December 22, 2025 • 46 mins
A radiant woman cries out in labor. A great red dragon coils to devour her child. Then, in a single sweeping line, the child is caught up to the throne, and the accuser is hurled down. Revelation 12 compresses the story of salvation and the shape of our struggle into vivid symbols that still read like headlines for every age. We walk through the woman, the dragon, and the male child with careful attention to Scripture’s echoes—from Joseph’s dream to the Exodus to the cross—and trace how these images ground our hope and recalibrate our expectations.
We dig into the details that matter: why the woman most clearly represents Israel and, by extension, God’s people; what the seven heads, ten horns, and diadems signal about counterfeit power; and how the stephanos crown points to promised victory for those who overcome. We explore the fall of a third of the stars as angelic rebellion, the war in heaven led by Michael, and the thunderous verdict that silences the accuser. Most importantly, we center the gospel: believers conquer by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, not by moral polish or cultural dominance.
The wilderness scene becomes a field guide for discipleship—1,260 days of tested endurance, eagle’s wings of providence, and floods of deception that God neutralizes. Expect opposition; discern propaganda; hold fast to obedience and witness. The dragon is furious and his time is short, but the Lamb has already won. Join us as we read Revelation 12 not as code to crack, but as courage to carry: stand firm, stay clear-eyed, and live like people whose verdict is already “no condemnation.” If this encouraged you, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.
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Outro music - Crowder
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Well, thank you for joining me as we continue in our
study through the book ofRevelation.
We're in chapter 12, and if youheard me begin in the last
chapter by saying it was one ofthe most difficult in all of
Revelation due to the differentinterpretations, well, then
you're not going to bedisappointed with this chapter
either, because scholars mostlyagree that this is the most
pivotal chapter in Revelation,and once again, there are
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different interpretations on ahandful of topics that we'll be
covering.
And so let's just get right toit where John's vision
continues.
Now at the end of the lastchapter, John saw God's temple
in heaven opened, and here hecontinues to give us his vision.
And so we begin with the firsttwo verses which read, And a
great sign appeared in heaven, awoman clothed with the sun, with
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the moon under her feet, and onher head a crown of twelve
stars.
She was pregnant and was cryingout in birth pains and the agony
of giving birth.
And so John sees a woman clothedwith the sun and a crown of
twelve stars on her head.
And right away in this firstverse we have differences in
interpretation.
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Specifically, there'sdisagreement on who the woman
is.
But first, we should be tippedoff that John is speaking
symbolically because he tells usthat a great sign appeared.
But what do the signs, what dothese symbols mean?
Well, we read that the woman isa mother, and here in
Revelation, we're gonna also seethat she is a precursor to the
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bride of Christ that we're gonnasee in chapter twenty one.
And she's also a contrast to theharlot that we're gonna read
about in chapter seventeen.
But we see that the womanappears radiant.
I mean she's clothed with thesun, a crown of twelve stars
over her head, and the moonunder her feet.
Now as soon as we read this, weshould be reminded of the dream
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Joseph had back in Genesischapter thirty seven, where the
sun, the moon, and the elevenstars bowed down to him.
And we learned back then thatthe sun stood for his father
Jacob, whose name was changed toIsrael by God.
The moon represented his motherRachel, and the eleven stars
represented his eleven brothers,who, along with Joseph, would
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become the heads of the twelvetribes of Israel.
And we also saw in our Genesisstudy that a few chapters later,
that dream became a reality whenhis father and brothers came
down to Egypt and ultimately didin fact bow down to him, not
knowing who he was.
But here, rather than elevenstars, the woman wears a crown
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of twelve stars, which mostcommentators believe represent
the twelve tribes of Israel, notjust the eleven like Joseph saw,
because it would also includehim.
But others point out that thetwelve stars could represent
both the twelve tribes as wellas the twelve apostles.
Now, because of the twelve starsand tying it back to Joseph in
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that way, most commentators alsobelieve that the woman
represents Israel, or evenIsrael and its faithful remnant,
which would also includebelieving Gentiles or
Christians.
Now I want to go ahead andmention this as well, because
there are some scholars who linkthis woman with and believe that
she represents Mary, the motherof Jesus.
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And sort of a spoiler alert, butmost scholars generally agree,
and we're going to see that thechild mentioned here is indeed
Jesus.
But having said that, most ofthose same scholars who see this
as representing Mary, they linkthe woman here with Mary, but in
connection with Israel, notinstead of Israel.
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But Revelation doesn't provideany explicit teaching about Mary
anywhere.
And as we'll read, this womanwill experience persecution
after Christ's enthronement andwill need protection for twelve
hundred and sixty days, and wehave no evidence that Mary
experienced any of that.
Now I'm not going to spend anyadditional time on it, but I
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will mention there are some whoalso see hints of Eve in this
woman.
Remember, back in Genesis 315,God had promised Eve that her
seed would ultimately crush theserpent.
But having said all of that,remember, John's using symbolic
language here, and there are nonames associated with the woman.
And so it seems as though thewoman most likely represents
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Israel and by extension thepeople of God in general.
Now there are some people whowant this woman to represent the
church, but I think we're safein saying that the woman
represents Israel, and that asChristians, we are later grafted
into God's people.
But verse 2 tells us that thewoman was pregnant and was
crying out in birth pains andthe agony of giving birth.
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Now before I forget, the churchis referred to as the bride of
Christ.
And so if we want to try to makethe argument that this woman is
the church, the bride, then wemay have a problem because she's
pregnant.
But the woman is crying out inpain and agony as she suffers
the agony of birth pains as thebirth draws near.
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And if the woman representsIsrael, then the child
represents the Messiah, JesusChrist.
And if we look back at history,it often seems the case that for
God's people, there's often somesuffering that occurs while they
wait on God to fulfill hispromises.
Israel had been waiting on theMessiah for a very long time,
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and this crying out in agony mayalso allude to the suffering and
the persecution of the nation.
And I think it's interesting tothink about this.
Israel suffered persecution andtorment while waiting on the
birth of their Messiah, thefirst appearance of Jesus.
And Israel's been persecutedlike no other nation since.
Likewise, Christians have alsosuffered persecution as we wait
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on the return of Christ.
Israel suffered while waiting onthe first coming of Jesus.
Christians suffer while waitingon the second coming of Jesus.
But like Jesus told us in John16, when a woman is giving
birth, she has sorrow becauseher hour has come, but when she
has delivered the baby, she nolonger remembers the anguish for
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joy that a human being has beenborn into the world.
And so the pattern is suffering,then joy.
Birth pains of the Messiahprecede the glory of the
Messiah, and if we fast forward,the agony of the cross before
the glory of heaven.
But we continue with versesthree and four where John sees
another sign, and this one isquite different, because as we
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read, and another sign appearedin heaven.
Behold, a great red dragon, withseven heads and ten horns, and
on his heads were seven diadems.
His tail swept down a third ofthe stars of heaven and cast
them to the earth.
Now I stopped here by readingonly half of verse four, but I
did so on purpose, and I'll comeback to that in a few.
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But John continues by telling usonce again that he saw another
sign.
Now just to be clear, the Greekword used both here and for the
sign of the woman we justdiscussed is Samaeon, and it
describes the foreshadowing of acoming event.
But this sign is much different,because rather than a woman,
John sees a great red dragon.
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Now in the ancient world, thedragon wasn't necessarily what
we think of when we think of adragon.
We usually think of this firebreathing creature with wings
and claws.
But back then, just like we seein the Septuagint translation,
dragons were understood to beserpents or snakes.
But either way, what we're goingto see is that the dragon
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mentioned here is truly amonster.
In Job 26, we read that Godpierced the fleeing serpent.
And in Isaiah 27, Isaiah looksforward to the day when the
dragon, the serpent, will bepunished.
But more pointedly, John'sdragon here is referring to the
ancient serpent, the one who wasin the garden back in Genesis 3,
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the one who deceived and ledAdam and Eve into sin by
disobeying God.
And by describing him as a greatred dragon, John is telling us
that this dragon is the mostfearsome of monsters.
And although John hasn't comeout and specifically called him
Satan or the devil yet, thatlabel is coming when we get to
verse 9.
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But the dragon is also describedas having seven heads and ten
horns, and on his heads sevendiadems.
And I've mentioned several timesover various episodes that the
number seven representscompleteness, and so these seven
heads and seven diademsrepresent complete authority.
Now just a note here regardingthe seven diadams or crowns that
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were on the seven heads.
When describing the dragon here,John uses the word diadem, or in
the Greek diatoma, meaningcrowns.
But in verse one, where hedescribed the woman and the
crown of twelve stars that shewas wearing, he used the word
Stephanos.
And I think it's important tonote the distinction, because
when we read it in English, it'snot something that you would
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necessarily pick up on.
And here's the reason I thinkit's important.
The dragon is described aswearing a crown, a diadema,
which is a royal crown.
It's a crown of sovereignty,something worn by kings or
emperors, rulers.
Its symbol was more politicaland associated with a dominion.
But the woman was wearing adifferent kind of crown, a
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Stephanos.
This was a crown worn byvictors.
It was associated with victorsin athletic games like the
Olympics.
And it was also presented tohonored guests and soldiers, and
it represented victory and honorand reward.
And so it symbolized and earnedreward or honor.
And so in short, a diadem likethe dragon was wearing is the
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crown of the one who rules.
A stepanos like the woman waswearing is the crown of those
who overcome.
The diadem is worn by Christ athis return, but here it's
falsely claimed by Satan.
The Stephanos, which was areward, is promised to
believers.
And what's interesting as we'llsee in the end, Jesus wears
(10:26):
both.
All the diadems of universalkingship and every Stephanos of
victory, because he alone isboth King of Kings and the
ultimate overcomer.
But again, John tells us thatthe dragon had seven heads and
ten horns, and I mentioned thatthe seven heads represent
completeness, and the horns thatsymbolize a strength, ruling
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authority or this military orpolitical power, which tells us
that the dragon will havecomplete power.
But for the sake ofcompleteness, I also want to
discuss this from a slightlydifferent angle as well, because
there are some who believe theseven heads and the ten horns
also goes a bit deeper and thatit actually represents seven
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world empires and ten kingdoms.
So let me briefly explain.
In this interpretation, theseven heads and the ten horns
portray Satan as the hiddenruler behind empires throughout
history, and especially at theend of the age.
And so the seven heads representthe seven great world empires
that have opposed God and hispeople from the beginning until
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the return of Christ.
And these seven world empires,they're broken down as they've
occurred in world history, andso what you have is sort of a
sort of a timeline of history inorder that the empires have been
the dominant player in theworld.
And so most see these empires asbeing Egypt, Assyria, Babylon,
Persia, Greece, Rome, and thenthe final revived empire, the
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Antichrist or the Beast thatwe're going to discuss in
chapters 13 and 17.
And so as much as I would liketo right here, I'm going to hold
off in a more detaileddiscussion of this
interpretation until we get tochapter 17.
But for now, I just wanted tointroduce you to that
interpretation.
But here's the gist of it.
When we read about the dragonwith the seven heads and ten
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horns, what John iscommunicating is that Satan is
the real power behind every evilempire in history, which would
be the seven heads, and in thefinal tribulation, he will
consolidate all remainingpolitical and military power on
earth into a ten kingdomalliance, which are the ten
horns, in one last attempt todestroy God's people.
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But again, I'm going to attemptto stay on track and not chase
that down right here.
We'll wait until chapter 17 totake a deep dive on that.
And so getting back to the text,in verse 4, we're told that the
dragon swept down a third of thestars of heaven and cast them to
the earth.
Now this sweeping away of onethird of the angels from heaven,
(13:03):
it's also interpreted indifferent ways.
And I've mentioned in earlierchapters, we know that John is
speaking symbolically here,because literal stars are not
going to fall on the earth.
I mean our sun is an averagesized star, and it's a million
times the size of the Earth.
And so those who hold to aliteral interpretation here,
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they know that that doesn't makeany sense.
And so they'll pivot a bit andargue that this is referring
actually not to stars, but tometeors or comets or asteroids
or something like that.
But when we look at Revelationas a whole, most of it's clearly
symbolic, which is why mostinterpreters reject this view.
The most widely held view on thestars that the dragon swept from
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heaven are that these stars areangels.
Which makes sense, because inRevelation, stars usually
symbolize angels.
And so the thought here is thatwhen Satan originally rebelled,
he led a large number of theangels with him.
And we're told that a third ofthe angels followed him or
joined him in this rebellion.
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And so what John may bedescribing here is war in
heaven.
Jesus said in Luke ten eighteen,I saw Satan fall like lightning
from heaven.
And here in just a few verseswe'll read a description of war
in heaven where Michael and hisangels cast out Satan and his
angels.
And so the most commonly heldview is that the third of the
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stars represent the angels whofollowed Satan in his rebellion
and were hurled down with him tothe earth.
By the way, have you everwondered how many angels there
are?
How many angels were cast downfrom heaven to the earth?
Well we know a third of themwere, but a third of how many
total?
Well to my knowledge, the Biblenever gives an exact number of
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angels that God originallycreated, but it does give us a
couple of clues that let us knowthe total number was enormous.
In Hebrews twelve twenty two, wesee that phrase myriads of
angels.
In the Greek, that word myrios,it's literally tens of thousands
upon tens of thousands, or aninnumerable number.
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The largest named Greek numeralwas Mirios, and it equaled ten
thousand.
And so any number beyond thatwas expressed by repeating or
multiplying myrios.
And when the Bible says myriadsof myriads, it's deliberately
using the biggest number theGreek language had a word for,
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and then squaring it to expressthe idea that it's more than
anyone can possibly count.
And we mentioned back inRevelation 511 that John hears
the voice of myriads of myriadsand thousands of thousands.
Literally ten thousand times tenthousand and one thousand times
one thousand, which if you tookit literally and simply do the
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math, it would equal at leastone hundred million.
But the phrase is more idiomaticfor an innumerable multitude,
and so we shouldn't push it fora math equation necessarily.
The expression is meant to evokeawe, not algebra.
And so the bottom line is thatwe don't know the exact number
of angels, but we do know it wasstaggeringly large, and even
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after losing a third, heaven'sfaithful army is still
overwhelmingly vast.
I've even heard the thought thatthe number of angels who fell
from heaven will equal thenumber of people saved and
entered into heaven, becauseGod's original creation would be
diminished if he had less of hiscreation in heaven with him.
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So saved humans will replace thefallen angels so that his glory
will be maintained.
Now that of course isspeculation, but it does make
for some interesting dinnertable discussion.
Now before we move on, I do wantyou to be aware that not all
commentators hold this same viewon the stars here being angels.
Some actually hold the view thatthe stars represent believers,
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and that Satan sweeping away onethird of them represents that a
third of them are persecuted, orthat it's actually describing
apostasy where believers fallaway from God.
And so in this line of thinking,the reference to one third here
indicates that the dragon hasstruck a significant blow
against the people of God.
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And again, this is a minorityposition, but I again just
wanted to at least make youaware of it.
But let's now read the secondhalf of verse four through verse
six, where John continues bytelling us and the dragon stood
before the woman who was aboutto give birth, so that when she
bore her child he might devourit.
She gave birth to a male child,one who is to rule all the
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nations with a rod of iron.
But her child was caught up toGod and to his throne, and the
woman fled into the wildernesswhere she has a place prepared
by God, in which she is to benourished for twelve hundred and
sixty days.
And so the first thing we see isthat the dragon stood before the
woman who was about to givebirth, so that when the child
was born he could devour it.
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Now again, as we just discussed,the woman is most likely
symbolic of Israel, and that thechild being born here is the
Messiah, Jesus Christ.
We can also see that it's Jesuswho is in view here because
we're told that he is to ruleall nations with a rod of iron.
And this imagery originates inthe Old Testament and symbolizes
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absolute and unbreakableauthority.
And so the woman gives birth tothe promised male child, and
this promise fulfills thepromise God made all the way
back in the Garden of Eden inGenesis three fifteen, where an
offspring of Eve would triumphover the serpent.
And that promise was laterreaffirmed to both Abraham and
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to David.
And so the dragon stands poisedto destroy the offspring of the
woman.
And in fact, Satan attempted todestroy the child before his
rule could even begin.
Remember, it wasn't long afterthe birth of Jesus that Herod
attempted to kill him.
In Matthew two, we read thatthen Herod, when he saw that he
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had been tricked by the wiseman, became furious, and he
sent, and he killed all the malechildren in Bethlehem, and in
all that region who were twoyears old or under, according to
the time that he had ascertainedfrom the wise men.
And we see that this occursafter the Magi, the wise men,
visit Jesus, but do not returnto Herod to report his location
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because they knew what he woulddo, prompting Herod's rage and
his attempt to eliminate theprophesied king of the Jews.
And so Satan failed in thatattempt to eliminate Jesus.
But how many other times do weread about where the Jewish
leadership tried to stone Jesusor throw him off a cliff?
But all of the The dragon'splans culminate at the cross,
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where it looked like he hadfinally eliminated Jesus.
But we know how that turned out,don't we?
And John even tells us here inverse five, but her child was
caught up to God and to histhrone, which is clearly a
reference to the resurrectionand ascension of Jesus.
And so what John's telling uswith this imagery is that the
designs and plans of the dragonfailed, and that the child
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triumphed.
Now John tells us in verse six,and the woman fled into the
wilderness, where she had aplace prepared by God in which
she is to be nourished fortwelve hundred and sixty days.
And so the child ultimatelytriumphs over Satan, but
meanwhile the woman flees to thewilderness.
Just like Mary and Joseph fleeto Egypt when they were informed
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that Herod was seeking Jesus tokill him.
Now the wilderness can be aplace of suffering, or it can be
a place of refuge andprotection, depending on
context.
Just like God nourished hispeople in the wilderness after
the exodus from Egypt.
And we see that she's nourishedfor twelve hundred and sixty
days.
And there's that twelve hundredand sixty number again that we
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discussed in the last chapter.
And so I'm not going to coverall that again, but just to say
that some people believe this isa literal twelve hundred and
sixty days at the end ofhistory, while others sort of
interpret it to mean a shorterperiod of time near the end of
history.
But even though she'll beprotected, life won't be easy.
The woman has gone from beingdescribed above in this sort of
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majesty to now fleeing in thewilderness.
And if the woman is indeedIsrael, and as we'll see in a
moment, she has other offspring,then it seems like what's being
described is the persecution ofIsrael and its offspring, which
would of course include allbelievers.
And so it's a picture of thechurch of believers being
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nourished by God in the intervalbetween his death and
resurrection until his secondcoming.
But we continue reading andshift gears a bit in verses
seven through nine which readNow war arose in heaven, Michael
and his angels fighting againstthe dragon, and the dragon and
his angels fought back, but hewas defeated, and there was no
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longer any place for them inheaven.
And the great dragon was throwndown, that ancient serpent, who
was called the devil and Satan,the deceiver of the whole world.
He was thrown down to the earth,and his angels were thrown down
with him.
Now we've already seen two signsdescribed by John, the woman
about to give birth and thegreat dragon.
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But now the scene shifts to warin heaven.
And the first thing I want todraw your attention to is that
this war in heaven should not beunderstood as being
chronological, meaning that thiswar happened after the woman
gave birth and fled to thewilderness.
In other words, even thoughthere's a shift in the narrative
here, we shouldn't assume thatit's the next thing that
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happened in some chronologicallylinear fashion.
The timing of this has to beunderstood in context.
Now I know this will come as ashock, but interpretations of
when this war occurs, they varywidely among Christian scholars,
theologians, and even betweendenominations.
Because the text, it's notstrictly chronological, and we
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often see this sort of ablending of past, present, and
future events in visionary form.
And so there's no singleconsensus.
But the primary views place itas either a primeval event,
meaning before human creation,or at least very early in
history, like before thetemptation in the Garden of
Eden.
But another view ties it to thetime of Jesus' ministry and his
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victory on the cross.
And then there's even a minorityposition where some hold the
view that this represents somefuture eschatological or end
times battle.
Now for those who believe thisoccurred before the creation of
humanity or the events inGenesis, they see this as
aligning with the idea thatSatan was already a fallen being
by the time of the Garden ofEden in Genesis 3.
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And they also point to otherbiblical passages like Isaiah
14, 12 and Ezekiel 28, which areseen as allusions to Lucifer's
or Satan's primordial downfall.
But others interpret the war asoccurring or at least being
decisively one around the timeof Jesus' birth, death,
resurrection, and ascension, andso it symbolizes Satan's defeat
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through Christ's redemptivework.
And so this view sees Revelation12 as sort of a summary of
events during Jesus' earthlyministry rather than being an
ancient event.
And they argue that the malechild, Jesus, he's born and
snatched up to God, like we readin verse 5, which represents his
resurrection and ascension afterthe crucifixion.
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And we'll read in verses 10 and11 that the war's outcome is
linked to the blood of the Lamb,pointing to Christ's sacrificial
death as the means of victory,which banishes Satan as the
accuser of the brethren.
And so those are some of theprimary reasons some link this
fall of Satan to the time ofJesus' earthly mission.
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And then finally, like I said,others see the war as a more of
a prophetic event that's yet tooccur, often seen as taking
place during the GreatTribulation period leading to
Christ's return, representingSatan's final expulsion from any
further heavenly access.
But just a thought here.
Maybe Satan's fall was primeval.
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In other words, he fell beforethe creation of the world, but
even after his fall, he stillhad access to heaven and to God.
Now why do I say that?
Because we know Satan still hadaccess to God by reading the
book of Job.
In Job one verses six and sevenwe read that now there was a day
when the sons of God, meaningangels, came to present
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themselves before the Lord, andSatan also came among them.
And the Lord said to Satan, Fromwhere have you come?
And Satan answered the Lord andsaid, From going to and fro on
the earth, and from walking upand down on it.
And of course we know whathappened to Job after their
conversation.
But the point is that Satandidn't text God, he didn't send
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him an email, he was standing inhis presence, but also at the
same time obviously havingaccess to earth.
In Luke twenty two thirty one,Jesus said to Peter, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan demanded tohave you, that he might sift you
like wheat.
Now when it says that Satan hasdemanded to have you, that
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demanded there, it comes fromthe Greek word exiteo, and it
means to desire to have, to askand obtain permission.
And we know that God grantedSatan permission to test both
Job and Peter.
But the point of both of theseexamples is that Satan was
standing in God's presence, butalso had access to earth at the
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same time.
And so maybe Satan rebelledbefore the creation of the
world, was thrown out of heaven,but still had permission to come
before God.
But rather than doing a deepdive into the timing of Satan
being kicked out of heaven,before I forget, I want to go
back and quickly mention theangel Michael, because we are,
after all, talking about war inheaven.
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Michael is an archangel, theonly angel named in the book of
Revelation.
He's mentioned by name in thebooks of Daniel, Job, and
Revelation.
Only the angel Gabriel ismentioned as often as Michael,
but Michael is the only onespecifically titled an
archangel, and he's portrayed asa commander of angelic armies,
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defender against evil and aguardian, especially of Israel.
In Daniel 10, while Daniel is inmourning and fasting, he's been
praying for three weeks whenhe's approached by an angel.
The angel then says to Daniel,and I want you to pay attention
to this, O Daniel, man greatlyloved, understand the words that
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I speak to you, and standupright, for now I have been
sent to you.
Fear not, Daniel, for from thefirst day that you set your
heart to understand and humbledyourself before your God, your
words have been heard, and Ihave come because of your words.
The prince of the kingdom ofPersia withstood me twenty one
days, but Michael, one of thechief princes, came to help me,
(28:28):
for I was left there with theking of Persia, and came to make
you understand what is to happento your people in the latter
days.
And so what I want you to noticewith all of that is the fact
that, first of all, Daniel'sprayers were heard as soon as he
began praying, and an angel wasdispatched to respond to him.
But secondly, that the angelencountered resistance on his
(28:50):
way to Daniel.
He was held up by the prince ofthe kingdom of Persia, meaning
another angel who apparently hassome angelic custodial
responsibility in that area, andhe was held up for twenty one
days until Michael was sent tohelp him, and he was then able
to break through.
And so all of this indicatesangelic warfare.
(29:14):
And so why did I even go downthis path for a few moments?
Because we need to be remindedthat there is an ongoing,
intense spiritual warfareinvolving angels, both holy and
fallen angels.
This warfare is not mythical,it's not merely symbolic.
It directly influences events onearth, particularly nations and
(29:38):
rulers, even God's people.
And you know it's been suggestedby some people that earthly
events mirror heavenly ones.
These verses teach us thatangelic warfare is an invisible
reality behind much of visiblehistory, and it exists because
Satan and his forces continue torebel against God's sovereignty,
(29:58):
attempting to hinder his kingdomand harm his people, while God's
angels, led by Michael, activelydefend and advance God's
purposes until the finalvictory.
And the ultimate reason issimply the conflict between good
and evil.
And what is the ultimate prizeof this war?
(30:18):
You are.
But let's move on now withverses ten and eleven which read
And I heard a loud voice inheaven saying, Now the salvation
and the power and the kingdom ofour God and the authority of his
Christ have come, for theaccuser of our brothers has been
thrown down, who accuses themday and night before our God.
And they have conquered him bythe blood of the lamb, and by
(30:41):
the word of their testimony, forthey love not their lives even
unto death.
So John then hears a loud voicein heaven.
It doesn't specify whose voiceit is.
John focuses on what is said,not who said it.
But after the removal of thedragon from heaven or having
access to heaven, it means thisvictory has been completed.
(31:03):
Satan being hurled to earth endshis privilege and position that
he held in God's court.
And so these two verses sort ofform the climax of the war in
heaven, which is describedabove.
And so they proclaim thedecisive turning point in this
cosmic conflict between good andevil.
And it's interesting here thatSatan is referred to as an
(31:24):
accuser of our brothers, whoaccuses them day and night
before our God.
Now the Greek term translated asaccuser here is the word
categoros, which literally meansone who brings charges against
another in a legal setting, aprosecutor, plaintiff, or a sort
of a slanderer in court.
(31:45):
And so it carries the idea ofpublicly speaking against
someone or lodging formalaccusations.
And throughout Scripture, Satanacts as a legal accuser before
God's throne.
He continually brings chargesagainst believers, highlighting
their sins to discredit them andchallenge God's justice in
forgiving them.
(32:05):
And Satan's accusations, theyprobably focus on our sins, on
our failures, our sort ofgeneral overall unworthiness,
trying to prove that God isunjust in showing mercy to
sinners.
And so his being hurled downmeans that he's lost his place
and privileges in heaven.
He no longer has standing toaccuse God's people before the
(32:26):
throne.
And how was he defeated?
How was he overcome so that hecan no longer stand and accuse?
Because believers had goodchurch attendance?
Or they were good citizens ofthe world?
Because they were nice people?
No.
We're told in verse eleven thatthey have conquered him by the
blood of the lamb, and by theword of their testimony.
(32:50):
Because the reality is the onlydefense we have is that we've
trusted in the one who hasalready paid the price for us,
the only one who could have.
In other words, Satan has beenconquered by Jesus on the cross,
his death, resurrection, and hisascension.
And so Satan has been disarmedof his ultimate weapon, which is
(33:12):
sin and death.
Jesus overcame both.
And so Satan's accusations arerendered powerless because
believers are justified, they'recleansed by Christ's sacrifice.
Jesus told us in John 5 24,truly, truly I tell you, whoever
hears my word and believes himwho sent me has eternal life and
(33:34):
will not be judged, but iscrossed over from death to life.
Which means that because offaith in Jesus, the believer
stands before God withoutaccusation, their sins are not
counted against them.
In addition, verse eleven tellsus that they have also overcome
Satan by the word of theirtestimony, for they love not
(33:56):
their lives even unto death.
In other words, faithful witnessto Christ, even unto death.
And this echoes the martyrsunder the altar that we
discussed back in chapter six,and their bold proclamation of
the gospel despite persecution.
And so conquering the dragon, ithas more than one dimension
here.
(34:17):
It involves the forgiveness ofsins by those who accept the
work of Christ on the cross, butalso the willingness of
believers to surrender theirlives if need be.
Now that doesn't mean that youhave to be a martyr to be a
disciple of Jesus or anything,don't misunderstand.
But the death of a martyr issort of emblematic of what it
means to be a true believer.
(34:38):
And many throughout history havedemonstrated that true belief
through their boldness of thegospel even in the face of
death.
But let's continue with versetwelve, where the voice from
heaven continues saying,Therefore, rejoice, O heavens,
and you who dwell in them.
But woe to you, O earth and sea,for the devil has come down to
(35:00):
you in great wrath, because heknows that his time is short.
And so we see that heavenrejoices based on what we just
read above.
In short, Satan, the prosecutor,has been ejected from the
courtroom.
The verdict is not guilty,because the price was paid by
the lamb.
And that's why the voice inheaven tells those who dwell
(35:21):
there to rejoice.
The battle has been won.
Satan has been expelled.
However, like so many things inlife, there's a but.
Satan has been defeated andthrown out of heaven, but all of
heaven rejoice.
But and the but here is but woeto you, O earth and sea, for the
(35:44):
devil has come down to you ingreat wrath, because he knows
that his time is short.
And so unfortunately, Satan'sdefeat in heaven doesn't mean
the end of suffering here onearth.
The dragon has been defeated,and the outcome is assured, but
the final day is not yet come.
The devil has come down to theearth because he's been cast out
(36:05):
of heaven.
It's the only realm left forhim, and he knows his time on
earth is short.
His time is limited.
And so he's going to wreak asmuch havoc as possible in
whatever time he has.
He's powerful, but he is lost,and he's desperate.
But we continue with versesthirteen and fourteen which tell
us and when the dragon saw thathe had been thrown down to the
(36:28):
earth, he pursued the woman whohad given birth to the male
child.
But the woman was given twowings of the great eagle, so
that she might fly from theserpent into the wilderness, to
the place where she is to benourished for a time, times and
half a time.
So when the dragon is cast downto earth, he begins to pursue
the woman who had given birth tothe child.
(36:50):
This child defeated Satan, andso his energy is devoted to
persecuting the woman and allthose who identify with the
child.
Satan's time is limited.
It's only until Christ returned.
But the outcome has already beendecided, and it will end when
God's purposes and his planshave been fulfilled.
But for those of us on earth whoidentify with the child, the
(37:13):
time will include suffering andhardship.
Now we're told here that thewoman was given two wings of the
great eagle so that she mightfly from the serpent into the
wilderness, to the place whereshe's to be nourished for a
time, times, and half a time.
Now I covered that phrase time,times, and half a time in the
last chapter, and so I'm notgoing to belabor that here.
(37:35):
But the imagery of the womanbeing given two great wings and
fleeing to the wilderness, itechoes the Exodus from Egypt.
In Exodus 19 4, God tells Moses,You yourselves have seen what I
did to the Egyptians, and how Ibore you on eagle's wings and
brought you to myself.
Not only that, but in Ezekiel 29we see a reference to Pharaoh,
(37:59):
king of Egypt, referred to as agreat dragon.
And so the imagery seems clear,and the fact that the woman is
nourished should also bring backmemories of the miraculous
provision of manna that Godprovided in the wilderness after
the Exodus.
And just like Pharaoh pursuedGod's people, Satan will
continue pursuing andpersecuting God's people until
(38:22):
the end.
But God will continue to nourishand sustain his people.
Now even though we have thesereferences to God using eagle's
wings as an image of hisprotection, some modern prophecy
buffs try and read more intothat.
And so for example, some willargue that the eagle mentioned
here is a symbol for America,and the wings are suggestive of
(38:45):
an aircraft so that some sort ofan American airlift to help
Israel is in view here.
And I guess it's a good thingfor their imagery that Benjamin
Franklin failed in his attemptto make the national bird a
turkey.
A turkey versus an eagle justwouldn't have been quite so
poetic or majestic sounding.
But let's continue here withverses fifteen and sixteen where
(39:06):
we read And the serpent pouredwater like a river out of his
mouth after the woman, to sweepher away with a flood.
But the earth came to the helpof the woman, and the earth
opened its mouth and swallowedthe river that the dragon had
poured from his mouth.
And again, this imagery of theExodus comes to mind, Pharaoh
chasing God's people to thewater, but the sea parting.
(39:28):
And rather than God's peoplebeing swept away with a flood,
it was actually Pharaoh's armywhich was swept away.
In fact, it's almost the sameverbiage that we see here.
In Exodus 15 we read, The floodscovered them, they went down
into the depths like a stone.
You stretched out your righthand, and the earth swallowed
(39:48):
them.
These verses they sort ofcontrast Satan's rage with God's
sovereignty.
The dragon's flood showsdesperate, all out warfare, and
yet it's no Neutralized by theearth itself, and it just
highlights that no schemeagainst God's people succeeds.
And it's a vivid reminder ofthis Exodus-like deliverance.
(40:11):
And it kind of reminds me ofwhat we read in Romans 831.
What then shall we say to thesethings?
If God is for us, who can beagainst us?
Indeed.
And one thing I'll mention hereis that even though this evokes
the imagery of the Exodus withthe water and all, remember that
this is symbolic language beingused.
(40:33):
Literal water, like a river, isnot going to come out of the
mouth of the dragon.
Mouths and Revelation normallyfunction as symbols of speech,
and floodwaters in Scriptureoften represent these troubles
and difficulties that threatento overwhelm us.
And so what we may be seeinghere with the symbolism of the
water coming from the mouth ofthe dragon is false teachings,
(40:57):
slander, persecution, etc.
In other words, Satan will spewanything and everything possible
to persecute believers or causeapostasy.
And in today's world, that'seasy to see.
Propaganda and lies like we'venever seen.
Satan is a master deceiver.
It was through the mouth of theserpent that Eve was deceived.
(41:20):
But whatever trials the watersbring, God will bring his people
through it.
But we wrap up this chapter nowwith the last verse, verse
seventeen, which reads Then thedragon became furious with the
woman and went off to make waron the rest of her offspring, on
those who keep the commandmentsof God and hold to the testimony
of Jesus.
(41:41):
And he stood on the sand of thesea.
But here in this last verse, wesee the dragon's attempt to
overwhelm the woman has failed,and he's filled with rage.
And we see this enmity or thishatred between the woman and the
serpent that was first mentionedin Genesis three has continued
all the way through Scripture.
In Genesis three fifteen, Godtold the serpent, I will put
(42:05):
enmity between you and thewoman, and between your
offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head andyou shall bruise his hill.
And just as God predicted, theoffspring of the woman has
conquered the serpent throughhis death and resurrection.
And so we see here that thedragon then departs to conduct
war with the rest of heroffspring.
(42:27):
And again, if the womansymbolically represents Israel,
then the rest of her offspringrepresents all believers, or
what we might call the church.
But as I mentioned earlier,there are different
interpretations on both thewoman and her offspring.
But regardless of yourparticular interpretation, we're
told here that her offspringare, quote, those who keep the
(42:50):
commandments of God and hold tothe testimony of Jesus.
And so honestly, that sort ofnarrows down the field of
possible identities.
And I don't see how this is notspeaking of all believers and
followers of Christ, truedisciples.
And so if you're a Christian,sort of good news, bad news.
(43:10):
Good news.
You're a Christian.
You're saved by Christ.
And you know how the story ends.
Bad news.
You're at war.
Satan is at war with you.
You're in a spiritual battlewhether you realize it or not.
And the easiest way to getpicked off in a war is to not
even realize you're in a war.
(43:30):
But notice that Satan went offto make war with those who keep
the commandments of God and holdto the testimony of Jesus.
It doesn't say that he went offto make war with those who are
spiritual, those who believe ina higher power, those who simply
claim to be Christian, but thosewho keep the commandments of God
(43:51):
and hold to the testimony ofJesus.
There's a big difference.
And how does Satan make war withthe rest of the woman's
offspring?
Well, that's the theme of thenext chapter, where we'll see
Satan empower the Antichrist andthe false prophet.
But as we wrap up this chapter,please keep in mind, in a world
(44:12):
that is growing increasinglyhostile to biblical truth,
Revelation 12 reminds us thatspiritual warfare is personal
and ongoing.
The enemy targets Christ'sfollowers because he cannot
touch Christ himself.
And yet our victory is assured,not by our strength, but by
(44:33):
Jesus Christ, the Lamb who wasslain.
So stand firm.
The dragon's war is real.
He's desperate and his time isshort.
And though spiritual warfare isreal and the enemy's time is
short, our victory is alreadysecured by the blood of Jesus
Christ.
So stand firm in both yourobedience and your testimony,
(44:56):
friends.
Because the dragon has beendefeated by the Lamb.
Well, thank you for joining me as we continue in our
study through the book ofRevelation.
We're in chapter 12, and if youheard me begin in the last
chapter by saying it was one ofthe most difficult in all of
Revelation due to the differentinterpretations, well, then
you're not going to bedisappointed with this chapter
either, because scholars mostlyagree that this is the most
pivotal chapter in Revelation,and once again, there are
(00:32):
different interpretations on ahandful of topics that we'll be
covering.
And so let's just get right toit where John's vision
continues.
Now at the end of the lastchapter, John saw God's temple
in heaven opened, and here hecontinues to give us his vision.
And so we begin with the firsttwo verses which read, And a
great sign appeared in heaven, awoman clothed with the sun, with
(00:55):
the moon under her feet, and onher head a crown of twelve
stars.
She was pregnant and was cryingout in birth pains and the agony
of giving birth.
And so John sees a woman clothedwith the sun and a crown of
twelve stars on her head.
And right away in this firstverse we have differences in
interpretation.
(01:15):
Specifically, there'sdisagreement on who the woman
is.
But first, we should be tippedoff that John is speaking
symbolically because he tells usthat a great sign appeared.
But what do the signs, what dothese symbols mean?
Well, we read that the woman isa mother, and here in
Revelation, we're gonna also seethat she is a precursor to the
(01:38):
bride of Christ that we're gonnasee in chapter twenty one.
And she's also a contrast to theharlot that we're gonna read
about in chapter seventeen.
But we see that the womanappears radiant.
I mean she's clothed with thesun, a crown of twelve stars
over her head, and the moonunder her feet.
Now as soon as we read this, weshould be reminded of the dream
(02:00):
Joseph had back in Genesischapter thirty seven, where the
sun, the moon, and the elevenstars bowed down to him.
And we learned back then thatthe sun stood for his father
Jacob, whose name was changed toIsrael by God.
The moon represented his motherRachel, and the eleven stars
represented his eleven brothers,who, along with Joseph, would
(02:23):
become the heads of the twelvetribes of Israel.
And we also saw in our Genesisstudy that a few chapters later,
that dream became a reality whenhis father and brothers came
down to Egypt and ultimately didin fact bow down to him, not
knowing who he was.
But here, rather than elevenstars, the woman wears a crown
(02:45):
of twelve stars, which mostcommentators believe represent
the twelve tribes of Israel, notjust the eleven like Joseph saw,
because it would also includehim.
But others point out that thetwelve stars could represent
both the twelve tribes as wellas the twelve apostles.
Now, because of the twelve starsand tying it back to Joseph in
(03:05):
that way, most commentators alsobelieve that the woman
represents Israel, or evenIsrael and its faithful remnant,
which would also includebelieving Gentiles or
Christians.
Now I want to go ahead andmention this as well, because
there are some scholars who linkthis woman with and believe that
she represents Mary, the motherof Jesus.
(03:27):
And sort of a spoiler alert, butmost scholars generally agree,
and we're going to see that thechild mentioned here is indeed
Jesus.
But having said that, most ofthose same scholars who see this
as representing Mary, they linkthe woman here with Mary, but in
connection with Israel, notinstead of Israel.
(03:48):
But Revelation doesn't provideany explicit teaching about Mary
anywhere.
And as we'll read, this womanwill experience persecution
after Christ's enthronement andwill need protection for twelve
hundred and sixty days, and wehave no evidence that Mary
experienced any of that.
Now I'm not going to spend anyadditional time on it, but I
(04:08):
will mention there are some whoalso see hints of Eve in this
woman.
Remember, back in Genesis 315,God had promised Eve that her
seed would ultimately crush theserpent.
But having said all of that,remember, John's using symbolic
language here, and there are nonames associated with the woman.
And so it seems as though thewoman most likely represents
(04:31):
Israel and by extension thepeople of God in general.
Now there are some people whowant this woman to represent the
church, but I think we're safein saying that the woman
represents Israel, and that asChristians, we are later grafted
into God's people.
But verse 2 tells us that thewoman was pregnant and was
crying out in birth pains andthe agony of giving birth.
(04:53):
Now before I forget, the churchis referred to as the bride of
Christ.
And so if we want to try to makethe argument that this woman is
the church, the bride, then wemay have a problem because she's
pregnant.
But the woman is crying out inpain and agony as she suffers
the agony of birth pains as thebirth draws near.
(05:15):
And if the woman representsIsrael, then the child
represents the Messiah, JesusChrist.
And if we look back at history,it often seems the case that for
God's people, there's often somesuffering that occurs while they
wait on God to fulfill hispromises.
Israel had been waiting on theMessiah for a very long time,
(05:35):
and this crying out in agony mayalso allude to the suffering and
the persecution of the nation.
And I think it's interesting tothink about this.
Israel suffered persecution andtorment while waiting on the
birth of their Messiah, thefirst appearance of Jesus.
And Israel's been persecutedlike no other nation since.
Likewise, Christians have alsosuffered persecution as we wait
(05:59):
on the return of Christ.
Israel suffered while waiting onthe first coming of Jesus.
Christians suffer while waitingon the second coming of Jesus.
But like Jesus told us in John16, when a woman is giving
birth, she has sorrow becauseher hour has come, but when she
has delivered the baby, she nolonger remembers the anguish for
(06:22):
joy that a human being has beenborn into the world.
And so the pattern is suffering,then joy.
Birth pains of the Messiahprecede the glory of the
Messiah, and if we fast forward,the agony of the cross before
the glory of heaven.
But we continue with versesthree and four where John sees
another sign, and this one isquite different, because as we
(06:46):
read, and another sign appearedin heaven.
Behold, a great red dragon, withseven heads and ten horns, and
on his heads were seven diadems.
His tail swept down a third ofthe stars of heaven and cast
them to the earth.
Now I stopped here by readingonly half of verse four, but I
did so on purpose, and I'll comeback to that in a few.
(07:08):
But John continues by telling usonce again that he saw another
sign.
Now just to be clear, the Greekword used both here and for the
sign of the woman we justdiscussed is Samaeon, and it
describes the foreshadowing of acoming event.
But this sign is much different,because rather than a woman,
John sees a great red dragon.
(07:28):
Now in the ancient world, thedragon wasn't necessarily what
we think of when we think of adragon.
We usually think of this firebreathing creature with wings
and claws.
But back then, just like we seein the Septuagint translation,
dragons were understood to beserpents or snakes.
But either way, what we're goingto see is that the dragon
(07:50):
mentioned here is truly amonster.
In Job 26, we read that Godpierced the fleeing serpent.
And in Isaiah 27, Isaiah looksforward to the day when the
dragon, the serpent, will bepunished.
But more pointedly, John'sdragon here is referring to the
ancient serpent, the one who wasin the garden back in Genesis 3,
(08:14):
the one who deceived and ledAdam and Eve into sin by
disobeying God.
And by describing him as a greatred dragon, John is telling us
that this dragon is the mostfearsome of monsters.
And although John hasn't comeout and specifically called him
Satan or the devil yet, thatlabel is coming when we get to
verse 9.
(08:34):
But the dragon is also describedas having seven heads and ten
horns, and on his heads sevendiadems.
And I've mentioned several timesover various episodes that the
number seven representscompleteness, and so these seven
heads and seven diademsrepresent complete authority.
Now just a note here regardingthe seven diadams or crowns that
(08:57):
were on the seven heads.
When describing the dragon here,John uses the word diadem, or in
the Greek diatoma, meaningcrowns.
But in verse one, where hedescribed the woman and the
crown of twelve stars that shewas wearing, he used the word
Stephanos.
And I think it's important tonote the distinction, because
when we read it in English, it'snot something that you would
(09:19):
necessarily pick up on.
And here's the reason I thinkit's important.
The dragon is described aswearing a crown, a diadema,
which is a royal crown.
It's a crown of sovereignty,something worn by kings or
emperors, rulers.
Its symbol was more politicaland associated with a dominion.
But the woman was wearing adifferent kind of crown, a
(09:40):
Stephanos.
This was a crown worn byvictors.
It was associated with victorsin athletic games like the
Olympics.
And it was also presented tohonored guests and soldiers, and
it represented victory and honorand reward.
And so it symbolized and earnedreward or honor.
And so in short, a diadem likethe dragon was wearing is the
(10:03):
crown of the one who rules.
A stepanos like the woman waswearing is the crown of those
who overcome.
The diadem is worn by Christ athis return, but here it's
falsely claimed by Satan.
The Stephanos, which was areward, is promised to
believers.
And what's interesting as we'llsee in the end, Jesus wears
(10:26):
both.
All the diadems of universalkingship and every Stephanos of
victory, because he alone isboth King of Kings and the
ultimate overcomer.
But again, John tells us thatthe dragon had seven heads and
ten horns, and I mentioned thatthe seven heads represent
completeness, and the horns thatsymbolize a strength, ruling
(10:48):
authority or this military orpolitical power, which tells us
that the dragon will havecomplete power.
But for the sake ofcompleteness, I also want to
discuss this from a slightlydifferent angle as well, because
there are some who believe theseven heads and the ten horns
also goes a bit deeper and thatit actually represents seven
(11:09):
world empires and ten kingdoms.
So let me briefly explain.
In this interpretation, theseven heads and the ten horns
portray Satan as the hiddenruler behind empires throughout
history, and especially at theend of the age.
And so the seven heads representthe seven great world empires
that have opposed God and hispeople from the beginning until
(11:31):
the return of Christ.
And these seven world empires,they're broken down as they've
occurred in world history, andso what you have is sort of a
sort of a timeline of history inorder that the empires have been
the dominant player in theworld.
And so most see these empires asbeing Egypt, Assyria, Babylon,
Persia, Greece, Rome, and thenthe final revived empire, the
(11:57):
Antichrist or the Beast thatwe're going to discuss in
chapters 13 and 17.
And so as much as I would liketo right here, I'm going to hold
off in a more detaileddiscussion of this
interpretation until we get tochapter 17.
But for now, I just wanted tointroduce you to that
interpretation.
But here's the gist of it.
When we read about the dragonwith the seven heads and ten
(12:19):
horns, what John iscommunicating is that Satan is
the real power behind every evilempire in history, which would
be the seven heads, and in thefinal tribulation, he will
consolidate all remainingpolitical and military power on
earth into a ten kingdomalliance, which are the ten
horns, in one last attempt todestroy God's people.
(12:42):
But again, I'm going to attemptto stay on track and not chase
that down right here.
We'll wait until chapter 17 totake a deep dive on that.
And so getting back to the text,in verse 4, we're told that the
dragon swept down a third of thestars of heaven and cast them to
the earth.
Now this sweeping away of onethird of the angels from heaven,
(13:03):
it's also interpreted indifferent ways.
And I've mentioned in earlierchapters, we know that John is
speaking symbolically here,because literal stars are not
going to fall on the earth.
I mean our sun is an averagesized star, and it's a million
times the size of the Earth.
And so those who hold to aliteral interpretation here,
(13:24):
they know that that doesn't makeany sense.
And so they'll pivot a bit andargue that this is referring
actually not to stars, but tometeors or comets or asteroids
or something like that.
But when we look at Revelationas a whole, most of it's clearly
symbolic, which is why mostinterpreters reject this view.
The most widely held view on thestars that the dragon swept from
(13:46):
heaven are that these stars areangels.
Which makes sense, because inRevelation, stars usually
symbolize angels.
And so the thought here is thatwhen Satan originally rebelled,
he led a large number of theangels with him.
And we're told that a third ofthe angels followed him or
joined him in this rebellion.
(14:07):
And so what John may bedescribing here is war in
heaven.
Jesus said in Luke ten eighteen,I saw Satan fall like lightning
from heaven.
And here in just a few verseswe'll read a description of war
in heaven where Michael and hisangels cast out Satan and his
angels.
And so the most commonly heldview is that the third of the
(14:31):
stars represent the angels whofollowed Satan in his rebellion
and were hurled down with him tothe earth.
By the way, have you everwondered how many angels there
are?
How many angels were cast downfrom heaven to the earth?
Well we know a third of themwere, but a third of how many
total?
Well to my knowledge, the Biblenever gives an exact number of
(14:53):
angels that God originallycreated, but it does give us a
couple of clues that let us knowthe total number was enormous.
In Hebrews twelve twenty two, wesee that phrase myriads of
angels.
In the Greek, that word myrios,it's literally tens of thousands
upon tens of thousands, or aninnumerable number.
(15:16):
The largest named Greek numeralwas Mirios, and it equaled ten
thousand.
And so any number beyond thatwas expressed by repeating or
multiplying myrios.
And when the Bible says myriadsof myriads, it's deliberately
using the biggest number theGreek language had a word for,
(15:36):
and then squaring it to expressthe idea that it's more than
anyone can possibly count.
And we mentioned back inRevelation 511 that John hears
the voice of myriads of myriadsand thousands of thousands.
Literally ten thousand times tenthousand and one thousand times
one thousand, which if you tookit literally and simply do the
(16:00):
math, it would equal at leastone hundred million.
But the phrase is more idiomaticfor an innumerable multitude,
and so we shouldn't push it fora math equation necessarily.
The expression is meant to evokeawe, not algebra.
And so the bottom line is thatwe don't know the exact number
of angels, but we do know it wasstaggeringly large, and even
(16:23):
after losing a third, heaven'sfaithful army is still
overwhelmingly vast.
I've even heard the thought thatthe number of angels who fell
from heaven will equal thenumber of people saved and
entered into heaven, becauseGod's original creation would be
diminished if he had less of hiscreation in heaven with him.
(16:43):
So saved humans will replace thefallen angels so that his glory
will be maintained.
Now that of course isspeculation, but it does make
for some interesting dinnertable discussion.
Now before we move on, I do wantyou to be aware that not all
commentators hold this same viewon the stars here being angels.
Some actually hold the view thatthe stars represent believers,
(17:06):
and that Satan sweeping away onethird of them represents that a
third of them are persecuted, orthat it's actually describing
apostasy where believers fallaway from God.
And so in this line of thinking,the reference to one third here
indicates that the dragon hasstruck a significant blow
against the people of God.
(17:26):
And again, this is a minorityposition, but I again just
wanted to at least make youaware of it.
But let's now read the secondhalf of verse four through verse
six, where John continues bytelling us and the dragon stood
before the woman who was aboutto give birth, so that when she
bore her child he might devourit.
She gave birth to a male child,one who is to rule all the
(17:50):
nations with a rod of iron.
But her child was caught up toGod and to his throne, and the
woman fled into the wildernesswhere she has a place prepared
by God, in which she is to benourished for twelve hundred and
sixty days.
And so the first thing we see isthat the dragon stood before the
woman who was about to givebirth, so that when the child
was born he could devour it.
(18:11):
Now again, as we just discussed,the woman is most likely
symbolic of Israel, and that thechild being born here is the
Messiah, Jesus Christ.
We can also see that it's Jesuswho is in view here because
we're told that he is to ruleall nations with a rod of iron.
And this imagery originates inthe Old Testament and symbolizes
(18:34):
absolute and unbreakableauthority.
And so the woman gives birth tothe promised male child, and
this promise fulfills thepromise God made all the way
back in the Garden of Eden inGenesis three fifteen, where an
offspring of Eve would triumphover the serpent.
And that promise was laterreaffirmed to both Abraham and
(18:54):
to David.
And so the dragon stands poisedto destroy the offspring of the
woman.
And in fact, Satan attempted todestroy the child before his
rule could even begin.
Remember, it wasn't long afterthe birth of Jesus that Herod
attempted to kill him.
In Matthew two, we read thatthen Herod, when he saw that he
(19:17):
had been tricked by the wiseman, became furious, and he
sent, and he killed all the malechildren in Bethlehem, and in
all that region who were twoyears old or under, according to
the time that he had ascertainedfrom the wise men.
And we see that this occursafter the Magi, the wise men,
visit Jesus, but do not returnto Herod to report his location
(19:40):
because they knew what he woulddo, prompting Herod's rage and
his attempt to eliminate theprophesied king of the Jews.
And so Satan failed in thatattempt to eliminate Jesus.
But how many other times do weread about where the Jewish
leadership tried to stone Jesusor throw him off a cliff?
But all of the The dragon'splans culminate at the cross,
(20:03):
where it looked like he hadfinally eliminated Jesus.
But we know how that turned out,don't we?
And John even tells us here inverse five, but her child was
caught up to God and to histhrone, which is clearly a
reference to the resurrectionand ascension of Jesus.
And so what John's telling uswith this imagery is that the
designs and plans of the dragonfailed, and that the child
(20:27):
triumphed.
Now John tells us in verse six,and the woman fled into the
wilderness, where she had aplace prepared by God in which
she is to be nourished fortwelve hundred and sixty days.
And so the child ultimatelytriumphs over Satan, but
meanwhile the woman flees to thewilderness.
Just like Mary and Joseph fleeto Egypt when they were informed
(20:48):
that Herod was seeking Jesus tokill him.
Now the wilderness can be aplace of suffering, or it can be
a place of refuge andprotection, depending on
context.
Just like God nourished hispeople in the wilderness after
the exodus from Egypt.
And we see that she's nourishedfor twelve hundred and sixty
days.
And there's that twelve hundredand sixty number again that we
(21:09):
discussed in the last chapter.
And so I'm not going to coverall that again, but just to say
that some people believe this isa literal twelve hundred and
sixty days at the end ofhistory, while others sort of
interpret it to mean a shorterperiod of time near the end of
history.
But even though she'll beprotected, life won't be easy.
The woman has gone from beingdescribed above in this sort of
(21:32):
majesty to now fleeing in thewilderness.
And if the woman is indeedIsrael, and as we'll see in a
moment, she has other offspring,then it seems like what's being
described is the persecution ofIsrael and its offspring, which
would of course include allbelievers.
And so it's a picture of thechurch of believers being
(21:53):
nourished by God in the intervalbetween his death and
resurrection until his secondcoming.
But we continue reading andshift gears a bit in verses
seven through nine which readNow war arose in heaven, Michael
and his angels fighting againstthe dragon, and the dragon and
his angels fought back, but hewas defeated, and there was no
(22:14):
longer any place for them inheaven.
And the great dragon was throwndown, that ancient serpent, who
was called the devil and Satan,the deceiver of the whole world.
He was thrown down to the earth,and his angels were thrown down
with him.
Now we've already seen two signsdescribed by John, the woman
about to give birth and thegreat dragon.
(22:36):
But now the scene shifts to warin heaven.
And the first thing I want todraw your attention to is that
this war in heaven should not beunderstood as being
chronological, meaning that thiswar happened after the woman
gave birth and fled to thewilderness.
In other words, even thoughthere's a shift in the narrative
here, we shouldn't assume thatit's the next thing that
(22:56):
happened in some chronologicallylinear fashion.
The timing of this has to beunderstood in context.
Now I know this will come as ashock, but interpretations of
when this war occurs, they varywidely among Christian scholars,
theologians, and even betweendenominations.
Because the text, it's notstrictly chronological, and we
(23:18):
often see this sort of ablending of past, present, and
future events in visionary form.
And so there's no singleconsensus.
But the primary views place itas either a primeval event,
meaning before human creation,or at least very early in
history, like before thetemptation in the Garden of
Eden.
But another view ties it to thetime of Jesus' ministry and his
(23:41):
victory on the cross.
And then there's even a minorityposition where some hold the
view that this represents somefuture eschatological or end
times battle.
Now for those who believe thisoccurred before the creation of
humanity or the events inGenesis, they see this as
aligning with the idea thatSatan was already a fallen being
by the time of the Garden ofEden in Genesis 3.
(24:05):
And they also point to otherbiblical passages like Isaiah
14, 12 and Ezekiel 28, which areseen as allusions to Lucifer's
or Satan's primordial downfall.
But others interpret the war asoccurring or at least being
decisively one around the timeof Jesus' birth, death,
resurrection, and ascension, andso it symbolizes Satan's defeat
(24:28):
through Christ's redemptivework.
And so this view sees Revelation12 as sort of a summary of
events during Jesus' earthlyministry rather than being an
ancient event.
And they argue that the malechild, Jesus, he's born and
snatched up to God, like we readin verse 5, which represents his
resurrection and ascension afterthe crucifixion.
(24:50):
And we'll read in verses 10 and11 that the war's outcome is
linked to the blood of the Lamb,pointing to Christ's sacrificial
death as the means of victory,which banishes Satan as the
accuser of the brethren.
And so those are some of theprimary reasons some link this
fall of Satan to the time ofJesus' earthly mission.
(25:11):
And then finally, like I said,others see the war as a more of
a prophetic event that's yet tooccur, often seen as taking
place during the GreatTribulation period leading to
Christ's return, representingSatan's final expulsion from any
further heavenly access.
But just a thought here.
Maybe Satan's fall was primeval.
(25:31):
In other words, he fell beforethe creation of the world, but
even after his fall, he stillhad access to heaven and to God.
Now why do I say that?
Because we know Satan still hadaccess to God by reading the
book of Job.
In Job one verses six and sevenwe read that now there was a day
when the sons of God, meaningangels, came to present
(25:53):
themselves before the Lord, andSatan also came among them.
And the Lord said to Satan, Fromwhere have you come?
And Satan answered the Lord andsaid, From going to and fro on
the earth, and from walking upand down on it.
And of course we know whathappened to Job after their
conversation.
But the point is that Satandidn't text God, he didn't send
(26:14):
him an email, he was standing inhis presence, but also at the
same time obviously havingaccess to earth.
In Luke twenty two thirty one,Jesus said to Peter, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan demanded tohave you, that he might sift you
like wheat.
Now when it says that Satan hasdemanded to have you, that
(26:37):
demanded there, it comes fromthe Greek word exiteo, and it
means to desire to have, to askand obtain permission.
And we know that God grantedSatan permission to test both
Job and Peter.
But the point of both of theseexamples is that Satan was
standing in God's presence, butalso had access to earth at the
(26:59):
same time.
And so maybe Satan rebelledbefore the creation of the
world, was thrown out of heaven,but still had permission to come
before God.
But rather than doing a deepdive into the timing of Satan
being kicked out of heaven,before I forget, I want to go
back and quickly mention theangel Michael, because we are,
after all, talking about war inheaven.
(27:22):
Michael is an archangel, theonly angel named in the book of
Revelation.
He's mentioned by name in thebooks of Daniel, Job, and
Revelation.
Only the angel Gabriel ismentioned as often as Michael,
but Michael is the only onespecifically titled an
archangel, and he's portrayed asa commander of angelic armies,
(27:43):
defender against evil and aguardian, especially of Israel.
In Daniel 10, while Daniel is inmourning and fasting, he's been
praying for three weeks whenhe's approached by an angel.
The angel then says to Daniel,and I want you to pay attention
to this, O Daniel, man greatlyloved, understand the words that
(28:03):
I speak to you, and standupright, for now I have been
sent to you.
Fear not, Daniel, for from thefirst day that you set your
heart to understand and humbledyourself before your God, your
words have been heard, and Ihave come because of your words.
The prince of the kingdom ofPersia withstood me twenty one
days, but Michael, one of thechief princes, came to help me,
(28:28):
for I was left there with theking of Persia, and came to make
you understand what is to happento your people in the latter
days.
And so what I want you to noticewith all of that is the fact
that, first of all, Daniel'sprayers were heard as soon as he
began praying, and an angel wasdispatched to respond to him.
But secondly, that the angelencountered resistance on his
(28:50):
way to Daniel.
He was held up by the prince ofthe kingdom of Persia, meaning
another angel who apparently hassome angelic custodial
responsibility in that area, andhe was held up for twenty one
days until Michael was sent tohelp him, and he was then able
to break through.
And so all of this indicatesangelic warfare.
(29:14):
And so why did I even go downthis path for a few moments?
Because we need to be remindedthat there is an ongoing,
intense spiritual warfareinvolving angels, both holy and
fallen angels.
This warfare is not mythical,it's not merely symbolic.
It directly influences events onearth, particularly nations and
(29:38):
rulers, even God's people.
And you know it's been suggestedby some people that earthly
events mirror heavenly ones.
These verses teach us thatangelic warfare is an invisible
reality behind much of visiblehistory, and it exists because
Satan and his forces continue torebel against God's sovereignty,
(29:58):
attempting to hinder his kingdomand harm his people, while God's
angels, led by Michael, activelydefend and advance God's
purposes until the finalvictory.
And the ultimate reason issimply the conflict between good
and evil.
And what is the ultimate prizeof this war?
(30:18):
You are.
But let's move on now withverses ten and eleven which read
And I heard a loud voice inheaven saying, Now the salvation
and the power and the kingdom ofour God and the authority of his
Christ have come, for theaccuser of our brothers has been
thrown down, who accuses themday and night before our God.
And they have conquered him bythe blood of the lamb, and by
(30:41):
the word of their testimony, forthey love not their lives even
unto death.
So John then hears a loud voicein heaven.
It doesn't specify whose voiceit is.
John focuses on what is said,not who said it.
But after the removal of thedragon from heaven or having
access to heaven, it means thisvictory has been completed.
(31:03):
Satan being hurled to earth endshis privilege and position that
he held in God's court.
And so these two verses sort ofform the climax of the war in
heaven, which is describedabove.
And so they proclaim thedecisive turning point in this
cosmic conflict between good andevil.
And it's interesting here thatSatan is referred to as an
(31:24):
accuser of our brothers, whoaccuses them day and night
before our God.
Now the Greek term translated asaccuser here is the word
categoros, which literally meansone who brings charges against
another in a legal setting, aprosecutor, plaintiff, or a sort
of a slanderer in court.
(31:45):
And so it carries the idea ofpublicly speaking against
someone or lodging formalaccusations.
And throughout Scripture, Satanacts as a legal accuser before
God's throne.
He continually brings chargesagainst believers, highlighting
their sins to discredit them andchallenge God's justice in
forgiving them.
(32:05):
And Satan's accusations, theyprobably focus on our sins, on
our failures, our sort ofgeneral overall unworthiness,
trying to prove that God isunjust in showing mercy to
sinners.
And so his being hurled downmeans that he's lost his place
and privileges in heaven.
He no longer has standing toaccuse God's people before the
(32:26):
throne.
And how was he defeated?
How was he overcome so that hecan no longer stand and accuse?
Because believers had goodchurch attendance?
Or they were good citizens ofthe world?
Because they were nice people?
No.
We're told in verse eleven thatthey have conquered him by the
blood of the lamb, and by theword of their testimony.
(32:50):
Because the reality is the onlydefense we have is that we've
trusted in the one who hasalready paid the price for us,
the only one who could have.
In other words, Satan has beenconquered by Jesus on the cross,
his death, resurrection, and hisascension.
And so Satan has been disarmedof his ultimate weapon, which is
(33:12):
sin and death.
Jesus overcame both.
And so Satan's accusations arerendered powerless because
believers are justified, they'recleansed by Christ's sacrifice.
Jesus told us in John 5 24,truly, truly I tell you, whoever
hears my word and believes himwho sent me has eternal life and
(33:34):
will not be judged, but iscrossed over from death to life.
Which means that because offaith in Jesus, the believer
stands before God withoutaccusation, their sins are not
counted against them.
In addition, verse eleven tellsus that they have also overcome
Satan by the word of theirtestimony, for they love not
(33:56):
their lives even unto death.
In other words, faithful witnessto Christ, even unto death.
And this echoes the martyrsunder the altar that we
discussed back in chapter six,and their bold proclamation of
the gospel despite persecution.
And so conquering the dragon, ithas more than one dimension
here.
(34:17):
It involves the forgiveness ofsins by those who accept the
work of Christ on the cross, butalso the willingness of
believers to surrender theirlives if need be.
Now that doesn't mean that youhave to be a martyr to be a
disciple of Jesus or anything,don't misunderstand.
But the death of a martyr issort of emblematic of what it
means to be a true believer.
(34:38):
And many throughout history havedemonstrated that true belief
through their boldness of thegospel even in the face of
death.
But let's continue with versetwelve, where the voice from
heaven continues saying,Therefore, rejoice, O heavens,
and you who dwell in them.
But woe to you, O earth and sea,for the devil has come down to
(35:00):
you in great wrath, because heknows that his time is short.
And so we see that heavenrejoices based on what we just
read above.
In short, Satan, the prosecutor,has been ejected from the
courtroom.
The verdict is not guilty,because the price was paid by
the lamb.
And that's why the voice inheaven tells those who dwell
(35:21):
there to rejoice.
The battle has been won.
Satan has been expelled.
However, like so many things inlife, there's a but.
Satan has been defeated andthrown out of heaven, but all of
heaven rejoice.
But and the but here is but woeto you, O earth and sea, for the
(35:44):
devil has come down to you ingreat wrath, because he knows
that his time is short.
And so unfortunately, Satan'sdefeat in heaven doesn't mean
the end of suffering here onearth.
The dragon has been defeated,and the outcome is assured, but
the final day is not yet come.
The devil has come down to theearth because he's been cast out
(36:05):
of heaven.
It's the only realm left forhim, and he knows his time on
earth is short.
His time is limited.
And so he's going to wreak asmuch havoc as possible in
whatever time he has.
He's powerful, but he is lost,and he's desperate.
But we continue with versesthirteen and fourteen which tell
us and when the dragon saw thathe had been thrown down to the
(36:28):
earth, he pursued the woman whohad given birth to the male
child.
But the woman was given twowings of the great eagle, so
that she might fly from theserpent into the wilderness, to
the place where she is to benourished for a time, times and
half a time.
So when the dragon is cast downto earth, he begins to pursue
the woman who had given birth tothe child.
(36:50):
This child defeated Satan, andso his energy is devoted to
persecuting the woman and allthose who identify with the
child.
Satan's time is limited.
It's only until Christ returned.
But the outcome has already beendecided, and it will end when
God's purposes and his planshave been fulfilled.
But for those of us on earth whoidentify with the child, the
(37:13):
time will include suffering andhardship.
Now we're told here that thewoman was given two wings of the
great eagle so that she mightfly from the serpent into the
wilderness, to the place whereshe's to be nourished for a
time, times, and half a time.
Now I covered that phrase time,times, and half a time in the
last chapter, and so I'm notgoing to belabor that here.
(37:35):
But the imagery of the womanbeing given two great wings and
fleeing to the wilderness, itechoes the Exodus from Egypt.
In Exodus 19 4, God tells Moses,You yourselves have seen what I
did to the Egyptians, and how Ibore you on eagle's wings and
brought you to myself.
Not only that, but in Ezekiel 29we see a reference to Pharaoh,
(37:59):
king of Egypt, referred to as agreat dragon.
And so the imagery seems clear,and the fact that the woman is
nourished should also bring backmemories of the miraculous
provision of manna that Godprovided in the wilderness after
the Exodus.
And just like Pharaoh pursuedGod's people, Satan will
continue pursuing andpersecuting God's people until
(38:22):
the end.
But God will continue to nourishand sustain his people.
Now even though we have thesereferences to God using eagle's
wings as an image of hisprotection, some modern prophecy
buffs try and read more intothat.
And so for example, some willargue that the eagle mentioned
here is a symbol for America,and the wings are suggestive of
(38:45):
an aircraft so that some sort ofan American airlift to help
Israel is in view here.
And I guess it's a good thingfor their imagery that Benjamin
Franklin failed in his attemptto make the national bird a
turkey.
A turkey versus an eagle justwouldn't have been quite so
poetic or majestic sounding.
But let's continue here withverses fifteen and sixteen where
(39:06):
we read And the serpent pouredwater like a river out of his
mouth after the woman, to sweepher away with a flood.
But the earth came to the helpof the woman, and the earth
opened its mouth and swallowedthe river that the dragon had
poured from his mouth.
And again, this imagery of theExodus comes to mind, Pharaoh
chasing God's people to thewater, but the sea parting.
(39:28):
And rather than God's peoplebeing swept away with a flood,
it was actually Pharaoh's armywhich was swept away.
In fact, it's almost the sameverbiage that we see here.
In Exodus 15 we read, The floodscovered them, they went down
into the depths like a stone.
You stretched out your righthand, and the earth swallowed
(39:48):
them.
These verses they sort ofcontrast Satan's rage with God's
sovereignty.
The dragon's flood showsdesperate, all out warfare, and
yet it's no Neutralized by theearth itself, and it just
highlights that no schemeagainst God's people succeeds.
And it's a vivid reminder ofthis Exodus-like deliverance.
(40:11):
And it kind of reminds me ofwhat we read in Romans 831.
What then shall we say to thesethings?
If God is for us, who can beagainst us?
Indeed.
And one thing I'll mention hereis that even though this evokes
the imagery of the Exodus withthe water and all, remember that
this is symbolic language beingused.
(40:33):
Literal water, like a river, isnot going to come out of the
mouth of the dragon.
Mouths and Revelation normallyfunction as symbols of speech,
and floodwaters in Scriptureoften represent these troubles
and difficulties that threatento overwhelm us.
And so what we may be seeinghere with the symbolism of the
water coming from the mouth ofthe dragon is false teachings,
(40:57):
slander, persecution, etc.
In other words, Satan will spewanything and everything possible
to persecute believers or causeapostasy.
And in today's world, that'seasy to see.
Propaganda and lies like we'venever seen.
Satan is a master deceiver.
It was through the mouth of theserpent that Eve was deceived.
(41:20):
But whatever trials the watersbring, God will bring his people
through it.
But we wrap up this chapter nowwith the last verse, verse
seventeen, which reads Then thedragon became furious with the
woman and went off to make waron the rest of her offspring, on
those who keep the commandmentsof God and hold to the testimony
of Jesus.
(41:41):
And he stood on the sand of thesea.
But here in this last verse, wesee the dragon's attempt to
overwhelm the woman has failed,and he's filled with rage.
And we see this enmity or thishatred between the woman and the
serpent that was first mentionedin Genesis three has continued
all the way through Scripture.
In Genesis three fifteen, Godtold the serpent, I will put
(42:05):
enmity between you and thewoman, and between your
offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head andyou shall bruise his hill.
And just as God predicted, theoffspring of the woman has
conquered the serpent throughhis death and resurrection.
And so we see here that thedragon then departs to conduct
war with the rest of heroffspring.
(42:27):
And again, if the womansymbolically represents Israel,
then the rest of her offspringrepresents all believers, or
what we might call the church.
But as I mentioned earlier,there are different
interpretations on both thewoman and her offspring.
But regardless of yourparticular interpretation, we're
told here that her offspringare, quote, those who keep the
(42:50):
commandments of God and hold tothe testimony of Jesus.
And so honestly, that sort ofnarrows down the field of
possible identities.
And I don't see how this is notspeaking of all believers and
followers of Christ, truedisciples.
And so if you're a Christian,sort of good news, bad news.
(43:10):
Good news.
You're a Christian.
You're saved by Christ.
And you know how the story ends.
Bad news.
You're at war.
Satan is at war with you.
You're in a spiritual battlewhether you realize it or not.
And the easiest way to getpicked off in a war is to not
even realize you're in a war.
(43:30):
But notice that Satan went offto make war with those who keep
the commandments of God and holdto the testimony of Jesus.
It doesn't say that he went offto make war with those who are
spiritual, those who believe ina higher power, those who simply
claim to be Christian, but thosewho keep the commandments of God
(43:51):
and hold to the testimony ofJesus.
There's a big difference.
And how does Satan make war withthe rest of the woman's
offspring?
Well, that's the theme of thenext chapter, where we'll see
Satan empower the Antichrist andthe false prophet.
But as we wrap up this chapter,please keep in mind, in a world
(44:12):
that is growing increasinglyhostile to biblical truth,
Revelation 12 reminds us thatspiritual warfare is personal
and ongoing.
The enemy targets Christ'sfollowers because he cannot
touch Christ himself.
And yet our victory is assured,not by our strength, but by
(44:33):
Jesus Christ, the Lamb who wasslain.
So stand firm.
The dragon's war is real.
He's desperate and his time isshort.
And though spiritual warfare isreal and the enemy's time is
short, our victory is alreadysecured by the blood of Jesus
Christ.
So stand firm in both yourobedience and your testimony,
(44:56):
friends.
Because the dragon has beendefeated by the Lamb.
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