Our Great Enemy: Daily Thoughts from Revelation (Revelation 12:1-6)

Who has been the enemy of mankind from the very beginning? Who has been the unseen antagonist behind every attempt to destroy God’s people? Who has sought to co-opt God’s kingdom and make it his own?

Something happens now in the book of Revelation to bring us up to speed and tie together great themes of God’s plan for history. As the seventh trumpet has sounded announcing the beginning of God’s reign on earth, a sign appears in heaven that describes all that Satan has been trying to do against God and His people from day one.

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 a 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)

Two signs appear in heaven.  The first is a woman, whose description is symbolic of Israel (see Genesis 37:9) as the bearer of the Messiah.  In Genesis 3:15 God told the serpent, who tempted Adam and Eve into disobedience, that He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman and between his offspring and her offspring.

The second sign is this serpent, depicted as a dragon with great power (7 heads, ten horns, etc.) who has control over human rulers and nations.  He forces a third of the stars (angels who joined him in rebellion against God) to earth to help him accomplish his goal of devouring the Messiah when he was born.  But God has destined this child to become the ruler of all nations (Psalm 2) and though Satan was able to engineer his crucifixion, God raised him from the dead and exalted him to heaven.

The woman now comes to represent all who follow this Messiah and are therefore enemies of Satan.  The vision brings us into this future time, the great tribulation, when God is meting out judgment.  Satan is giving full force to destroying God’s people, but God prepares a place for her in the “wilderness” (the place of utter dependence upon God) and nourishes her there for three and a half years.  The wilderness is not an easy place.  Those believers who go through this three and half year period will face great discomfort but also experience God’s great comforting in the midst of it.

The time of God’s kingdom has come here at the end of the ages and Satan is desperate to gain victory over it. He is a powerful, yet defeated, foe. He is dangerous to those who do not understand the truth. Has he pulled you in, or have you humbled yourself before God and resisted him?