The Dragon

We are at war.

We are in a war that began when the world began. A war that began between a woman and a serpent. God had created a world of goodness out of the darkness. Out of the depths of the chaotic nothingness, God created a world of order. He created a man named ADAM (which is the Hebrew word for humanity. and a woman named Heva, or as we might say “eve” which is hebrew word for life. And god told this woman named life and this man named humanity to continue his creative work in the world. Tend to God’s creation. Cultivate it. Continue to create, and bring goodness into it. Bring order and light to the world.

But the Serpent. He was an agent of chaos and death. The exact opposite of goodness and order. He deceived Life and humanity. And at that moment the war had begun.

But it wasn’t a war between the serpent and God. God created the serpent. God had power over the serpent. God cursed the serpent. The serpent was no match for God. So who exactly was this serpent at war with?

After life and humanity were expelled from God’s perfect Garden, the impact of the sin and destruction that the serpent had sown within them was evident. God said to one of the sons of life and humanity:

Genesis 4:7 NET 2nd ed.

Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.”

No the war wasn’t one waged by the serpent against God. It was one waged against life and humanity and all of their descendants.

And as you read through this book, all throughout the history of the descendants of Life and Humanity this serpent creeps up. Almost as a reminder of who is pulling the strings behind all the death and chaos in the world.

Sometimes he shows up as literal actual snakes. Moses encounters God. And God displays his power and authority over the serpent. He turns moses’ staff into a snake, and back into a serpent again.

Albeit the magicians of pharaoh, who were in line with the serpent held that same power too. But it was no match for the power and authority of God.

God delivered them from Pharaoh, the agent of death and Chaos. He redeemed them. But it wasn’t long before the sin that the serpent had sown within their hearts lead them astray again.

At one point in Numbers 21, God actually turned them over to actual serpents.

In other places in the Bible the serpent shows up in more subtle ways.

When David fought Goliath, the mighty giant is described as having armor made of “bronze scales”.

Interestingly enough the Hebrew word for Serpent is Nahash. And the Hebrew word for Bronze is Nahosh. Bronze scales. Serpent scales.

Ever so slight of a reminder that the deceiver from the garden is still lurking around, waging war on God’s creation. And a not so subtle reminder that ultimately, God has power over it.

Other times the serpent shows up as a king, or a ruler, or a leader. In describing the king of Babylon the prophet Jeremiah says:

Jeremiah 8:17 NET 2nd ed.

The Lord says, “Yes indeed, I am sending an enemy against you that will be like poisonous snakes that cannot be charmed away. And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.”

God turned them over to the serpent Babylon. And when the proper time had come God destroyed Babylon. Yet again displaying his power over the serpent.

But here’s the tragedy of this book. The serpent is not at war with God. He’s at war with life and humanity.

And the story of the Old testament is a story of how time and time again life and humanity were called upon by God to wage war against the serpent. And time and time again not only did we fail to wage war with him, we joined forces with him. Time and time again, God would allow the serpent to strike at life and humanity. Time and time again we would cry out for God to save us from the beast. And he would. And then the cycle would continue. Again, and again, and again.

No matter what happened we failed to slay the serpent.

Yet all the while, throughout this history, God kept leaving hints that a time would come when he would end the war, he would defeat the serpent once and for all. That one day, life and humanity would be free from the agent of chaos and death.

Genesis 3:15 NET 2nd ed.

And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Through the prophet Isaiah he said

Isaiah 11:8 NET 2nd ed.

A baby will play over the hole of a snake; over the nest of a serpent an infant will put his hand.

This is God saying, that snake, that serpent, as powerful as he may be there’s going to come a day when he is so weak, so powerless that a baby will be able to pick him up and play with him like a doll.

And in chapter 27 of Isaiah, God says

Isaiah 27:1 NET 2nd ed.

At that time the Lord will punish with his destructive, great, and powerful sword Leviathan the fast-moving serpent, Leviathan the squirming serpent; he will kill the sea monster.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. This serpent. This snake you’ve been picturing. If you have a picture of a little garden snake in your mind? Or the kind of snake who’s susceptible to a shovel to the head. That’s not it.

This serpent is more akin to a monster. A Leviathan. A dragon of the chaotic sea. The kind of thing legends are written about.

This is the expectation that the old testament sets up for us.

The Dragon

And as we close the pages of the Old testament and we enter into the New Testament we’re left just begging for a resolution. Sure the people of Israel have been allowed to go back home, sure they’ve re-built their temple, sure they’re re-discovering the law, and growing in their process of reconciling with God.

But the dragon’s still out there.

The beast is still lurking.

The war against Life and Humanity is still raging on.

And we open our New Testament.

We read Luke chapter 2. It tells us a story about a baby being born. It tells a story about some shepherds, out in the fields, on a quiet night.

Luke 2:8

Luke 2:8–12 NET 2nd ed.

Now there were shepherds nearby living out in the field, keeping guard over their flock at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were absolutely terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! Listen carefully, for I proclaim to you good news that brings great joy to all the people: Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”

You know the story. Then the rest of the angels show up and they praise God. And then the shepherd go and find the child.

I want someone to do me a favor. Somebody read verse 13 and 14, and I want you to tell me exactly who it is who shows up to sing praises to God. Word for word who is it that shows up?

Luke 2:13–14 ESV

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

A multitude of the heavenly hosts.

Does anybody know what the word “host” means?

In the Old testament over and over, God is described as the “Lord of Hosts”

The word means “army”

These aren’t just any angels showing up to make an announcement. These are the armies of God, showing up to let people know that the final phase in the war between satan and humanity had begun.

Because while the peaceful navity scene was happening on earth, this is what was going on in the spiritual realms.

Revelation 12:1–2 NET 2nd ed.

Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth.

Revelation 12:3–4 NET 2nd ed.

Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.

The hard part about the book of revelation is that a lot of the time the symbols that are used often play double and sometimes even triple duty.

But I will say that more often than not they are looking back to the rest of the Bible, and tying the entire story of God’s word together.

The woman, the one giving life, and facing off with the dragon, the ancient serpent, immediately calls us back to the Garden.

It’s the same battle that started the whole thing.

But the language that’s used, the 12 stars, and the sun and the moon, this is also a call back to Genesis 37, when Joseph has a vision of the sun and the moon and the stars, bowing down to him.

so this woman also stands in to represent the nation of Israel, the people who were set apart to bring life into the world.

Both of these, as we see in the Bible, both of these had tried, and failed, and ultimately succumbed to the serpent.

But this woman giving birth, crying out in labor pains, also calls us to Mary. The one giving birth in Bethlehem.

And the dragon is displaying his might and his power. He knows that every single person who came before this was devoured by sin and death, and this one, he though, would be no different.

Every single descendant, every single aspect of Life and humanity had thus far been prey to the dragon. He devoured them all.

Revelation 12:5–6 NET 2nd ed.

So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days.

This one was different. This time was different.

Unannounced to the serpent, God had initiated a rescue mission. A mission to go deep behind enemy lines, and save those who were ruled over by death and chaos. And not only that, but to defeat the serpent who humanity had been unable to prevail against.

Operation restoration had begun.

Revelation 12:7-9

Revelation 12:7–9 NET 2nd ed.

Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels. So that huge dragon—the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world—was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him.

In the ultimate showdown between good and evil, Satan has met his match in the heavenly realms, and is cast down to the earth. He’s prepared to wreak havoc on the battleground that he is most familiar with.

Revelation 12:10 NET 2nd ed.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down.

At this point it seems as though the problem of sin and death hasn’t been removed, it’s just been re-routed.

But then the voice from heaven says.

Revelation 12:11 NET 2nd ed.

But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

From the point of view of the hosts of heaven, the battle was already over before it even began.

Once God himself comes into the picture, it’s not a question of IF the dragon is defeated. It’s no longer a question of IF the war will tip in the favor of life and humanity.

-God came down to finish it once and for all.

-and when God steps in, he wins. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

The entire rest of the book of Revelation is an epic description of the Battle. The serpent recruits other beasts and creatures to do his bidding, he does the thing he’s always done where he recruits soldiers to be on his side, only to subject them to the death and chaos that he’s so familiar with.

Until we get to chapter 19.

Revelation 19-20

Revelation 19:11–14 NET 2nd ed.

Then I saw heaven opened and here came a white horse! The one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice he judges and goes to war. His eyes are like a fiery flame and there are many diadem crowns on his head. He has a name written that no one knows except himself. He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God. The armies that are in heaven, dressed in white, clean, fine linen, were following him on white horses.

Revelation 19:19–20 NET 2nd ed.

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to do battle with the one who rode the horse and with his army. Now the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf—signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur.

Revelation 20:1–2 NET 2nd ed.

Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain. He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan—and tied him up for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:7–10 NET 2nd ed.

Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever.

For some of us this time of year is a joyous occasion. But that’s not always true for everyone. For some of us this time of year brings up more hurt than it does Joy. Hurt from loved ones who won’t be at the table this year. Hurt from disease, addiction, death, and all of the things that just make the whole season feel…difficult.

I need you to know, that what you’re experiencing is the serpent, slowly trying to drag you away. Trying to get you to give up. Trying to get you to side with him.

But I also need you to know that I’ve read the end of the book. I know how it ends. That chaos and death is defeated.

On that night in Bethlehem, as our Lord lay in the manger, as the shepherd gathered round him. the angels rejoiced, because they knew that from this point on the battle had already been won.

The dragon has been slain.

The war is over.