Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #3 of Revelation, chapter 12, and we are going to be reading at Revelation 12:1-5:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

I will stop reading there.  We have been discussing verse 1 and we saw that the woman is a figure or type of the true believers of the Old Testament because it speaks of the woman who brought forth the man child; the man child is clearly a reference to Jesus Christ and that means the woman had to be the Old Testament saints of God. 

We also saw that the description of the woman as “clothed with the sun, and the under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” and these all identify with God’s elect: the moon under her feet means the Law of God cannot condemn her and she is free from the Law; the crown of twelve stars upon her head points to the fullness of those God saved, in promise to Abraham that his seed would be as the stars of heaven for multitude. 

We also discussed being “clothed with the sun,” and I just want to say one more thing about that statement before we move on.  It says the woman was “clothed with the sun” and the tense is a “passive perfect participle,” so it ought to have been translated as “the woman having been clothed with the sun,” and this really emphasizes the finished result of a past action at the foundation of the world when the Lord Jesus Christ died for the sins of His people – the woman – and He paid their penalty and guaranteed their salvation; they were “baptized” or had their sins washed away in Christ and, therefore, they were also “clothed,” as their spiritual nakedness was removed.  They were “clothed” with the Lord Jesus Christ through His atoning work.  Since this statement in Revelation 12:1 is speaking of the bringing forth of the man child, it is referring to the time when Jesus entered into the human race.  The Bible indicates that He was born in 7 BC, a Jubilee year, after 11,006 years of earth’s history and the “woman” was already “clothed with the sun” before Jesus was born into the world and before He had gone to the cross to demonstrate the things He had done from the foundation of the world.  That means that this language in our verse indicates that the atoning work of Christ as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world was, indeed, accomplished before Christ was born into the world.  That is why the woman is said to “having been clothed.”  If you remember, when we looked up that word “clothed,” it had to do with the garments of salvation and being clothed with righteousness and one’s (spiritual) nakedness being covered.  It all points to the salvation which Christ worked out before this world began.

Let us go on to Revelation 12:2:

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

I think we have a difficult time placing ourselves in the position of the people of God at the end of the Old Testament side of the cross and at the beginning of the first century AD.  We just do not understand the situation they were in and what it must have been like for God’s people to have been given promises of the coming Messiah, promises that went all the way back to the beginning of time.  If we turn to Genesis 3, right after the fall of man into sin (which was not too long after the creation of this world), it says in Genesis 3:14-16:

And JEHOVAH God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Here, at the very beginning and right after man’s fall into sin, God speaks to the serpent (Satan, the devil) and He says He will put “enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.”  Her seed, eventually, would be the Lord Jesus Christ.  What we are reading in Revelation 12 is that the woman “travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered,” finally gives birth to the man child that was promised from the beginning in the Garden of Eden.  Remember, creation occurred in 11,013 BC and the promise of God was stated then: there would be the seed of the woman that would bruise Satan’s head.  Of course, after this there is much repeating of this promise, again, and again, in the Bible.  God had promised the Messiah (God in the flesh, Emmanuel) would be born of a virgin and enter into the human race.  Now the language of being born of a virgin, or born of a woman, or the woman’s seed, really has a dual purpose behind it.  We know that God selected Mary to be the mother of Christ.  She was used to give Him a human nature and to deliver Him into the world, as we read in Matthew 1:18:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

By the way, literally, the last part of this verse would read “she was found in womb having of the Holy Ghost.” Then it goes on to say in Matthew 1:19-23:

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

God chose Mary to give Jesus that human nature and He was born into the world and, in a sense, this fulfilled the Scriptures that of the woman would come forth the seed.  It also fulfilled the promise that a virgin shall be with child; Mary was a virgin and gave birth as a virgin to this child that was conceived of the Holy Spirit.  But, on a deeper spiritual level, the “woman” has always been the body of believers, the elect, which God typifies as a virgin in the Bible.  The virgin shall bring forth the man child, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ was physically born of Mary and there is no question or doubt about that, but, spiritually, He was born of the people of God that had been given the promise of His coming. 

The promise had been given (repeatedly) over the course of 11,006 years.  From shortly after the point of creation, the promise was first given and it was promised many times over the millenniums.  God restated this promise in various ways throughout the Scriptures and God’s people patiently and faithfully waited for the time He would come.  So, we can see in our verse why it says, “And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.”  It had been so long.  Not only that, but there had been “silence” from God over the last few hundred years of the Old Testament, from the time of the writing of the Book of Esther until the “breaking of silence” after those few hundred years.  It was even more grievous.  Had God forgotten His people?  What about all the revelation He used to give them and then for hundreds of years there was nothing, until the silence was broken by the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist, who would be the forerunner of the Messiah?  The time had come that Christ would be born.  So it was a very difficult “labor” to bring forth Christ and took such a long period of time.  At the time that Christ was born, we find that many women (in the Gospel accounts) had the name of “Mary” because it was a “bitter” time.

Let us go on in Revelation 12:3:

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Of course, this “great red dragon” refers to Satan.  Even someone not familiar with the Bible is probably aware of this.  It is a very obvious figure God uses to point to the Bible.  It is obvious because the word “red” in the Bible normally points to “sin” or “Satan.”  We saw this in Revelation 6:3-4:

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

The rider of the red horse is Satan.  He is the one that attempts to take peace from the earth and desires to kill mankind.  This is something he has done throughout the history of the world.  So when we see the color “red,” we are put on guard that it is a figure of Satan, a picture God uses to illustrate Satan himself.  The word “dragon” is also a word that identifies with Satan.  This word is found several times in the Old Testament.  It is a Hebrew word, Strong’s #8577, which is translated in some interesting ways.  This same word is translated as “dragon,” “sea monster,” “serpent” and “whale,” and we find that it often refers to Satan.  It says in Ezekiel 29:3:

Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.

Here, God is bringing together two types and figures that confirm each other, because we also know that Pharaoh is often used as a picture of Satan in the Bible, as he refused to let the Israelites go and kept them in hard bondage in Egypt; it is an historical picture of Satan as he keeps men locked in the dungeon of sin and despair in his captivity.  Of course, the dragon also comes into view when it says, “Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon,” and as we have seen in Revelation 12, the dragon identifies with Satan and we will see confirmation of that in another Scripture.  This lets us know that both “Pharaoh” and “dragon” are words that point to Satan and that helps us in this passage, as we go to Ezekiel 29, to make that spiritual connection and then we have a big piece of information as we continue to read and look for the spiritual truths that God has hidden here.

Also, it says in Ezekiel 32:2:

Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their river.

Again, it mentions Pharaoh and this word that was just translated as dragon (in chapter 29) is translated here as a “whale.”  It could be read: “Thou art like a dragon in the seas.”  Also, we see that God refers to “seas” and “rivers” and Pharaoh, this dragon, “troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their river.”  This is another bit of spiritual information; we are able now to understand that the waters, rivers and seas that Satan fouls are the Gospel waters, so we have a beginning point to continue on in this Old Testament Book with some very solid understanding of the spiritual teaching of verse 2, concerning who Pharaoh represents and concerning the waters which he fouls.  Then we can proceed.

Let us look at one more Old Testament verse where the world “dragon” is found.  It says in Isaiah 27:1:

In that day JEHOVAH with his sore and great and strong sword…

What is the “sore and great and strong sword” of JEHOVAH?  It is the Word of God, as Hebrews, chapter 4, tells us: “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.” 

Then it continues in Isaiah 27:1:

In that day JEHOVAH with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Here, again, “the dragon that is in the sea” is slain by the sword of JEHOVAH.  If you have ever read the “Golden Books” where we read of the noble knight who slays the dragon, it is really an image that is taken right out of the Bible.  God is that noble knight.  JEHOVAH God is the one that slays the dragon in the sea.  He is the one who gave Satan a death blow at the cross.  He is the one who deposed Satan on Judgment Day, May 21, 2011, and cast him into the spiritual fire of the Day of Judgment, which will result in his eternal destruction.  Through the Word of God, the Bible, God has done this.

This verse in Isaiah 27:1 is also helpful because it links other words and terms to the “dragon.”  So we see the word “leviathan” and he is the “piercing serpent,” so “leviathan” is also a picture of Satan.  Likewise, the “piercing serpent” is the language of a “serpent,” as well as “crooked serpent.”  So we see that Satan has more than one name in the Bible; he has been given several names and Revelation 20 gives us some of those names.  It says in Revelation 20:1:

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

This angel or messenger is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Then it goes on to say in Revelation 20:2:

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent…

And this name “serpent” goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden; it was the serpent that deceived Eve.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Here, there are four names and each one speaks of the same evil creature and fallen angel, Satan.  God refers to four names of Satan because it describes the universal binding of Satan – he is bound everywhere in the world, in the North, South, East and West.  At the time of the cross, there was nowhere in the world he was not bound and limited so that the Word of God would fulfill the Lord’s purpose regarding the church age.  So Satan was bound in certain ways throughout the period of the church age.

Again, it says in our verse in Revelation 12:3:

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon…

In this context, Jesus is about to make His appearance, so here is Satan, too.  He is the one that is always there to oppose and fight against God and His kingdom.  We did not read this, but in the previous verses in Revelation 6, it spoke of the rider on the white horse going forth, a picture of Christ going forth with the Gospel.  Following after was the rider on the red horse in pursuit.  Now in Revelation 12, the “woman” is about to give birth to the man child, Christ, and here comes Satan.  Satan is constantly attempting to hinder, to oppose and to stop the progress of the kingdom of God; this is his fallen nature.  He is against God and he is anti-Christ.  He is the one that is always ready to contradict and to dispute and to speak against the things God has said. 

That is why when God opened the Scriptures to indicate the church age was over, people immediately rose up to say, “Oh, no, it is not.”  They dispute and fight against it.  When God revealed that Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and proved it from the information in the Bible, people rose up to speak against it.  When God said that May 21, 2011 was Judgment Day and the day He shut the door to heaven, there were people that rose up against it and said, “No man knows the day or hour.”  They fight against it and dispute it.  When God said He would save a great multitude during the last half of the Great Tribulation, then people said, “Well, I do not see any great multitude,” and they argue against it and dispute it.  When God said it is Judgment Day, the door is shut and He has ended His salvation program, people rise up and fight against it and dispute it. 

This is the nature of Satan and this is the nature of fallen mankind that are tools and instruments of Satan; he stirs them up to come against God and the truths of the Word of God; whatever that truth may be, Satan is against it.  That is why you will never find a truth from the Bible that is not diligently disputed and which most people are not heavily against.  It has always been the case and, actually, it should be encouraging to the child of God when this happens.  It is really a signal.  “There goes the enemy again.  There goes Satan, doing what Satan does as he comes against the truth of the Word of God.”