Revelation 12 verses 1-6
Chapter 12 marks a division in Revelation. John turns aside to explain the underlying cause of the hostility about to break upon the Church. This is outlined in chapters 12-14 and then in chapters 15-19 God will come in judgment on His enemies before we encounter chapters 20-22 and God rewarding His own people.
In chapters 12 to 14 we will meet 7 figures - the radiant woman, the dragon, the male-child, Michael, the seed of the woman and the two beasts. Some commentators organise these chapters into 7 oracles depicting the supernatural conflict between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness. Whereas other commentators see the chapters as containing 7 signs connected with the troubles of the Church. No matter how you want to divide up these chapters they form an introduction to the key characters who play a major role in the final confrontation of history.
It is 47 weeks to Christmas. I just thought you would like to know that since this past week we have had Christmas weather. The Christmas story involves Mary and Joseph, some shepherds, wise men and the baby Jesus. The Nativity scene is always pictured as something serene and peaceful. However, to make sure we do not over sentimentalise the nativity scene the Apostle John is given here a vision of behind the scenes of the birth of Christ. This version is like the Christmas Story on steroids and it is found in our reading from Revelation this morning - Revelation 12.1-6.
Verses 1-2 - John begins this verse telling us that ‘a great sign appeared in heaven.’ In Revelation a sign is a great spectacle that has appeared. It is not like a road sign. In fact in his gospel John uses the exact same Greek word, semeion, for the miracles of Jesus Christ which he calls ‘signs.’ He tells us that the content of this spectacle is a woman, and what a woman - verses 1 and 2 - Read. She is clothed with the sun, the moon is under her feet, she has a crown of 12 stars on her head and she is pregnant. She is about to give birth. Who is this woman? What does she represent?
You may immediately think that this woman is Mary - but it is NOT. You may think it is because if you look at verse 5 she gives birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron or iron sceptre. When you read the whole chapter you will realise it cannot be Mary. By the time you get down to verse 17, which we will look at in more detail next week, you realise that this is the ‘mother church’ if you like and all the offspring are the other believers. This woman is in fact the entire Messianic community - both from the OT and NT. The Messianic Community is often spoken of as a woman in the OT. The mention of a crown with 12 stars - in Revelation 2.10 and 3.11 a crown was promised to the suffering Church and the number 12 is associated with the Messianic Community of Believers, and especially Israel in the OT. For example in the dream of Joseph in Genesis 37.9 - he sees 11 stars bowing down to his star - representing the sons of Jacob - who formed the 12 tribes of Israel bowing down to him. The 12 stars represented Israel from whom would come the Messiah. The 12 stars also represent the 12 Apostles of the New Testament - the Church.
This woman is arrayed with the sun and in Psalm 104.2 we read that God covers Himself with light as with a garment - so the woman is radiant as His bride - Jeremiah 2.2, which is in contrast to the scarlet prostitute we will meet in Chapter 17. Her feet on the moon suggests dominion.
She is pregnant and cries out in labour pains and brings forth Messiah. In Apocalypitc literature the Jews spoke of the birth pains of the Messiah, that is that period of time when the people of God go through a period of trial and pain like a woman in child birth just before the Messiah comes. The people of God go through a certain period of anguish before the Messiah comes. It was true at the first coming of Christ and there is a sense in which it is also true at His Second Coming. In Chapter 17 her children will go through anguish. The language is an echo of Isaiah 26.17 - READ.
What we have then in verses 1-2 is a picture of the true Israel, the Messianic Community in an agony of expectation as the Messiah comes to birth - that is the first sign in this spectacle.
Verses 3-6 The Woman and her child under attack. Do you know it is 47 weeks to Christmas. Not impressed with that fact are you? Here is part of the christmas story that you do not hear at christmas and which is never included in the Nativity play in Church. These verses fill in the back story to events in the Christmas story of the Gospels.
The second sign (semeion) in the spectacle is, we are told, an enormous red dragon. In this case there need not be any doubt as to the identity of the red dragon for we are told in verse 9 exactly who it is - Satan. A dragon, or a great monster, Leviathan, is not uncommon in the OT. It is a fairly standard symbol representing all that opposed God. For example Leviathan is identified with Egypt in Psalm 74.14 because of the Exodus period and with Assyria and Babylon in Isaiah 27.1 because of the Exile period and with Pharaoh in Ezekiel 29.3 but behind them all is Satan himself. Let me illustrate this with an example from Matthew 16. You will recognise the passage as I begin to share it with you. Jesus asks His disciples who men say He is - they give different answers - John the Baptist, Elijah and then He asks them who do you say I am? Peter answers that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Jesus congratulates Simon Peter on his answer. Jesus then goes on to explain how He must suffer and die and Peter, emboldened by his first answer being right, protests that the Messiah would not suffer and die. Jesus rebukes him and tells him what? ‘Get behind me Satan.’ it is not that Jesus has mistook Simon Peter’s identity at this moment. Nor that Peter has been demon possessed by Satan. Peter meant what he said but Jesus perceives that behind Peter’s protests and words is the blinding, tragic, seductive work of Satan himself. Just as the the OT writers see that behind Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Pharaoh is Leviathan.
He is a red dragon - murderous - John 8.44 where Jesus says Satan was a murderer from the beginning.
7 heads - like Leviathan in Psalm 74.14 - the universality of his power.
10 horns - recalling the fourth beast of Daniel 7 - awesome power and kingly authority - which we will meet in more detail in chapter 13 verse 1.
The crowns here are not victory wreaths but crowns of arrogated authority. That is authority usurped from Him who is Lord of lords and King of kings, Revelation chapter 19 and as we have seen in verse 5 of this chapter 12. In his book The Last Battle C S Lewis has Puzzle the donkey deceived by Shift, the lying ape, into putting on a lion skin and pretending to be Aslan - in order to deceive the animals of Narnia and he then deceives the Calormen that their god, Tash and Aslan are one and the same. Shift is motivated by greed and power - I will not ruin the story but it is wonderful - so treat yourself and read it. That is how Lewis depicts this deception of evil arrogating power to itself.
Then we come to verses 4-6 and we have something being played out on the earth. Verse 4 begins in typical Hebrew poetical language - his tail sweeps a third of the stars to the earth. This action shows that everything he does has cataclysmic significance, he has immense power and is not to be underestimated. This is not literal - i.e. a third of the stars do not fall out of the heavens.
What is it that he does? The imagery is actually quite grotesque. He is standing waiting the woman giving birth so that he can snatch up the child and devour him. The text literally says he is standing there waiting on the birth of this male child so that he might catch him up and eat him. It is grotesque. What it means is that it is Satan’s determined principle to destroy Messiah. Think back to the Christmas narratives in the Gospels. Herod’s order in Matthew chapter 2, that all baby boys 2 years and under are to be killed. Who was behind this order? Oh the voice was Herod’s and the seal was Herod’s on the parchment ordering this genocide but the power behind it was Satan. When Christ begins His public ministry, as we saw last week in the family service, Satan comes to destroy Him with temptations to go other and than the way of God the Father in Matthew 4. When Peter protests, as we have heard, the voice behind the protest is Satan’s. When Judas betrays Him for 20 pieces of silver, the price of a slave - the voice is Judas but the power behind it is Satan. When the religious authorities incite the crowd to cry crucify Him, crucify Him - it is the voice of every individual there but the power behind it - Satan. When the soldiers mock Him and the religious authorities mock Him to come down from the Cross - it is their voices but the power behind them is Satan - seeking, thinking he has won, to destroy the Messiah.
Satan’s purpose is to destroy the Messiah whose purpose we are told in verse 5 is to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. This male child cannot be anyone but Christ Jesus. We have in verse 5 a summation - we move from the birth of Christ to His Ascension in a few words. John is not saying that there was nothing in between - we know from his gospel there is Christ’s life, death and resurrection before the Ascension. You have here Christ’s birth and then His Ascension. The reason for this is that the focus here is on the woman and her offspring - what happens to the people of God. You see the text of Revelation up to this point has already explained what the Lamb has done - brought Redemption for God’s elect - that is what chapter 5 was all about.
Verse 6 The woman is left exposed to the wrath of Satan. She flees into the wilderness - to a place prepared for her by God where she might be taken care of for 1260 days - and if you can remember back three weeks I explained the significance of that time period - equivalent to 3.5 years - a period of suffering and persecution - the Hebrew celebration of Hanukkah which remembers the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes who imposed Greek gods etc on the Hebrew people between 167-164BC. A period of suffering that is eventually brought to an end before it goes on too long. A period of suffering for the people of God. The suffering of the people of God between the first coming of Christ and His return on that final day.
That she is called out to the desert is significant and important. Again, what you have to think about is the association of the people with the wilderness. For example there is an association in the USA with the West - a sort of mythology about a frontier community because there is a history to it. Again, in this country in the Protestant Community - the Somme has a mythology to it because of the association of many with it through history in their own families, my father’s grandfather died there for example. So too for the Jews there was a history and an association with the wilderness. It became a symbol for many important things. A period of struggle and hardness before entrance into the Promised Land. On the other hand there was something romantic about that period - where God worked His miracles that their shoes never wore out and they were provided with manna and quail, water from a Rock, pillars of fire and cloud led them to the Promised Land. The giving of the Law. So many centuries after the people of God have entered the Promised Land and they have strayed from God’s ways - God speaks through Hosea and says that He will allure the people of God and take her once again into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her - this does not mean a literal taking out into the desert but that God will draw her with all the immediacy and blessing and protection that He gave to the people of God when they first came out of captivity - Hosea 2.14.
Wilderness - a hard place before you enter the Promised Land and on the other hand it is a place of spiritual refuge, immediate sense of God’s presence and where God looks after you before you enter the Promised Land. Is that not a wonderful way of looking at what the people of God go through now? The woman goes to the desert - we are going to be in the minority. Christian’s around the world cannot expect this to be the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, not yet. The Promised Land is still to come but this is also the place where God looks after His people - the whole 1260 days. That is the symbolism it seems to me in a straight forward reading.
We will pick this up again next week as we go through the rest of the chapter - so in a sense this sermon is in two parts and the completion of it comes next week - so you have to come back to hear the second act. In closing let me summarise where we are.
We have here the Incarnation of Christ and the unleashing of satan and the demonic powers to destroy the Messiah. Herod’s massacre of the innocent, which we remember after Christmas each year, the temptation of Christ, the protest of Peter and the Crucifixion -all Satan’s attempt to destroy the Messiah. The victory was won on the cross and vindicated by the resurrection - with Christ’s ascension He now sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father from whence He will come to judge the living and dead. The intervening period the people of God live under the care and protection of God, awaiting the return of their Saviour and the Promised Land. The decisive battle was the Cross. The stage is now set for the final confrontation. The key characters are being introduced to us. The Revelation is entering a critical moment. The underlying cause of the hostility that is about to break upon the Church is being explained.
So what? That is, as I have often told you, a good question to ask when you read a Bible passage. I think we sometimes get confused and maybe even frightened by Revelation and such passages as this. I actually find this a really encouraging passage because it fills in the back story, the behind scenes, as to what is happening at moments in history. We have here the back story behind the birth of Christ and different events in the life of Christ. Satan’s determined principle to destroy the Messiah before Salvation is wrought for mankind.
It also fills in the back story to many parts of our own lives as the people of God. Satan, as Christ stated, is a murderer and has been from the beginning. His aim and purpose is to destroy your life, to destroy your witness and service for God. He cannot take away your salvation because that is in the hands of Christ - and no one can remove you from His hands but Satan can take away, destroy, your joy, your peace and your service. Yet, here is the good news this morning - we are protected by God during this period. God has His hand of protection upon His people - the book of Job teaches that very clearly. Even the devil is God’s devil - he cannot do anything outside the sovereign will of God. Remember that this morning. The wilderness is a hard place, it is a tough place and it is an arid place - but as we have heard from Hosea and from Revelation this morning - it is also the place where God protects, provides for and woes His people back to Himself. I once heard an old lady say - if the mountains and the wilderness were smooth no one would ever climb them.
So this morning - you may feel you are in a wilderness place, maybe even someone you love is in a wilderness place. How are you going to view that place? Are you going to view it as a place where nothing grows, nothing is provided and completely negatively or are you going to look at it through Biblical eyes - they place where God protects and provides for you, the place where God has led you to woe you back to Himself? That choice is yours.
Finally, come back next week and hear about the war in heaven and the victory of the Lamb, the salvation of the people of God in Christ.
Amen.
