angels fought the Dragon. The Dragon and his Angels fought back, but were no match for Michael. They were cleared out of Heaven, not a sign of them left. The great Dragon—ancient Serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, the one who led the whole earth astray—thrown out, and all his Angels thrown out with him, thrown down to earth. Then I heard a strong voice out of Heaven saying,
Salvation and power are established! Kingdom of our God, authority of his Messiah! The Accuser of our brothers and sisters thrown out, who accused them day and night before God. They defeated him through the blood of the Lamb and the bold word of their witness. They weren’t in love with themselves; they were willing to die for Christ. So rejoice, O Heavens, and all who live there, but doom to earth and sea, For the Devil’s come down on you with both feet; he’s had a great fall; He’s wild and raging with anger; he hasn’t much time and he knows it.
13-17 When the Dragon saw he’d been thrown to earth, he went after the Woman who had given birth to the Man-Child. The Woman was given wings of a great eagle to fly to a place in the desert to be kept in safety and comfort for a time and times and half a time, safe and sound from the Serpent. The Serpent vomited a river of water to swamp and drown her, but earth came to her help, swallowing the water the Dragon spewed from its mouth. Helpless with rage, the Dragon raged at the Woman, then went off to make war with the rest of her children, the children who keep God’s commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.
Now let's hear chapter 12 again from The Living Bible
12 Then a great pageant appeared in heaven, portraying things to come. I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and screamed in the pain of her labor, awaiting her delivery.
3 Suddenly a red Dragon appeared, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail drew along behind him a third of the stars, which he plunged to the earth. He stood before the woman as she was about to give birth to her child, ready to eat the baby as soon as it was born.
5 She gave birth to a boy who was to rule all nations with a heavy hand, and he was caught up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her, to take care of her for 1,260 days.
Here's section 2, same story told from a diff angle: Then there was war in heaven; Michael and the angels under his command fought the Dragon and his hosts of fallen angels. 8 And the Dragon lost the battle and was forced from heaven. 9 This great Dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down onto the earth with all his army.
10 Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has happened at last! God’s salvation and the power and the rule, and the authority of his Christ are finally here; for the Accuser of our brothers has been thrown down from heaven onto earth—he accused them day and night before our God. 11 They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony; for they did not love their lives but laid them down for him. 12 Rejoice, O heavens! You citizens of heaven, rejoice! Be glad! But woe to you people of the world, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.”
And now section 3, same story told again from a different angle: And when the Dragon found himself cast down to earth, he persecuted the woman who had given birth to the child. 14 But she was given two wings like those of a great eagle, to fly into the wilderness to the place prepared for her, where she was cared for and protected from the Serpent, the Dragon, for three and a half years.[a]
15 And from the Serpent’s mouth a vast flood of water gushed out and swept toward the woman in an effort to get rid of her; 16 but the earth helped her by opening its mouth and swallowing the flood! 17 Then the furious Dragon set out to attack the rest of her children—all who were keeping God’s commandments and confessing that they belong to Jesus. 18 He stood waiting on an ocean beach.
A lot of ppl think this whole symbolic story is a riff on Gen 3:15 where God curses the serpent and says "From now on you and the woman will be enemies, as will your offspring and hers. You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head." Let's look at it a little bit at a time.
1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
Some people say this woman represents the nation of Israel, ultimately meaning the people of God. G K Beale says, "... this woman is a picture of the faithful community (Israel)..." Other people say the woman and her seed represent the Messiah and His believers. Others feel it's the blessed Mary. Usually I don't pick sides, but in this particular instance I did feel like it made more sense scripturally that the woman represents the people of God, although I will say there are very real, purposefully layered blessed Mary vibes in here as well. Many catholic theologians point out Isaiah 7:10-14 as evidence for this: a sign will be seen as high as heaven, the virgin will bear a son.
Here's Heiser on the identification of the woman: "this is figurative for Israel (the people of God) under persecution, in the days following the birth, the death, the resurrection, and of course the ascension of Jesus. So since it’s connected with Jesus, it’s not just broadly Israel (the people of God), [it's] believers."
Gen 37:9 is one example of an OT metaphor where the sun represents the Jewish patriarch Joseph, the moon represents his wife _____, (wives?) and their kids, the start of the 12 tribes of Israel, are represented by stars. So here, we are to see the woman in the skies as a representation of the body of believers in YHWH. The faithful community which existed way before Christ was born, and continues to exist now.
Beale and McDonough collab'd on a commentary and wrote this:
"There are allusions in 12:2 to OT metaphors representing Israel as a pregnant mother whose birth pangs refer to the suffering of foreign captivity, with the imminent birth alluding to her future deliverance from foreign oppression and salvation."
John sees a sign in the heavens, what this likely means is he's seeing the stars. There's a belief among some Bible scholars that the woman symbol here is the constellation Virgo, which does have 12 stars by its head. And of course 12 is a big deal throughout the Revelation, and reminds us of the 12 tribes of Israel (think Joseph's dream in Gen 37), pointing to now the body of believers both jewish and non-jewish. And Israel was commonly known as "the virgin of zion" back in the day.
Plus if you look in the last 10 or 20 chapters of Isaiah, Israel is metaphorized as a woman, and encouraged to rise and shine and be restored, and radiate.
Some people even suggest that the wise men (who were usually astronomy experts) might have seen this sign that's getting described here in Rev 12, back in Matthew 2:2. That John might be referencing a source here, where maybe the magi / wise men logged the astrological paths that motivated them to visit Jesus and honor him as a king when he was a young toddler. John also knew Mary, and she definitely talked with the magi. And Bible nerds extrapolate from there a time frame of when the sun would have been ecliptic aka superimposed over the constellation, because the verse says the woman was clothed with the sun, and they attempt to pinpoint the exact birthday of Jesus. For a deep dive into the details of this, you can listen to episode 138 of the Naked Bible podcast, or read Michael Heiser's book, Reversing Hermon.
2-4 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns (thats from Daniel 7) and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky (that's from Daniel 8 - the stars could be angels and/or some of God's people getting persecuted) and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
Silly dragon, you don't have authorization to destroy the Savior of the world. But he definitely tried the whole time, didn't he. He even probably thought he won on that Friday.
According to Tim Mackie this dragon represents the source of all evil.
Many scholars suggest the dragon is simultaneously the devil himself AND all oppressive empires like Rome.
Beale and McDonough wrote:
"The imagery of the dragon is used throughout the OT to represent evil kingdoms that persecute God’s people, and this is in mind here. “Dragon” (drakōn) is another word in the OT for the sea monster that symbolizes wicked kingdoms that oppress Israel. Often the wicked kingdom of Egypt is portrayed by this emblem."
So once again, John is not just pulling an avatar out of his butt; he's pulling it out of Hebrew Scripture.
The dragon is associated with Leviathan which is associated with chaos which associated with evil kingdoms/empires.
Its seven crowns are its false claim to be sovereign - which is very Luciferian if you ask me.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”(that's a messianic prophesy from Psalm 2:9 that we also saw in Rev 2:27). And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
She has a son that's a king, that's snatched up to heaven - this could be a reference to Jesus' birth, how He began to install the Kingdom, and then His resurrection and/or ascension.
Maybe John's highlighting Christ's ascension here bc that's when He takes His seat of authority - which also has to do with us overcoming the dragon BY JESUS's authority.
This touches on something that I try to teach my listeners. We have authority over darkness bc of Christ. We need to learn to operate in it, and enforce this truth, and that begins with identity. You must have a correct and profound understanding / conviction of who you are and whose you are.
The enemy does interact with believers. The spirit realm is real. But because our enemy is defeated, and because Jesus is so much more powerful, and because we carry His presence and His Name, and are redeemed by His blood, and bc He's invited us to co-reign with Him, we can overcome evil with good. (some of us detect spiritual warfare easier...) (but we're all called to stand firm against the enemy's schemes, and to not be afraid)
6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
There's that 3.5 (ish) yrs time frame again - an allotted time of tribulation. You can check out the episode on Rev 11 which addresses that. Long story short it has to do with the OT prophetic book Daniel, especially Daniel 12 which addresses the end times and which John seems to have on his mind a lot while writing Rev.
So "the woman fled to the wilderness." This is another verse that makes many people think the woman is an avatar for Israel/God's people - she gets persecuted, and has to go to the desert. That happened in the OT, and in a way it's a theme that happens over again. At the writing of this book, many of the readers would have memories of fleeing when Rome Seized Jerusalem in 66 ad. It's also worth noting that she's on earth. The implication being, the whole church ain't up in Heaven with Jesus, there are some believers on earth during this spiritual conflict, however you want to explain that and hash it out - pre-tribbers are gonna say, oh there are new ppl that get saved after the rapture.
So, if the witnesses in chapter 11 are potentially the people of God, and if the woman in chapter 12 is potentially the people of God, then if you look for similarities and parallels in the visions in these two chapters, a lot of interesting things pop out. They're opposed by evil, persecuted for 3.5 yrs, supernaturally protected (this is found in the sanctuary in ch 11, the wilderness in ch 12, the tabernacle in ch 13 - and it doesn't guarantee total ongoing physical protection, but protection from spiritual ruin)... there's an ascension to heaven recorded... and probably more.
AND remember how the witnesses mapped on to Moses and Elijah? In both of their stories they had a moment where they - wait for it - FLED TO THE WILDERNESS!!
(if your mind was blown yet... we can read Bible whole life and barely scratch the surface)
plus Jesus was taken to the wilderness after He got baptized and the enemy tried to mess with Him and He prevailed.
Deut 8 "God led you (Israel) through the terrible wilderness with its fiery (possibly red) serpents.." Huge theme.
The wilderness is a complex theme - a place where God supplies protection but also a place of great suffering and it can be extremely uncomfortable. Many of us find ourselves living within that same tension in our own lives: How do we step into God's presence and protection in this hostile world? And are we ok with the physical protection and life that we do experience most of the time not being the 100% guarantee, but instead the keeping of our souls and eternal destinies being the guarantee. How do we learn to live without fear even with that being the case? These are the questions of the wilderness. And verbal answers are usually inadequate but I can tell you this: He will meet you there.
7-8)here's the start of the second retelling / the second of the 3 sections) Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
A lot of people think this is the heavenly simultaneous account that occurs while the first section happens on earth.
There's a battle among spiritual beings. Michael and his angels defeat the dragon and his angels.
Remember, Michael often represents God's faithful covenant people (which is now the church), like in Daniel when he acted as a representative in a heavenly fight. Angels in general often represent the church, like we see in the letters at the beginning of Revelation. And just like the fight in Daniel, the bad guys lose their place in heaven.
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Beale says, "Even as he unjustly threw the stars onto the earth, so now the devil suffers the same punishment... The 'place' which the devil lost was his hitherto privileged place of accusation, formerly granted him by God as a temporary privilege."
10-12Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser (satan) of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
The theology we see in this song is that Jesus dying and taking the keys back and rising again IS a forever victory over satan, and it inaugurates His messianic kingdom. What Michael did in heaven was a heavenly reflection of what Jesus accomplished.
Who's the loud voice singing the song? It could be humans in heaven, that's who usually sings praise like this, plus it refers to "our brothers and sisters" in the song. So in previous verses the voice of God was loud and thunderous, and here potentially a group of already-there human believers sings in a loud voice.
It says "They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."
They triumphed and got killed at the same time. This is that same juxtaposition we noted earlier in the wilderness where the people of God are experiencing protection and real danger simultaneously. Here, there is triumph and the seeming defeat of martyrdom/persecution.
Beale says that one big purpose of this part of Rev is "... to assure believers who encounter satanic evil on earth that evil has been defeated, even though it seems otherwise. Christians can be assured that the serpent begins to battle against their bodies only after he has lost the battle over their souls. [that'll preach]. This expresses one of the major themes of the book: the suffering of Christians is a sign, not of Satan's victory, but of the saints' victory over him bc of their belief in the triumph of the cross, with which their suffering identifies them." AMEN.
13-14 (here's the start of the third retelling, and some scholars feel that the chapter is a sandwich, where section three picks up where section 1 left off). When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.
The description of the woman being given eagle's wings is a hyperlink back to Exodus. In Exodus 19:4 God says to Moses "you yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on Eagle's wings and brought you to Myself."
The story of Exodus is the first of many rescues that involve supernatural protection that God's always doing for His people, and it's a blueprint, a type, a forecast of the ultimate deliverance that God will do for His people here at the end.
A major theme in scripture is God taking care of his people in the wilderness like an EAGLE cares for its young. See Deut 32, Psalm 17 and lots of other places.
A major theme here in chapter 12 is PROTECTION DURING THE TIME OF TRIAL. So keep following Jesus; keep maintaining your witness till the end, where our ultimate victory is secure, the enemy is defeated and we will reign alongside Christ!
15-16 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
Some people say this flood of gross water is the dragon inspiring hatred and oppression and persecution of the messiah's people.
Other scholars also remind us that it's coming out of the accuser's mouth, so accusation and deceit are probably implied. As opposed to the image of Jesus with a metaphoric sword coming from His mouth which is His word / Truth.
This dragon-breath flood points to the end-times flood of Daniel 9, and probably also the story of the red sea.
Tim Mackie says "But they will conquer the dragon by resisting his influence, even if it kills them. John's trying to show the churches that neither Rome nor any other nation or human is the real enemy. There are dark spiritual powers at work, and Jesus' followers will announce His victory by remaining faithful and loving their enemies just like the slain Lamb."
We also see another exodus reference tucked in this verse - Ex 15:12 "You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them." The earth swallows the enemy's flood.
So, the woman (the messianic community aka faithful Israel aka God's people) is protected from the flood of chaos and strengthened supernaturally in the wilderness that is this life.
17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (18 And he stood on the sea shore - this verse kinda seems like it's the beginning of the next vision, so we'll talk about it next time)
And of course the enemy knows his time is short, like verse 12 said. He's only gonna be able to bother us for a little while.
There's a mention of other offspring here in verse 17, besides Jesus. Jesus calls us His siblings, see Hebrews 2:11, so we might once again just be looking at another metaphor for believers.
So in conclusion, Christ's kingdom has been established, the enemy has been defeated, we the church overcome and live in eternal victory with Jesus, and there's gonna be a new earth where our bodies don't get sick and zero demons bother us.
If you don't yet feel pumped reading chapter 12, I encourage you to meditate just a little more on the triumph that Jesus has accomplished in the cosmos.