A Great Sign
Revelation 12:1-6
1And 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. 2She was
pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3And
another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads
and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4His 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. 5She 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, 6and 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.
Revelation 12 opens a new segment of thought following the finale
of the Vision of the Seven Trumpets. Chapters 12-14 are a pause (or interregnum – big Latin word that means “a
period of time in between reigns”) before the Vision of the Seven Censers. John
is treated to a new vision, one that spans a millennia of spiritual history.
“The portrayal of events on earth
is suspended in order to permit John
to see a cosmic vision expounding events that overarch what he has been seeing happening on earth. What John
views in Revelation 12–14 dominates and controls
the events that he sees taking place on earth. That is, these chapters visually explain to John why the events on earth are
occurring.”
Brighton, L. A.
©1999. Revelation (pp. 324–325). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House
At the beginning of this vision, John sees a “great sign”; a woman clothed with the sun and
dominating over the moon. This woman represents both the Virgin Mary, mother of
Jesus, and the Church as a whole. We know she is the mother of Jesus as she
delivers the Christ Child and we know she represent the Church by the Crown of
12 stars on her head. Another “sign” appears but this one is not “great”. Satan
makes an appearance. He comes as a devouring red (the color of murder and
bloodshed) dragon who is trying to pass himself off as being all powerful, thus
he has seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns. It is all pretense. This
passage is the only one that shares the number of the angels that he takes with
him in the rebellion against God. “His
tail swept down a third of the stars” indicates that while a sizable number
of angels follow him, it is in no way a majority.
Satan seeks to end the ministry of work of Jesus before it
begins by killing Him upon birth. We know that Herod sought to have all of the
newborn babies of Bethlehem killed but Joseph fled with Mary into Egypt before
that could happen. They were in Egypt for as long as it took (3½ years –
figurative time, not necessarily literal) to assure the safety of Jesus; until
the death of King Herod.
Side note: Throughout his writing, John refers to miracles
and wonders as “signs”; that which will point us to God. He uses this word both
in the Gospel of John and here in Revelation. Just think about what signs
accomplish in your everyday life. They point you to something important. That
is how John uses the word here.
The pivot point of this passage is “but her child was caught up to God and to his throne”. Here is the
culmination of God’s plan. Satan may have tried to destroy Jesus but it was
never going to happen. Upon the Ascension of Christ the victory is complete and
Satan is finished. Now we are just waiting for Jesus to return and mop up the
details. But the story is not yet finished and we remain here awaiting the
fulfillment of God’s will and during that wait, Satan will try and destroy as
many of us as is possible. That is where the rest of chapter 12 will go.
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