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It’s easy to become so familiar with the person and work of Jesus that we fail to appreciate the cosmic significance which it had. In particular, what did Christ’s person and work look like from a heavenly perspective? This is where Revelation 12 is so helpful with its ‘unveiling’ regarding the true spiritual significance of what took place in history approximately 2000 years ago.

While I’m sure not many preachers would choose this particular part of God’s Word to preach on at Easter, Revelation 12 has often been viewed by scholars as “the centre and the key to the entire book”. [1] In short, as Greg Beale summarises: “As a result of Christ’s victory over the devil God protects the messianic community against the Devil’s wrathful harm”.

That’s a message which surely goes to the heart of what the Gospel is all about! Too many preachers shy away from the book of Revelation, so I would like to exhort us to lean into its contents as a powerful way of preaching the victory of Jesus who is the Christ.

Two Signs and a Son (12:1-6)

The chapter introduces us to two apocalyptic ‘signs’ representing two key characters in the divine drama. The third figure is not a sign but the historical figure of God the son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

1.    The ‘Woman’

The first sign is that of a ‘woman’ clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. Significantly, the woman is pregnant and in the throes of childbirth. On one level, it would be easy to simply identify the woman with either Eve or even Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus.[2]

On the surface, there is an obvious Scriptural legitimacy to this in that the first promise of the Gospel (protoevangelium) promised that the Seed of the woman would crush the ‘seed’ of the serpent.[3] However, it is probably more accurate to see the ‘woman’ here as being a ‘sign’ for the faithful people of God who existed before as well as after the coming of Christ (see Gen. 37).[4] Isaiah 26:17-18 says that it was the nation of Israel from whom the Saviour would be born.

While the ‘woman’ represented Israel in the Old Testament, in the New her role has now been fulfilled by the church. As Leon Morris concludes: “Here the woman is undoubtedly Israel who gives birth to the Messiah, but later in the chapter she is the church who is persecuted for her faith.”[5] In short, in the midst of persecution and suffering the LORD continues to provide nourishment for His people.

2.    The ‘Dragon’

The second sign we are introduced to is an enormous red dragon which is identified in verse 9 as “that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.”

Significantly, the dragon is described as having seven heads (representing authority), ten horns (representing power) and seven crowns (representing dominion).[6] Clearly this dreadful beast wreaks awful havoc upon the world in all kinds of destructive ways. What’s more, this evil spiritual entity is described as sweeping a third of the stars in heaven down to the earth. This is more than likely a reference to the angelic fall (2 Pet. 2:4). The dragon’s main goal though, is to ‘devour’ the newborn child.

3.    The ‘Child’

By this point it should be obvious that the ‘child’ is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Significantly, John tells us that “He will rule the nations with an iron sceptre” just as the true Davidic King does in Psalm 2.

Rather than be destroyed by the dragon, the child is immediately rescued by being taken up into heaven. While it would be misplaced to follow a strict, ‘linear’ chronology in the book of Revelation, this is probably a reference to Jesus’ ascension where He now reigns as our eternal King, all-sufficient Saviour and Great High Priest (1 Cor. 15:25; Heb. 4:14-16).[7]

The woman meanwhile flees into the desert where she is divinely taken care of for three and a half years (1,260 days). As Michael Wilcock explains: “her flight into the wilderness is an exodus into a place not of hardship and suffering, but of safety and divine protection, till at the end of her 1,260 days’ journey—forty-two months, like the forty-two stages mapped out in Numbers 33—she arrives in the promised land.”[8]

The number is also significant since it is simply half of seven, the number the book of Revelation routinely uses to represent perfection. What this means is that even our suffering is under the sovereign providential hand of God. As Leon Morris more fully explains:

Forty-two months (again in 13:5) is the same period as 1,260 days (11:3, 12:6), or ‘a time, times and half a time’ (12:14; Dan. 7:25; 12:7; ‘a time’ = one year, ‘times’ = two years, ‘half a time’ = six months). That is to say, the same length of time as in Daniel is allowed for the treading down of the holy city by the Gentiles, the prophesying of the two witnesses, the woman’s stay in the wilderness, and the beast’s exercise of authority. This is the length of time that Antiochus Epiphanes tyrannized in Jerusalem, a time of unbelievable horror for the pious Jew, but a time which came to its end. So John will mean his readers to discern that the trial of the people of God will be of measurable duration and that they will be delivered out of it.[9]

The Dragon is Defeated (12:7-12)

What happens next is both exhilarating and something of an anti-climax. On the one hand, war breaks out in heaven. The archangel Michael and his angels go into battle against the Devil and his fallen angels (now demons). However, rather than receiving a blow-by-blow description of what happened, we are informed that the Strongman was “not strong enough” and subsequently lost his place in heaven. 

The defeat of the dragon (Devil) is something which Jesus Himself taught while He was still on earth. Elsewhere the apostle John records Jesus as saying:

‘Now is the time for judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.’ John 12:31-32

Central to this entire section is the effect that the Devil’s defeat in heaven has on the faith on those who follow Jesus here on earth. For while the battleground has now shifted from the heavens to the earth, the victory of God’s people is assured even while they endure all kinds of trials.[10]

In particular, a loud voice from heaven proclaims three crucial truths:

1.    Jesus, and not the Devil, now Reigns

First of all, we’re informed that God’s Christ is now reigning in heaven. His salvation has been achieved and as such the power and kingdom belongs to Him (12:10). Closely connected to this is the fact that the ‘accuser’ (i.e. the dragon, the Devil or Satan) has been “hurled down”. No follower of Jesus need fear the accusations of the Serpent anymore, since the work of Joshua the High Priest has been achieved and the sin of the people atoned for in a single day (See Zech. 3:1-10).

2.    Spiritual Warfare is Real

Even though the Devil has been defeated, this doesn’t mean that the spiritual battle does not continue. Christians are called to overcome “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (12:11). The way we resist the Devil is by trusting in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and testifying to Him being our Saviour. Once again though, this doesn’t mean we won’t experience threats or assaults on our person. Some will even face the prospect of death but we must love Jesus more than our own lives.

3.    Be Joyful and also Prepared

As Christians we live in between two worlds. On the one hand, we know that Jesus has won and that our ultimate victory through Him is assured. And so we can rightly rejoice! But on the other hand, we know that our enemy the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Our enemy is “filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (12:12b). This reality should sober us to the prospect that we will suffer in all kinds of ways simply because of our connection to Jesus.

Our Protection is Guaranteed (12:13-17)

In some ways, we might expect the passage to end there but thankfully it doesn’t. The final section in Revelation 12 deals with the assurance of God’s nourishment and protection during our times of trial.

Once again, this is portrayed symbolically through the image of the woman being given wings to fly away from the assaults of the dragon. This metaphor involving the “protecting wings of deliverance” is something which the LORD has repeatedly done for His people as recorded in Scripture (see Exod. 19:4-6; Deut. 32:10-11; Ps. 91:4-11). What’s more, she is also provided with a place in the desert in which to hide during the period of persecution.[11]

The dragon further responds by spewing forth water “to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent”. In the LORD’s sovereign providence though, the earth opens its mouth and consumes the water so that the woman and her offspring are protected (Isa. 43:2). This only further enrages the dragon, and he goes off to make war against the followers of Jesus who are scattered throughout the world.

Remembering The 21…

How should one understand and apply all of these precious, and also profound, spiritual truths to ourselves today? Well, firstly, we should remember and reflect on the tragic incident of the twenty-one Christians who were murdered in Lybia by Islamic militants in 2015. Their witness is an especially precious one which has been powerfully portrayed in a recent video called “The 21”. In just over one year this video has been viewed over three million times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwPQqkeeCTg

Even though the men were bribed with food and money, then beaten, tortured and threatened with death by beheading to enounce their faith in Jesus none of them did.[12] Their example is a wonderful illustration of what John writes in Revelation 12:11:

‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.’

Some reading these words may be called to endure a similar test. Christian persecution is always present in the world and is becoming more prevalent in the West. However, believers suffer in all kinds of ways. Our battle is against the world, the flesh and the Devil and this will take many, many different forms.[13]

For some believers, it will mean enduring an extremely difficult marriage. For others, the pain of a rebellious and wayward child. Whereas for others, the uncertain prognosis regarding their physical health, and then still others, financial pressures and career uncertainty. What every single believer in Jesus has in common is the hope that Jesus is Lord. That our Saviour has provided the perfect satisfaction for sin as well as conquered death and the Devil. Since this is so, we no longer have anything to fear for we are no longer slaves but have been set free (Heb. 2:14-15).

The contents of Revelation 12 then are clearly central to the message of Easter. Our sin has been atoned for and our future with Christ is assured. This good news (Gospel) is a much-needed message for the people of God, especially when we face persecution but also in all kinds of sufferings and trials. Since the Lord Jesus has defeated the Devil, we have nothing more to fear. As George Whitefield once said in a sermon:

I have often sat down with wonder and delight, and admired how God made the very schemes which his enemies contrived, in order to hinder, become the most effectual means to propagate his gospel…The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head. Fear not men. Be not too much cast down at the deceitfulness of your hearts. Fear not devils; you shall get the victory even over them. The Lord Jesus has engaged to make you more than conquerors over all.[14]

– Mark Powell

[1] Greg Beale, Commentary on Revelation, 862.

[2] This is indeed what the Roman Catholic church does and uses this to support their developed doctrine of ‘Mariology’. The imagery cannot be pressed too far though since the woman is also described as having “offspring” and the Church of Rome teaches that Mary always remained a virgin and did not have any more children (contra Matt. 1:25).

[3] For an excellent over view of this subject see The Seed of Promise: The Sufferings and Glory of the Messiah. Edited by Paul R. Williamson & Rita F. Cefalu (GlossaHouse, 2020).

[4] William Hendrickson, More Than Conquerors (Baker, 1967), 135; G. B. Caird, The Revelation of Saint John (Hendrickson, 1966), “The woman is the mother of the Messiah, not Mary, but the messianic community. This John makes abundantly clear now by a verbal echo of a prophecy about mother Zion (Isa. Lxvi. 7-9), and later by speaking of the members of the church as ‘the rest of her children’ (xii. 17). She is the Jerusalem above who is our mother (Gal. iv. 26).” 149.

[5] Leon Morris, Revelation (Eerdmans, 1987), 153; Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened: The Message of Revelation (IVP, 1975). “The woman’s identity has already been touched on. She is not simply Mary, the actual mother of Jesus; nor Mary’s ancestress Eve, whose offspring was to be the serpent’s great enemy (Gen. 3:15); nor even all mothers in the chosen line between them. For regarded as a ‘sign’, she is adorned with the splendour of the sun, moon, and twelve stars, which in a parallel Old Testament dream (Josephe’s in Gen. 37:9-11) represent the whole family of Israel. What is more, she continues to exists even after Christ’s ascension, and lives on from ‘one thousand two hundred and sixty days’, the whole period of church history from his first coming to his second.” 118-119.

[6] Kenneth L. Gentry, The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation. Volume 2: Revelation 10-22 (Chalcedon, 2024), 1003-1004.

[7] Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened, 118.

[8] Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened, 118.

[9] Leon Morris, Revelation, 143.

[10] Douglas F. Kelly, Revelation (Christian Focus, 2012). Kelly makes the following insightful and helpful observation: “The famous New Testament scholar, Oscar Cullman, said that the continuing battle of the devil against the Christian church can be compared to the action of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis after D-Day. On D-Day, the allies stormed into Normandy, where Hitler’s armies had made a last stand. My father was in the troops that landed at Normandy. At the mercy of the Lord he lived through it, although it had been so rough it was clear he did not like to discuss it. At the loss of considerable life on our side, the Germans were already in principle, defeated. World War II was all but over. Many of Hitler’s top generals and admirals begged him to come to an accommodation with the allies, to make some kind of peace treaty to keep Germany from being destroyed. Yet Hitler, despite knowing he was defeated and that the Russians were pushing in on the other side, like the evil one here, he kept on fighting to the last.” 227.

[11] This is similar to the events surround God’s prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 17 and 19 during the reign of wicked Israelite King Ahad.

[12] There is some confusion as to whether one of the men named ‘Matthew’ (who was from Ghana) was already a Christian when he was abducted or became a Christian through the courageous witness of his fellow Christian captives. See the following article for more details. https://web.archive.org/web/20170825205726/http://www.bosnewslife.com/35141-african-man-turns-to-christ-moments-before-beheading#comments

[13] For instance, the Lord Jesus informed the Christians in the church at Smyrna, “…the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Rev. 2:10.

[14] Quoted in Richard Bewes, The Lamb Wins! (Christian Focus, 2000), 83.