Revelation 12:1-6

In relation chapter 12, I’m going to read the first six verses of this chapter this morning. We’ll be pondering really the first five verses of this section of Scripture. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet. upon her head a crown of twelve stars. She, being with child, cried, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. There appeared another wonder in heaven, behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns, upon his heads. And his tale drew the third part of the stars of heaven, did cast them to the earth. The dragons stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 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, his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God. They should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. God blessed to us is sacred and holy word this morning. The book of Revelation can be divided into two main sections. The symbols that relate to the Lamb of God, giving us the heavenly view of things, we see in verses 4 through 11. And then the symbols that relate to the Lamb’s bride, which gives us more of an earthly perspective on things, are found in chapter 12 through 22. What you have then is the very same period in history from two different perspectives. In other words, a lot of the events will be overlapping events rather than chronologically advancing the history as we go from one chapter than the next. This is in keeping with Old Testament prophecies. We find Joseph’s dreams mentioned in Genesis Chapter 37. Joseph has two different dreams concerning himself and his brothers and his family. But they both really convey the same message. The symbols of the sun, moon, and stars in the second dream represent the same thing as the bowing sheaves in the first dream. Look at Pharaoh’s dreams in Genesis 41. He has two dreams, but they cover the sun, same period of time. You’ll recall that the dreams of the fat and lean cattle and the full and withered ears of corn are essentially the same message. Seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Just they’re viewed from two different perspectives. When we look at the dreams and the visions of Daniel and his prophecy, we have the dream of the metallic image in Chapter 2, and then we have the vision of the four beasts that rise out of the sea in Daniel chapter 7. But they are essentially the same. They both relate the four great world kingdoms that would dominate the future, Babylon, Mito-Persian, Persia, Greece, and Rome, until the Kingdom of the Kingdom of the Kingdom of the Kingdom of the future, of the future, Christ, the heavenly kingdom is established, the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior. And they both relate Christ ending up destroying the world powers and his kingdom going on and on and on and on forever. So the second half here of the book of Revelation still covers the great tribulation mostly from the perspective now of the bride of of the lamb on earth. So we’re going to look at it from a different angle, but we have similar material being covered. Now the first vision we have here is of the woman and the man-child in the first six verses of this chapter. The woman we see from verses one and two is in travail. A great wonder, he says, there appeared to a great wonder in heaven. A great wonder is an important one because the subject relates to Christ and his bride, the church. The word wonder is the same as the word sign. Remember from chapter one, things were going to be signified unto John. Given he’s going have various signs. He’s going to see, well, here’s what great sign. It’s in heaven. We’re looking at things from the spiritual perspective. And the sign here reveals certain spiritual things. We’re going to see here that we’re talking about spiritual Israel and not earthly Israel. Christians, you’ll recall, have their citizenship in heaven, Philippians 320. Christians sit together with Christians. Christians sit together with Christ. in heavenly places, Ephesians 2.6. And Christendom is viewed as the kingdom of heaven. Now we have a woman. This is the bride of Christ. In particular, it’s the Israel of God, the heavenly Jerusalem. In the book of Song of Solomon, chapter 6 and verse 10, we read these words. she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners. So we have the sun and the moon connected with the bride, which is Christ’s bride in the book, the church. If you look at Micah, chapter 5, in verses 2 to 4, this is a One of the minor prophets here. You got Josea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. If you look at chapter 5, verses 2 to 4, But thou Bethlehem, Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee, shall he come forth unto me that is to rule in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting. Of course, this is the Lord Jesus Christ that’s going to come forth. Born in Bethlehem. Therefore, will he give them up until the time that she which travailetheth hath brought forth. then the remnant of his brethren shall return under the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of His God, and they shall abide for now, and they shall abide. For now shall he be great under the ends of the earth. Again, we have the idea of this child being brought forth, who’s going to rule and be great to the ends of the earth, which, of course, is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, as I said, more specifically, this woman represents the original Jewish Christian element of the church, the Israel of God. Remember, Joseph had a dream in which the sun, moon, and stars fell down, and worshipped him. The son, the father. and the moon, the mother, and the 12 stars were his brothers. And so we have a similar picture here in a way. It sort of reminds us here that this is Israel that is being, but not Israel after the flesh, the true Israel of God. Zion is expressly said to travail and bring forth children. And we’ll be looking at this passage in Isaiah. 66 in verse 8 where this particular idea seems to have been drawn. The 12 stars then can be associated with the faithful Jewish remnant which followed the lamb from the 12 tribes of Israel. Remember we studied that in chapter 7 and verses 1 to 8, 12,000 from each tribe and so forth. 12 stars could represent those 12 tribes, just as they represented Joseph’s brothers, which make up the tribes. I suggested that’s the idea here in this passage. Her flight into the wilderness, and verse 6 comes after the man-child is born, and it refers to the Jewish Christians of the early church obeying Christ’s command that gave, you remember in the sermon of the Mount, when you see these things beginning to come to pass, like Jerusalem surround with armies, like the inland being invaded, he says, flee into the mountains, get out of the city of Jerusalem. And so we find the woman fleeing here and escaping to a place that’s prepared for her that she may survive when Satan unleashes his fury to destroy the church. So this fits right in with what we’ve already know from the Olivet discourse. I’m sorry, did I say the sermon on the Mount? I’m at the Olivet discourse. So the sun, the moon, and the stars, if we look at those, those are light providers. We’re talking about heavenly bodies here. And there’s a heavenly glory. with the people of God because they are to be light in this world. Now, she is travailing in birth, and this language will be drawn from Isaiah 66. We’ll look at it in a moment, verses 7 and 8, where the woman is said to be Zion, and where we find that as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Paul alludes to the fact in the New Testament. that the Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all in Galatians 426. So this doesn’t refer to the natural children, as we’ll see, that not the physical offspring of Israel, but the spiritual Israel or Zion travails to bring forth spiritual children. In other words, the true believers of the Old Testament Church, as well as the those of the New Testament Church. While God saves his elect, he uses his people’s labor to bring them into the kingdom. Remember what Paul said to the Galatians in 419 of his epistle to them, my little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. I’ve gone through birth. pains to produce you spiritually. God, of course, gives them life, but he’s saying that I labored to bring you forth. In other words, you’re my spiritual offspring. I am the one that God used to bring you into the kingdom. So we have that kind of idea, I think, here in our text. So the woman in Trevail here, is there any questions about this part? Let’s go on to the second part. That is the great red dragon in verses three and four. And there appeared another wonder in heaven. Behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, seven crowns upon his heads. His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven did cast them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered. or devire her children, her child, excuse me, as soon as it was born. Now in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, they took the Hebrew and put it into Greek. The word dragon is sometimes rendered Leviathan. Levithen is called a dragon in the Old Testament. This is a huge beast, which is described. in Job 41 in detail for us. A formidable creature, which no man has a chance to encounter and really survive. Here’s what we read in Job 41, verses 8 to 10. Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle. Do no more. Behold the hope of him, of capturing him, is in vain. Shall not one be cast down. even at the sight of him none is so fierce that dare stir him up this is the the monster the dragon that we see so here’s this monstrous dragon that we see that we see. Now, if you look down to verse 9 he identifies this dragon for us and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the world. So, we don’t have to guess about this. It’s very clearly stated for us that this great red dragon is Satan himself. And this certainly would fit the situation. It’s an apt description of the power, the power, the fierceness, the fierceness, the forbidableness, the say, he is a great adversary to the church, difficult for the church to deal with. Now, he’s a red dragon. Do you recall when we looked at the four horsemen of the book of Revelation, there was a red horse. And you remember the red signified bloodshed. I suggest here that the red here portrays the same thing. Satan goes about seeking whom he may devar. He’s a destroyer. Jesus called him the murderer from the beginning as he tries to destroy men. John 844, Jesus said that. Now the great dragon is also in heaven because he has to deal in the spiritual realm, where the woman is. For Satan is the great antagonist of the church. And does not the scripture say to us that he is the prince of the power of the air in the book of Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 2? And that we deal with spiritual wickedness in high places, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12. Now the seven heads and the ten horns, anticipate what is said about the beast. Look at chapter 13 in verse 1, if you would. And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, upon his heads the name of blasphemy. This indicates when it caused a saint, the red dragon is connected with this the same idea. This is an indication to us, an early indication in the book, that Satan is behind the Roman Empire. He is behind Nero as the head of that empire. He is the one, according to chapter 13 in verse 7, that is going to use the Roman Empire to make war with the saints. to destroy them. Just as he’s trying to destroy the woman here in chapter 12, we see that played out in chapter 13. He’s using the Roman Empire to do it. By the way, it was the Roman Empire with Herod in charge, as we shall see, tries to destroy the man child that is born in this particular chapter of scripture. So he’s behind it all what’s going on. That’s the suggestion. would find from this passage. His tale here drew the third part of the stars of heaven according to chapter 4 in verse 8. In the first verse 4a. Now in scripture there are times in which stars represent to us people and sometimes they represent to us the angels of God. They are exalted in something an exalted in glorious position. Because of their innumerable number of angels, we could see why they may be portrayed as stars. For example, in Job 387, at creation, we read that the morning star sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. So that when God was creating things, the angels evidently were created early on when the heavens were created. and they seem to be rejoicing when God is creating the earthly aspect, the things that are also associated with the creation week. It appears from this verse that what we find here is more fully explained in verse 7. When it says there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels. So there are many who take the stars here that are drawn down by the dragon’s tail to represent the fallen angels who followed Satan’s lead in rebellion against the Lord and His Christ. That they followed Satan’s tale is an expression of content. for the foolishness and the baseness of their allegiance. Satan fell first and they sort of followed in his wake and they lost their exalted position. The third part suggests to us a third of all the angels that were created fell. That’s the only suggestion perhaps we could draw from this. We don’t know for sure the details of this. But it’s possible that that’s the case. Satan has always been engaged in harming the people of God, the children produced by the church. But there is one in particular that he is anxious to destroy. And that is the man-child in verse 4. For to devire her child as soon as it was it was born. He purposes to kill this child quickly. So here is the great red dragon. Any questions about the great red dragon? All right, let’s look at the man child in verses 5 and 6. She brought forth a manchild who was the rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. And then the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God. They should feed her there 1,2003score days. By the way, the three and a half years of the assault, the war between Rome and the Jews. Now, I think anyone who reads this with an unbiased eye is going to realize that this man-child is the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron? When we read Psalm 2, we find that it’s Christ that will rule with a rod of iron. He is God’s established king who has said to do this. A rod of iron here indicates the irresistible power of his reign. Later on, if you look at check, chapter 19 of the book of Revelation with me. In verse 15, when we read about the one who comes on the white horse, who is faithful and true, as verse 11 indicates, out of his mouth go with a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he shall treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God. This is the Lord Jesus. Christ who is spoken of here as the one with the rod of arm. Who else ascends up to heaven to sit on the throne? But the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Acts chapter 2 in verses 29 to 31, if you would. You see it listed here, stated here by Peter. Acts 2, 29 to 31. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left. in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. So, Jesus Christ is the one who’s raised up to sit upon the throne. By the way, this is a fulfillment of Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 to 14, verses 13 and 14 of chapter 7, where he sees one like under the son of man coming to the ancient of days, and he’s given a kingdom. and have dominion over all nations and powers and so forth. That’s Christ, and he’s ascending to heaven to rule and to reign. The same idea that we find here in our passage in Revelation. Did not Satan attempt to murder Christ, as soon as he was born, Herod killing all the infants, remember, from two years of age under, in Matthew 2, verse 16. He was Satan’s agent here. He was part of the Roman Empire. But the key factor is that the promised seed of the woman, despite his death on the cross, lives, is enthroned as king overall. Now, John here, I think, is thinking of Isaiah’s prophecy about the birth of the man-child by Zion. And now I’ll have you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 66. Let’s look at verses 6 to 8. A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord that renders recompense to his enemies, before she travailed, she brought forth. Before her pain came, she delivered a man-child. Who hath heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day, or shall a nation be born at once, for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Now, you’ll notice in verse 7, it talks about a manchild. In verse 8, talks about children, plural. The man-child is special, and is singled out, because it’s the Lord Jesus Christ, even though she has multiple children. And by the way, in the book of Revelation Chapter 12, we read about the man-child, and then the very last verse of the chapter speaks about the remnant of the women’s children. They’re plural. So that she has children, but here’s the one special one that we’re focused upon, and that’s Christ. The man-child is born and then Zion has many children so that that it becomes a nation in a single day. Again, we’re not talking about a physical nation. We’re talking about a spiritual nation. We have the birth of Christ, and then it looks forward to this idea of a people being gathered in. We have the day of Pentecost where thousands come into the church. And later on, in Acts chapter 4, we have several other thousands that come into the church. And so before you know it, there’s a lot of people, children being born, to the woman. There’s something wonderful about Christ’s birth here. It says, in Isaiah, there’s no pain. We’re not talking about Mary here and her physical birth, but it must be explained in a sense of the incarnation, I think, maybe, and the Word of God personally assuming the likeness of sinful flush. However, normally the births of Zion’s children involve travail, as we’ve already discussed. The birth of the man means recompense to the enemies of the Lord’s people, as Isaiah chapter 66, verse 6 indicates. There’s going to be a rendering of recompense. He’s going to bring judgment upon the enemies of Israel. Of course, he will do it with the rod of Arn. So the purpose of the vision of the man-child is to reveal how the exalted Christ protects his church during the Great Tribulation that will be mentioned in verse 6, and we’ll pick that up more in verses 13 to 17. But this is the woman and the man-child. Any questions now about the man-child section before we close this morning? All right, well let us close with a word of prayer. Russell, would you…