Pilgrim's for God's Glory

Revelation 12:3-4 ESV

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.

I remember having a conversation with a man who plainly asked me, “Did God create everything?” and I responded, “Well, yes, of course God created and continues to create everything.” So, he then asked further, “So does that mean that God created the devil?” Once again, I said, “Yes, because God created everything, that means that He too created the devil.”

Then he probed in even further as he asked, “Does God know all things, long before they even happen?” And I replied, “Indeed, God knows all things, long before they ever happen.” So, he asked, “Then did God know, before He ever created the devil, that he would rebel against Him and be utterly opposed to Him for eternity?” To which I responded, “Yes, God knew before He ever created the devil that he would rebel against Him.”

He then asked, “Does God hold all power and is therefore able to alter that which comes to pass if He pleases to do so?” To which I responded, “Yes, God holds all power, and He can do as He pleases, including altering history if that is what He so chooses to do.”

So, then the man plainly asked me, “If God knew that the devil would be opposed to Him before He ever created him, and if God has the power to alter history according to His own good pleasure, why then did He proceed with creating the devil?” to which I responded, “For His own glory…”

These are all things that we cannot fully comprehend or understand, even if we lived a thousand years and consistently buried our noses in the Bible and other theological works.

These are those things that we must leave to the secret counsel of God and conclude that because God only does that which will result in His own glory, then even the opposition that God receives from the devil and God’s ultimate, final victory over him are not things that are outside of God’s control but are things that He has ordained for His own glory.

And today, as we continue to work through our series of messages from Revelation, chapter 12, verses 1-6, we see the continued rebellion of Satan, of those angels who followed after him, and the world system that God has for reasons unknown to us, allowed to be under the direct influence and authority of Satan.

And most of all, we will talk about the worship that we as the elect people of God should emulate towards God due to the fact that He has graciously ensured that we are not among those who are in rebellion against Him.

So, let’s go ahead and start to unpack our reading.

We see right away, in the beginning of verse 3, what was already stated in verse 1 of this chapter, where we read:

Revelation 12:3a ESV

3a And another sign appeared in heaven:

This is another sign which appeared in heaven… Now, like we said when we were expositing the first verse of chapter 12, saying that this sign appeared in heaven means that the vision has its origins in heaven, or it comes through the inspiration of God.

And saying that this is another sign in connection with chapter 12, verses one and two means that this, is in a sense, repeating what was already said, but from a different perspective.

While verses 1 and 2 speak of the great struggle that God’s elect people endure while on earth from a physical perspective, verses 3-6 speak of it from a more spiritual perspective.

And we read of what God had revealed to John the Apostle in the second half of verse 3, where we read:

Revelation 12:3b ESV

3b behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.

Now what we have to remember here is that what John sees here is indicative of a more comprehensible reality, just like the last two sermons speaking of the woman was representative of the people of God, so it is here. The dragon, the heads, the horns, and the diadems all represent something more comprehensible to us.

John, I believe literally saw a woman, a dragon, and so forth, but these things that he saw were indicative of a reality that is more comprehensible when interpreted through prophetic light.

You see, the book of Revelation is a prophetic book, and this is the language of prophecy, for oftentimes prophecies speak of realities through figurative language.

And it is no different here, for while John sees a dragon here, it is not a literal dragon who poses a threat, but it is he who personifies a dragon, and who has the characteristics of a dragon; namely Satan himself.

In describing Satan, John says that he is great, which means that God has, through His most holy and wise counsel decided to grant Satan with much power. In fact, much more power than He has granted to most other spiritual beings.

In describing what he sees, John not only says that what he sees is great, but he also says that it is red. The color red suggests Satan’s murderous and destructive character. So, what we see being described is that Satan is powerful, murderous, and destructive.

John also identifies Satan with a dragon. This coincides with Satan’s harmful nature. So, Satan is powerful, he is murderous, he is destructive, and his whole purpose and desire is to harm what God has created due to his God-hating nature.

The great red dragon that John sees also has seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadems.

Now, those terms; heads, horns, and diadems, biblically speaking, these words all represent power. So, in describing the dragon as having heads, horns, and diadems, we can know that it is describing the devil holding power here in the world.

The other interesting thing that we see about these heads, horns, and diadems are the numbers that are associated with them: 7, 10, and 7. Now to us, numbers typically don’t have a whole lot of significance, to us, we usually see numbers as simply being numbers. But biblically speaking, numbers have loads of significance.

Now, these two numbers especially, the numbers 7 and 10 have tons of meaning attached to them biblically speaking. The number 7 in the Bible signifies completeness, and the number 10 in the Bible signifies authority.

So, because this dragon is in fact Satan, and because associated with the power that God has given to Satan are the numbers 7 and 10 which signify completeness and authority, we know that in God’s unsearchable wisdom, He has temporarily given Satan complete power and authority over the world as we know it.

For this reason, the Bible calls the devil, the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the prince of this world, the ruler of this world, and several other titles.

Thus, we see that God has, with reasoning higher and loftier than our reasoning, temporarily given the devil rule over the world as we know it. And all so that God’s glory will be made manifest.

But the devil, naturally being an anointed cherub, didn’t come alone. He brought some other spiritual beings with him. We see this in the first part of verse 4, where we read:

Revelation 12:4a ESV

4a His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.

What John sees in this vision is this great red dragon taking his tail and sweeping one third of the stars in the skies and causing them to fall from the skies and come down to the earth.

This is what John sees, but what it represents is what is written in the sixth verse of Jude’s epistle where he speaks of angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling.

This describes Satan’s original rebellion against God and the angels that he convinced to join him in his rebellion, who we know today as fallen angels, or demons.

In God’s unsearchable wisdom, for His own glory, He allowed the devil to seduce a great number of angels, one third of the total number of angels in heaven so that they would follow him, and they now are in allegiance with Satan, the “god of this world” and they now serve him as his demons, doing his bidding on earth.

Thus, every time we read in the Scriptures about a demon or an evil spirit, what it is referring to is one of these fallen angels that the devil has convinced to join him, symbolized here in our reading as the dragon casting them to earth with his tail.

But though God has, for reasons not completely known to us, allowed the devil to rule as the prince of this world, God also has a plan to take the world back and establish it as the new heavens and earth, according to His own purposes.

But Satan, naturally hating God as he does, seeks to thwart God’s plan, not so much because he thinks that he can then put a stop to God’s plan and purpose, but because he has that utter, uncontrollable hatred for God that persists, though it makes no sense.

And so, we see in the very last part of our reading, the resistance that Satan has to God’s plan and purpose, where it says:

Revelation 12:4b ESV

4b And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

Last week we spoke about this woman, who represents the chosen people of God and her pregnancy. How that pregnancy was indicative of God’s purpose to bring His Messiah into the world in order to make atonement for His people.

And we said that the labor pains and agony that this woman, or the people of God experienced was the various persecutions that were brought upon the people of God in an attempt to thwart God’s plan.

Now here we see yet another attempt to do this on the part of the devil.

Satan most certainly could not prevent the Christ from coming to the world, that was God’s plan and therefore it was certainly accomplished. But as I said, that didn’t stop the devil’s determination to persecute the people of God in an attempt to thwart God’s plan.

Now, when we look at the life of Jesus on this world, we see that that was most certainly the case. We read of Satan influencing Herod at the birth of Christ so that he ordered the slaying of every child in Bethlehem under the age of two years. Since that didn’t work, he influenced the enemies of Christ to oppose Him, especially among the Pharisees and the other religious leaders of that day.

But even that did not put a stop to God’s plan, so the devil finally influenced these same religious leaders to crucify God’s Messiah, thinking that that would throw a great big monkey wrench into God’s plan, but even that did not work in that the crucifixion of Christ is now what makes the people of God’s salvation possible.

But as I said, it isn’t just God who the devil persecutes, he hates everything about God, including those who have been saved by Him. Therefore, he hates and persecutes us, the chosen people of God as well.

But because God’s plan cannot be squelched or thwarted, the attacks of the devil are ultimately to no avail as through us, the people of God, God always wins!

Beloved, we can, and we should take comfort in the fact that God always wins! This world will not always be the way that it is today, for one glorious day, the Lord of glory will appear, making all things new. And He will ensure that we as His people will overcome and persevere through every obstacle so that we too can experience that glory.

Take the utmost comfort in that promise today.

Amen?