Revelation 12

Revelation 12 represents the center and possibly the key to the book of Revelation.  The first eleven chapters of Revelation detail the forces of the world who persecute the church.  The next eleven chapters tell the same story but from a spiritual perspective.  Chapter 12 forms a transition showing that ultimately Satan and his minions, such as the beast and the whore of Babylon, are the true enemies behind these forces who persecute the church.

The chapter opens with the figure of the woman giving birth to a son and a dragon who attempts to devour the son.  The son is born and the dragon is defeated.  We are told in verse 9 that the identity of the dragon is "the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world."  It does not take a whole lot of imagination to see all of this as an allusion to Genesis 3:15 where the seed of the woman will crush the seed of the serpent.  The cool thing is that John uses references from all over the Old Testament to flesh this out.

The woman is described as clothed "with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." John draws this imagery from the dream of Joseph in Genesis 37 where the son and moon represent Jacob and his wife, and the eleven stars represent Joseph's brothers who bow down to Joseph.  In Revelation Joseph is incorporated into the image as the twelfth star.  Since Jacob and his twelve sons are the ancestors of the Israelites, we can identify the woman with Israel.  However, since the chapter continues to use the image of the woman even after the birth of Jesus, its best to think of her as inclusive of God's people in the church age as well as before.

Her birth pains represent the persecution of God's people during the Old Testament and intertestamental times leading up to Jesus' birth.  These are threats to the believing community, such as slavery to the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Babylonians, the Hellenistic empires, and Rome.  Isaiah 26 and Micah 4 use labor pains to represent Israel's suffering under foreign empires and it is likely this is what John is referencing.

Dragon imagery is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to Egypt (Ezekiel 29:3, to pick one example).  No doubt Pharaoh's attempt to murder the first born children of the Hebrews was a battle in the attempt of the serpent to defeat the seed of the woman.   However, this image should not be limited to just Egypt.  The seven heads and ten horns is taken from Daniel 7 where the fourth beast described represents the Roman empire.  John wants us to make the point that behind the power of these wicked kingdoms lies Satan.

The birth of the son who is "to rule all the nations with a rod of iron" is from Psalms 2:9.  Psalms 2 describes the messiah who will defeat all the world's enemies and then be enthroned as ruler over the earth.  Clearly John wants us to recognize this child as Jesus, the messiah, who is the ultimate fulfillment of the seed of the woman from Genesis 3:15.

Just as Israel is protected in the desert and nourished by God before possessing the promise land, the church is nourished and protected in the wilderness.  The Hebrews were freed from the bondage of Egypt, but there was still a journey that must be made before entering the promised land.  They were a pilgram people who enjoyed God's provision but faced temptation.   The same can be said for the church, who has been liberated from the bondage of death but still must journey in a metaphorical wilderness as a pilgram people until they reach the new heaven and new earth.  So we have the image of the woman being carried into the wilderness for protection.

While ultimately protected by God, the church will face trials in the wilderness.  The wilderness is not a safe place and survival depends on God's provision.  John borrows Daniel's three and half years for the duration of the tribulation to communicate that this time will be limited.  It will not be the destiny of God's people to face tribulation forever.  The age of tribulation will come to an end with Christ's second coming.

Satan's defeat by Jesus is personified by Michael and his angels, an image John draws from Daniel 10 where Michael and the messianic Son of Man fight the demonic forces of Persia and Greece. Michael's victory in the Revelation 12 passage results in a change in the status of Satan.  According to verses 8 & 9 he is exiled from heaven and thrown down to the earth.  In the accounts of Satan we have in Job and Zechariah, Satan acts as a prosecuting attorney accusing God's people in the heavenly courts.

A perhaps surprising point is that Satan has a case because He can accuse God of injustice since God's people are sinful.  However, because of Christ's atonement that is no longer the case, and so Satan no longer has a role in heaven.  John can conclude in verse 10, "Now the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before God."  John goes on to say in verse 11 that this victory has been accomplished by "the blood of the Lamb."

Though this is a great victory and Satan's time is declared as short, Satan is still dangerous and so woe is pronounced on the earth and sea.  Satan's strategy is no longer to act as a prosecutor but instead to attack the believing community.  The persecution by Satan is pictured as a flood, probably a reference to the Red Sea which also represented a barrier to Israel's flight to the wilderness.  God swallows the river just as He parted the Red Sea.

Revelation 12 ends with the dragon no longer making war with the woman's son, but with the woman's other offspring.  This time the dragon wars with individual Christians.  Notice that offspring is used in the passage at first in the singular sense to describe Christ, but later in the plural to describe Christ's followers. Once again there are echos of Genesis 3:15 where offspring has a plural as well as singular reference.

John likely drew some of this imagery from Isaiah 66: 7-10.  In the Isaiah passage Zion is pictured as a woman suffering labor pains.  In verse 7 the passage states she delivers a son, where the word son is singular.  However, in verse 8 she is described as bringing forth a nation and children.  So the singular and plural sense of offspring is a theme that recurs throughout scripture.

This is a great passage that ties lots of different parts of the Bible together.  However, the backbone of the vision is the Genesis 3:15 passage.  Hopefully, you can see how this passage is expanded upon in the rest of the Old Testament and how John ties all of these threads together in Revelation 12.