The Dragon, The Woman, Her male child
Text Revelation 12:1-5 Time 08/12/13 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
We're coming into the Christmas season and so I thought it might be good to look at something in keeping with that theme – but something less obvious. A few years ago a Roger Ellsworth book came out called Christmas Pictures. It contains five Christmas meditations and the first is on Revelation 12:1-5. As he says there, sometimes people ask what Christmas is all about and one of the answers is found in these verses. Christmas for the Christian is about Christ and how he came and particularly about how he came to redeem his people. So we can say Christmas is about redemption and this is what this passage is really all about.
You can think of Revelation 12:1-5 as a little drama with three characters. The drama represents the complete history of redemption in a very simplified from. We will begin by identifying the three characters and then move on to looking at the drama itself.
1. Consider the three important characters portrayed here
1. Consider the dragon, which points to Satan
3, 4
Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
He is the easiest to identify. It is spelled out for us later in verse 9
The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
This is Satan, then, the Devil. We don't know his history that well but it is clear that though God created perfect he rebelled and fell from heaven, taking other angels with him and so becoming God's inveterate enemy. He will ultimately be destroyed in hell but meanwhile he does what he can to oppose God and his rule.
2. Consider the Child, which points to Christ
5
She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
This is not too difficult either. This is clearly a reference to the Son of God, to the Messiah or Christ, the Lord Jesus himself. In Psalm 2 we read of God the Father and his Messiah or Anointed One. Messiah says
I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.
3. Consider the woman, which points to God's people
1, 2
A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
This is a little more difficult. Here is a woman who is both beautiful and glorious and who gives birth, crying out in pain. Satan seeks to devour her child, which we have said stands for the Christ.
Is it Mary? The language is really too extravagant for that and it must be a wider reference – to the people of God as a whole, glorious in God's sight, to whom the Son is born and that is in labour pains until that time.
So here are three characters or entities that we ought to be aware of in our thinking – Satan, the Son of God and the people of God, the church. Many people assume that there is no personal devil and that there is no Messiah and so they have no time for the idea that there is such an entity as the people of God. Those are big mistakes to make.
2. Consider the important drama presented here
As for the drama itself we learn here about a number of things.
1. Learn about Satan and his antagonism towards God's people
Everything we are told about Satan here should alert us to the fact that we have a strong and powerful foe who is bent on our destruction and the destruction of all that is dear to God. He is
2.
Consider Satan's antagonism in the Old Testament period of gestation
We
can consider the Old Testament period in at least two ways
1
Consider that time as a time of looking forward
We
read of man's fall at the hand of Satan and his temptation as early
as Genesis 3. No sooner do we hear of this than we also hear that God
has a plan to put things right in the person of his Son. Genesis 3:15
is sometimes called the protevangelium – that is the first
announcement of the gospel or as it has been put the first glimmer.
God says there to Satan
And
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his
heel.
I've
not seen Mel Gibson's Passion
of Christ but I
understand there is a scene where Christ prays in a garden and stamps
on a snake. That is a reference back to this verse, which speaks
chiefly of how Christ would defeat Satan (crush
your head)
but by dying on the
cross (you
will strike his heel).
Even
back near the beginning then it was clear that there would be
continuous enmity between Satan and his offspring and the woman and
her offspring but God says that Satan's head will be crushed by Eve's
offspring even though he himself will suffer in the process. The
story of the Old Testament is partly the story of how the Old
Testament saints from Adam and Eve on looked forward to the coming of
the Son of God who would crush Satan's Head.
2
Consider that time as a time when Satan raised great opposition
Besides
this, of course, there is also the long story of Satan's opposition
and we especially notice those times when the opposition almost
succeeds (or so it seems to us). Obvious examples would be
- Opposition before the Exodus in Egypt when Pharaoh held power. You remember how in Exodus 1 we are told of the opposition of Pharaoh to the Israelites who were his slaves. When he decreed that all the baby boys should die it was not only the nation itself that was put in grave danger but the coming of the promised Messiah. Thankfully God raised up Shiphrah and Puah the Hebrew midwives who were more than a match of Pharaoh and his wiles. Moses parents were also wise (as was their daughter Miriam) and Moses survived too and became a temporal saviour to his people in due time.
- Opposition in the time of the kings when Ataliah held power. Perhaps we are less familiar with that story from 2 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 22 and 23. if you remember it begins with Jehoram King of Judah marrying a daughter of Ahab of all people. This was Ataliah who went on to put all the sons of the king to death but one who was rescued by his mother. That one – the boy Joash - was kept hidden in the Temple for six years until it was possible to produce him again and Satan's plan was thwarted.
- Opposition in the time leading up to the exile when the Babylonians held power. This was another time when all looked grim and without hope. Interestingly the last chapter of 2 Kings (25) ends however on a word of hope (28-30) In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honour higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table. Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.
- Opposition in the time of Esther in the exile when Xerxes held power. This is another situation where the Jewish people are nearly wiped out entirely yet they live on and so the birth of Messiah is possible.
3.
Consider Satan's antagonism when Jesus Christ was born
And
it is not as though with the dawning of the New Testament period
after 400 years or so without revelation that the opposition comes to
an end. Satan doesn't decide to give up.
You
have those wonderful announcements to Zechariah and to Mary at the
beginning of Luke and to Joseph at the beginning of Matthew but the
next thing we know is that Herod is trying to deceive the wise men in
order to kill the new born king and having been foiled he launches a
violent and evil campaign inspired by that dragon Satan against all
the babies under two years of age in the Bethlehem area, hoping again
to destroy Messiah. It was Satan inspired malice.
We can learn lessons from this.
1 Satan is still a furious dragon and we need to take to ourselves the whole armour of God.
2 Satan still uses deception and violence. Expect it.
3 Never forget that Satan is not equal to God. He cannot win.
4 Remember that all God's promises are absolutely sure and are indestructible. They cannot fail.
4. Consider Satan's defeat when Jesus Christ was born
Not only did Satan not win the victory when Messiah came but he also
suffered defeat and we are left with (using Ellsworth's terms)
1 A Wonder to behold.
She gave birth to a son, a male child.
The
story of Messiah's birth is a wonderful one indeed and one that we
should never cease to wonder at. How well do you know it?
First,
Mary is told that she will give birth to a child, even though she is
a virgin. Joseph, her betrothed, is also made aware of the situation.
Far away in Rome the powerful Emperor Augustus decides on a massive
census of the whole Empire. In this census everyone will be required
to register back in their home town. The timing so transpires that
Mary is heavily pregnant when they arrive in Bethlehem, Joseph's
town and, of course, David's, and the very place it was prophesied
that Messiah would be born. There are so many people in Bethlehem
because of the census Mary and Joseph can only find shelter among the
animals and so when the baby is born he is placed in a manger. Mary
wrapped him in strips of cloth she had prepared beforehand as poor
people often did. While they are still in Bethlehem wise men from the
east arrive with precious gifts. The next thing they know they had to
flee from Herod and spend a short time in Egypt as refugees. They
eventually move to Nazareth in the north of the country where Jesus
grows up and is known as Jesus of Nazareth. We ought to know the
story. Each detail is full of significance. What a wonder that God's
own Son should be born a human being here on earth.
2
A Saviour to receive. In Luke 2:11 the angels tell the shepherds
Today
in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the
Lord.
Praise
God it is so. A Saviour, a Champion and Provider has come for us all,
one who despite Satan's efforts is the Saviour of all men and
especially of those who believe, those who put their trust in him.
Are you trusting in him tonight?
3
A Victor to admire. Back in Revelation 12 there is that reference to
Psalm 2 - who
will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.
That
little baby was weak and helpless and often Jesus seems to be meek
and mild and defenceless. He is indeed the lamb of God who lays down
his life for his own. Yet he is also the Lion of Judah, the one who
will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. No-one
can withstand him when he comes with power as he will one day soon.
4
A Ruler to whom we must submit. Finally we note how her
child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
Where
is Jesus now? He has been snatched up to the throne of God. Yes, they
put him to death. But death couldn't keep its hold on him. He was
raised from the dead and then ascended into heaven where he is now at
God's right hand praying for his own. Is he praying for you? If you
have submitted to the Lord of all then he is. You can be sure of it.
Humble yourself before him tonight. Trust in him.
