Revelation 12
Chs. 12-22 tell the same story as chs. 1-11, but explain in greater detail what the first chapters only introduce and imply. Ch. 12 now reveals that the devil himself is the deeper source of evil. Brief references to him have come already in 2:13; 6:8; and 9:11. The devil is the grand initiator of the trials and persecutions of the saints. He unleashes the beast and the false prophet. The harlot Babylon is also his servant. John pictures the four figures (the devil, the beast, the false prophet, and the harlot) rising in this order and then meeting their demise in the reverse order of chs. 12-20 in order to highlight the devil as the initiator, from first to last, of all resistance to God and His people. In this respect, ch. 12 can be seen as introducing the second half of the book.
v.1
A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
Vv. 2-6 reveal that this woman is a picture of the faithful community, which existed both before and after the coming of Christ. This identification is based on the OT precedent, where sun, moon, and eleven stars metaphorically represent Jacob, his wife, and eleven of the tribes of Israel (Gen 37:9), who bow down to Joseph, representing the twelfth tribe. Song of Solomon 6:1 0 was used in later Jewish literature to describe Israel in terms of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and restored Israel (which in Revelation is identified as the church) is described similarly in Isa. 60:19-20. In fact, in Isaiah a woman often represents the picture of restored Israel (e.g., 52:2; 54:1-6; 61:10; 62:1-5), and Isa. 62:3, 5 prophesies that restored Israel will be like a bride wearing a crown.
v.2
She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Catholic commentators have written an immense amount of literature arguing that the heavenly woman symbolizes Mary, the mother of Jesus. Though the mother of Jesus may be secondarily in mind, the primary focus is not an individual but on the community of faith, within which the messianic lien ultimately yielded a kingly offspring. This is evident, not only from the discussion of v.1, but also from observing in the remainder of the chapter that the woman is persecuted, flees into the desert, and has other offspring than just the Messiah, offspring who are described as faithful Christians. The woman’s birth-pangs refer to the persecution of the covenant community and the messianic line during OT times and especially the intertestamental period leading up to Christ’s birth… In John 16:19-22, Christ compares the grief of His disciples over His impending death to a woman about to give birth who “has sorrow” and is about to bear a child. There, in line with our view of Rev. 12:2, the disciples represent the mother, the messianic community, in the midst of which the Christ was born in resurrection, and which would later present the resurrected Christ to the world. In Rev. 12:2 it is, however, Christ’s first birth that is in mind and not this later resurrection birth. Since the harlot of ch. 17 is symbolic of the unbelieving community, so here the contrasting figure of the righteous woman must represent the believing community.
v.4
His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
The picture of the dragon’s tail sweeping away a third of the stars of heaven is an allusion to the prophecy of Dan. 8:10, according to which the end-time enemy of God will throw some of the stars down to the earth. The stars are identified in Dan. 12:3 with God’s people, and those being oppressed in the vision of Dan. 8:10 are identified as the “holy people” in 8:24. Though Dan. 8:10 first had application with respect to Israel’s persecutor in the second century BC, Antiochus Ephiphanes, it comes now to be applied by John in an escalated way to the devilish power behind Antiochus. The primary focus is on persecution of the godly community immediately before the birth of the Messiah, though in the telescoping style of the writer this could still include aspects of the OT age and the intertestamental period leading up to the time of Christ (e.g., Herod’s massacre of infants in Bethlehem, as well as the early persecution of Christ in Luke 4:28-30).
v.6
The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
In 12:6, the messianic community is pictured as beginning to experience the end-time protection of God in the wilderness following the ascension of the Messiah. Though the community’s members experience tribulation in relation to the world, at the same time their covenant relationship with God is spiritually protected and nourished, as they continue to fulfill the OT promises of Israel’s restoration. The wilderness itself does not protect, but is the invisible place where divine protection occurs. Even in the wilderness, the dragon’s oppressive efforts threaten the community of saints, but God protects them there. The one thousand two hundred and sixty days have been established as the time of tribulation predicted by Dan. 7:25 and 12:7, which commences at Christ’s ascension and continues until His return. Among all of John’s “three and a half years” formulas, v. 6 is the clearest in identifying the formulas’ temporal boundaries (cf. 11:2-3; 13:5). Undoubtedly here the limited age extends from the resurrection of Christ (v. 5) until His final appearance (14:14-20).
v.10
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”
In times past, Satan’s chief role as adversary was directed toward accusing God’s people of disobedience to God. The justice of these accusations was recognized by God, and therefore Satan’s presence in heaven was tolerated. But now the presence of the crucified Savior in God’s presence provides the required satisfaction of God’s justice regarding our sins (1Jn 2:1-2; 4:10). Thus, Satan’s accusations are no longer valid and he is cast out.
Christ’s death and resurrection have resulted in Satan’s excommunication from heaven. Just as Satan and his hosts fell at the beginning of the first creation (Isa. 14:11-16; Ezek. 28:12-19 [possibly]; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6), so had to fall at the start of what Scripture tells us in the second, new creation (see 1:5 and 3:14; cf. 2 Cor. 5:14-17; Gal. 6:15). Satan’s job had always been to accuse the saints (Job 1:6-11; 2:1-6; Zech. 3:1-2), and from these texts it can be concluded that the devil was permitted by God to accuse His people of sin. Implicit also in the accusations was the charge that God’s own character was corrupt. For example, Satan says to God in Job 1 that Job would not have been so faithful if God had not prospered or bribed him so much. The devil’s accusation is based on the correct presupposition that penalty of sin necessitates a judgement of spiritual death. Until the death of Christ, it could appear that the devil had a good case, since God ushered all deceased OT saints into His saving presence without exacting the penalty of their sin, God having delayed executing just punishment for our sin (Rom. 3:25). However, the devil’s case was unjust even then, since the sins about which he was accusing and for which he wanted to punish people were instigated by his deceptions. This is why he is called both deceiver and accuser in vv. 9-10. Therefore, because of Satan’s unjust accusations and because of the Messiah’s anticipated redemptive death for His people (cf. Isaiah 53), OT saints were protected by God from the damning danger of these accusations.
Jesus links the fall of Satan from heaven (Luke 10:18) with the empowering of the disciples over the work of the enemy (Luke 10:17, 19-20), and most of all with the fact that the disciples’ names are recorded in heaven (Luke 10:20). Jesus prophesied that when He was lifted up, the ruler of this world would be cast out (John 12:31). The decisive and legal defeat of Satan occurs as the kingdom of God is inaugurated on earth; the final and complete destruction of the enemy will occur when the Lord returns to establish His kingdom in its completed or fulfilled state (Rev. 19:20-21; 20:10-15).
v.11
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
V. 11 summarizes the purpose of the whole chapter and especially of vv. 7-12, which is to assure believers who encounter Satanic evil on earth that evil has been defeated, even though it seems otherwise. Christians can be assured that the serpent begins to battle against their bodies only after he has lost the battle over their souls. This expresses one of the major themes of the book: the suffering of Christians is a sign, not of Satan’s victory, but of the saint’s victory over him because of their belief in the triumph of the cross, with which their suffering identifies them. The saints’ status in heaven has been legitimized finally by Christ’s suffering on the cross. All believers, past present, and future, have overcome the devil and thus “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (14:4). Just as both Satan’s and the world’s guilty verdict on Christ was overturned through His resurrection, so His followers have their verdict reversed in the same manner through their identification with that resurrection.
v.14
The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.
v.17
Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
“It is precisely when Satan has lost the battle for the souls of saints in heaven that he begins the fruitless persecution of their bodies.” (Farrer)