The Dragon Has Already Lost

12:1-2A woman clothed with the sun

"A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (WEB). The word "sign" matters: this is a symbol, a picture that points beyond itself, not a woman seen on earth.

The sun, moon, and stars come from Joseph's dream, where they stood for Jacob's family (Genesis 37:9-10), and the twelve stars point to the twelve tribes of Israel. In the city of 21:12-14 the gates carry the names of the tribes and the foundations the names of the apostles. So most interpreters take the woman as the people of God, the Israel from whom the Messiah came and the church he gathers. Some see Mary, the Messiah's mother, as the first and fullest picture of the woman, though most think the sign is larger than one person. John does not say, and it is better to hold the pattern than to force a single name.

She is in labour, crying out in pain. The prophets used birth pangs for the long ache of God's people waiting for a deliverer. Isaiah 66:7-8 pictures Zion in labour, and Micah 5:3 speaks of "she who is in labor" until the ruler arrives. Salvation came through a people in pain.

12:3-6The dragon and the Child

A second sign: "a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns." In the Old Testament, God promises to kill "the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah 27:1) and Pharaoh is called "the great monster" in Ezekiel 29:3. The seven crowns imitate a rule that belongs to the Lamb. His tail sweeps "one third of the stars of the sky" to earth, echoing the horn in Daniel 8:10 that cast stars down, and many take this to mean the angels who followed him.

Then the dragon stands before the woman, waiting to devour the Child at birth. Pharaoh ordered every Hebrew son thrown into the river (Exodus 1:22). Herod killed the boys of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16). Behind them stood the one who has been at war with the woman's offspring since Genesis 3:15.

The Child is "a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron." That is Psalm 2:9, the same psalm we met yesterday. And then the extraordinary sentence: "Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne." John skips from the manger to the throne. His whole life, death, and resurrection are folded into those few words, and the rest of the chapter tells how the cross changed the war.

The woman flees to the wilderness, where God has prepared a place to nourish her for 1,260 days, the same period we met in chapter 11.

12:7-12War in heaven

"There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon." Michael is the great prince who stands for God's people in Daniel (Daniel 10:13, 10:21, 12:1). The result is quick. Of the dragon and his angels we read, "They didn't prevail, neither was a place found for them any more in heaven."

Then John interprets his own symbol: "The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world." The dragon is the serpent of Genesis 3. "Devil" means slanderer, "Satan" means adversary, and he is also "the accuser of our brothers," who accuses them "before our God day and night," as he did against Job (Job 1:9-11) and against the high priest in Zechariah 3:1.

When did this happen? Interpreters differ. Some place it before creation, some at the end, and many hear it as the meaning of the cross and resurrection. Jesus said, "I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18), and "Now the prince of this world will be cast out" (John 12:31), in the last week of his life.

Heaven's loud voice explains how the victory came: "They overcame him because of the Lamb's blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn't love their life, even to death." They conquered by dying. The blood answers the accuser, the testimony defies him, and their readiness to die shows he cannot hold them.

The voice ends in joy for the heavens and a warning for earth: the devil is furious, "knowing that he has but a short time."

12:13-16Eagle's wings and a swallowing earth

Thrown down, the dragon turns his rage on the woman. But "Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman," which recalls God's words at Sinai: "I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself" (Exodus 19:4). She flies to the wilderness, where she will be nourished "for a time, and times, and half a time," the same three and a half years in another form, taken from Daniel 7:25.

The serpent then spews water "like a river" to sweep her away. A flood from the mouth fits slander, persecution, and every lie that hopes to wash God's people away. Then comes a surprise: "The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth." That is Exodus language again, for when God stretched out his right hand at the sea, "The earth swallowed them" (Exodus 15:12).

The wilderness is a place of danger and also of provision. Israel was fed with manna there, and Elijah was fed there by an angel. The church's wilderness years are not a sign that God has left. They are where he carries and nourishes. And the help comes from an unexpected place, the earth itself. God is not short of ways to protect his own.

Many scholars take the wilderness and the 1,260 days as the whole age between the Child's ascension and his return, while others see a more specific moment. All agree that the woman is kept.

12:17The rest of her offspring

"The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep God's commandments and hold Jesus' testimony."

The final verse is where the camera lands on us. The Child has been caught up and the woman is kept, so who is left for the dragon to fight? "The rest of her offspring." That is the church, the people who belong to Jesus and so share his enmity with the serpent. It is the last echo of Genesis 3:15: "I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."

That old promise has now been fulfilled in two moves. The woman's offspring, Jesus, has bruised the serpent's head. The serpent, defeated, now turns to bruise the heels of those who follow him. And yet the same promise is given to us in Romans 16:20: "the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet."

Two marks identify these people: they keep God's commandments, and they hold the testimony of Jesus. Obedience and witness are the visible badge of belonging.

The dragon has taken his stand. Where will he turn next? Tomorrow, in chapter 13, he takes his stand by the sea and calls up a beast.