The Woman and the Dragon

Revelation 12:1-5a

Good News Translation (GNT)

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  1  Then a great and mysterious sight appeared
   in the sky. There was a woman, whose dress
   was the sun and who had the moon under her
   feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
  2  She was soon to give birth, and the pains and
   suffering of childbirth made her cry out.
  3  Another mysterious sight appeared in the sky.
   There was a huge red dragon with seven
   heads and ten horns and a crown on each
   of his heads.
  4  With his tail he dragged a third of the stars
   out of the sky and threw them down to the
   earth. He stood in front of the woman, in order
   to eat her child as soon as it was born.
  5  Then she gave birth to a son, who will rule
   over all nations with an iron rod.

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Enter the dragon

  Revelation 12:1-5

A great conflict between Satan and Christ's church is described Chapters 12-13.

John saw in heaven a glorious woman, who was about to give birth to a child. The woman represents the true Israel - the church - the chosen people of God.

The twelve stars of her crown represent the twelve tribes of Israel; they can also represent Christ's twelve apostles.

This is a great picture, with layers of meaning. Three central characters are the woman, her child and the dragon. The dragon is identified as Satan and the man-child is Jesus.

In this chapter we go behind the scenes, the child of promise will be preserved.

You could say that verses 1-4 describe the Old Testament age, verse 5 the life of Christ, and verse 6 the centuries since.

War in heaven
The scene shifts, and now we see the same period portrayed as a war in heaven. There is a hint of the original fall of Satan and his angels for aspiring to take God's role.

On his seven heads were seven crowns; the crowns were signs of the dragon's authority. But the dragon's authority was not his own; it had been stolen from God.

And just as King Herod tried to kill the infant Christ, so did this dragon try to devour the new-born child or this woman.

Having learned that this child was appointed to rule all the nations, the dragon Satan became angry, because he considered that all the nations of the earth belonged to him.

The outcome is not in doubt. That is not to say that the route will be easy - far from it.

Knowing he will be defeated makes the devil more dangerous because he can afford to take risks in his desire to cause as much damage as possible and bring down as many as he can with him.

Knowing that Satan is a defeated foe, gives courage to those engaged in world evangelisation.

How extraordinary that the weak Church with all its inconsistencies and contradictions ends up on the winning side!

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