Revelation 12: The Woman, Her Offspring, and the Dragon

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The Woman, Her Offspring and the Dragon

Revelation 12

Introduction: It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that our world is filled with chaos. Of course, that is nothing new. History demonstrates all the same types of immorality, corruption, and power struggles that we have today. As the Preacher said in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.” John summarized it as, “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:16). 

Sometimes we read the news and are simply amazed and appalled, but Revelation 12 gives the answer.

Our approach to the text will be to understand the story and then go back and understand how we fit into this message.

1. A Great Sign (1-6)
   1. It is not difficult to identify the players in this vision: the Woman is good, the Dragon is bad, and Jesus is the child she bears. The Dragon tries to kill the child and the woman flees into the wilderness to survive the persecution of the Dragon. 
   2. Let’s  clarify who this woman is. 
      1. Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This first prophecy of the Bible indicated the battle between the “woman” and her offspring against the Serpent and his offspring. The woman would produce a male child who would crush the head of the Serpent.
      2. Micah 4:9-10; 5:1-4 identifies the woman as the nation of Israel in the state of apostasy but eventually a remnant producing a King who will rule and restore the nation to the Lord.
         1. Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor? Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. (Micah 4:9–10)
         2. “Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.” (Micah 5:1–3)
      3. With that background, we can identify the woman as the faithful remnant of the Israel nation who go through suffering, but eventually produce the King who will rule all the nations. The offspring of the woman are those who she produces that are also faithful to the Lord. As we see in verse 17, we today are included in her offspring. 
   3. Let’s also note the descriptive details of both the woman and the Dragon.
      1. The woman appears as one who is greatly exalted, clothed with the sun and the moon and a crown of 12 stars. 
      2. The Dragon has a quite different description.
         1. Seven heads would indicate great intelligence
         2. Ten horns, great power
         3. Seven diadems indicate great authority. Note that a diadem is different from a “crown.” Diadems show that he has been granted power and authority while a crown the woman was victorious. We saw this in the letters to the churches. In comparison, Jesus is pictured as having many diadems in 19:12. 
2. War Arose in Heaven (7-11)
   1. The first thing we need to be aware of in this text is that there are two realms: the heavenly and the earthly. The first statement is, “Now war arose in heaven.” This brings up some questions:
      1. When did this war begin? In terms of “time” this certainly is not a recent war. This war began in the Garden and was described by the Lord in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring…” The Garden is likely the beginning point of Satan’s rebellion. In fact, when Jesus spoke about Satan he said, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth…for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). 
      2. Why is this war taking place? Over what is the battle being waged? The answer is fairly obvious from Genesis 3:15 and from our text:
         1. First, the battle is over this earthly realm. Satan basically proclaimed victory when he tempted Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world: “To you, I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours” (Luke 4:6). Satan is desiring to be the supreme God, especially over this earthly domain, with the Creator even bowing down to him.
         2. Second, the battle is over us. But do not misunderstand. Satan is not trying to “win us over to his side.” Satan wants to destroy us. When God promised man glory, honor, and dominion over the earthly realm and warned man that if he ate the tree he would die, Satan immediately tempted Adam and Eve so they would die and lose the promise. Therefore, battle on! God is saving man and his promised plan from before the foundation of the world.
   2. To further confirm the meaning of the battle, consider the outcome in verse 10: “the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before out God.” Satan knew that God’s justice must prevail and man’s own sin must condemn him.
   3. Therefore, the description of Satan “cast down from heaven,” is talking about his loss of power over man and this earthly realm (Cf. Isaiah 14:12). The authority of Jesus has come. 
   4. The result in verse 11 is that we now have power to battle the dragon. He can no longer accuse us or conquer us because “we overcome him by…” 
      1. The blood of the Lamb (we have redemption from our sins!)
      2. The word of our testimony, loving not our lives even to death – we are following the path of the Lamb to victory. 
   5. What is left for Satan? His time is short. His judgment is coming. Therefore his remaining time to make one last effort to destroy the offspring of the woman before all his power is gone. If he can destroy God’s new creation, that is, if he can do to us what he tried to do with Job – get us to compromise and admit that God is not worthy to be loved for who he is, and that God is selfish and holding out on us – then Satan can still win; he will have proven his argument to God about Job. This is by the will of God –– God uses Satan’s final efforts as a test of our faithfulness and love for him.
3. Pursuing the Woman and Her Offspring (13-17)
   1. First notice that the Dragon has lost a major part of his power. 
      1. His threats of death no longer carry weight with us. Jesus has the keys of death and Hades. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:8, 14, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed…knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” 
      2. He can no longer accuse us before God for our sins because we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
      3. He can no longer entice us with worldly pleasures, diverting our attention away from our one and only goal of glorifying God because “we do not love our lives even unto death!” 
      4. He can no longer dangle sin before our eyes expecting us to salivate over the possibilities of living for fleshly desires because we have found pleasure and joy with God that is unmatched by anything Satan can offer.
   2. The Lord protects the woman and her offspring: 
      1. First, the Lord delivers the woman by giving her two wings of the great eagle so she can fly into the wilderness where God will nourish during the time of her persecution. 
         1. “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” (Exodus 19:4)
         2. “But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
      2. Second, when the serpent “pours water like a river out of his mouth,” the earth opens its mouth and swallowed the river. 
         1. The idea is that in a last desperate effort, the serpent threw everything he could at the woman. He throws at her every persecution possible and every lie and deception he can to get her to give up her testimony of Jesus.
         2. The earth helping the woman is an interesting concept that we see today. For example, I noticed in the news on Thursday that Elon Musk was suing the big organizations who were pushing for corporate advertising boycotts against conservative news organizations and other companies holding conservative values. Well, Elon Musk is not a Christian, nor does he live by Christian values. But he recognizes that these boycotts hurts America, and will hurt his bottom line. He has a political and economic motivation, but it also protects religious freedom. The same happened during the periods of Roman persecution. Even non-Christians did not jump on the persecution bandwagon. 
   3. When the dragon’s efforts against the woman (faithful remnant) did not work, his final effort was to go after the woman’s offspring – “those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” The details will be seen in chapter 13. 
4. Key Applications 
   1. Did you notice what the dragon does when he is losing? He ramps up his lies and persecution. He becomes furious. The saints are not losing. Therefore, no matter how dismal our world can look at times, as God told Hezekiah when 185,000 troops surrounded Jerusalem, “Relax, I got this.” Instead, our greatest fear should be compromise. 
   2. Did you notice the words in verse 11? “They conquered…the word of their testimony…they loved not their lives even unto death.” We are not doing this alone! Later in 14:1 the vision is the Lamb and with him 144,000 standing on Mount Zion. Consider what we have along side us in this battle:
      1. We have the Lamb! The one who has already conquered and is conquering. 
      2. We have one another. And this “one another” is not just moral support.
         1 John 3:14, 16-17 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers…By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”
         [In my worst trial I thought it best I leave in order to protect the church from having to go through the trial with me. My counselor urged me to stay. His advice was, “Do not cheat the brethren out of the opportunity to help you and stand by your side.” It was excellent advice. The church responded, and as in the book of Acts, “the number of the disciples multiplied.” 
      3. As we observe the crazy, chaotic, upside down world today, remember, this is no accident. This chapter gives us meaning to all that is happening. The Lamb, the Woman, and her Offspring are in a cosmic battle against the dragon, his angels, and the forces of evil that he has mustered to stand with him. Our call is to concentrate on the big picture of this battle that has been going on since the beginning instead of upset by the individual events. The city of God may be surrounded, but a word the Lord will crush the enemies. 

Berry Kercheville