Revelation 12:1- 6 – The woman, the dragon and the male child

One difficulty in interpreting the book of revelation is the identification of the different characters and events. We wish the Bible has put a tag on each of those figures so that we will know exactly who is who. But the exciting part about studying the Bible is discovering what God is saying and then applying them to our life and situation. Chapter 12 actually introduces us to three scenes. In verses 1-6 we will see the narrative of the woman, the dragon, and the male child. In verses 7-12, we read of Satan’s defeat and being cast out of heaven. The last five verses from 13-17 deal with the persecution of the woman and her offspring. Our consideration today is from verses 1-6. Who is the woman? What is the dragon? And who exactly is the male child?

Providentially, John had left with a clue concerning who that child is. In verse 5 we see that “He will be ruling the nations with an iron rod.” This is a quotation and a fulfillment of Psalm 2:9. We know that John is referring to none other than the Messiah whom God has ordained to bring the nations under control. And since this child is Jesus the Messiah, many would have concluded that the woman must be Mary, the mother of Jesus. But this conclusion is far from it. Why it cannot be is because John tells us that she is a sign and not a literal mother.

We know that this woman is best seen as the Messianic community, the faithful Israel. And Mary was a Jewess and through her, Jesus came into the world. In Exodus, we know that the intention of God was for faithful Israel, His people, to be a kingdom priest and holy nation. In 1 Peter 2:9, we can see that the church, as a continuation of that kingdom priest and holy nation and royal priesthood, is to declare the excellence of Him who has called us out of darkness. Hence, we can say that this woman, seen here in Revelation 12, is the embodiment of the entire body of God’s people, called and chosen to execute God’s plan for the nations and the whole creation. That’s why she is adorned with the sun, moon and twelve-star crown. Here, we also see that the dragon was doing his best by striking at the woman and her child, so as to extinguish the purpose of God before it could get underway

One other figure for the woman could also be Eve, the original mother of all mankind. Eve was told that her seed will crush the serpent’s head. Putting the pictures together, we can say that faithful Israel, which the church is part of, is the woman through whom the purpose of God for humanity will be realized.  This purpose of God includes a central and necessary part of that agenda - the crushing of the serpent’s head.

The enormous red dragon with its seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its head will be more fully revealed later. But here we can see that he possessed considerable power. He was in heaven as part of the heavenly court. Revelation 12:9 calls him the devil and Satan, and he rebels against the plan of the Creator for the world. Here we see that he was thrown out of heaven and flung down to earth. His rebellious activities against God’s people had been obvious. His work through King Herod was seen in the years leading up to the coming of the Messiah and at His birth. We saw in the Gospels how his plan was foiled at the Messiah’s birth. In speaking of the child being snatched up to God’s throne, the story of the life of Jesus the Messiah who died, resurrected and ascended to God was compacted. Jesus has won the victory through His death, resurrection and ascension, and now there’s not a thing the dragon can do to him. The dragon will be seen to turn his anger on the woman. Hence the people of God, represented by the woman, remain in danger.

Israel as the people of God is redefined, since Jesus’ coming to die for His people. The church, now comprised of both non-Jews and ethnic Jews who become believers of the Messiah, will now flee to the wilderness. They will be protected by God for 1260 days. The church whom John wrote to, knew that they were not just bystanders watching but were participants in the drama that John narrates here. This woman and the dragon will continue to be featured in the remaining chapters of the book. There will come another woman along the way. We will deal with her when we come to it. John wrote with the aim to help the church to understand how the dragon operates and how his power must be overthrown.