Revelation 12 - Disappointed Dragon
It's often when things look hopeless to us that God's power appears the greatest.
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Revelation 12 (ESV)
1 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.
3 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.
5 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,
6 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.
7 Now war arose in heaven,
Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon and his angels fought back,
8 but he was defeated,
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was thrown down,
that ancient serpent,
who is called
the devil
and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—
he was thrown down
to the earth,
and his angels were thrown down with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
“Now
the
salvation
and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ have come,
for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,
who accuses them day and night before our God.
11 And they have conquered him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
for they loved not their lives even unto death.
12 Therefore,
rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!
But woe to you, O earth and sea,
for the devil has come down to you in great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short!”
13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth,
he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle
so that she might fly from the serpent
into the wilderness,
to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.
15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman,
to sweep her away with a flood.
16 But the earth came to the help of the woman,
and the earth
opened its mouth
and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.
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.
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Revelation 12 Summary
So far the first half of the Apocalypse (Revelation) has been about the conflict between the Church and the world. The first of the seven perspectives of Christ's victory showed His concern for the Church in the letters He wrote to us. In the next perspective, we saw how the slain Lamb was the only one worthy to open the sealed scroll containing God's plan of salvation. The third perspective showed seven trumpets sounded to warn all people of God's coming judgment. All of these perspectives, which tell of the same events, ended with Christ sitting down on the throne in victory.
As the second half of Revelation begins here in chapter 12, the language & symbolism gets more and more fantastic and hard to even imagine. As the complications and details add up, it is critically important for you to keep the overall theme of Revelation in mind: The Victory of the Christ & His Church over the Dragon & his Helpers.