Revelation 12:1-6
1 A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. 3 Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Introduction
What battles do you face? Do you feel embattled by life? Maybe it is your work? Do you have a boss, or master, or colleagues, that make going to your work every day feel like you are entering a war zone? Or maybe you don’t have a job, and the economic pressure to provide for yourself or your family feels like a battle? Maybe it is a relationship? A wife or a husband who tears you up inside, who makes every interaction feel like you are enemy fire? Or maybe it is an addiction? Or an illness or a physical problem?
The people of God are, often times, faced with battles.
Let me tell you a story of God’s people in battle. In the few hundred years between the time of the Old Testament and the time of the New Testament, Israel was a small piece of land between two warring powers: the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. Some of the Jewish people were still exiled in Babylon, others in Persia. But there was a remnant stuck in Israel, in the small space two constantly warring parties. Conquered regularly and pillaged thoroughly, every day was a battleground, a warzone, a front row seat to death and destruction. And the worst of it came with the rise of a Seleucid king, in 167 B.C., called Antiochus Epiphanes. This is the king that was predicted by the Prophet Daniel to commit the most horrible and appalling acts against the Jews. He desecrated the temple in the abomination of desolation (that’s what the Gospels call it). Antiochus waged war on God’s people with a hatred and vindictiveness like no other. One passage, from an intertestamental book, describes one instance of his wrath:
Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.[1]
For those who remained, Antiochus made being a priest punishable by death. Owning even a small fragment of the Bible: the death penalty. Performing sacrifices: the death penalty. Instead, gentiles were allowed to sacrifice unclean animals, like pigs, on the altar of the Temple. Prostitutes were allowed to sell their services in the Temple. Even circumcision was outlawed and, in one instance, two baby boys who were circumcised were paraded around the city with their mothers before all of them were thrown off the city wall to their deaths. And those who were bold enough to continue traditional Jewish worship in secret were burned alive.[2]
After three and a half years of this onslaught from Antiochus Epiphanes—sometime in 164 B.C.E., it came to an end. A Jewish priest named Judah, son of a priest named Mattathias, led a revolt. Defeating Antiochus’s commanders, in several battles, Judah became quite a successful military commander and preserved the Jewish people and their territories, until eventually a treaty was signed with the new Roman Republic. Judah was a gifted strategist and fierce warrior. He was often compared to a hammer, or possibly he even used a hammer as his weapon, and so he was given a surname which means hammer: Makabi. He was Yehudah ha-Makabi, in Latin, Judas Maccabeus.
Now, you might be wondering why I’ve taken so much time to tell you this story. I would suggest to you that it is one picture in a series of connected pictures from history, all depicting the people of God in battle—the very picture represented here in our Revelation reading.
1. Two Images
The Revelation reading divides nicely into two parts, each focusing on a dominant image—one the red dragon, and the other is the woman and her baby. And this is the way Revelation works. Apocalyptic literature is generally focused on imagery, on pictures—and often disturbing ones. And so, it is helpful to think through these pictures and what, if anything, they might communicate.
Starting with the second, the easier of the two images, we have (in verses 3 and 4) a red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadems. I say this one is easier because if we keep reading in the chapter to verse 9, the author gives us an explanation of who this image points to. Revelation 12:9:
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.[3]
The dragon is Satan—the ancient serpent—the deceiver. And this image is repeated in various forms throughout the biblical record. From the serpent it he Garden to the dragon-like Leviathan in the prophets, the devil, the Satan, and the dragon are all pictures of the same person.
The other dominant image is there in the first two verses and is slightly more complex:
…a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth.
And it continues in verse 5:
And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.
The image is that of a woman, a woman who will give birth to a son, and who is severely opposed by the dragon. For most of us, the obvious corollary to the woman is Mary, mother of Jesus. But, I would suggest to you, this is more than Mary. It is all of God’s people throughout time.
We can see this by looking at some other passages. Notice the description here in Revelation 12: sun, moon, crown of twelve stars. Those familiar with the Old Testament might recognize the imagery from Genesis 37 and Joseph’s dream. Just after he got his special multi-colored coat, he had a dream. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars all bowed down to a twelfth star. In his interpretation, these twelve stars correspond to Joseph and his eleven brothers—the twelve of them becoming the twelve tribes of Israel—the people of God throughout the Old Testament.
Notice also the description about the woman having birth pangs. It is a very common image in the Old Testament of God’s people—the image of God’s people as mother giving birth to a son. The Prophet Micah also describes Zion this way.[4] But, an even clearer example is found in Isaiah 66:7-9:
Before she was in labour
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 labour
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.
There is another passage earlier in Isaiah that also makes this clear. Isaiah 26:16-19:
O Lord, in distress they sought you,
they poured out a prayer
when your chastening was on them.
Like a woman with child,
who writhes and cries out in her pangs
when she is near her time,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
we were with child, we writhed,
but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
and no one is born to inhabit the world.
Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew,
and the earth will give birth to those long dead.
This was the purpose of Israel, to bring forth God’s deliverer. Here in Isaiah 26, they failed. But if we look at the next chapter, Isaiah 27:1 tells us what comes next:
On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
This image, itself, takes us back to Genesis 3 and God’s promise to the serpent after the fall of mankind:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.’
But, this is important: Israel has failed, at this point, to produce the son—the deliverer who will defeat the dragon/serpent/Leviathan, who will rule with a rod of iron, God promises that he will. It was not Seth. It was not David. It was not Judas Maccabeus.
Returning to Revelation 12, we can now take in the whole view of the passage. As we can see, the imagery here suggests that the pictures we see in Revelation 12 represent the battle, from before creation, between the Satan and the people of God, and particularly the deliverer who comes from them. This is confirmed if we keep reading in Revelation 12. In the following verses, we would also see that the woman is driven into the wilderness, and the imagery of the rest of the chapter very much comes from the Exodus—the story of God’s people being tested. We would also see a reference to the woman’s other children being opposed by the dragon—a reference that means it cannot be only Mary. It has to God’s chosen people from whom the deliverer comes.
And I am suggesting to you that the images are all related. The dragon is the serpent, the Leviathan, the Satan, the devil, the fallen angel cast down on earth to take his vengeance on God’s beloved people. The woman is Eve. She’s Israel. She’s Joseph and his brothers. She’s the people of God in the Exodus. She’s the people of God in the face of Exile. She’s the people of God during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. She’s Mary. And she’s the church. This woman represents the people of God throughout time, the people caught in the war between God and Satan, the people persecuted and tempted and rebelling as Satan rages against the world. But it is also the people from whom the deliverer will be born.
In other words, this picture in Revelation 12 is the cosmic reality of war between God and Satan behind what God’s people have experienced throughout all of history, and what we experience every day in this life. This is you. This is me. We are God’s people caught in the middle of cosmic war. And we are being slaughtered and destroyed.
2. Hope in the Son
But for many of us, it not a war with guns and canons and battlefields. The war is being fought with sin. This is the greatest weapon of the enemy. From the serpent in the garden to the red dragon in Revelation, Satan attacks the people of God with in.
At work, with our spouses, with our families, our neighbors, our friends: Satan destroys relationships and makes life feel like a war with human sinfulness. We sin and destroy our relationships. With illness and physical disability, with addiction, we are the recipients of the curse of the fall. With disasters, like the hurricane this last autumn, the raging of Satan destroys the people of God. And it shakes our faith and causes harm. People all around the world live under oppressive regimes, under the threat of violence, and in the shame of their own sinfulness. Because the red dragon, Satan, trades in sin and destruction. And we are his sometimes unwilling, sometimes unwitting, and sometimes unashamed partners in sin. And he continues to destroy this world, bit by bit.
Even though we are good at convincing ourselves that our good works will save us, that we will make this world a better place through technology and medicine and human ingenuity and progress, even though we convince ourselves that we are enlightened through various transcendent religious practices or liberal social consciousness, the fact remains that we need a deliverer. We need that son who is born of God’s people.
And so, I point to two things in our passage that should give us hope.
First, there is a third picture in the passage. And that is the picture of the woman’s son. In verse 5, he is one who will rule with a rod of iron from God’s throne. He will be the one to deliver God’s people, the only one who will truly defeat Satan. He is Jesus Christ. And he already defeated Satan in the cross. The author of Hebrews captures it in these words:
Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.[5]
Yes, brothers and sisters, Jesus is the deliverer born to the people of God who defeated Satan, the power of sin and death, with his death and resurrection. He is the one who rules with a rod of iron, for all eternity.
And so, friends, and this is important: Jesus Christ is our hope.
Second, the battles of this life will come to an end. The woman, there at the end of verse 5 is taken away “so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” This is very important language. On an idealized year of 360 days, 1260 days is 3.5 years. That is, it is time (one year), times (2 years), and half a time (a half year). This is language right out of the Prophet Daniel—who told us in Daniel 7 that the people of God would be delivered into a false kingdom for this time, times, and half a time. In a historical sense, this was the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes over the Jewish people in 164-167 BC. But in a spiritual sense, this all of God’s people who have lived and still live, for this time, on an earth ruled by Satan. Revelation affirms this in chapter 11 and again later in chapter 12. God’s people will be plagued by sin and the destruction brought by the serpent-dragon. But, as this passage indicates, the dragon’s time is limited. The deliver has already defeated him, and we will soon be at the consummation of that defeat.
Conclusion
To put it differently, the Satan’s rule over this earth, and his spread of sin and destruction, will come to an end. And it is Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, who ends the Satan. So, as you and I walk through the battlegrounds, let us cling, by faith, to the Son, the deliverer born of God’s people, who saves us from sin and death. We have no need to fear the red dragon, for Christ saves us.
Let me pray: Heavenly Father, as we turn to the celebration of your death and resurrection in this table, may we be comforted by the victory won that death and resurrection. May we cling to your Son, our Savior, that your name would be glorified by our lives. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] 2 Maccabees 5:11–14.
[2] See 2 Maccabees 6:1-11.
[3] Revelation 12:9.
[4] See Micah 4:10.
[5] Hebrews 2:14.