The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

So when we read here that the woman was clothed with the sun, it tells us that she's been given or dressed in a glory that can only come from God. And the moon is under her feet. I think this speaks especially of her exalted position. She's so high that even the moon is beneath her. And then consistent with that, she's wearing a crown, symbolizing her authority and royalty. And the crown has 12 stars. And like most of the numbers in Revelation, that number is significant. Twelve is the number of the people of God. In the Old Testament, of course, there's the 12 tribes of Israel. And then in the New Testament, there's the 12 disciples and the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And so I think that's what this woman represents here. She is the people of God. All the true believers from Israel in the Old Testament, and then as we'll see after the child is born, she's the church in the New Testament. She's all God's people from Adam and Eve to Seth, to Noah, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to Moses, to Rahab and Ruth, to David and Esther and all the rest. These are the people whom God made to shine like the sun because he's given them of his own holiness. They're the people that God has exalted to the highest position because he's made them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And they're the ones God has crowned to reign with him in his kingdom forever. That's who this woman is. Well, verse 2 continues,

she was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains in the agony of giving birth.

And this would represent the people of God's messianic hope. It reminds us both of the curse and the promise. As we saw in Genesis 3, the curse brought pain to childbearing. So the fact that here, this woman as the people of God is in the pain of childbearing shows us that God's people are still under the curse. But at the same time, God promised that through childbearing, a savior would be born. That Eve would bear a seed who would crush the serpent's head. And the whole Old Testament storyline builds according to that great hope. From Eve, to Seth, to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Judah, to David, to Solomon, to Zerubbabel, God continues to affirm and reaffirm that promise. He continues to narrow down the line from which the seed will come. He continues to tell us more and more about who the seed will be and what he will do. And so like a pregnant woman, Israel has been pregnant with hope for a child to be born who will become her savior and king. And yet also like pregnancy, that process of waiting has brought about the pain of the curse. We could look at many periods of suffering and oppression in the history of Israel, but I think it really climaxes with the exile. In fact, in Micah chapter four, verse 10, God declares,

writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor. For now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country. You shall go to Babylon.

So there, the pain of pregnancy is likened to Israel being taken to exile in Babylon. And yet, right after that, God continues. There, that is from Babylon,

You shall be rescued. There, the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

And then just a few verses later, God explains how this redemption will happen. He says,

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old. from ancient days.

The Messiah will come at the end of these birth pains of exile. And then God says,

therefore, he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth.

So in Micah, the labor pains are the exile and the birth is the coming of the Messiah. And similarly here in Revelation 12, the labor pains or the sufferings of God's people and the birth is the coming of Christ. Well, then verse three introduces the next figure.

And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and on his heads, seven diadems.

Now, this dragon is explicitly identified as the devil and Satan in verse 9, as well as the ancient serpent from the Garden of Eden. I asked myself, you know, why he's a dragon and not a snake here, and I think the answer is simply that these words are used interchangeably. For example, in Isaiah, Leviathan is called the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent, and the dragon that is in the sea. He's both a serpent and a dragon. Also in Exodus, when Aaron's staff turns into a serpent, the Septuagint actually translates that as dracone, which is Greek for dragon. So I think the idea is probably that snakes, dragons, crocodiles, sea serpents, you know, all of it's just lumped together to represent the devil in his cunning and wickedness that we first see in the Garden of Eden. And this dragon is great because he's powerful and menacing and he's red. Because instead of being white and pure, he's the color of blood and sin. And he has seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadems, or crowns. And in case you're trying to visualize how ten horns fits on seven heads, well, it's important to understand that this kind of writing, which is called apocalyptic literature, isn't trying to help us paint a physical picture. This isn't what the devil looks like. Instead, it's trying to communicate to us through the symbolic significance of the images and the numbers themselves. And seven tends to be a number representing completeness or fullness. Elsewhere in Revelation, we read of seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, each representing the full or complete amount. Of course, there's also seven days in a week. It's a complete number. Ten here probably means authority and power. Possibly we see that reflected in the fact that there are the Ten Commandments, but more clearly we see that later in Revelation where there's a beast with ten horns, and those ten horns are identified as ten kings who will one day receive royal power. And then horns, heads, and crowns themselves all have to do with power and authority as well. Okay, so the overall picture that's being painted here is of the devil as this fearsome foe with the completeness or fullness of wicked authority and power. I mean, he appears to be like an unconquerable foe. And in demonstration of that, we read in verse four that

his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.

So it seems that there's nowhere safe from his reach. I mean, his tail reaches up even to the very stars of heaven to cast them down. Now, many have wondered what the stars represent. Some have interpreted this to refer to angels. And this is where some have the idea that in whatever the rebellion was, where some of the demons joined Satan, that it must have been approximately one third of them who did so. But I don't think that's what this passage is referring to. We already saw that the stars on the woman's crown related to the people of God, not angels. Also the language of Satan casting them down to earth probably sounds less like him convincing angels to join him in rebellion and more like him attacking and persecuting those who are trying to be faithful to the Lord. And then if you look down at verse nine, notice that when the dragon is thrown down to the earth, his angels are thrown down with him. And that wouldn't really make sense if we interpret verse four to refer to Satan casting his own angels down to earth already. So if the stars represent anything specific, I think it's probably humans. In fact, Daniel chapter eight verse 10 refers to the persecution of Israel under Antiochus Epiphanes. And it describes it in terms of stars being thrown down and trampled on. So I think most likely that's what's in view here. But the bigger picture point, no matter how you interpret it, is very clear. This shows how powerful and dangerous the dragon is. That's what's being pressed on us as he casts down a third of the stars to the earth. Now verse four continues.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth. so that when she bore her child, he might devour it.

And it appears here that this child stands no chance. I mean, he's to be devoured the very moment he's born. And notice how the dragon is focusing all of his attention singularly on him, as if to show us that everything depends on this child. You see, the dragon here is the usurper. He's the the phony king who can only reign as long as one with a rightful claim to the throne isn't there to claim it. And so he wants to destroy this child right from the start. And as we saw in our reading from Matthew 2, that's exactly what the devil tried to do at the birth of Christ. King Herod goes on to murder all the baby boys in Bethlehem to try to prevent arrival to his throne. I think Revelation 12 shows us clearly that Satan was behind that. And then further, of course, even after failing to destroy Jesus as a baby, Satan sought to devour him in many other ways as well. There's the temptation in the wilderness. There's when the people in Jesus' own hometown try to throw him off a cliff. There's when Peter said to Jesus, oh, you'll never be crucified. That will never happen to you. There's Judas, who betrayed him. There's the crucifixion itself. I think in all of these ways, Satan was seeking to tempt Jesus, to deceive him, to stop him from accomplishing his mission. and to devour the child. But as verse five tells us, he fails.

The child was caught up to God and to his throne.

And though it's put here so succinctly, that little phrase encapsulates the whole life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. You know, from his birth to his sitting down at the right hand of God, it's all right there. And I think it's compressed this way to emphasize that Jesus is now out of the devil's reach. He's been caught up to God and to his throne. There's no longer anything the devil could possibly do to stop him. He's already reigning. In other words, the war has already been won. Jesus has already sat down at the right hand And notice what we're told this child will do. Verse five says, he's the one

who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.

Now that's a direct reference to Psalm two, which speaks of the Messiah, the Lord's anointed, who will come and dash the nations like clay pots with a rod of iron. In other words, he will bring justice. The Messiah will reign with this inflexible rod of righteousness that will not bend or compromise with any evil or sin. And this is a reign that will extend over all the nations, over the whole earth. And I think this is an important reminder to us that as we celebrate Christmas, you know, the little baby Jesus, meek and mild, come to save. That that baby is at the same time the Lord and the King to whom every knee will bow and every soul will be held accountable. I mean, he holds an iron scepter. Terrorists will no longer go free. Murderers and thieves and rapists will no longer get away with it. None can hide from his eye of omniscience. None can resist his omnipotent arm. I mean, he will enforce perfect righteousness and truth and peace. through all the earth. And the question we need to ask ourselves is, is that what you want? I mean, of course you want it for bad people out there. But are you and I prepared to repent and submit to Christ as our King? Or is there a part of us that likes being able to sin and get away with it? I mean, we must remember that the Jesus of Christmas is the Jesus who was born to crush the serpent's head, to crush the very source of rebellion and sin itself, and to reign with true and perfect justice and righteousness in his place. Well, we've seen the serpent versus the child. Now, verse six sets the stage for the third scene. which we will come back to then. But for now, let's turn to the second scene, where we see the result of the child's victory in heaven. So scene two, the dragon versus the heavenly host, verses seven through 12. Verse seven says,

now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated. and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 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.

Okay, so there's a great heavenly battle between Michael and the book of Jude tells us that he's an archangel and Satan. And note that it's Michael and his angels who initiate the battle. The dragon and his angels fight back. Okay, so it's not like the devil has just mounted some invasion of heaven. He was already there. So what's he been doing? You know, why has the devil been given a place in heaven up until the ascension of Christ? Well, I think verse 10 gives us a clue. John says,

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.

And so what was Satan doing in heaven? Well, he was accusing God's people day and night before God. You know, saying things like, God, you're the judge of all the earth. You're supposed to do right. How then can you allow David to be here? He's an adulterer. He's a murderer. How can Abraham be here? He's a liar. Or Noah. He got drunk. Doesn't your own law condemn these men to hell? And why is it that God would have allowed Satan to go on doing that? Well, it's because his accusations had validity. Abraham and David and Noah and all the rest had sinned and did deserve eternal death. And Satan may deserve destruction, but so do they. So how can God judge Satan without judging them as well? Now, it's not that this gives the devil some sort of power over God. It's not like there's some higher law outside of God that even God is accountable to. No, what binds God here is his own justice, his own faithfulness to who he is as a just and a holy king. You see, God refuses to simply ignore the devil's accusations because God insists that his court be established on justice. And he insists that his law never be simply overlooked or set aside. And therefore, it doesn't matter who's making the accusations. It doesn't matter that it's Satan. If these accusations have validity, they are admitted. And that gave the devil a foothold in heaven. And as long as Satan's accusations had validity, no human could reclaim the throne that Adam had forfeited to Satan in the garden. In other words, God could not be faithful to himself and destroy or depose Satan without destroying us and the world as well. But with the coming of Jesus, all that changes. In Jesus comes the one who finally perfectly obeyed, who always resisted the devil, who never caved to sin even once. Finally in Jesus comes the one against whom no accusation can stand. And so he is exalted to the throne of God along with the proclamation that now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. Now the king is here and now at last Satan can be cast out. And not only can Satan levy no accusation against Christ, but Jesus even silences the devil's accusations against all the other people of God as well. Look at verse 11. Speaking of God's saints, his people, it says,

and they have conquered him,

that is the dragon,

by the blood of the lamb.

You see, in other words, we conquer Satan by silencing his accusations against us because Jesus died a sacrificial death in our place. Jesus went to the cross as the Lamb of God to shed his blood, to pay the penalty for our sin and to fulfill the justice that the law of God demands. That's why Jesus says in John 12, you know,

now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out

because I am going to the cross. He gives us the victory. You know, it's like if you were taken to court because you owed someone a million dollars and they were accusing you of refusing to pay the debt. Well, the moment someone else steps forward and pays the million dollars for you, the accusations are nullified. The price is already paid. And that's what Jesus did for us. That's why we can conquer through the blood of the lamb. That's why he went to the cross. This is why Martin Luther said,

so when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this, I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God. And where he is, there I shall be also.

" Christ has won the victory through the cross. Now, notice that John also adds,

we conquer him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony For they love not their lives, even unto death.

Now, why would our testimony be important here? Well, I think it's because the devil says, well, the blood of Christ atones for others, but not for you. You don't belong to him. And you see, it's the word of our testimony that confirms we are Christ. As Romans chapter 10 verse 9 says,

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.

You see, the word of our testimony is the confession that Jesus is Lord. Not just as an empty statement, but a heartfelt belief. that's demonstrated by the action of our lives even in the face of death. Verse 11 says,

they conquered him by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death.

This is speaking especially of martyrdom. Of the way that we as believers are called to hold to our confession of Christ no matter what. And that as we do so, Even if the devil should cut off our heads, it's we who gain the victory over him and not him over us. Because by the word of our testimony, by holding firm to Christ to the end, we demonstrate that we belong to him and that his blood has availed for us. And so with the ground for Satan's accusations having been eliminated, by Christ on the cross, by his ascension to the right hand of God. That's why it's at this moment that Michael and his angels take action to cast Satan from the heavenly court. And though Satan tries to fight back, he's defeated, he's cast down, and verse 12 announces,

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.

Okay, so once again we see here the war is won. Satan has failed to stop the child. He's failed to overcome the heavenly host. He no longer has any way to attack the saints in heaven or stop Christ's kingdom from coming. He knows his time is short and that he'll be cast into hell and punished forever. But he's thrown down to earth in great anger and rage. And all he can do now is try to do as much damage here as he possibly can in the time he has left. And so this brings us now to the third and the final scene, the dragon versus the woman, verses 13 through 17. And this both picks up where we left off in verse six and also reiterates it. Verse six said,

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.

And now in verses 13 and following we read,

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. 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. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. 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. 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.

So the woman here, I think it's the church, now that the child has already come, right? She's believers in this new covenant age. And what this shows us is that rather than Christ's victory making it easier for her here on earth, it actually just means the devil is gonna concentrate his attacks on her all the more. Again, the war is won, but the earthly battle has only just begun. And notice that this whole struggle is portrayed in the terms of a new exodus, right? So just as Israel fled from Pharaoh out into the wilderness, so here we see the woman finding refuge in a wilderness. Just as God nourished the Israelites with manna, well, so God nourishes the woman in the wilderness here. Just as God told the Israelites at Mount Sinai,

I bore you on eagle's wings to myself as I brought you away from Pharaoh and to me in the wilderness.

Well, here the woman is born on eagle's wings to fly from the serpent into the wilderness with God. And just as God led the Israelites safely on dry land through the waters of the Red Sea, Well, so here he brings the earth to the help of the woman to swallow up the flood from the dragon's mouth. And the idea is not that there's some sort of literal flood that the devil is gonna try to bring upon the church, but it's the idea that the devil is going to attack us with a flood of persecution, false teachings, temptations. And that we as the church, because of the dragon's pursuit, will not be able to find any refuge in the world. Remember, as we've been learning from 1 Peter, we're elect exiles on the earth. Instead, just like Israel in the Old Testament, we find our refuge in a wilderness. And yet the sweet comfort we find is that just like the Israelites experienced the blessing of the presence and the provision and the protection of God in that wilderness, We will experience that here now. God is a God who meets his people in a wilderness. That's where he's prepared a place for us. And note the timeframe of all this. Verse six says the woman flees into the wilderness for 1,260 days, and then verse 14 calls this same time a time and times and half a time. And probably these are two ways of referring to the same time period. The 1,260 days would represent three and a half years. And then a time times in half a time would be one plus two plus a half, which would equal three and a half as well. Elsewhere in Revelation, it speaks of 42 months, another three and a half year period. And there's a lot we could get into about the relation of this to the 70th week from the book of Daniel and various other parts of Revelation. But for today, I just want to point out that I think the significance of the three and a half is likely that it's half of seven. You know, if seven is meant to communicate fullness or completeness, then three and a half is a number of incompleteness or something that's temporary. And therefore the point would be that this time in the wilderness is long and it may feel long, but it's coming to an end. We will not be in exile forever. We will not be wandering in the wilderness of the world forever. There's a promised land that we have to look forward to. If you read to the end of Revelation, we get a wonderful glimpse of what that will be like. But brothers and sisters, in the meantime, the battle rages on. You know, you notice at the end here in verse 17 that the dragon doesn't give up. He becomes furious with the woman and he goes off to stand by the sea. And as chapter 13 explains to us, he goes to the sea to summon his two henchmen, the beast from the sea and the beast from the earth, who will join him in making war on the woman and on the rest of her offspring. And the rest of the woman's offspring would just be all those who come to believe through the testimony of the church. Verse 17 tells us it's

those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

I think the relationship between the offspring and the woman is kind of like in 2 John, which John writes to the elect lady and her children, and that would be the church and then the members of the church. So they're kind of one and the same, the collective and then the individuals. I think that's what's going on here. The woman and her offspring are the church and the individual believers as well. And so again, the point of this is to show us That Christ has won. The war's over. He is seated on high. And we are just waiting for the day when he returns to set all things right. And yet, and yet, Revelation has explained to us that in that intervening period, here we are as the church in the wilderness. Here we are with the devil as a defeated foe in great rage, seeking to do all he can to take us down with him. And we will go on being assaulted for this time. But God is our protector. God is the one who will hold us fast. He's the one who will nourish us and protect us and provide for us in that wilderness, even to the end. And so before we close, I'd like to leave you now with three concluding applications. The first is for any of you who are here and are not Christians. Maybe you came this morning because it's Christmas Eve and a family member invited you. Or maybe you're someone who comes to church every week anyway, but you know deep down that you have not truly come to know Christ. You haven't truly received salvation through him. Well, my prayer is that you would respond to this message by placing your faith in Christ. This reminds us that Satan is our accuser. and that you and I have no sin that we can hide. If we have broken the law of God, and every single one of us has, Satan will point his finger to destroy us. Don't think that on judgment day your sin can be covered by good deeds you've done. Or that the passing of time will mean those dark things in the past will just be forgotten. or that you will have any excuse that you can offer to God as a righteous judge for why you have broken his law and sinned. God's law is very clear.

The wages of sin is death.

But the great hope that we have, the great hope that we as Christians celebrate at Christmas is that Jesus came and died and rose again to save all who believe. That when we place our faith in Him, His blood covers us, washes our sin away. All of the accusations against us are nullified. And we stand holy and acceptable in the sight of God because of what Christ has done for us. And so will you place your faith in Christ this morning and receive salvation as a gift of His grace? Now secondly, for those of us who are believers, may we rejoice this morning that Christ's coming means the war has already been won. This reminder that Jesus is already seated at the right hand of God on high. That Satan has already been cast out. And you know, even though those accusations have been silenced in heaven, that doesn't mean he can't continue to whisper them in your ear here on earth. reminding you of your failures as a spouse, your failure in giving into lust, your failure in losing your temper, your failure to pray and read the Bible and pursue spiritual things. Friends, we need to remember that the reality is that if we are in Christ, those accusations have already been silenced in heaven. Christ has paid the penalty for our sin in full. We don't have to try to atone for our own sins. We can rejoice that the war is won, that Satan's accusations have been found groundless and baseless because the blood of Christ was shed in our place. And as this chapter triumphantly declares, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. Now thirdly and finally, I hope we respond to this passage by stealing our resolve to persevere and to suffer. See, Christ's victory means that Satan has come down to us in great rage, knowing that his time is short. His victory means that things will tend to get harder, not easier. We have to remember that this world is not home. This world is not the promised land. This is not the place that we should expect everything to sort of go well and we should expect all the people in society to just warmly welcome us with open arms. It's just not the way this world is. We are more like Israel in the wilderness than being in the promised land. And yet even as trials and persecutions and difficulties come, we need to remember that these are the last ditch efforts of a defeated foe. These are the assaults of Satan because he knows he can't really win the war. And may that steal our resolve, may that give us courage, may that give us strength, not to grow weary, but to persevere. You know, as this chapter reminds us, yes, we're in a wilderness, but God is with us. He will provide for us. He will protect us. And this season in the wilderness will come to an end. This is temporary. And so may we wait patiently, looking forward to the day when Christ finally returns. and his kingdom finally fully comes here on earth as it has in heaven. Well, brothers and sisters, let us now go to the Lord in prayer and thank him for Christ who has given us this great victory. Father, how we thank you for your word. We thank you that on this Christmas Eve morning, we can remember the coming of Christ We can remember that he was not only born, that he lived and he died and he rose again, and he is ascended to your right hand, where he reigns as king. We pray that in view of that, everyone here would repent and submit to him, would trust him for salvation. We pray that we would rejoice in him, assured of his victory, and we pray that you would strengthen us to persevere and remain steadfast to the end. We pray all of these things in his name and for your glory. Amen.