Revelation 12:1-6 The Age Old Battle

The Age Old Battle

Revelation 12:1-6 The Age Old Battle

In Revelation 11:16-18 we see a telling of the whole of history. Revelation 11:16-18 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. 18The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”[1] In the remainder of The Revelation of Jesus Christ we are going to see those statements played out to their completion. But what is interesting is that these statements and the rest of Revelation are set apart by verse 15 of chapter 11: 15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” [2] In chapters 12 -14 we will see why this comes about, why the kingdom of this world (the nations in verse 18) that has been under the sway and control of Satan has become the kingdom of God and His Christ and then chapters 15-16 tells how the kingdom is transferred. Don’t worry we will only be looking at chapter 12 today and only 6 verses of that leaving the rest for later. But in this chapter we will see a conflict that is as old as the fall itself. What is that conflict? It is the battle between evil and good. Let’s pray then we will get started.

Back in 1977 a movie was produced that was well ahead of its time as far as special effects go. It incorporated animation with blue screen technology and live action for a bigger than life theater experience. I didn’t see the movie in 1977. In fact I didn’t see the movie until after its sequel came out a few years later and I saw it first. There have now been 9 movies in the series with I believe two stand alone movies about the same subject matter along with at least one television series and an animated series. We get from that series of movies phrases like “the darkside” and R2D2, 3CPO, Luke I am your father, Long long ago in a galaxy far far away. By now you have guessed it. Though the Star Wars series have covered many characters and a few hundred years it basically has one theme. It is the same theme that most war movies and westerns have; good versus evil. We find that theme in literature and theater. It is used by the great authors JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. The battle of good versus evil is a theme that we deal with on a daily basis, whether it is on an external basis or an internal or personal level.

In chapter 12 we are going to see that theme, evil versus good, played out on a stage that is cloaked in symbolism and history. In this “drama” we will find that there is a protagonist, an antagonist and a hero which we will meet in the first six verses Let’s go ahead and read our passage for this morning. Revelation 12:1-17 1Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.[3]

There has been much written about the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a garland of twelve stars. First off we need to understand that this vision of the woman in verses 1 and 2 is a sign, a symbol representing something beyond the obvious, this is something we have seen and will continue to see in the Revelation. The Catholics and a few others believe that this is Mary the mother of Jesus. But she never fled to the wilderness, unless you consider Egypt where they fled from Herod the wilderness, so I do not agree with that designation. To be honest I do not believe the woman is a literal woman at all. Some people believe that the woman is ethnic Israel, descendants of Jacob. The problem with that interpretation is that verse 17 which we will get to later speaks of her other offspring. Some say that it is the Church but the church does not bring forth Christ. So that leaves just one alternative. The woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and crowned with 12 stars is none other than the total of the redeemed of God. Not ethnic Israel but true Israel. This will become more evident as we move through this chapter.

In verse 3 John sees another great sign, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. I will be honest in saying that I do not know why he is fiery red or why there are seven heads with royal crowns or why there are ten horns, but I do know what this dragon represents or maybe I should say who it represents. In verse 9 we will see that he is serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan. We will talk about him more in a moment but I want to get the main characters of this drama introduced first.

We have met the protagonist; the redeemed of God represented by the woman. We have also met the antagonist; Satan represented by the fiery red dragon. Now let’s meet the Hero of the story. The woman is with child and ready to deliver. She has a male child. This male child is none other than the only true Hero of history, Jesus the Christ of God.

We have met the characters now let’s see what we can learn from these verses. The woman is dressed in a fashion that would suggest royalty or being one of great importance, there is radiance and splendor in her representation and on her head is a stephanos, a victors crown (garland) with 12 stars. Last week I said something at the end of the sermon that went like this. “Value is determined by the possessor”. That is exactly what we are seeing here. God sees His redeemed people, the redeemed of the Old Testament, the redeemed of the New Testament, the redeemed now and the redeemed of the last days as beautiful and splendid, robed in the sun with radiance beyond our understanding. He sees us as victors. Now look around. Is that what you see here today? No! But that is because you are not the possessor of the redeemed of God; you are the redeemed of God. The only way that I can even come close to explaining this is from personal experience. When my wife, Raechel, walks into the room things just get brighter. There is something about the love that I have for her that radiates, she literally lights up the room for me. No one sees my wife quite the way I see her. That is the way God sees His redeemed people. He sees His redeemed through eyes of perfect love. And from His people came the Messiah, the Christ of God.

But Satan represented by the dragon is there to destroy the Christ of God. From the description we have of him, sweeping a third of the stars from heaven to the earth, he would appear to be powerful enough to do that. Some people believe this is a depiction of when Satan led a rebellion against God and drew 1/3 of the angels after him in the rebellion. That could be the case and I will not attempt to dispute it; it is plausible. But whether this is a characterization of that event or not it is a pretty good description of his power. And the fact that he wants to devour the child, our Hero Jesus, is well documented throughout history. We could start back in Genesis. In Genesis 3 God promised One would come and crush the head of the serpent (fiery red dragon). So what did Satan do? He incited one son of Adam and Eve to kill the other son in an attempt to stop the Redeemer from even coming into the world. But God gave Adam and Eve another son, Seth, to bring forth the Redeemer. We can follow history and see this over and over again. God promised the Redeemer would come through Israel’s son Judah. But Judah’s oldest son did and Judah would not let his daughter in law, Tamar, have his son to produce a child from his oldest son (most likely incited by Satan). So God provided a son through Judah’s sin with his daughter in law to being forth a progenitor to the Christ of God. You can go back and read all of that in Genesis 38. Satan is hard at work throughout history to prevent the Redeemer from coming into the world. I could give you more from the Old Testament but when we get to the New Testament we find King Herod trying to kill Jesus by murdering the children in Bethlehem. We of course cannot forget the 40 days of fasting in the wilderness when Satan tempted Jesus seeking to turn Him away from doing His Father’s will. Then there was the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The Pharisees tried to stone Him but He walked right through the crowd. In His home town they tried to throw Him off a cliff but again He walked right through them. The Dragon, Satan, made every attempt to destroy the Child born of the redeemed of God to be their Redeemer. Satan was determined to destroy this Child because He was the One who would come and rule the nations with rod of iron shattering Satan’s rule and reign over the kingdom of this world that we saw in Revelation 11:15. Like last week we could go back to Psalm 2 to see this borne out in that Messianic prophecy.

However the Dragon could not overcome this Child born to be the Redeemer of the redeemed. Though this passage does not go through the life and ministry of Jesus obviously He accomplished His task of redemption and is taken up to God to be seated on His throne. We know that He is there making intercession for the redeemed of God.

Remember our Hero in the drama is making intercession for the redeemed of God in the presence of God the Father as the redeemed of God flees to the wilderness where she is cared for throughout the duration of the struggles. Notice that she is not taken to a palace or a garden or some beautiful city but to the wilderness where she is cared for 1260 days. Some people believe that this is referring to the last 3 ½ years before Christ returns to take His people home. And it could be just referring to that time and if so we know that this caring for the redeemed is God protecting His people from His wrath, the wrath the people of the earth will experience. But I tend to think that since this is all signs or symbols then perhaps it has something for us today instead of just being for the future.

What happens in the wilderness? Struggles, trials, tribulations, that’s what happens. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness God was forming them into the nation He wanted them to be. The redeemed of God are living in the wilderness right now being conformed into the image of our Hero, Christ. We have it pretty good in this wilderness right now but we still do have struggles, trials, and tribulations (think pandemic, election problems, riots, finances). But as the redeemed of God we are cared for, or as verse 7 says we are fed for the duration of our struggles, trials and tribulations. What was it that Jesus told His disciple? John 16:33 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”[4] And what did Paul tell the Philippians in Philippians 4:19? 19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. [5] Clearly in this wilderness Christ has overcome the world from whence our tribulations come and God will provide for His redeemed through His riches in glory, not by our own good works but by the work of Christ Jesus who is seated on the throne.

We are going to stop here this morning but we will finish chapter 12 next week. So the remaining time we have I want to look at what we have learned today that can give us encouragement for today. Like I said when we started our look at the Revelation and like I repeated just a moment ago; this book was written as prophecy indeed, it says so right in the beginning. But this letter or book also has application, especially in the form of encouragement for the church throughout the ages. So what can we draw out of this passage today that encourages us to continue in this word of evil?

First: There is indeed an ageless battle of evil against good. Notice how I said that; evil against good. When I was describing it earlier with the movies and literature I said “the battle of good against evil”. We as believers do somewhat have to do battle against evil but God does not. Evil, Satan, expends an endless amount of energy seeking to unseat or dethrone God. But God (Good) just continues on with His will which thwarts Satan at every turn. How does that encourage us? Followers of Christ do not battle for victory but from a position of victory. We are more than conquerors, victory is already achieved.

Second: God always sees His redeemed people in the glory that He has given them by clothing them in the righteousness of Christ. I have told this story before but I used to believe that when God looks at me He sees rot, evil, a stinking mass of filth and He only saved me because He said that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord would be saved. That thought changed when a friend of mine corrected me. He told me the truth. When God looks at me He sees the blood of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.[6] God sees His redeemed as beautiful, robed in the righteousness of Christ.

Third: Satan wants so desperately to dethrone Jesus, to devour Him if possible. But Jesus is seated at the right hand of God on His throne making intercession for the redeemed of God whom He redeemed. Hebrews 7:24-25 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.[7]

And finally, fourth: Though we do indeed live in the wilderness of trials, tribulations and hardship we are cared for until He is finished. That does not mean that we do not have trials, tribulations and hardships but it does mean that our Redeemer has overcome the world and the world’s king (Satan) who brings our trials, tribulations and hardships and God provides our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, our Hero. Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 11:16–18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 11:15). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 12:1–17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 16:33). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[5] The New King James Version. (1982). (Php 4:19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[6] The New King James Version. (1982). (2 Co 5:21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[7] The New King James Version. (1982). (Heb 7:24–25). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.