The Woman and the Dragon

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. Revelation 12:11

Revelation 12:1–17 – The Book of Revelation: Worship. Obey. Endure.
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost  – October 2, 2022 (am)

As we begin this morning, we’re still in that interlude that surrounds the seventh trumpet (11:15-19), but now we come to Rev.12, which is a significant chapter in this letter. Revelation 12 has always been, consciously or not, considered as the center and the key to the entire book (Beale 1999 621 [Prigent]). It speaks of the rage of Satan against God, His Son, His saving plan, and His people who are rescued by that plan. It shows that he stands behind all of the evil in this world. And it identifies the power of God’s people over his fury through the saving work of Christ. Rev.12 is the heart of this letter. And more: cc.12-22 tell the same story as cc.1-11 but explain in greater detail what cc.1-11 only introduce and imply. C.12 now reveals that the devil himself is the deeper source of evil (Beale 1999 622). This explains why the return of Christ stands in the middle.

In summary, this chapter gives us a profound spiritual, even theological, analysis of what’s happening in this fallen world in the sufferings of God’s people, OT and NT alike. What we’re given are the rudiments, the ABCs if you will, of spiritual opposition—spiritual battle, spiritual warfare—of satanic fury against the saints. We see its appearance and basis, then the means of conquering it. Notice that the key players here are introduced as signs (1, 3). This suggests that John is seeing them as illustrations, representations of something other. So, the identities of these characters (this woman [1] and this dragon [3]) are secondary to—or perhaps are best understood by—what they represent, namely, God’s people and God’s enemy. Let’s consider the ABCs of spiritual warfare.

The Appearance of Satanic Fury – 1-6

1 And a great sign appeared in heaven, a familiar word from John, who identified Jesus’ miracles in his gospel as signs, indicators pointing to Jesus’ true identity.  This sign: a woman, and a pretty grand woman she was, clothed with the sun, she was radiant, with the moon under her feet, suggesting dominion, but it’s not until we see her headdress that we get an idea of who she is, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. This whole picture reminds us a bit of Joseph’s dream (Gen.37:9), and here with the crown perhaps a bit of Song of Solomon (6:10) (cf. Morris 153). But with what follows, our next thought would be, this is Mary, the mother of Jesus, or, maybe better, OT Israel, the community into which Messiah was born. But, as we get further into the story and see that her male child will rule all the nations (5; cf. Psa.2) and that her enemy went off to make war on the reset of her offspring (17)—meaning, the church, true believers in Messiah Jesus from all times and from all nations—we see that she represents the united the people of God both OT and NT, just as do so many of the other images here in Rev.

2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth, ready to deliver Messiah, and that’s when the second sign appeared. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, recalling Leviathan (Isa.27:1), with seven heads and ten horns, remembering Daniel’s fourth beast (Dan.7:7), and don’t try to do the math—how many horns per head—apocalyptic just doesn’t work like that, and on his heads seven diadems (cf. 13:1; 17:8-12), the epitome of intentionally evil rule. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. Almost certainly this is not a literal description such that we should start figuring how many of starts are left in the night sky (cf. 6:13; 8:10, 12; 9:1). This is an image of great power (Ladd 169). And this considerable power comes to bear on the central and most grotesque part of this vision. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. Parents are familiar with the set-up of a delivery room and the posture of a mother at the moment of birth. This dragon is crouched in front of her ready to devour the little one she delivered! A hopeless scenario, right? A dragon of this immense power allowing no chance of escape for an infant, no honoring of the visitation restrictions at a maternity hospital?

This is a can’t-miss abduction! But what happens next? 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. Unbelievable! This defenseless child escaped even the slightest harm by an undeniably divine intervention! The evil intent of this powerful dragon was entirely nullified 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. She is protected and provided for by God Himself through the entire window of great tribulation (cf. 7:14)—forty-two months (11:2), three and a half years (11:9, 11; cf. Luk.4:25), a time, times, and half a time (14), here 1,260 days (6). How many images do we need that our Father will care for His children during every form of end-times opposition?

One quick clarification before we move on: I don’t believe this is a picture of the ascension of Jesus, like some teach. C.12 is barely an analogy, and surely not an allegory. It’s an illustration of God’s faithful and complete protection of His people and preservation of His plan against every form of opposition mounted by Satan to thwart or impede or derail either. But it would be a mistake to try to tie off each element of this illustration to some specific historical event. That’s just not what John seems to be doing here. He’s surely covering a wide swath of world and redemption history—in fact, I would say the full swath of the latter—but not in allegorical fashion. He’s illustrating a reliable truth that will be proven true through historical events, but he’s not trying to illustrate a sequence of particular historical events. Surely if he were doing that, he’d not omit every part of Jesus’ redemptive work between His birth and His ascension (His life, death, burial, and resurrection)!

The Basis of Satanic Fury – 7-9, 12-17

In vv.7-9, we see action played out in heaven that reminds us a bit of Dan.10:13 and 12:1 as well as Jud.9, the archangel Michael, contending with the devil. What it means, precisely, is unclear. Some interpreters understand it to refer to a primordial battle describing “the fall of Satan”; others see in it an eschatological conflict which explains why such fierce persecution must [happen to] God’s people (Ladd 170). Still others see Satan’s defeat through Jesus’ earthly ministry in vv.1-6 while the apparent retelling in vv.7-17 depicts his defeat as the great tribulation begins (Johnson esvsbn). Regardless, bottom line: The actions described [in vv.7-12] are the heavenly counterpart of earthly events recorded in vv.1-6 (Beale 1999 650). 9 And [Satan] was thrown down to the earth, [with] his angels.

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 his time is short! 13 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. Again, she’s supernaturally protected! There’s absolutely no time or place where this dragon will gain the advantage over this woman or her child! No strategy he pursues will succeed. No amount of power he amasses will be sufficient. Her flight for safety recalls Jesus’ end-times sermon on the Mt. of Olives (Mat.24:16; Mar.13:14; Luk.21:21) and conjures up OT images of protection by and from eagles’ wings (Exo.19:4; Deu.32:11-12). But this woman isn’t running scared! This is God’s sovereign and supernatural protection of Christ’s Bride (cf. 19:7). And the enemy pursuing her is a defeated foe with very limited time to trouble her!

Even so, he didn’t give up his pursuit. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. This serpent is the same as the dragon; v.9 tells us his many identities (which are really all the same): 9 … the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. There it is. But once again, here, don’t try to turn this into an allegory or an analogy. Don’t look for a time in world history when Satan attacked the church with water! This is an image of the fact that the dragon, the serpent, is allowed to have supernatural power at his disposal. But that’s not enough. God can defeat him by any means He chooses! Here: 16 … the earth came to the help of the woman, … opened its mouth, and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious… 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. That’s the church.

The Conquering of Satanic Fury – 10-11

But he’ll have no greater success against them. And John mentions right here precisely why (17). The same reason is stated more fully back is vv.10-11 where God’s deliverance is announced and explained. 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. Three things to note: first, 11 [we conquer satanic fury on the ground of] the blood of the Lamb. The very same loving work of Jesus that has freed us from our sins (1:5) established our right to reign with Christ (1:6; 5:10; cf. 3:21) and enables us to conquer Satan (Carson 1995). It is the shed blood of Jesus alone that secures our place in heaven and all these other blessings besides. It’s not our obedience to God, our faithfulness, our acts of charity—feeding the hungry or housing the homeless. These things reflect a life cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, as so much of Scripture tells us. But it’s not what we do with the blood of the Lamb that saves us. It’s the fact that the blood of the Lamb has become our plea, our hope, our claim before the throne of God. When the blood of the Lamb is our answer to any and all questions of our worthiness before God, victory over His enemy and ours, secured by the blood of the Lamb, is ours right along with that worthiness. That’s the first thing to note.

Second, 11 [we conquer satanic fury… on the ground of] the word of [our] testimony. This doesn’t mean we share our testimony a lot—we tell our story. It means we bear witness to the gospel. We tell of the great work of God in Christ by which men and women, boys and girls, are reconciled to the true and living God. We proclaim it when it’s popular and people are rejoicing to hear it. And we proclaim it when people are wearied or annoyed or offended or angered by it and strike back in fury! Like Peter and John answering the rulers and elders and scribes, we must say to such people: Act.4:19 … Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. On the basis of this testimony, we conquer satanic fury in our day. That’s second.

Third, and here’s the clincher. It’s foundational to the other two: 11 … 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. [We do] not love [our] lives so much as to shrink from death (niv). Blood-bought believers who proclaim the gospel that saved them even when it brings opposition, do so because they’re willing to die. They’ve come to realize that there are things in this life that are worse than death. This is a real issue for the church in many places around the world. But even here where we’re not yet in grave danger of losing our lives, bearing witness to the gospel still involves our death—dying to self, to our desires, our reputation, just as Jesus called us to do (Mar.8:34). Bonhoeffer said it: When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die (89). If it’s more important to us what people think of us than what they think of Jesus, we’ll never bear witness to the gospel. It costs us too much. If fulfilling our personal desires pleases us more than pleasing God, we’ll never bear witness to the gospel. Again, it costs too much. But, when these things are so, we’ll also not know the joy, the thrill, the satisfaction and peace, that comes from conquering satanic fury aimed at the professing people of God. There it is.

Conclusion

Rev.12 is a strikingly significant chapter standing in the middle of this letter, but it’s also a stunningly relevant word of instruction for us and for the church in every age regarding the nature of our lives as spiritual warfare on every level. We tend to think of Eph.6:10-20 as the spiritual warfare passage. And surely there is no better text for practical instruction on what to do and why that’s important—clothing ourselves in the armor of God through prayer in order to stand firm in our day is vital for every Christian, Eph.6:12 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. But it’s Rev.12 that gives us an idea of the nature and intensity and inescapable reality of spiritual warfare in the life of the church, in the life of every individual Christian. Satan is enraged against us because he’s a defeated foe and, therefore, he knows that his time is short! (12) (cf. Beale 1999 623)

When we do notice the reality or presence of spiritual warfare, we can tend to soften our view so that we don’t sound like fanatics. We say something like: I don’t want to suggest that there’s a demon behind every bush, but…, then we go on to describe what we’re seeing as spiritual pushback or opposition or persecution. I do this myself. But what we see here in Rev.12 is that the enemy is behind the advance of all the evil in this world. All of it! We really do wrestle against the rulers, and the authorities, and the cosmic powers over this present darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, all the time! And if we don’t recognize that, we’re fooling ourselves! That’s precisely what characterizes this age of tribulation (7:14), and why we see such manifestations of evil in this world God created as good! Rev.12 tells us.

So, let me urge you, even plead with you: in addition to suiting up in the armor of God through prayer, understand, to the depth of your being, for your own good and for the good of the church, that we’re in a spiritual battle every day of our lives, and moment by moment through each day! And [we] conquer [the enemy] only by the blood of the Lamb and the word of [our] testimony to that blood, [and that is enabled only as we do] not love [our] lives so much as to shrink from death! (niv)

Let’s now give thanks for the blood of the Lamb that has given us life and protection from our enemy.

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Resources

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NEXT WEEK’S SERMON: The Two Beasts, the Mark, and the Number, Revelation 13:1–18