Rev 12:1-17 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: (2) And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. (3) And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (4) And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. (5) And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. (6) And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (7) And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, (8) And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. (9) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (10) And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. (11) And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. (12) Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. (13) And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. (14) And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. (15) And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. (16) And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. (17) And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Good morning, dear reader! I pray that this series is blessing you. I would love to hear from you to let me know what you are gaining from it. My prayer is that it stirs the Christian heart to tell others about these days before it’s too late for them. My prayer also is that those who do not know Christ as their Saviour would come to a saving knowledge of Him and to grow in His grace!
What we will see in these next three chapters is a pause between the trumpet judgments and the plague judgments. Chapter 12 explains God’s redemptive plan through a woman and a child. Chapter 13 covers the opposition to that plan by the dragon, the beast out of the sea, and the beast out of the earth. Chapter 14 is a proclamation of that plan by three angels and is a wonderful chapter for redemption!
Today, we will look at three main figures: a woman, a dragon and a male child. Let’s take a look at these verses and see what’s in store for those who will be going through the Tribulation. We’ll look at the woman first. The Roman Catholic Church believes this woman is Mary. However, there’s a problem with that. Revelation 12:1 says it’s not a literal woman but a “great wonder.” The next verse refers to a woman giving birth. Any time a woman is mentioned in Revelation, it refers to the Church; she is the Bride of Christ, not a woman giving birth. God gave birth to the Church, not the other way around. We must let Scripture define itself. This woman is symbolic and reveals that she is clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and wears a crown of twelve stars. Does this sound a tad familiar to you? It did to me. (Genesis 37:3-11) In these verses we see that Joseph had a dream. The product of that dream was that the sun referenced Jacob, the moon referenced Rachel, and the stars referenced his eleven brothers. Altogether we see a wonderful representation of Israel. Israel is also referred to as a woman, as we see in Isaiah 54:6, Jeremiah 3:1, Ezekiel 16:30, Hosea 2:2.
Next we see the dragon in Revelation 12:3. He is depicted as a great red dragon. Who is this red dragon? As I said earlier, let the Scriptures define Scripture. We see in Revelation 12:9, that this red dragon is indeed Satan. I find the description “red” interesting; it is symbolic of sinfulness (Isaiah 1:18) which leads to death (Romans 6:23). This is and always has been Satan’s ambition. He hates God and all of His creation, but especially mankind (1Peter 5:8). Not only does he hate you, but he hates your family! So now we come upon who and where Satan’s power and hatred will be cast upon. This serpent has seven heads (world powers), ten horns and seven crowns (world kingdoms) (Revelation 12:3). Satan has been and is behind all the evil world powers and world kingdoms. Do you see how his tail swept one third of the stars? This may be referring to the angels who rebelled along with him as we will see in Revelation 12:7-17.
Did you know that there hasn’t been a world empire since the Roman empire? But that is about to come to an end. The “powers that be” are hard at work attempting to lead the world into a one world government. We see here that Satan will have authority over all the governments. He is bound and determined to win. His pride never ceases to amaze me, and not in a good way. Revelation 12:7-12 give us a good description of that evil devil, Satan:
- Old serpent: This deceiver has been around a long time
- The devil: Diabolos in the Greek – he is our accuser
- Satan: He’s the adversary and enemy (1Peter 5:8 – he hunts for us)
- He deceives the whole world (2Corinthians 4:4 – blinds people so they don’t get saved)
- The accuser of our brethren (verse 10) – he’s relentless; he loves to accuse me to me so that I don’t “feel” forgiven. He hates you because you look like, and are related to, and loved by your Father in Heaven. He hates your life; he hates your children; he hates everything about you!
John wants us to get the full picture about him by going back to when he was actually thrown out of Heaven and cast to earth by Michael the Archangel and his angels! In fact, Ezekiel 28:12-19 describes Satan as well. (also Luke 10:18) From that point, there was no place found in Heaven for them and earth became their playground in the unseen realm. Satan and his minions influence people and bring evil into their hearts. (Ephesians 6:11-13)
Revelation, for the most part, is sequential. But this chapter us a background of events that happened even before Adam and Eve were created. As we discussed on Day 11, the Eastern way of thinking is circular, not sequential like Westerners. It’s difficult for Westerners to understand the Eastern mind and how they view events. So don’t be confused when we leave the sequence of the Trumpet Judgments and go back in time. Think of it as a term paper where you insert footnotes: you jump from the main text to the footnote and read what that footnote says, then you jump back to the main story, LOL! 😁
Now let’s look at the reference for the man child in Revelation 12:5. This is referencing Jesus Christ’s future birth on earth to redeem mankind with His death, burial and resurrection. Furthermore, we are able to see His millennial Kingdom! All will bow down to him. This child will:
- Rule with a rod of iron (or scepter): Rulers possess this scepter (Psalm 2:8-9). This Messianic verse can also be found in Revelation 19:15.
- Child will be caught up unto God and to his throne: Jesus’ Ascension, where He is currently and waiting to come again to rule in the Millennial Kingdom.
God’s redemptive plan was always for both the Jews and Gentiles. Abraham was called out of a Gentile nation, Iraq, to be the father of all nations. Jesus would come from Abraham’s lineage, which began as a Gentile, and became the birth of Israel. Jesus Christ was born from that same lineage, reader! Doesn’t that excite you? Jesus’ precious blood was shed for all, Jews and Gentiles alike! Praise Him!!! Satan has always stood in opposition to God’s redemptive plan. We see that in verse 4! He was waiting to devour this child as soon as He was born. He worked through Haman (in Esther 3), Herod the Great, Hitler, and radical Islam, to name a few. All of these attempted to eliminate the Jews so they could thwart God’s redemptive work. But Satan’s attempts can’t outweigh God’s power, amen?
When one looks at the whole picture, it’s easy to see the devil in the midst of it all. One can see his role and his influence over mankind. We are seeing it today; those who are not raptured, will most certainly see it more than ever before during the Tribulation. Please, dear reader, if you do not know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will go to Heaven when you die, I beg you to please get saved now! 2Corinthians 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) Don’t delay! You do not know if you will ever be given another opportunity to be saved. It is no coincidence that God has placed you here for such a time as this so that you may be saved if you are not already. Please click here and the link will open up in a separate tab to You Can Be Born Again and Know It!
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