The Woman and the Dragon

Revelation 12 ESV

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.

A letter from a missionary out in the jungles of New Guinea writing to his friends at home caught the nature of spiritual warfare:

“Man, it is great to be in the thick of the fight, to draw the old devil’s heaviest guns, to have him at you with depression and discouragement, slander, disease. He doesn’t waste time on a lukewarm bunch. He hits good and hard when a fellow is hitting him. You can always measure the weight of your blow by the one you get back. When you’re on your back with fever and at your last ounce of strength, when some of your converts backslide, when you learn that your most promising inquirers are only fooling, when your mail gets held up, and some don’t bother to answer your letters, is that the time to put on mourning? No, sir. That’s the time to pull out the stops and shout Hallelujah! The old devil’s getting it in the neck and hitting back. Heaven is leaning over the battlements and watching. ‘Will he stick with it?’ And as they see who is with us, as they see the unlimited reserves, the boundless resources, as they see the impossibility of failure, how disgusted and sad they must be when we run away. Glory to God! We’re not going to run away. We’re going to stand.”

Revelation 12 again gives us the announcement ‘the kingdom of God has come. Victory! The enemy has been defeated by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony!’

The Woman - Israel. Jewish offspring of Abraham. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Micah all compare Israel to a woman. We see the protection offered her in the 1260 days, the time, times and half a time. The 2nd half of the tribulation. From this character comes the Messiah. Genesis 37 is our OT reference here.

The Child - The Messiah. Jesus Christ. Verse 5 contains His earthly life. If your v5 has a comma or colon in it, there is the 33 years He lived on earth. The target of the dragon until he turns his ire on thone who are loved by the Messiah.

The Dragon - Lucifer. Satan. The adversary, accuser, enemy. Fallen from heaven.

It is said of Satan he was by creation good, by choice corrupt.

So let’s deal with him while we’re at it. His plan, like the thief in John 10:10, is to steal, kill and destroy. Anything God loves is his target. This is the reason we are told we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against “the rulers, authorities, powers of darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavens”. His desire to steal, kill and destroy YOU is why Ephesians 6 says you MUST put on the full armor of God.

Spiritual battles cannot be fought with human armor, reasoning, experience or wisdom. Spiritual battles must be fought in the power of the Holy Spirit living in you, equipping you, protected by the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the footing of the gospel, the sword of the spirit (Word of God) and the shield of faith!

The battle has come to the world, but the battlefield is prayer. Pray always in the Spirit. To get this we look back to the OT when incence was offered in the temple. It had to be mixed according to God’s plan and could not be substituted. The fire on the altar was representative of the Holy Spirit. The incense was thrown on the fire. For us to pray in the Spirit we ask Him to help us in prayer and watch Him ‘ignite’ them toward the will of God. From there we can look forward to the NT and Pentecost where power came from on high, took the form of fire and enabled Peter to stand up and speak... It is possible to pray up a lather in the flesh and never get through to God. But it is also prossible to pray quietly in the Spirit and see God’s hand do great things! Guatemala visit with parents of kid who died. George Müller - never ask man to provide what God has promised. Just pray and believe.

So battling the enemy God defines in His word requires relying on His strength, His enabling through the Holy Spirit and obeying His word.

What we see in the vision in Rev12 is against the backdrop of heaven. As in, compared to all John has seen and recorded up to this point, this spreads across it. Was John seeing it all transpiring in chronological order, as written? Not likely. Especially the hurling of the dragon to earth. Many believe this happened before creation, as the accuser, the devil tempted Eve in the garden. But we see verse 9 and the heavens rejoiced. Satan has had a measure of access to heaven, at the very least called into the presence of God from time to time. RE: Job. But when this happened doesn't change the story line. Obviously, the birth of the Messiah had happened before the vision. The battle between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his looks to be still to come. The heart of the message is a common enemy. So let me re-visit an ideal about our enemy:

We do not fight against flesh and blood. The one you are at odds with, the one who seems to be tormenting you? Not your enemy. They may be a tool of the enemy, but there is no one on this earth today, breathing God’s air, who according to John 3:16, Jesus didn't die for. So everyone you see, meet, talk to needs to hear the message of the gospel. They are not our enemy. They are souls deserving of the offer of salvation. Not everyone will believe. But everyone who is flesh and blood will spend eternity somewhere. Where may depend on what we are willing to share with them. They may not look like you, act like you, ‘be from around here’, but they are created by a God who loves them and has sent you with His message of reconciliation.

Picked up fish, June 19th