Revelation 12

II.  Chapters 12-22, Sections four through seven.

      Section 4.  Chapters 12-14.  The Woman and the Man-Child Persecuted by the                                     Dragon (Satan) and His Helpers (the two Beasts and the Harlot).

REVELATION 12

     Following Hendriksen’s outline, chapter 12 begins the second major division of Revelation.  The central theme of the whole book is the victory of Christ over all his and his people’s enemies.  “But whereas the first main division, chapters 1-11, pictures the outward struggles between the church and the world, the second part of the book reveals the deeper background” (Hendriksen, p.163).  That deeper background is the war between Christ and Satan, the forces involved, and the glorious outcome.

     Chapters 12-14 is the fourth of seven smaller sections, and like the rest of the seven, covers the entire age from the first to the second coming of Christ.

     12:1-6.  Christ’s Birth and Ascension.

     We are compelled to see a relationship here with the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, the rage of King Herod when he realized that he had been tricked by the magi, the escape into Egypt, and Herod’s slaughter of the male children in the region of Bethlehem.  The story of Jesus’ actual birth brings the battle into sharp focus, but the picture here is much broader.  It must be seen as the ancient confrontation of the ages, and the symbolic view is from the perspective of heaven.  This desperate hatred of the dragon for the woman and her child began with these words of God to the serpent in Eden, “And I will put enmity between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen. 3:15).

     The glorious woman seen here is how Christ’s “mother” is seen in heaven.  As a heavenly symbol, she is not just Eve, nor the Virgin Mary, nor even all women of the promise together.  She is the symbol of the true church through the ages, in labor and travail to bring Christ forth into the world (cf. Gal. 4:4).  She is clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ like the brightness of the sun (cf. Mal. 4:2).  She is exalted with the moon beneath her feet.  The twelve stars in her crown may represent the apostolic witness to the truth (cf. the star “angels” in 1:20).  See Is. 26:17-27:1; Jer. 4:31.

     Her ancient enemy, Satan, is seen as a great red dragon (3; cf. 9).  His seven heads with seven diadems represent his complete usurpation of rule over the minds and wills of those enslaved to sin in the kingdom of darkness and death (cf. Eph. 2:1-3; Heb. 2:14-15).  Horns are symbols of power, thus ten horns are multiplied power.  So powerful is the dragon that his tail swept a third of the stars from heaven and threw them to the earth.  Thus the pure heavenly message of those fallen “stars” became worldly, and corrupted with errors, lies, and deceit.  These “angels” became the devil’s messengers.  Such is the dragon’s power.

      The woman is both resplendent in glory and a poor refugee in travail.  A Son is to be born who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron (5; cf. Ps. 2), and who will crush the serpent’s head.  Yet this dragon stands ready to devour the child with the jaws of death and the grave.  What folly of God to send a baby to destroy such a dragon!  But the foolishness and weakness of God is wiser and stronger than the seven heads and ten horns of all the forces that take council against the Lord and his Anointed (1 Cor. 1:25; Ps. 2:2).  The child is not devoured, but is caught up to God and to His throne!  And the woman fled to the place God had prepared for her in the wilderness (in the world, but not of it, cf. John 17:14-16), where she was nourished (6; on the bread of heaven, cf. John 6:48-51, 62-63).  The period of three and a half years (here expressed as 1260 days, cf. 11:3), symbolically means that this is to be a time cut short, not a complete seven.  In a little while, she would be taken to be with her reigning Son (cf. John 14:3).

     12:7-17.  This second vision of the true church’s deliverance and wilderness experience in this world elaborates and expands on the vision of the first six verses (cf. 1-4 to 7-9; cf. 5-6 to 10-14).  In 15-17, the dragon, having been frustrated in his attempts to prevent the Messiah’s birth and coronation, and unable to drown the woman, now makes war with the rest of her true children, those who obey God and confess the name, saving work, and rule of Jesus.  These are those whom God “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren” (Ro. 8:29; cf. Heb. 2:11).

     12:7.  Michael; see notes at Jude 9.  These visions are not to be taken literally.  This is a symbolic picture of a spiritual (heavenly) battle waged for and in the hearts and minds of God’s elect (called “the body of Moses” in Jude 9).  The victory is the Lord’s alone (10-11), but he usually is pleased to work through means, including his archangel Michael, the angelic prince protector of God’s people (cf. Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Eph. 6:12; Heb. 1:14).

     12:8-12.  As the meaning of both the words devil and Satan imply, Satan stands before the court of heaven as the accuser of men (cf. Job 1).  But because of the victory of the Lamb of God, he has no case against those who are faithful unto death (11), and can bring no charge against the justice of God.  Because Christ is our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1; cf. Ro. 8:33-34), the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down (cf. John 12:31).  “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through [it]” (i.e., the cross, margin, Col. 2:15).  The voice of the redeemed multitude in heaven rejoice (10; cf. 19:1, 6), having seen their salvation (cf. Simeon’s words, Luke 2:29-32).  But the wrath of the thrown down accuser, knowing that his time is short, brings woe to the earth and sea, i.e., to the natural world under the curse (Gen. 3:17 ff.; Ro. 8:20-22), and the seething, troubled sea of the nations (cf. Is. 27:1; 58:20-21).  Woe to them (cf. 8:3; 13:1 ff.).

      12:13-15.  Having failed to destroy the Child, the dragon directs his rage toward the woman (13).  But even if the saints are persecuted to death, divine deliverance is provided to lift them up, as it were, upon eagle’s wings (14; cf. Ex. 19:4; Deut. 32:11; Is. 40:31).  Though slanders, lies, and deceitful doctrines of demons pour forth like a river, the woman is not swept away in the flood (15).

     12:16-17.  Though the earth may suffer under a common curse with fallen man, it is still an ally.  It helps the woman, being a source of many blessings of God’s common grace.  It does not belong to the enemy.  “The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains…” (Ps. 24:1).  God’s people see the glory of God in his creation, which puts the lie to the flood from Satan’s mouth (16).  Furthermore, we are reminded here of Israel’s experience in the wilderness, when Satan attacked the revealed truth during Korah’s rebellion (Nu. 16:1 ff.).  The devil tried to corrupt Israel’s worship as God had commanded to Moses, and as a result the earth opened, swallowing up Dathan and Abiram and their company, and the wicked were consumed by fire (see Ps. 106:16-18).  “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him” (Is. 59:19, KJV).  So, as noted above, the dragon having failed to destroy the child, and having failed to destroy the woman, now turns his rage against the rest of her children (17).