5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
12:5 - John appeals to one of his most used texts, Psalm 2 for the imagery here, as he says the woman gave birth to a son, a male child . The male child is, quite obviously, Jesus Christ, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter . He is the child of Israel, born to rule the nations. John views the history of Christ with a telescopic lens, as he combines Christ’s birth and ascension, almost as if they happened all at once. He goes right from the birth of the child to ruling the nations as he is snatched up to God and to his throne. John is not discounting the atonement and resurrection by going right from the birth to His ascension, rather he seems to be stressing that the child will completely escape the power of the Dragon. This also follows the order of Psalm 2, which speaks of the birth of ("I have begotten you") Christ and then moves directly into His exaltation to the heavenly throne. Satan had no power to stop Christ from going straight from His Incarnation to the throne of Heaven. Theologically speaking, they are one event in John’s eyes.
12:6 - John will go into this more later in the chapter, but to suffice it to say right now, the woman’s flight into the desert to a place prepared for her by God is a picture of the flight of the Judean Christians from the destruction of Jerusalem. As a result of this flight, the wrath of the Dragon will be visited on apostate Israel rather than the faithful Church. The woman is taken care of for 1,260 days , while fleeing to the desert. This is the symbolic three and a half years that John makes much use of (Rev. 11:2-3; 13:5). During this limited time when Satan seem to be dominating history, the church will be protected. John also draws here on imagery of Elijah’s sojourn in the wilderness during the three and a half years of drought when he was fed by ravens (1 Ki. 17:3-6), Israel’s flight into the wilderness to escape the Egyptians, and Mary’s flight into Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod (Matt. 2:13-21).
12:7-9 - John begins a brief interlude here, as he describes a war in heaven. This scene shows why the woman had to flee into the wilderness, then he will return to the flight of the woman. This is another aspect of the child’s conflict with the Dragon, and would chronologically fit between verses 5 and 6. The language is clear that this war is initiated by Michael and his angels . Michael, the captain of the angelic army, is a symbol for the seed of the woman, the Son of God. The Son of God is no longer represented as a child but as Michael, the warrior and protector who leads the armies of heaven in spiritual battle. This is not an accident, John carefully reveals Christ in terms of the specific biblical connotations associated with Michael (Dan. 10:12-13, 20-21). Michael is the guardian over God’s people during their time of tribulation (Dan. 12:1). Paul also makes this association between Christ and the archangel as he says that Christ will shout with "the voice of the archangel" (1 Thess. 4:16). The archangel is the leader of God’s army, so the imagery here casts Christ as the one leading the charge with His apostles, who are symbolized by the angels. Phillip Carrington, in The Revelation of St. John, says that viewing Michael as a symbol for Christ "makes sense of the chapter. . . A Woman who is pictured as the Bride of the Lord bears a Son; she is the new Eve, and therefore her son is to crush the Serpent; she is the Virgin of Isaiah, and therefore he is a warrior king. There follows a war with the Serpent, in which an opponent casts him out of heaven; the Serpent then went off to make war with the rest of the seed of the woman. Clearly, then, the person he had first fought with was also the seed of The woman."
In response to the attack by the work of Christ and His apostles, the Dragon and his angels fight back. They were not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven before finally being hurled down to earth. Jesus described this idea when He said that the gates of Hades would not prevail against His church (Matt. 16:18). The Church is not pictured as a city under siege by the dragon, rather it is an army that is attacking the city of the enemy and breaking down his gates. Satan’s forces are not strong enough and cannot hold back the onslaught of an obedient Church. John confirms for us, just in case we don’t already know, that the Dragon is the ancient serpent, the devil, or Satan. Satan is the father of lies, who leads the whole world astray . All of the accusations made against the Church and the persecution that was befalling the Church was instigated by the Dragon.
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