As you know, Revelation poses a lot of interpretive challenges. So I thought tackling something of the difficulty of Revelation will give us confidence as we learn to read the Bible as a coherent story. If you can understand Revelation, you can understand anything.
The genre of the literature and the political environment that John was writing in made it necessary to use symbolic language. However, given that John must use symbolism, what symbols can he use to ensure that his readers will understand what he is trying communicate and yet will confound any nosey Romans?
The answer is that John draw on symbols that are meaningful to his readers, but not to the Romans. So John draws his imagery from the Old Testament. I actually think most of the problems people have with interpreting Revelation stems from lack of knowledge of the Old Testament.
Your challenge is to try and figure out what John is saying in Revelation 12. Do not feel like you have to interpret every single detail John uses. John draws from multiple places in the Old Testament and it would be tough for many pastors to pick up all the allusions. Try to figure out the broad outline and then go from there.
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