Introducing the Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

Revelation 12:1-6

At the end of Rev 11, John introduces us to the seventh and final trumpet in the series of seven trumpet judgments. This series follows a series of seven seal judgments and precedes yet another series of seven bowl judgments. Each of these three series increase in magnitude and severity. Altogether, these series exhibit God’s climactic outpouring of judgment and wrath on the nonbelieving world in a future, seven-year Tribulation period and will prepare the nation of Israel to turn to Christ in saving faith at last.

Though the reader naturally expects John to introduce the first bowl judgments in Rev 12, he finds yet another, extended intermission instead (Rev 13-14). This “false start” and delay builds even greater anticipation for the reader to learn what the bowl judgments entail, yet the information it provides is hardly filler. John deploys captivating imagery to portray what God is doing in the world, not just in Revelation but from the beginning of time. In doing so, he illustrates how the events of Revelation bring to completion a cosmic, epic struggle that began in the Garden of Eden.

Who doesn’t like a good dragon story?

The fact is, however, that all dragon and serpent stories from Beowulf to Harry Potter are overshadowed by the greatest dragon story of all, the one in the Bible in which a crafty and ferocious dragon tempts and terrorizes God’s people, but is defeated by the ultimate dragon-slayer in the end, Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12 introduces us to three main characters in this epic saga: a woman, a child, and a dragon. The drama that unfolds between these characters represents salvation history from a simplified, zoomed-out point of view. Some Bible scholars call this the metanarrative of Scripture, which is a technical way to describe a larger, big-picture story and plan that God is working out from Genesis to Revelation, one that’s larger than any one book or passage in the Bible.

To trace this metanarrative requires us to revisit the Garden of Eden in Gen 3 when a serpent deceived Eve into disobeying God. Though sin, death, and evil entered the world through this fateful development in Genesis, this development also set in motion an ongoing, cosmic struggle that would culminate in Revelation. God foreshadowed this struggle when he spoke these following words to the serpent (Gen 3:15):

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This prophetic promise refers to the same drama that John portrays in Rev 12.

• You refers to the serpent and his offspring throughout history, culminating with his ultimate offspring, the Antichrist.
• The woman refers to Eve and her offspring throughout history, culminating with her ultimate offspring, Jesus Christ.
• The child is Christ the Messiah.

The serpent theme winds its way through Scripture.

Throughout Scripture, biblical writers usually use serpents to represent the reality of evil and the enemies of God and his people in particular, with Satan being the ultimate serpent.

When we study this “serpent” theme in Scripture, we find that it features both snakes and dragons. When snake imagery is employed, it usually depicts Satan’s activity as attempting to deceive God’s people as he deceived Eve in Eden. When dragon imagery is employed, it usually depicts Satan’s activity as attempting to destroy and devour God’s people as he attempts to do in Revelation.

In Genesis, we can trace the serpent’s ungodly offspring through Cain (who murdered his brother Abel) and his descendants. These descendants rebel against God and oppose his people. We can also trace woman’s godly offspring through Seth (who effectively replaced Abel). These descendants follow God by faith and would eventually produce God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The Bible depicts at least 6 clear examples of the serpent’s offspring.

These offspring (or actors) appear in the plotline of biblical history: (1) Egypt/Pharaoh, (2) Canaanite and Moabite leaders, (3) the king of Babylon, (4) King Herod, (5) Pharisees/Sadducees, and (6) false teachers.[1] This correlation appears by means of explicit descriptions and shared behavior.

• Ezek 32:2 calls the Egyptian pharaoh a “dragon in the seas,” a serpent-like sea monster like the one John describes in Rev 12:1-5. It’s also worth noting how images of Egypt’s revered snake God adorned the headdress of their pharaohs, yet how God transformed Moses’ walking staff into a snake that devoured the snakes of Pharaoh’s magicians. Egypt opposed God’s people by enslaving them and attempting to slaughter her babies (Exo 1:11-22).
• Numb 24:17 foretells how the offspring of Israel would “crush the forehead of Moab” and other psalms and prophecies make similar statements reminiscent of Gen 3:15 towards Canaanite leaders who tempted and oppressed God’s people. The Old Testament (OT) historical books also seem to accentuate this thematic thread by highlighting intriguing details like Goliath having “scaly armor,” Jael (a woman) delivering a fatal blow to the head of Sisera, another woman crushing Abimelech’s skull, Saul crushing the Ammonite leader Nahash (which means “snake), or David striking Goliath’s head with a stone then beheading him.
• Jeremiah described the king of Babylon (Jer 51:34) and the Babylonian people (Jer 8:17) as a sea monster and poisonous snakes, respectively, who would enslave and oppress God’s people.
• King Herod, though not explicitly called a snake or a dragon, represents the kind of deceptive and destructive intentions of Pharaoh and Babylon when he intended to murder Jesus as a child then ordered the killing of all young boys in Bethlehem (Matt 2:13-18).
• This theme of the serpent opposing God’s people features a surprising twist in the New Testament (NT) when Christ repeatedly calls the Pharisees and Sadducees (the religious leaders of the Jewish people!) snakes and poisonous vipers (Matt 3:7; Matt 12:34; 23:33). He makes his reasons for this stunningly clear in Matt 23:29:36 when he portrays them as coming from the serpent’s offspring who killed Abel in the beginning. How did they behave like the serpent’s offspring? They followed his methods by first trying to deceive Christ during his teaching ministry, then trying to destroy him through crucifixion.
• Paul extends this correlation even further when he portrays false teachers in the church today carrying out the serpent’s strategy which he began in Eden, deceiving people through their appearance and words (2 Cor 11:2-4, 13-15; Rom 16:17-20).

From this survey of the serpent theme throughout Scripture, we can see how God repeatedly portrays the enemies of God’s plan as offspring of the snake who are plotting to deceive and destroy his people, especially Christ.

The satanic serpent theme begins to climax in Rev 12:1-6.

In this passage, the snake takes on a frightening, terrifying form. It resembles the big boss at the end of a video game whom you encounter in every level in various forms or through lesser minions, but who appears in its largest, most powerful form, in the end, to defeat you once and for all.

“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” (Rev 12:1)

John calls this part of his vision a “great sign” and “another sign” (Rev 12:1, 3), which indicates that unlike other beings and events he describes which are real, these are not actual entities (not a real woman or real dragon), but are visual and dramatic symbols that represent something very important.

Good Bible students debate the intended identity of this symbolic woman – this luminous lady. Two options seem best based upon how John describes this woman throughout the chapter. Either this woman represents the people of God in general from the beginning to the end of redemptive history, or this woman represents the nation of Israel in particular.

No clear reference to Israel or any other people of God being “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet” appears elsewhere in Scripture, so this contributes little to the identification of this woman, though it does give this woman an impressive, luminescent appearance for sure. The “garland of twelve stars” on her head does seem to suggest a specific reference to the twelve tribes of Israel.

This and other details throughout the chapter seem to tilt the needle of identification towards believing, national Israel rather than the people of God in general. However, even if this lady specifically represents national Israel, who is admittedly the focus of God’s redemptive plan in the Tribulation period, this conclusion does not exclude the people of God in general of which Israel is a part. The people of God includes Israel and Israel serves a strategic role for the people of God, so whichever interpretation we choose, neither will be excluded.

“Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.” (Rev 12:2)

This description portrays the woman as pregnant, in labor, and at the peak of labor pains. There’s a sense in which this intense scene alludes to the role of Eve’s godly offspring from the beginning, echoing the effects of the curse in childbirth (Gen 3:16), the incredible challenges of God’s people in bearing children throughout history (barren wombs, births in old age, murderous plans by ungodly rulers, etc.), that lead to the climactic, ultimate birth of Messiah. In fact, it’s as though the challenges of childbirth in the godly line are themselves a rising tide of labor pains that climax with the birth of the Messiah.

“Another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.” (Rev 12:3)

This word dragon refers to a serpent-like creature, only far more frightening in size and appearance and far more ferocious and malevolent. Its “fiery red” appearance underscores it’s bloodthirsty, vicious nature. In this vision, the dragon clearly refers to the same Satan who appeared as a snake in Eden because John tells us so (Rev 12:9).

The seven heads with seven crowns represent seven major world empires that run their course empowered by Satan, which the book of Daniel explains in more detail. These include (1) Egypt, (2) Assyria, (3) Babylon, (4) Medo-Persia, (5) Greece, (6) Rome, and (7) the Antichrist’s future empire in the Tribulation (Rev 17:9-10).[2] The ten horns symbolize ten rulers who will rule during the Antichrist’s future reign through authority which he will delegate to them, empowered by Satan (Rev 13:1; 17:12).

“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.” (Rev 11:4)

It is difficult to be dogmatic about this part of John’s vision. Some Bible interpreters associate this with an event described in Dan 8:10. Such interpretations vary in detail which underscores how difficult that prophecy is to interpret.

Other interpreters associate this with Satan’s original rebellion and fall from heaven before his temptation of Eve in Eden when this epic struggle between his offspring and Eve’s godly offspring began.

In either case, we also have to decide whether “the stars of heaven” which he flung to the Earth are actual stars in space (as elsewhere in Revelation) or angelic beings from the heavenly realm. The most probable answer here seems to be angelic beings who fell from heaven due to the forceful influence of Satan. The reason for this conclusion rests on the simple, scientific fact that if one-third of the stars in space fell to the earth (knowing that most stars are larger than the sun), the immeasurable size and heat of such an event would obliterate the Earth without question.

The important takeaway here is not so much when this angelic event happened (though it appears to occur before the birth of the Messiah), but that this dragon will have authority over both the empires of the world (Rev 12:3) and a third of the angelic realm (Rev 12:4). He is a powerful force indeed.

The goal of his dragon is clear. To devour the promised child who would be born to the woman’s godly seed as promised (cf. Gen 3:15). Though this may refer in a secondary sense to all Satan’s attempts at derailing God’s plan to produce a Messiah, from Cain murdering Abel onward, it most directly applies to the birth of the Messiah himself.

From this imagery we see that Satan has kept a close eye on the woman’s offspring for the purpose of devouring (to “eat up, consume”) the Messiah as a dragon devours its prey. His urgency comes through with John’s added description of intent, “as soon as it was born” (Rev 12:4). Perhaps this explains why so many angelic armies attended Christ’s birth and how angels prevented Herod from carrying out Satan’s desire to kill the child at birth.

Consider for a moment from the Gospels how Satan attempted to devour the Messiah.

• When Christ entered the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil, he apparently did so in the power of the Spirit (Lk 4:1-2) with no angelic protection, yet when Satan’s attempts to deceive Christ failed, he left Christ and angels came to serve him once again (Matt 4:11).
• Satan’s initial attempts to tempt Jesus failed, so he continued to try deceiving him through the serpent-like efforts of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
• When that also failed, he switched from deceptive to devouring methods once again as the religious leaders arranged for Christ’s crucifixion.

“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.” (Rev 12:5)

Here John reminds us that despite Satan’s voracious intent, the Messiah’s birth was successful. What’s more, this would be the person whom God intended to rule over all nations of the world, placing him in direct conflict with the pagan empires of the world and their leaders (cf. Isa 9:6-7, etc.).

“With a rod of iron” alludes to the Messianic prophecy of Psa 2:7-9 which speaks of Christ’s decisive and just judgment that will break the power of the nations like a warrior beating (or pulverizing) clay pottery with an iron rod. What we believed to be so powerful and imposing will prove to be brittle and broken when Christ comes in judgment to reign.

This ultimate accomplishment has not yet occurred on Earth, nor does Christ’s heavenly reign fulfill this kind of earthly mission, so this reign will occur in the future and is what the seven trumpet judgment announced and the seven bowl judgments will finally bring to pass.

“Who was to rule all nations” speaks of intent and reveals that the dragon knows the reason why Christ was born and was determined to stop him from carrying out that purpose. Yet for all his efforts in history and his most clever and intense efforts when Messiah had come, we should smile at what happened instead.

“Her child was caught up to God and his throne.” Oops! He got away! This, of course, refers to Christ’s resurrection and ascension and reminds us that Satan is presently unable to pursue his intended victim for at least three reasons: Christ is (1) in the presence of God the Father, (2) in heaven where he is unable to go, and (3) where two-thirds of the angels still reside, a force which would certainly overpower the one-third who is with him.

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. (Rev 12:6)

Following the earthly ministry of Christ, national Israel became irrelevant in God’s outworking of his redemptive plan for a while as the church assumes the role of spreading God’s message of God’s kingdom and salvation to the world. In the future, 7-yr. tribulation, however, this irrelevance will cease and Israel will once again return to center stage in God’s plan for the ages. As a result, Satan will renew his attack on them as God’s chosen people since he was unable to devour the Messiah.

What John describes here likely refers to what Christ himself both prophesied and referred to from the book of Daniel (Matt 24:15-21). In this teaching, he refers to the midpoint of the 7-yr. tribulation (so 3.5 yrs.), which corresponds with the 1,260 days that John specifies in Rev 12:6 and refers to again in Rev 12:14.

From what we can tell, this period refers to the final 3.5 yrs. of the Tribulation in which the dragon will pursue and seek to destroy the nation of Israel who brought God’s Messiah into the world. Though he will do so on an unprecedented scale, God will prepare a protective place for them in the wilderness outside Israeli territory where he will care for her as he did for Elijah when Jezebel was hunting him down. This protection would occur through the end of the Tribulation, until the moment when Christ – the dragon’s ultimate target – will return from heaven for a final, epic showdown between the offspring of the woman promised in Eden and deceiving, devouring dragon, Satan himself.

Key Takeaways

• Satan is a monstrous being.
• He targets God’s people to tempt and destroy them.
• He seeks to accomplish his aims through political power.
• As terrifying as Satan may be, he has never and will never succeed at devouring Christ.

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[1] Andy Naselli, The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer, Short Studies in Biblical Theology, Kindle ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), loc. 1108-1110. For more info on this informative Bible study book about the serpent/dragon motif in Scripture, check out my review of the book.

[2] John F. MacArthur Jr., Revelation 12–22, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 2000), 7.