Revelation 12: The Woman & the Dragon

• v.1-6 The Woman & the Dragon
• v.7-9 War in Heaven
• v.10-12 The kingdom comes with Christian believers
• v.13-17 Satan wages war against Jews & Christians

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v.1-6 The Woman & the Dragon

v.1 A great 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.

v.2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

v.3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.

v.4 Its 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 it might devour her child the moment he was born.

v.5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” [Psa 2:9] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

v.6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

[Note: A special woman appears and she is about to give birth. A dragon appears and it brings down a third of the angels from heaven and waits to kill the child [see Herod Mt 2:16], a baby who will be a king, who eventually is taken to heaven. The woman flees into the world for protection for 3½ years – see earlier.]

v.7-9 War in Heaven

v.7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

v.8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.

v.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.

[Note: Good angels fight bad angels [the third] and Satan is cast out of heaven and he and the demons [fallen angels] are cast down on earth.]

v.10-12 The kingdom comes with Christian believers

v.10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

v.11 They triumphed over 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.

v.12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.”

[Note: A heavenly declaration– salvation has come and the saints now triumph over Satan and there is glory in heaven, but strife on the earth as Satan leads unbelievers – see 1 Jn 5:19.]

v.13-17 Satan wages war against Jews & Christians

v.13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

v.14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.

v.15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.

v.16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.

v.17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

[Note: Satan persecutes the Jews but they are protected for a set period. He seeks to sweep away the Jews – ?the Holocaust but the earth swallows up his torrent of hatred – ?Second World War. Satan wages war against all believers.]

[Additional Note: In true prophetic form this apparent overview chapter comes with picture language. The only way to interpret it is to see how it lines up with what had appeared so far in history.

• the woman who bears a child has to be Israel as a people
• the child has to be Jesus who ascended to heaven
• the Dragon, Satan, the adversary seeks to thwart God’s plans and kill the baby.
• when the ‘child’ is taken back to heaven he turns his focus on persecuting the Jews. Perhaps his ultimate attempt has surely to be the holocaust and their subsequent existence is down to the Allies who triumphed in the war and eventually set up Israel in their own land again (where various wars against them subsequently have no doubt been the enemy’s ongoing activity against them.
• meanwhile he also wages war against the Christians, initially through a wave of persecutions in the first three centuries but also at subsequent times since. Such persecutions continue today in large measure around the world where, in many countries it is illegal to be a Christian believer.

We have omitted reference so far to v.7-11 the War in Heaven because this is the most speculative. How and when this occurred (?outside of time?) and if this is linked to the battle on the Cross as Christ carried our sin, is unclear. Other scriptures do give indication that Satan has power on the earth today, but only in so far as it is granted by God in accordance with His purposes.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: