AM Bible Study Group; August 5, 2009
Revelation 12:1-17
Theme: The twelfth chapter of Revelation describes for us the ages-long struggle of Satan with the plan of God for our redemption.
Chapter 12 marks the beginning of the retelling of the story of the day of the Lord. This second telling of the story runs from 12:1-19:10; and repeats the material we saw in chapters 6-11. The difference is, however, that while the first telling relates the story from the stand-point of heaven, the second telling relates the story from the perspective of the earth. It particularly focuses on the evil work of the devil on this earth through his human instrument, the Antichrist.
Chapter 12 truly begins the story at the beginning. It takes us all the way to the beginning of the devil’s animosity toward Israel; and particularly, toward the Christ who would come from her.
I. THE SIGN OF THE WOMAN (vv. 1-6).
A. The woman being pictured (vv. 1-2) is not "the church", as many suggest. The Child the woman bears is clearly Christ; and Christ is not the offspring of the church but rather the cornerstone of the church. Nor is she "Mary" as others have suggested, since the story of the woman in the vision goes far past the time of Mary’s earthly life, and experiences things that did not happen to Mary. Rather, she is best seen as a picture of Israel. The description of the woman as being clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a garland of twelve stars on her head, matches the symbolic description of Israel given in Genesis 37:9-11. It is from Israel that the Christ would come (Micah 5:2). In fact, the woman is shown in this vision as being great with child and about to give birth—placing the events of verses 1-4 at the time just prior to Christ’s birth as Israel’s long expected Messiah.
B. The dragon (a dangerous creature of great malice) is the symbolic representation of the devil (see v. 9). He is pictured as having seven heads which are representative of the seven great world empires he has operated through in Gentile world history—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Roman empire that is yet to come. He has ten horns, which represents the confederacy of ten kings that will cooperate with his evil work in this world (see 17:12-13), and he has seven diadems which represents him as the the one to whom the authority over the kingdoms of this world has been (temporarily) given (see Luke 4:6). He is shown has having drug a third of the stars with his tail, which possibly represents the third of the angelic hosts that fell with him in his rebellion (see 12:7; also Matthew 25:41; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). He is shown as poised to devour the Child of the woman as soon as He is born (see Matthew 2:3-8, 13, 16-18).
C. The woman is presented as having given birth to a male Child "who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (see Psalm 2:9). The "rod of iron" is meant to communicate that his will be a final rule over the nations—one in which the forms of the nations of this world will no longer exist, but will be broken up and remade according to His will. His rule will be final; there will be no other after His (see Daniel 2:44). What a threat this is to the dragon! The Child is shown as being caught up to God and to His throne—which pictures Christ’s resurrection and ascension.
D. Finally, the woman is shown to have fled into the wilderness, "where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days" (see also 11:2, 3).
II. THE WAR IN THE HEAVENS (vv. 7-12).
A. The scene now shifts to war that has broken out in heaven. This passage should best be seen as a parentheses between verses 6 and 13; giving us the background of the events that will occur just prior to the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week (Daniel 9:24-27). Michael—a mighty angel who stands guard over the people of Israel (see Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1)—and the angelic armies under his supervision, are shown to fight with the devil and his angles. But the devil and his angels do not prevail, "nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer". This suggests that they were fighting to retain a position in the heavens that they did have (see Ephesians 6:12) but have now lost. As a result, the devil—here described clearly as the serpent who tempted the woman in the garden (see Genesis 3:1ff); and as the "devil" (i.e., the slanderer); and "Satan" (which means "the adversary"); and as the one who deceives the nations of the world (see Revelation 20:3, 8, 10)—is thrown to the earth with all his angels. That this occurs just prior to the later half of the last week of Daniel is shown by its conjunction with the hiding of the woman in the wilderness for 1,260 days (see 12:6, 14).
B. There is great celebration in heaven at the devil’s defeat. A loud voice (probably of the redeemed in glory, because the voice refers to the persecuted saints as "our brethren") declares that "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down". It’s declared that these "brethren" overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb (in which they trusted), and by the word of their testimony (which they continued to declare in spite of the persecution they suffered), and by the fact that they did not love their lives to the death (in that they willingly laid down their lives for Christ).
C. Heaven is called to rejoice. But a sober warning is issued to the earth and the sea—"Woe!" The woe is over the fact that the devil has been thrown in great rage, because he knows that he has but a little time.
III. THE WRATH OF THE DRAGON (vv. 13-17).
A. In wrath over his downfall, the dragon persecutes the woman who gave birth to the child (Israel); but the woman is given "two wings of a great eagle [which suggests divine provision of some sort; see Exodus 19:4], that she might fly into the wilderness to her place" (see v. 6). She is said to be nourished there for a time, times, and a half a time (i.e., three-and-a-half years; see also the 1,260 days of verse 6) from the serpent. This is the dragon’s first attack in his rage against the woman.
B. A second attack comes when the devil (now called "the serpent") spewed water out of his mouth like a flood in order to wash her away (see Isaiah 59:19). This may symbolize the populous of the Gentile world being turned against Israel in an aggressive effort to wipe her off the face of the earth. But the attempt is, again, frustrated somehow. The earth is shown to help the woman by opening up its mouth and swallowing the flood.
C. Finally, the devil (again called "the dragon")—enraged against the woman in his frustrated attempts to destroy her—turns against "the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ". It’s important to remember that, at this point of the "second" telling of the story, the church has not yet been removed from the earth (see 14:14-15; which parallels 7:9-17). This final attack is directed against all believers on the earth during this dreadful time; and is described for us in greater detail in chapter 13.