And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down la third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. (Revelation 12:1-6 ESV).
Well, we have made the halfway mark of our series through Revelation. Eleven chapters down, eleven to go. With the events of our world cascading more and more toward fulfilling the prophecies of the Second Coming, I do wonder if I will finish this study. Naturally I would be just fine watching from heaven should the Lord choose to return now. However, what we have today is a pivotal chapter. Remember we have already seen a trilogy in the saga as we looked at the temple, the witnesses and the beast. In this chapter we see the woman, the child and the dragon. It all sounds a bit like science fiction and fantasy, but these images are very real as far as John could understand them. We will see the underlying story of how this story reaches as far back as the garden of Eden and stretches as far forward as to the end of the Tribulation.
First, let’s identify the woman. There are four prominent women in the book of Revelation – Jezebel in Revelation 2:20 (a type of the false Church), this woman in chapter 12, the harlot of Revelation 17 and the bride of Christ mentioned in Revelation 19:7. Two are false and two are true. Some, especially Catholics, have said this woman in Revelation 12 represents Mary. Others think it is the church. That last one is interesting, and more than a little problematic. She is pregnant and unwed. This does not fit the Bride of Christ. When you let scripture interpret scripture, we see that the picture of a woman clothed with the sun and twelve stars on her head takes us back to Joseph’s dream (Genesis 37:9-10). With this reference we see the reference pointing to Israel.
We will look at the child and the dragon next. Today, please pay careful attention to the woman. We must understand the pivotal position Israel will occupy in the end times. God will not fail in His promises to the nation. Even a casual glance at current events should cause us to prepare ourselves for an imminent return of Christ. This is GREAT news! However, for those ready it is a word of caution.