The Woman and the Dragon - Part 1
Conflict pervades our world. That has been true since the fall of man. The first recorded event after the fall is Cain killing his brother Abel, but even before Abel's death, God revealed a long-standing conflict between a woman and a dragon. This conflict encompasses the whole of Scripture and was proclaimed in Genesis 3:15. Speaking to the serpent, the Lord said,
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. (ESV)
At the end of Scripture, Revelation 12 describes the spiritual realities of the conflict between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. This chapter focuses on the conflict between the woman and the dragon. There is a very important child who is born, but there are only two signs. In verse 1, there is the sign of the woman, and in verse 3, there is the sign of the dragon. In verse 17, we again see the woman and the dragon mentioned, so the woman and the dragon frame this chapter.
The chapter can be divided into three parts:
The Dragon seeks to devour the woman’s child (vs 1–6)
The Dragon is defeated by the woman’s child (vs 7–12)
The Dragon persecutes the woman because of the woman’s child (vs 13–17)
I’m going to look at each of these sections in a different article. In this, the first article on Revelation 12, I’m considering the first section, verses 1–6. These verses introduce the dragon and the woman and show the evil goal of the dragon. It also shows the victory of God over the dragon.
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. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 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. 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, 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. (Revelation 12:1–6 ESV)
Who are the woman and the dragon? Verse 1 describes the woman as “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Verse 2 says, “She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.” Now, because she is pregnant, many think this woman is Mary, the mother of Jesus, but not so. Notice the mention of the sun, moon, and stars in verse 1. Where else do we find this description? In one of Joseph’s dreams. Genesis 37:9–10 says,
Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” (ESV)
Clearly, the reference in Joseph’s dream is to Jacob, or Israel, and his family. So, the woman in the narrow context is Israel, and in the larger context is all of God’s people, Old and New Testament combined.
Verses 3–4 describe the dragon, which verse 9 calls the devil. The language that describes the dragon is found throughout Scripture, but suffice it to say that this dragon has great authority. That’s what the description “seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems,” indicates. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul calls Satan the god of this world, and 1 John 5:19 says, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” However, Satan also has authority in the spiritual realm. Verse 4 tells us that the dragon swept a third of the stars to earth. The stars represent angels (see verses 7–9), so this refers to the angelic fall.
The dragon’s goal is to devour the woman’s child. Clearly, this child is Jesus, and if you pay attention when you read the Old Testament, you’ll see the devil’s attempt to stop the birth of Jesus. Why did Cain kill Abel (Genesis 4:8)? Why did Balak want Balaam to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22:1–6)? Why did Saul try to kill David (1 Samuel 18:6–16)? Why did Athaliah kill the whole royal family after King Ahaziah died (2 Kings 11:1)? Why did Haman want to destroy the Jews (Esther 3:5–6)? Why did Herod command the death of all the male babies in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16)? Of course, in all these and many other instances, God would not let the dragon devour the child. Seth was born. David evaded Saul. Jehosheba hid Joash from Athaliah. Esther revealed Haman’s plot. God warned Joseph to flee to Egypt to escape Herod.
Therefore, the woman gave birth to the child, the one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. This is a reference to Psalm 2:9, which says the Lord’s king will break the nations with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. The dragon has all these heads and crowns, but the child is the one who will rule the nations. This child is caught up to heaven. Notice that Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection are assumed. We skip right to the ascension. This child was caught up to God and to his throne because this is where the child will rule the nations from. Because the child is caught up to heaven, the woman flees to the wilderness to a place prepared by God. Here she will be nourished by God. This reminds us of Elijah fleeing to the wilderness after defeating the prophets of Baal. There he was nourished by God. Also, God nourished his people in the wilderness of Sinai. The woman is now not just Old Testament Israel, but the true Israel, the church, the people of God. The number of days, 1260, is three and one-half years. It represents the church age, the time between the first and second comings of Christ. Notice that these days begin directly after the ascension. It is not a future period. It applies to us now. I’ll address this time period more in the third article.
So, in these first six verses of Revelation 12, we see the offspring of the woman bruise the head of the serpent. The dragon seeks to devour the child of the woman, but his efforts are thwarted time and again, with the child gaining the final victory. The woman (the church) flees to the wilderness, where she is nourished by God.
What are some lessons from this section?
We are in a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” It is easy to forget this truth. All that we experience in this life is rooted in the spiritual realm.
The male child, Jesus, rules the nations now. When we see the wickedness around us, we are tempted to think evil rules, but neither evil nor the evil one rules. There is no struggle between the light side of the force and the dark side of the force. There is no force. There is a person named Jesus who rules over all.
There is no outwitting God. The dragon tried over and over to devour the male child, but every time his jaws snapped shut, he missed. This is true for us as well. We are sorely deceived if we think we can fool God or get him to change his plan. Not only his plan for the universe, but his plan for you and me will succeed.
In the next part, we’ll look at verses 7–12, which describe the defeat of the dragon.
Photo by Ekaterina Belinskaya: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-metal-dragon-sculpture-in-borrego-springs-california-4922009/