The first half of John’s description of the End (4-11) focuses primarily on on the triumph of the church through end-time judgements and opposition.. The second half (12-20) mainly focuses in the enemies of the church and their final fate in the context of the triumph of the Lamb and his church.
Ch 11 closes with the arrival of the day of the Lord in the blowing of the seventh trumpet. The twenty-four elders then say,
We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power. and begun to reign. 18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
However, once again history rewinds. The nations who rage and all who destroy the earth – Satan, the beast, the false prophet and the harlot – must yet culpably and arrogantly strut the stage of history before eschatological wrath finally consumes them. Koester points out that structurally Revelation introduces the dragon, the beast, the false prophet and then the harlot. Their end, however, comes in reverse order; first the harlot then the false prophet and the beast then finally the dragon.
Two great signs in heaven
Ch 12 is recognised as a midpoint in Revelation and in many ways the heart of the book.
In Ch 12, we have the most panoramic view of human history. The battle of the End which absorbs most of Revelation is the climax of a conflict that has raged since the dawn of time between the people of God and their most formidable enemy Satan. It is Satan and his hatred for God and his people who is the source of the church’s distress. By possibly employing and subverting a pagan myth, this historical conflict between Satan and the kingdom of God is sketched.
Structure
Vv1-6 a brief summary of the plot. Vv6-9 war in heaven and Satan cast out. Vv10-12 a hymn of praise. God’s Kingdom is imminent. Vv13-17 more detail on the plot especially its end.
Vv1-6
1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.
John plays little part in this drama appearing only once to say what he heard (12:10). The scene begins in heaven for the conflicts on earth are a reflection of conflicts in heavenly realms (Eph 6:12). Two great signs or symbols appear in heaven. The first is ‘a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown with twelve stars’. The woman represents the idealised OT people of God, perhaps as the idealised Zion for cities rather than nations were traditionally feminine (Isa 66:7-9; Gal 4:26). The sun, moon and twelve stars refer to the dream of Joseph and point to the woman being Israel the people of God Gen 37:9). The language involving heavenly bodies suggests the woman has a holy radiance and glory (1:16). Yet she is a woman and is vulnerable. She is also pregnant (even more vulnerable) and about to give birth to a male child (Christ) who will rule the nations with a rod of iron (2:27, 19:15. Ps 2:9. Cf. Isa 66:7-9)… dragons unfortunately devour the vulnerable (Jer 51:34).
The second sign is of ‘a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems’ (Cf. Isa 27:1). This time the image is fearsome and grotesque. The dragon is clearly imposing and destructive as his tail sweeps a third of the stars from the sky. He is red perhaps suggests his bloody agenda. The crowns and horns on the dragon represent his claim to sovereignty and power. The dragon is very powerful. The numbers are symbolic of perfections of malevolent power. They also imply an imitation of Christ (5:6; 19:12). Historically ten horns they are a reference to the Roman Empire and the beast (Ch 13; 17; Dan 2:42; 7:7, 24). Both are historical manifestations of the dragon; the empire and the emperor are demonic (17:8). The dragon (a mythological creature) depicts ‘that ancient serpent, which is called the devil and Satan’. Satan means adversary and he is the adversary of the woman. In the dragon we meet the source of all opposition to God and his people.
Satan’s malevolence towards God’s people has raged since the dawn of time. The serpent is the ‘ancient serpent’ who first appears in the garden in Genesis. From the beginning he has been intent in destroying what God is building. From the beginning the war between Satan and humanity is predicted. Gen 3:15 says,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Yet, although Satan seeks to destroy the seed he is unable to do so. The woman’s child is protected. He is caught up to the throne of God.. We can see how truncated a history Ch 12 is. Most of the history of God’s people in the OT is passed over. Most aspects of the life of Christ (including his death) are not mentioned. Messiah is simply born and caught up to heaven and so is safe. The vision’s aim is to outline the big picture not develop historical details; the apparently vulnerable (the woman, the child, the rest of her children) are safe. However, disproportionate the battle the weak are safe and ultimately conquer (12:11). Satan, however apparently strong, will be destroyed (12:12).
The woman flees into the wilderness were God protects her, no doubt an allusion to Israel’s wilderness escape from Egypt and Pharaoh, the dragon (Ezek 29:3). The wilderness was simultaneously a place of testing and safety; it gave Israel refuge from the wrath of the Egyptians. It represented redemption (Isa 51:9,10;Ps 74:13,14; Ezek 29:3). The wilderness was also a place of safety and nourishment for Moses David and Elijah (Ex 2:15; 1 Sam 23:25; Ps 63; 1 Kings 19: 3-7). In John’s vision the wilderness once again is offering protection. It is a planned providential protection for we are told the woman goes to a place ‘prepared’. In Ch 7 the 144,000 are sealed as protection from God’s judgement. In Ch 11 the measuring of the temple is a symbol of protection. The two witnesses cannot be touched until their witness is completed. The protection is primarily spiritual but it is often providential ; God’s people are always in the palm of his hands. When we pass though the waters he will be with us. We may be put to death but not a hair of our head will perish (Lk 21). God has redeemed his people and they are secure in all the ways that truly matter.
The period of her protection is 1260 days (3½ years). It is very tempting to take this number as a symbol of the whole age of the church for it seems to span from the ascension to the Second Coming. However, as previous posts have argued (Ch 11), it seems best to see the years as literal and referring to the final days of the antiChrist (13.). John does not work with a normal temporal sequence here. Time is condensed. The child us caught up to heaven without reference to his life and death. John, it seems, moves straight from the ascension to the time the End. Ch 4-18 focus on, the years immediately preceding Christ’s return. Why is the church in Revelation facing such persecution? Because Satan is filled with wrath. He has been cast out of heaven and he knows his time is short. Yet it would be a mistake to view these depicted final days of history as lying in the remote future. John does not think of them in this way. In Ch 4-19 he describes these events as near. The church on earth at any given point lives on the brink of the end.
It is noteworthy that the one who is caught up to the throne of God and will rule the nations with a rod of iron is the ‘child’ while the powerful regal dragon is cast out of heaven. God inverts human expectations. In this sense John echoes the early chapters of Isaiah where hope for Israel lies in the weakness of a child (Isa 9:6).
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the 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 our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
A hymn of praise
Vv1-6 are an introductory summary of events now unpacked in more detail inn vv 7-17 and beyond. If the focus’s in vv1-6 was on God’s people and their safety in vv7-12 the focus is principally on Satan. A voice of praise is raised in heaven for Satan the accuser of God’s people is cast out of heaven (Lk 10:18). This is a sign that God’s kingdom has triumphed. The lead antagonist has been defeated and now banished (Jn 12:31) The Davidic King at God’s right hand is overthrowing his enemies (Ps 2). The triumph is at this point is primarily realised in heaven but it will soon embrace the earth. However, in the short term it means greater persecution for God’s people on earth; a cause for rejoicing in heaven is a cause for lamenting on earth.
God’s people on earth experience the triumph of heaven by faith. They conquer Satan by their confidence in the cleansing blood of the Lamb and their witness to the him. Guilt creates powerful emotions. It leads to despair and to defiance. It is a powerful weapon of Satan to crush humanity. The blood of the lamb liberates us from guilt and its destructive effects. We are freed from the fear of death and judgement; they are emboldened by the liberty they find in Christ. God’s people are more than conquerors as these truths are realised in their hearts (Roms 8: 31-39). Their accuser in heaven has been cast out and can no longer bring a charge against God’s elect.
Satan is filled with wrath and desperation – he knows his time is short and he now concentrates his energies on destroying the people of God. Defeat does not make Satan falter, it makes him furious. This accounts for the persecution the church faces. When the allies made the Normandy landings effectively the war was over. America had entered the war. The allies had greater resources and greater numbers. Germany had lost heavily on the eastern front. Hitler knew at that point he had lost. Did that make him give up? No he was all the more furious and dangerous.
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
Yet, despite, Satan’s efforts to destroy her the woman survives. She survives because she is protected. She is given great wings to fly like an eagle to the wilderness (Ex 19:4; Isa 40:31). There she is nourished. We must remember we are reading a vision that draws from other Scriptures. We have already noticed the parallel with Israel redeemed from Egypt and God’s keeping of his people in the desert. From this John depicts the security of God’s people. The woman’s primary offspring, the man-child, is now protected but the rest of her offspring are vulnerable; individual believers will suffer. Satan ‘makes war’ on them through the beast (13:7) and no doubt also through the lies of the false prophet and the allure of Babylon, ‘the great city’. The river that flows from the mouth of the dragon is probably a flood of persecution and deceit (Ps 144:7,8). Believers conquered earlier through the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and by not loving their lives unto death tin addition we are told that they keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. John does not support a faith that is no more than words. Faith for John is a whole-souled commitment to Christ.
Yet the increased vehemence of Satanic attack itself testifies that the end is near as Jesus indicated… when you see these things lift up your head for your redemption is near (Lk 21:28). Again we are told of the woman’s divine protection as she like Israel at the exodus was carried on eagles wings (Ex 19:4; Isa 40:31) into the desert. Should we find ourselves living in these last of the last days we can derive comfort from the fact it will be short (a time, times and half a time is very short) and our redemption is right at the door (Matt 24:33). Furthermore although it may seem like the church is no more God is keeping it secure and safe. Indeed on that day the dragon will be destroyed and the church delivered (Isa 27:1).
Satan cannot touch the woman. The church is in this sense inviolable; it is secure. However he can attack its members and so he goes to make war on the rest of her offspring (those other than the male child). This leads naturally into Ch 13 and the period of the great tribulation. Ch 12 ends with the dragon standing on the sea and Ch 13 commences with a beast rising out of the sea. This is the AntiChrist who makes war on the saints and conquers them.
Revelation is not for the faint-hearted. As we read it we need to often remind ourselves of Ch 4,5 and the throne established in the heavens.
Cave Adullam 