The Woman, The Child, and, the Dragon - Pt. 3

 

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).

 

We need to identify the third of our cast of characters in this vision. John describes it as a “great red dragon” (v. 3). The dragon is mentioned 13 times in Revelation and this is the easiest one to interpret for it is defined for us in Revelation 12:9 which states 'The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.' This is an important verse because it ties the dragon of Revelation with the ancient serpent from the garden, identifying them both as one being - Satan, the adversary.

 

The picture of the dragon here in Revelation is one with seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads point to Satan's initial state of perfection in wisdom (cf. Ezekiel 28:12). In later verses, when speaking of the beast, the seven heads will also point to the seven kingdoms that have ruled and dominated this planet throughout history, under the enabling of the 'god of this world'. Now each of the dragon's heads had a crown speaking of Satan's rule as over this world. As mentioned, scripture says he is 'the god of this world' (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus called him the 'ruler of this world' (John 14.30). And his ten horns speak of power and ultimately points to the final kingdom where ten kings shall rule (Daniel 7:7,24, Revelation 17:12) and from which Satan's man, the Antichrist, shall emerge (Daniel 7:7-8). 

 

The cast is complete for this stage of the end of time as we know it. There are some clear conclusions we may form from this text (we’ll look in depth at that tomorrow); however, we cannot miss the truth that this is the description of the millennia-old conflict between God and Satan. As old as Satan is he is still unable to believe the battle has already been won. John is showing us what that will look like, not what the outcome will be. We already know that by the Cross and Resurrection. Take hope, the end is in sight!