The Woman and the Dragon
1A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
Dig Deeper
There is a great series of scenes in the classic movie, Karate Kid, in which the aged and wise teacher, Mr Miyagi, agrees to teach young Daniel karate. Daniel comes over to Mr. Miyagi’s house, eager and expectant, ready to learn the exciting elements of karate. Instead he finds himself doing menial tasks such as painting his house, sanding his deck, painting his fence, and waxing his many cars. Day after day, these menial tasks continue until Daniel finally explodes in anger, feeling that he has been taken advantage of and not really taught karate at all. Mr. Myiagi then asks him to mimc the movements that he made during the long hours of painting, waxing, and sanding, showing him that those were actually important karate movements that he has now mastered without even realizing it. The truth was, he didn’t see the big picture, but suddenly Mr. Miyagi has revealed that everything he was doing was leading up to the final goal of him learning karate.
In this passage, John draws on many different areas of symbolism and imagery having to do with women and the people of God from throughout the Old Testament. On the surface, none of these elements seem to be related or to really have been leading anywhere, but John now makes it clear. All of the Old Testament did have a point. It was leading towards, giving birth, in a sense, to the Messiah. He was the whole point all along.
12:1-2 - That this is called a great and wondrous sign that appeared in heaven alerts us to the fact that we ought to pay careful attention to the subject of this vision. We are to think carefully about the meaning and impact of this sign. ‘Woman’ is a familiar biblical image for the Church or the people of God. The clearest image here is that the woman refers specifically to the Old Covenant Israel. The first readers of Revelation, no doubt, would have though of Old Testament prophetic uses of the woman as representing the people of God (Isa. 26; 49-50; 54; 55; Jer. 3-4; Lam. 1; Ezek. 16; Hos. 1-4; Mic. 4). Many of the old Testament allusions to Israel as a woman are not very flattering, but here the woman is a glorious vision of the people of God in her purity as the wife of God. She is in the image of Her husband (Ps. 104:2; Rev. 1:16; 10:1), clothed (the same word translated ‘robed’ in 10:1) with the sun (Isa. 60:1-2). We are also told that she has the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. This confirms the image of glory and dominion.
The woman is pregnant and about to give birth to none other than Christ. Although this includes Mary, we have already been told that this is a sign or symbol, so we must see the deeper meaning beyond just Mary. This image goes all the way back to what is called ‘protevangelium’. This refers to Genesis 3:15 when God revealed that through the woman, the redeemer would come that would crush the Serpent one day. This motif is seem several times in the Old Testament, where for example in the story of Jael and Sistera (Jud. 4:9, 17-22; 5:24-27) and the redemption of Israel by Esther. The definitive fulfillment of Gen. 3:15, however, was the birth of Jesus, a fact that Mary clearly recognized (Luk. 1:51-55). In fact, John’s words in verse one, a great and wondrous sign, are a very faithful quotation (in the original language) of Isaiah’s promising of a sign in Isaiah 7:14. John, then, is brining together all of the Old Testament imagery of the woman, as she labors to bring forth the Messiah. This was the culmination of all of Israel’s history, to bring the Messiah to the world.
12:3 - John is shown another sign that appeared in heaven: an enormous red Dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. The Dragon, of course, is the Serpent, the devil, Satan, the ultimate enemy of the people of God. He is the power behind the imperial powers of the ancient world. Like the four beast-empires of Daniel, the Dragon has seven heads and ten horns (Daniel 7:3-7). Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome were stages in the Dragon’s attempt to destroy the people of God and take dominion over the world. John, then, wishes to tie this vision into Daniel’s which shows us the series of beasts that would exercise dominion over the world. As Daniel’s prophecy continues, though, he sees that this dominion lasts for only an appointed period of time. He then sees the "Ancient of days" giving authority and power over all peoples of the earth. Daniel says: "His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed" (Dan. 7:14).
12:4 - John shows us that the Dragon swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. We would do well to remember that this is theology not astronomy. John has already associated stars with angels (Rev. 1:20), now he symbolically represents the fall of Satan and his angels (John, himself, will tell us this more directly in verse 9). The Dragon stands before the woman, waiting to devour her child the moment it was born. All throughout history Satan tried to either keep Christ from being born or kill Him as soon as He was. This can be seen throughout the Bible as Satan attempts to corrupt the seed through which the Messiah will come: Cain was inspired to kill Abel, who was then replaced by Seth (Gen. 4:25; Nearly all of Seth’s descendants were corrupted by fallen angels until Noah was found "physically blameless" or "perfect in his generations" (Gen. 6:1-12); This struggle continued with the Dragon’s attacks on the seed and potential seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. It continued on through the attempt in Egypt to have all of the male Israelite children killed (Exod. 1); Again, Satan worked to try to kill David several times; The story goes on an on through the Old Testament. This all came to a dramatic climax with the birth of Christ. Satan finally thought he had succeeded at the Cross, but he didn’t understand God’s hidden wisdom and would not have inspired it if he would have truly understood the consequences (1 Cor. 2:7-8). In wounding the Seed’s heel, the Serpent really was crushed.
Devotional Thought
In a few short verses, John recaptures nearly 5,000 years of history that led up to the coming of the Messiah. As we read the Old Testament carefully, we begin to see the care and and incredible planning that God put in to bringing about the Messiah. Do you go through such careful thought, attention to detail, and concern in your own life to serve God? Take some time today to come up with a plan as to how you can be a light to the unsaved people around you.
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