Scripture Text: Revelations 12:1-12

Revelation 12 gives an outline of three important people in the world today and how they will affect events in the end times. What do the woman, the child, and the dragon stand for, and what can we learn from this Bible prophecy?

Who Are the Woman, the Child, and the Dragon?

The book of Revelation is a vision that Jesus Christ had from God the Father. It shows what will happen before Jesus comes back to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. The interesting book is also known as the Apocalypse, which comes from a Greek word that means "revelation." This book of prophecy is mostly written in chronological order, with short breaks for general discussions of certain topics.


"Now a great sign appeared in heaven" (verse 1) is the first sentence of Revelation 12. The word "sign" comes from the Greek word semeion, which means "a mark, a sign, a token...an unusual event that goes beyond the normal course of nature" . I saw a woman who had just given birth as the first great sign (verse 1).

And then in verse 3, it says, "And another sign appeared in heaven." This tells us that the three symbols—a woman, a child, and a dragon—stand for things that aren't normal in nature. That's right, these three figures stand for three powerful spiritual forces that have been at work for a very long time.

Now we need to understand the symbols in order to understand this chapter.

What do the woman, the child, and the dragon stand for?

What kind of woman is in Revelation 12?
In the Apocalypse, the woman who is "clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars" (verse 1) stands for Israel in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, God spoke of His people as a woman that He had dressed in majesty and honor (Ezekiel 16). Genesis 37:9–10 talks about the 12 tribes of Israel, and the garland with 12 stars could be a picture of them.
Throughout Revelation 12, we see that God protects the "woman" many times (verses 6, 14–16), especially as the "kingdom of our God" is about to come to the world (verse 10).

As seen in the New Testament, God's Church is like a woman, and the people who belong to it are like virgins (Matthew 25:1–13; Revelation 14:4; Revelation 19:7). In the New Testament, the Church is called "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16) and "Jerusalem above," which is called "the mother of us all" (Galatians 4:26; see also Hebrews 12:22–23). "A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His [God's] own special people" (1 Peter 2:9) refers to church members.

God the Father calls the church "His wife" in Revelation 19:7. When Christ comes back to earth, he will marry her. This makes it clear that the woman in Revelation 12 stands for God's people. Read more about Jesus Christ and the Church in our story, "Marriage Supper of the Lamb."

Also, it's interesting to note that in Revelation 17:1, the image of a shameful woman, called "the great harlot," is used to show a fake church that leads many astray. This is talked about more in our piece called "Mystery, Babylon the Great."

Who is the Child ?

It says that the woman, who is Israel, gave birth to a "male child who was to rule all nations with an iron rod" (Revelation 12:5). In fact, Jesus Christ was born in this country. This verse makes it clear that Jesus is the "Child" in Revelation 12. It says, "And her child was caught up to God and His throne."

Jesus is the one who the Bible says will "strike the nations." "And He will rule them with an iron rod" (Revelation 19:15). He was also taken up in a cloud to heaven after he rose from the dead (Acts 1:9–11).

Who is the dragon?

"A great, fiery red dragon" (verse 3) is the third sign in Revelation 12. It is said to have drawn "a third of the stars of heaven" and to be standing "before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born" (verse 4). "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world" (verse 9).

As for the dragon drawing "a third of the stars of heaven," this seems to mean that Satan is leading a third of the angels to revolt against God. In other places, like Revelation 1:20, stars are shown to be angels.

According to the Bible, Satan also rebelled against God and tried to make his "throne above the stars of God" and "be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13–14). Revelation 12:9 says that Satan started his work as "that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world." This is the same serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.
God has "ministers of righteousness," and Satan also has slaves. These include physical ministers who are deceived and help others be deceived, as well as spirit beings who pretend to be righteous but encourage people to sin (2 Corinthians 11:15; Ephesians 6:12). According to Jude, the fallen angels or demons are "angels who did not keep their proper domain" and are now "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day" (Jude 1:6).

Revelation 12:3–17 tells a short story of how Satan tried to stop God's plan to bring many people to praise and make them part of His eternal family. Many things Satan did included getting a third of the angels to join him in his quest to become like God, trying to have Christ killed as a child (Matthew 2:13–18), trying to trick everyone, and hurting God's people. Now, let's look at Satan's attempts to stop God's plan in more depth.

The child vs. the dragon

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, ready to eat her child as soon as it was born (Revelation 12:4). This seems to be a reference to King Herod's plan to kill Jesus as a baby by ordering the deaths of all male children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or younger (Matthew 2:13–18). But an angel told Joseph to run away to Egypt with his wife and Jesus so that the child would not be killed (verse 13).

The Believer's Bible Commentary says this about Revelation 12:4-5: "The dragon is ready to devour the child as soon as he is born. This happened when Herod the Great, who was a Roman vassal, tried to kill the newborn King of the Jews." The boy child is clearly Jesus, who will rule the world with an iron rod.

Satan tried to kill Jesus when he was a child but failed. He did not give up, even though It says in Matthew 4:1 that "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" before he started his mission. At this point, Satan tried to get Jesus to break God's law by worshiping him instead of God. Jesus was told that if he would serve him, the devil would give him "all the kingdoms of the world and their glory" (verse . But Jesus didn't do that.

Satan was there again when Jesus' work was done, and it was time for Him to die to pay for everything people had done wrong. He "put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him" in this case (John 13:2). Even though Satan clearly had something to do with Jesus' death on the cross, this was part of God's plan to save the world.

As it said in Genesis 3:15, there would always be "enmity" between the snake (Satan), the woman, God's people, and the "Seed" (Jesus), who would come from the woman. This text also said that Satan would only be able to "bruise" Christ's heel by influencing the man who would betray Jesus. On the other hand, it said that Jesus would "bruise" Satan's head by resisting his temptations and becoming qualified to take his place as king of the world.
That being said, why did Satan work so hard to kill Jesus? That's because God's plan would not have worked if there wasn't a perfect Savior to pay for people's mistakes. It would be impossible for people to be forgiven for their sins and live forever in God's family.

The dragon vs. God's people.

Satan has a long history of trying to kill Jesus and also of attacking God's people, especially members of God's Church, as illustrated by the woman in the last part of Revelation 12. Right from the start of the New Testament Church, there was a lot of persecution, but God let the woman run away "into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days" (verse 6).

This verse says that God protected the real church for 1,260 years (see Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 for proof that a day can be a year). The Church was safe from its enemies, like the Roman Empire and fake Christianity, during this time, which may have gone on into the Middle Ages.

Then it says that "war broke out in heaven" between Michael and his angels and Satan and his angels. John had a vision in which he saw Satan and his forces being "cast to the earth" because of the war. As a result, there was no longer a place for them in heaven. This fight is not the same as Satan's first rebellion, which is talked about in verse 4 and took place a long time before Christ was born.

After describing the setting for the fight in verses 7–9, a loud voice from heaven tells us what it all means (verses 10–12). "The kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ have [or will soon] come" (verse 10). This battle shows that. Prior to this happening, Satan could get close to God and charge His people (Job 1:6-7; 2:1–2). Now he and his angels can't get to this place and are thrown to the ground.

Satan the dragon is now filled with "great wrath" because he knows he only has a short time left before Christ comes back to set up the Kingdom of God on earth (Revelation 12:12). His anger then turns toward God's people, whom he says are like the woman in the apocalypse who gave birth to the male child (verse 13).

But God will not let Satan destroy His people. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said that the "gates of Hades" (the grave) would not be able to stop it. The woman is "given two wings of a great eagle" to protect His people. This means she is taken safely to "her place," where she will be safe from the snake for "a time, and times, and half a time," which is about three and a half years (Revelation 12:14).

As Satan tries to get to the woman, "water will flow out of his mouth like a flood," but he will fail (verses 15–16). As seen in Isaiah 59:19 and Jeremiah 46:7-8, the word "flood" here most likely refers to forces.

The devil then goes to "make war with the rest of her children, who keep God's rules and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 12:17). This passage tells us that during the end times before Christ comes back, some members of God's true church will be safe from Satan's anger, but others will not. People who aren't in a safe place will have to show their loyalty to God the Father and Christ while being persecuted very hard by Satan.

You vs the dragon

You may not be awake to it, but Satan also hates you and will do everything he can to stop you from loving and following God. He's mad at more than just Jesus and the church. What makes him mad at you? He seems to be upset because he knows that God made people with the ability to be better than he was (Hebrews 2:6–.

It is Satan's job to fight those who want to love and follow their Father in heaven because his thoughts are so sick, twisted, and not logical. Peter warned God's people, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your enemy, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat" (1 Peter 5:.

In his letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul said that Satan, whom he called "the god of this age," had hidden the real gospel so that people who didn't believe in it would not see it (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). Thankfully, this "veil is taken away in Christ" (2 Corinthians 3:14).
 
 Brethren, it is very dangerous for you if by now you've not given your life to Christ. You better do it now so that the dragon will not devour you. If you're still wallowing in sin and giving the dragon the backbone to invade your life, repent now! Tomorrow might be too late.

God bless you.

If you would like to give your life to Christ just say this short prayer:
"Lord Jesus Christ, I come to You now, I know I'm a sinner, please forgive me, come into my life and take control of my life. I say bye bye to the devil, I enter into the Kingdom of Light. Thank You Jesus Christ, for in Your precious name I pray, amen.

Congratulations!!!

Peace!

Also read:https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/revelation/revelation-12/

The woman of Revelation 12 is made up of the firstfruits of Israel (Ro. 11:16, Re. 14:4)--the 144,000 Christian Israelites. They are God's special end-time evangelists. Reveleation 14 presents the correct sequence of key end-time events. The end-time begins with the sealing of the 144,000 Israelites. The sealing of the 144,000 Israelites commences with the opening of the first seal of Revelation 6. The end-time evangelistic ministry of the 144000 Israelites begins at the opening of the second seal of Revelation 6.

Mt. 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Re. 14:6 Then I saw another angel flying in mid-air, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth — to every nation, tribe, language and people.
Re. 14:7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Re. 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

The ministry of the 144,000 Israelites makes it possible for a great multitude that no-one could count to make the rapture (Re. 7:9). Right now, no Christian is able to fulfill the condition for rapture (Ep. 5:27); the ministry of the 144,000 Israelites will make innumerable Christians holy and blameless. Innumerable Christians will become exactly like Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 3:2).

The manchild of Revelation 12 is made of people who become perfectly holy as a result of the ministry of the 144,000 Israelites. They are the people that will make the rapture from the land of the living.

The dragon is obviously Satan and his angels.

Woman:
Organization of God's loyal heavenly sons
Child:
One of God's sons transformed into a human
Dragon:
Satan