Revelation 12:1-6

The Woman, the Dragon, and God

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on March 3, 2019 at Beacon Church

Before we even begin to examine the details of what John saw in his vision, notice the plot. This woman is safe, even privileged, but in pain, and then her child is threatened, verse 13 adds that she is hunted by the Dragon, he tries to drown her, but God takes her to safety in the wilderness and provides food for her there. The plot theme is adapted from when God saved Israel from Egypt, rescued them from drowning, and fed them with manna for 40 years in the wilderness. For the original readers, the Hebrew theme of Israel as a woman and exile in the wilderness would be unmistakable. But that picture, though at first it appears desperate, would also remind readers that after the wilderness, God led Israel into the Promised Land. When God delivered Israel from Egypt, it was a miraculous salvation that Israel quickly took for granted and forgot about. There are reminders of that miracle over and over again throughout the Bible to help people once again believe that God is our Saviour, that what He did for Israel 3500 years ago, He can do again, to remind us that our suffering, our struggle, our exile in the wilderness is not our destiny; to remind us that especially in those times when we have lost so much, God is with us and He gives us His Word to feed our spirits so that one day soon, we will enter into that Promised Land. This Exodus plot only hints at the happy ending of the story by saying God sustains this Woman during a specific, limited time in the wilderness. This morning I pray this Scripture might help you not to compromise when times are good, to give you hope when times are really hard, and to remind you to believe that if you are God’s child, He will never abandon you. As Jesus said to His followers, “…Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mat 28:20). So let’s see “who is the Woman?” “Who is the Dragon?” and “Where is God?”

Who is The Woman?

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.  (Rev. 12:1-2 ESV)

In order to figure out who or what this Woman represents, we have to notice how she is introduced: “a great sign appeared in heaven”. The woman is a “sign.” That word, semeion, is an important word in Revelation. This is the first time the noun form is used, but the verb form is in the very first verse: the whole Revelation was “signed” or “signified” to John, (the ESV says “made it known”) but it means in symbols. That means this is not a literal woman, but that fact does not mean we should interpret this however we like. At Beacon, we believe, with Evangelical Protestants for hundreds of years, that the right way to interpret the Bible is not by reading into it whatever we make up, but by learning to understand what the human writers were trying to say: that’s called “a literal interpretation.” The ordinary meaning is the right meaning. So when writers use symbols, literal interpretation means we try to understand what those symbols meant. As John MacArthur admitted about this verse, “The literal approach to interpreting Scripture allows for normal use of symbolic language, but understands that it points to a literal reality.”[i] He thinks because this woman is called “a sign”, he should interpret it as a symbol for something real. I agree. But because the whole book of Revelation is introduced in the very first verse as being “signed” or “signified”, we should interpret the whole book the way MacArthur says about this verse. The woman is “a great sign” so let’s be careful to notice the details. I want you to notice the woman’s position, then her pain, and then her plight.

The woman’s position is first “in heaven.” But that “heaven” is also a symbol. And that’s good news because I hope we don’t find dragons in Heaven (see verse 2)! Especially hungry predatory dragons (see verse 4)! But rather, heavenly objects like the sun and moon and stars are often used in the Bible to describe high authority like governments (and for the young boy, Joseph, in his dream, his dad was the sun and his mom was the moon, Gen 37). So the woman’s position here is elevated to a place of high authority. She is clothed with the Sun—covered with Royal protection, I would suggest protected by royal decree. She has the moon under her feet, other than the king, other government authorities are beneath her. And she has a crown of 12 stars. We saw in Rev 1:20 that Jesus defined the symbol of stars as meaning “messengers,” the Greek word is “angels.” The “stars” in Rev 1:20 are the “messengers” pastoring the 7 churches in chas. 2-3. So the crown suggests that “messengers” are in authority over the woman—like the chiefs of the 12 tribes of Israel, or like the 12 apostles over the Church. The number 12 probably just represents the whole entity symbolized by the woman.

Then there is her pain. She is not merely pregnant, she is in labour: “She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth,” (Rev. 12:2 ESV). When you take verses 1-2 together the picture snaps into focus: it’s a symbol taken from Isaiah 66:7-8.

7 "Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son.  8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children. (Isa. 66:7-8 ESV)

So to take this symbol literally, notice two things: when Isaiah used this symbol of Zion as a mother, the child she gave birth to is a nation: “Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?” (Isa. 66:8 ESV). And Zion gives birth to more than one child: “For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children,” (Isa. 66:8 ESV). Therefore, Mother Zion is not simply Israel, but the ideal Israel—Zion, the spiritual people of God. This was a prediction of the restoration of the Jewish nation, regathering the people of God into a political state. That’s what Zion giving birth meant in Isaiah 66, the passage Revelation 12:2 alludes to. So then, in Revelation 12, this woman is the ideal, spiritual people of God giving birth to a political state. And that process is painful, agonizing, tearful.

Then see her plight. “…And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days,” (Rev. 12:6 ESV). In verse 6 she is no longer elevated and protected by royal authority. She is running for her life, in the wilderness, and totally dependent on God alone. From an outsider point of view, and maybe from her own point of view, things seemed desperate. But in truth, she could not be more safe and secure because God is with her.

Who is The Dragon?

Verse 3 introduces “another sign.”

And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.  4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. (Rev. 12:3-4 ESV)

The dragon is “fiery red,” has seven heads and ten horns and diadems on each head.

First, the ten-horned dragon would immediately remind John’s original readers of the monster with ten horns in Daniel 7. That monster was the fourth beast representing world empires. The first was Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, then the ten-horned beast, which the early church understood as the Roman Empire. It’s ten horns stood for the ten kingdoms that would rise up when the empire eventually declined and broke apart. This dragon is that beast, but with more detail: it’s fiery red and has seven heads. But it is the Roman Empire.

The fiery colour suggests this is the Roman Empire in civil war, like when the fiery red horse and rider of the second seal in chapter 6 predicted the civil war of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. From the death of Marcus Aurelius, Rome was ravaged by civil war for 100 years. Then, again after Diocletian, civil war resumed as rulers fought each other for control until 324AD.[ii]

The seven heads on the dragon represent the seven kinds of heads of government that ruled the Roman Empire in history: the Roman historians Livy and Tacitus both identify the first five (kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and military tribunes), the sixth, emperors, was begun by Caesar Augustus. Rev 17:10 says the seventh was still in the future when John wrote Revelation.[iii]

The diadems on the heads are interesting. As MacArthur also sees it, the location of the diadems shows where the power is.[iv] Later in 13:1 the diadems are on the horns because then the 10 kingdoms are ruling the empire. And that word diadem is a huge clue about when this prediction came true. Roman Caesars wore crowns of gold shaped like laurel wreaths.[v] The first emperor to wear a diadem was Diocletian after he reorganized the Empire into 4 parts in 293AD.

In 303AD Diocletian outlawed Christianity and launched the worst persecution of believers that the empire had yet seen.[vi] But in 311, his successors decreed an end to the persecutions, and official protection for Christians.[vii] Civil war continued as rulers fought for supremacy, but the Woman was now clothed, protected, by royal decree. The four parts of the Empire were consolidated under three rulers,[viii] one of those rulers changed his mind and took away that protection and renewed persecutions against followers of Jesus.[ix] That is, in 1/3rd of the Empire, the leaders pastoring the Church were suddenly thrown down out the Emperor’s protection like stars cast down. But then, in 313, Constantine believed Jesus had given him victory over his opponent and converted to Christianity. He again decreed all Christians protected, presided over a Church Council, and put into motion the events that led to Christianity becoming the State Religion of Rome.[x]

And Constantine’s conversion, along with the way made the Emperor the functional head of the Church, changed everything for the Roman Empire. It had always been a pagan Empire, and, as the next verses show, Satan had used that pagan empire to try to crush Christianity. But suddenly, under Constantine, when the empire became officially “Christian,” Satan was furious.

Where is God?

“She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,” (Rev. 12:5 ESV). We saw from Isaiah 66:8 that when this symbol of a woman giving birth was used for Zion, the child was the regathered Jewish nation-state. What we see here in Revelation 12 is the ideal and spiritual Church of Christ giving birth to a Christian-Kingdom. If you just read this passage superficially it might seem obvious that this child must be Christ Himself? But remember that all these events predicted in Revelation are “things that must soon take place”, i.e., after John wrote the book in 95AD. Jesus was born a century before John wrote Revelation, not after. Also, notice verse 17:

Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. (Rev. 12:17 ESV).

It’s not appropriate to say that there are “other offspring” like Jesus. Instead, following the clues in the first 6 verses, we should interpret this prophecy literally, as symbolically predicting real events that, from the 21st century, we can now look back on and see how they were fulfilled.

A woman’s pregnancy normally lasts about 9 months. On the year-day scale in Bible prophecy, from the time the early church began sending missionaries to the Gentiles, until Constantine, is 9 “months.”[xi] In other words, Christianity became the official Roman religion 9 prophetic “months” after the apostles began evangelizing the Gentiles. When the Emperor made Christianity official, the Church was “snatched-up” beyond the reach of pagan reprisals, into the position of the highest authority in the Empire. And in a short time the ruler of Rome became the leader of the Church: in verse 5, the word “rule” is literally “pastor” or “shepherd”. The ruler of Rome would “pastor” the nations with a rod of iron. The Church went from persecuted to powerful in one generation.

But this is where we should begin to notice the warning signs for Christianity. Identifying the emperor in a way that pictures him as the head of the church, that implies God’s approval over his throne, is wildly inappropriate. And yet, isn’t that the same mistake Christians tend to make at election time? We are so eager to hang onto the legal protection we have in the west, we are so quick to blur the line between worshipping God and wielding political power. How quickly a godly desire to be free from government persecution turns into an ungodly ambition to unite the Church and the State? Look at the Woman in verse 6. Is she enjoying the comfort and status of political power? No. But is she safe and provided for? Yes. By who? By God. Now look back at the Woman in verse 1-2 and see how the glory she had was so quickly lost. She was clothed by the Sun—she had royal protection. She was proud of those church leaders who gained prominence—stars, i.e. “messengers” leading the Church in the footsteps of the 12 apostles. Is it wrong to get excited about pastors gaining political influence, like Billy Graham had with Queen Elizabeth? It’s wrong to think that the approval of politicians vindicates, or validates, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Celebrity pastors are not our crown. The King, or President, or Prime Minister, is not the Saviour or Protector of the followers of Jesus Christ. There can only be one Head of the Christian Church (see The London Baptist Confession, 26:4!). And that job is already taken.

The fiery red colour of civil war; the diadem introduced by the Emperor in 293; their placement on the heads of the dragon and not yet on the horns; the royal protection of the Church; the sudden fall to be persecuted again in one third of the empire; the attempts of Satan to use pagan emperors and civil war to destroy the Church; the sudden way the tables were turned in favour of Christianity and against paganism; the conversion of Constantine; the unfortunate union between the State and the Church that caused the true Church to flee into the wilderness away from the halls of power—all these signs point to a literal fulfillment of this prophecy in the 300’s when pastors became politicians; when the Church was seduced by the State. And those who refused to compromise, who refused to give their worship to another king besides the one and only King of Kings, they found themselves out in the cold, out of favour, out of the limelight, out of power, but safe in the hands of God: “…And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. (Rev. 12:6 ESV).

That word, “nourished” is the same word Jesus used in Luke 23:29 about breastfeeding an infant. It’s the same word He uses in Luke 12:24 saying that God feeds the birds, and that you are so much more precious to God than birds! Have you been going through a long time of suffering? Hanging on until that day when your ship comes in? Have you begun to think that all will be well if only a judge or a bureaucrat or a politician will give you what you want? Or do you really think you will be happy if only you can earn a little more money? But whose image is on our $20 bill? Or a $100 bill? My friends, you cannot put your hopes in what belongs to Caesar. No creaturely comfort can ever take the place of your Creator. Your heart was made for more; to love and find satisfaction in the only infinite, omnipotent, sovereign Saviour. And if you give yourself to Him, to belong to Him, then He will be your King forever. He will lead you through the wilderness into His Promised Land. And the day when your foot crosses that river might not be 40 years from now; it might be tomorrow.

Imagine no more hunger, no more fear, no more cravings; imagine no more humiliation, no more loneliness, no more shame—imagine the day when Jesus takes you by the hand and says, “enter into my Kingdom! Enter into your Rest!” And until then receive the Word He gives to nourish you in the wilderness. Because as Peter says, if you have tasted that the Lord is good, and you long for that nourishment of the Word, you will live forever with Jesus: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pe 2:2-3).  

Revelation 12 reminds followers of Christ that our Saviour, Jesus, is the same Lord God who rescued Israel in the Exodus from Egypt. There is nothing from which Jesus cannot rescue you. He is the God of Israel. He is the King of Kings. He did it before; do you believe He can do it again?