A sermon for Pilgrim church on Rev 12

In chapters 12 and 13, the power behind the persecution of the saints is revealed as Satan or the devil.  This is hinted at earlier because the letters which mention persecution also mention the devil (2:9, 13; 3:9).  The devil works through his two agents, who in these chapters are called the beast from the sea and the second beast.  The three make an unholy trinity.  At the end of chapter 11, we reached the end of time and the consummation of the kingdom of God.  In chapters 12 and 13, we are back to the time of the church age.  Chapters 12 through 22 tell the same story as chapters 1 through 11 but include more details of some aspects.

1 A great 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. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its 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 it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. (Rev. 12:1-6 NIV)

The fact that this is called a “sign” implies that what is said here is figurative.  Although many people think the woman must be Mary because she is the mother of Jesus, there is good reason to say that Mary is not the woman referred to here.  The woman is clothed with sun, moon and stars.  The sun, moon and stars point back to the dream of Joseph in Gen 37:9 – “Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’”  The sun, moon and stars referred to Jacob, his wife and sons.  In other words, the woman is Israel, or more specifically she is the faithful remnant-Israel.  This woman was about to give birth (see Israel giving birth in Isa 66:7-10).  We know that the woman gives birth to Jesus, the Messiah, because verse 5 tells us that it was a son and he will rule all nations with an iron sceptre.[1]  This is a promise from Ps 2:9 regarding God’s anointed king.

While the woman waits to give birth, another character appears in the story, namely an enormous red dragon.  Dragōn is used in the OT as a metaphor for evil kingdoms who oppose Israel.  Pharaoh king of Egypt is the pattern of the dragon.  He was defeated at the Red Sea (Ps 74:13-14; Isa 51:9-10; see also Ps 89:10; Isa 30:7; Ezek 29:3; 32:2-3; Hab 3:8-15).  There is a promise in Isa 27:1 that God will finally and definitively slay the serpent.  The dragon is the spirit behind the persecution of the OT saints, leading up to the birth of Messiah.

The dragon is red, and just like the rider on the red horse, who comes to take peace from the earth (Rev 6:4), he is bent of doing violence.  He has seven heads, ten horns and seven crowns.  These numbers are significant in that seven is the divine number.  The dragon is not divine and yet he sets himself up as a false god.  The ten horns indicate that he has power over the whole world.  He has diadems of gold as if he is a great king.  In 19:12 we see that Jesus, the true king, has many diadems upon his head.  The dragon wants to be exalted as king and as god, but he is false not true.

Then the dragon swung his tail and swept a third of the stars from the heavens.  There are a couple of ways of interpreting this.  Although stars refer to angels in 1:20 and 9:1, it would probably make better sense to assume that the stars in v 4 must be the same as the stars in v 1.  In verse 1 they refer to faithful Israel, and thus the stars are God’s people.  If this is the case, this is a reference to Dan 8:10.  In this chapter, Daniel sees a vision of a ram and a goat, each with horns.  The horn “grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them” (Dan. 8:10 NIV).  The stary hosts seem to refer to God’s people, whose true home is in heaven, and trampling refers to persecution and removing the daily sacrifice from the temple.

The dragon’s intention in v 4 was “to devour her child the moment he was born”.  This action, if successful, would have been far more destructive to God’s plan and God’s people than attacking the temple in Jerusalem.  However, the dragon’s plan was foiled because the child was snatched up to God.  Jesus suffered and died but he was resurrected and is now at God’s right hand in glory, where he can never die or suffer again.  There is absolutely nothing the devil can do against Jesus ever again.

But the woman is still on the earth and therefore still vulnerable to the dragon’s attacks.  So “The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”  After Israel was brought out of Egypt they wandered in the wilderness.  There God provided water from the rock, and manna and quail from heaven.  He protected them and nourished them in the wilderness (Exod 16:32; Deut 2:7).  But at the same time the wilderness is uninhabitable, filled with sin, evil and judgement, fierce animals and evil spirits (Deut 8:15).  The woman, who is faithful Israel and the church, is nourished in the wilderness for 1260 days or 3 ½ years, the length of time the two witnesses prophesied.  In other words, the church spends the church age in the wilderness.  The wilderness we walk in is the wilderness of a hostile world, difficult to live in, filled with suffering.  But God is with us in that wilderness and nourishes his church with Christ throughout that time.  Christ is the water from the rock (1 Cor 10:4) and the manna from heaven (John 6; Rev 2:17).

7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The 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. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Rev. 12:7-12 NIV).

The first time that the archangel Michael is mentioned is in Dan 10.  There, Daniel had a revelation, which was explained in a vision.  The person in the vision, probably the pre-incarnate Jesus, told Daniel that Michael, one of the chief princes, was fighting for Israel against the spiritual ruler of Persia.  Michael is mentioned again in Dan 12:1.  Michael is the angelic representative of Israel, who fights against demonic rulers of nations.  In Rev 12, Michael and his angels war against the dragon and his angels, and Michael wins the war and throws the devil and the demons out of heaven.

It is not that Michael has a bigger army than the devil.  If that were the case, the devil could perhaps recruit more demons and fight harder.  Instead, we need to understand this in terms of what happened in 12:1-6.  In the first part of this chapter, we have a very abbreviated version of Jesus’ life and work.  He was born and then snatched up to God.  But consider what Jesus actually did and why the devil wanted to kill him.  Jesus brings the kingdom of God to earth and he is the king.  He lived a sinless life and died a holy death for sinners.  Then he rose again, conquering death (Rev1:18).  But there is more.  The devil himself was defeated by the life, death and resurrection of Christ (Col 2:14-15).  Because the devil has been defeated by Jesus, Michael and his angels could defeat the devil and throw him out of heaven.  This defeat was already in motion during the ministry of Jesus.  He said to the seventy-two when they had returned from their ministry trip, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).  Hence what is described in these verses in Revelation is not something future, but something past.  The devil may still be active, but he is soundly defeated by Christ and no amount of regrouping can undo that defeat.

“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.  For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”  This is not the final consummation of the kingdom of God.  That is still to come.  But because the devil has been defeated by Jesus at the cross and resurrection, salvation is assured for God’s people and the kingdom of God is inaugurated.  The Messiah is the one in authority, the one who rules the nations with an iron sceptre (Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15), the one who is ruler of the kings of the earth (1:5).  The accuser of Christians has been hurled down and can never succeed in his accusations against us.  Jesus has died for his people and covered all their sins with his blood.  No accusation against the saints can stand; there is no condemnation (see Rom 8:1, 34).

“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”  There are several levels here of the defeat of the devil.  He was defeated by Christ at the cross and in his resurrection.  Consequently, Michael was able to throw the devil out of heaven and down to earth.  There, on the earth, where the saints must live with the persecution that comes from the wicked world, inspired by the devil himself, the people of God triumph over the devil as well.  This triumph has three parts to it.  The blood of the lamb was the reason that the devil was totally defeated.  This means that the devil’s accusations cannot stand.  He may come to us and tell us we are sinners and unworthy etc.  But the answer to that is always, “I am a sinner, but God justifies the ungodly because Jesus shed his blood for me.”

This is what Luther has to say about this:

When the devil accuses us and says, ‘You are a sinner and therefore damned,’ we should answer, ‘Because you say I am a sinner, I will be righteous and saved.’  ‘No,’ says the devil, ‘you will be damned.’  And I reply, ‘No, for I fly to Christ, who gave himself for my sins.  Satan, you will not prevail against me when you try to terrify me by setting forth the greatness of my sins and try to bring me into heaviness, distrust, despair, hatred, contempt and blasphemy against God.  On the contrary, when you say I am a sinner, you give me armour and weapons against yourself, so that with your own sword I may cut your throat and tread you under my feet, for Christ died for sinners. . . . As often as you object that I am a sinner, so often you remind me of the benefit of Christ my Redeemer, on whose shoulders, and not on mine, lie all my sins.  So when you say I am a sinner, you do not terrify me but comfort me immeasurably.’[2]

The second way the saints have victory over the devil is by the word of their testimony.  This should not be confused with some kind of subjective testimony of how God changed my life or gave me a parking space.  This is the saints being faithful to continue testifying to Jesus, even in the midst of persecution.  Lastly, they did not love their lives to shrink from death.  The saints die because of the gospel and yet they live because death is not defeat.  The martyred saints are under the altar in the presence of God.

The defeat of the devil is good news for the heavens and those who dwell in heaven, namely, the saints.  Our home is in heaven, not on earth.  This is the contrast we have seen several times already, between the saints who live in heaven and those who dwell upon the earth.  However, the devil is now angry because his time is short.  In other words, having been defeated, he knows that nothing good awaits him and the final judgement is coming.

13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring– those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (Rev. 12:13-17 NIV)

Here is the result of the devil’s fury.  He cannot get to Jesus because Jesus has ascended to heaven.  Consequently, the devil now pursues the woman who gave birth to the Messiah, that is, the faithful covenant community of God, or the saints.  God knows that the devil wants to destroy the church.  God will not allow his people to be destroyed by the devil.  Thus he gives the woman eagles’ wings “so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.”  The LORD carried Israel from Egypt on eagles’ wings (Exod 19:4).  Deuteronomy describes how God carried Israel on eagles’ wings and cared for her in the wilderness (Deut 32:10-12).  The protection and care is spiritual more than physical, but in the wilderness of this world the evil one cannot touch the people of God (1 John 5:18).  God provided manna to feed his people in the wilderness, and Christ is our manna.  He is the bread from heaven which sustains the church.  The devil is able to bring persecution, but this can only harm the body.  Nothing the devil can do can harm our relationship with God or remove eternal life from us.

A flood is a metaphor for an army spread out to conquer (Dan 11:10, 22, 26, 40) or enemies pursuing (2 Sam 22:5).  That it comes out of the mouth of the dragon would suggest deception or slander (Ps. 140:1-3).  The devil cannot accuse the saints before God but he can accuse them on earth.  We are probably all familiar with the kind of slanderous accusations that are hurled at Christians, including members of this church.  I don’t mean genuine misconduct but instead people saying things like, “Christians are dangerous because of their narrow views on sexuality”.  Even those Christian organisations who expend themselves in taking care of the downtrodden (like homeless people or ex-prisoners) are accused of discrimination and racism.

The slander and accusation may be like a flood, but the LORD delivers from these waters.  There is a promise in Isa 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.”  In the Song of Moses after crossing the Red Sea, the earth is said to swallow God’s enemies (Exod 15:10-12).  In in similar, but metaphorical fashion, God makes the earth to swallow the accusations of the devil.  There may well be persecution, but it will not have eternal effects.

“Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring– those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.”

It is difficult to distinguish between the woman and her offspring.  If the woman is the faithful remnant Israel, which is now the church – comprised of Jews and Gentiles – what are the offspring?  One idea is that the woman is the universal church and the offspring are individual Christians.  It is impossible to harm the church because God keeps her eternally safe.  Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matt 16:18).  However, individual Christians can suffer physical harm and no doubt psychological harm.  Our home is in heaven, but at the moment, we have to live on the earth in the place where the devil is able to lash out at Christians.  Individual Christians can suffer as the offspring of the woman, but the woman herself can never be defeated.

The offspring of the woman alludes back to Gen 3:15.  After Adam and Eve sinned, God promised a redeemer: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15 NIV).  Jesus is THE offspring of the woman that crushes the head of the serpent, but the serpent strikes his heel.  In Rev 12:17, the serpent still strikes the heel of the other offspring, the ones who hold fast to the testimony of Jesus.  But, based on what Jesus has done and the verses above (12:11), the offspring of the woman join with Jesus in crushing the serpent’s head.  They are victorious over the devil by resisting temptation, enduring persecution and seeing through deception.

The upshot of this chapter is that the devil is behind the persecution of Christians.  I doubt that most persecutors of the church are aware that they do the devil’s bidding.  However, that is the case and the only way to be free from the control of the dragon is to respond positively to the gospel.  The devil is angry with Christians because he is first angry with Jesus.  Satan does not want humans freed from his power.  Satan tried to kill Jesus, but to no avail because Jesus rose from the dead.  The devil is now bent on destroying the church.  This too is impossible.  The worst he can do is to kill individual Christians.  But even in martyrdom, Christians are victorious over the devil because they continue to testify to Christ and his saving work.