Notes On Revelation 12

See: http://ljtsg.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-book-of-revelation-corrective-to.html

Notes On Chapter 12

12:1-18

The twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation is perhaps one of the most intimidating in all of the Bible. The imagery, at least on the surface, seems so strange, and so alien to anything we know or can make any sense of, that most readers and interpreters are turned away. But with a little work, it quickly becomes clear that the text is more straightforward than it may at first seem. The real problem comes when the full implications of the text are understood. More often than not, people are incapable of really dealing with what is being said. So fear as much as confusion often dominates the reading of the text.

But if God is trusted, and one opens oneself to the strange but life-giving reality of the Holy Spirit, then it could be argued that Revelation 12 is one of the most important passages in all of scripture. And no part of the entire Book of Revelation has more to offer daily Christian life than the twelfth chapter. Every interpreter has particular passages that they take to be the keys to any text. There are some who would argue that chapter 12 is the key to the entire text of the Book of Revelation.

This text begins the ‘Second Cycle’ of the Book. Like the first cycle, this one begins with a vision both strange and other worldly. But whereas the earlier vision focused on God and the Lamb, their supremacy in Heaven and the awe and majesty of their very being, Revelation 12 focuses on the combat between The Messiah, His people, and the evil forces that threaten mankind and (at least at first) stand between us and God. The chapter is primarily a scene of battle, of struggle.

The first mystery that confronts us is the identity of the woman with twelve stars. Only two likely candidates have ever been offered. One suggests the woman to be Mary. This makes good sense, given the fact that the child ‘with an iron rod’ who ‘will rule the nations’ is obviously Jesus. But the difficulty with that interpretation has to do with the action that takes place after the child goes up to heaven. The woman is then pursued in revenge for the giving of the child. A much more widely accepted attribution is this: the woman is The Nation of Israel. The twelve stars on her head are taken by some to be obvious references to the twelve tribes of Israel, and that makes some sense given what we have read so far (think about the 144,000 sealed in chapter 7). On this reading, the birthing scene is representative of the fact that Jesus came out of the nation of Israel (see Gospel of John Chapter 4 especially verses 16-23). This would be a powerful message a time when some Jews were disavowing Christians as non-Jews.

The dragon is identified explicitly in verse 9 as satan. There is no ambiguity here, as there was in the preceding chapters that simply talked about ‘stars falling from heaven’. This is the very essence of all cosmic evil, the prince of liars, lucifer. The horns are symbols of his great power (compare with the seven horns of the lamb in chapter 5). They seven heads and diadems (crowns) are symbols of wholeness, and royal authority. It shows that satan is the ruler of all earthly kingdoms, that all political power derives from satan. This is one of the central messages of Revelation, and one that should stick with us everyday: all political power has some alloy of the satanic within it. You can never, ever worship your politics, or make politics the center of your life. Any time you do this you ally yourself with satan. You cannot help but be politically active. To be a fully developed Christian you must seek political involvement, but you must always beware lest your politics become your religion. The Book of Revelation is an indictment of this tendency. This passage is connected to the temptations in the desert, where satan offers Christ all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship (Luke 4:5-8).

The iron rod in the child’s hand, and the assurance that his destiny is to rule all nations, is a sign that satan’s ownership of political authority is temporary. Jesus will take his place at the head of all earthly tables, but only after the End has come.

The action here encompasses the whole of the Gospels. It is like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in 5 verses. Jesus is born, glorified and ascends all in a few sentences. The woman’s flight into the desert is another indication that she is the personification of Israel. Preterists believe that this flight into the desert represents the attack of the Romans on Jerusalem and the flight of the people into the desert. The number 1260 is symbolic of the Greek Oppression during Antiochus Epiphanes (again), but also is close to the number of days the Jews actually spent in the desert during the Roman attack. Futurists believe that this and verses 14-16 represent the attack by Hitler on the Jews during the holocaust, and their return to Israel as a nation. Idealists think these passages refer to the ongoing oppression of the Jews by various peoples throughout history.

Most people fail to fully realize the importance of the narrative between verses 5-9, but they should be shocking once they are read and understood. The narrative moves from cosmic events on earth, to cosmic events in heaven. And what are those cosmic events? The defeat of satan in heaven. This should come as quite a shock. Christians tend to think of the overthrow of satan in heaven as something that took place before time began, before the world was created. But here, satan is thrown out of heaven only after Jesus dies, resurrects and ascends. It is the entry of Jesus into heaven that leads to the expulsion of the devil and his demons from the heavenly realms.

The power to destroy satan is specifically attributed to Jesus (verse 10), his sacrifice, the sacrifice of those like him, and those who testify on his behalf. Satan is called in verse 10 ‘the accuser’. This is the proper meaning of the word ‘satan’. It literally translated means ‘the prosecuting attorney’. In fact, the entire Gospel of John can be seen as an extended trial, with Jesus as the ‘defendant’ and satan as the ‘prosecutor’. The term given for the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John chapter 16:5-10 is ‘advocate’ literally meaning “The Defending Counsel”. But whereas on the surface it appears that Jesus is on trial, Jesus in the Gospel of John turns things around and ends up putting the prosecution itself on trial. It is like a defendant attacked by a dirty prosecutor, who brings out evidence in the trial of a set-up. The defendant wins not only by proving his own innocence (which Jesus does in John) but by proving the corruption of the one prosecuting him.

Here satan is again seen as the prosecutor, in heaven. There he stands and prosecutes all of mankind. But the angels end a long-time struggle to throw satan out of the heavenly realms. The power they needed to defeat him was the very sacrifice of Jesus Himself, and the sacrifice of those who followed him. The martyrs of John the Revelator’s time are being told that their sacrifice is the very power in heaven with which satan has been defeated. It is not the power of the dragon, but the vulnerability of the lamb, which is the ultimate power in heaven, and heaven itself has been freed by his sacrifice and the sacrifice of those who came after him. This is a turning point for the Book, and for us. Remember our chart, with the dark powers standing between God and man. Here we are being told that through the sacrifice of Jesus and his followers, that situation no longer exists. A new explanation is being offered for the suffering of the good in the world. The devil and his minions no longer stands between God and man, rather the devil has been thrown down to the earth, where he has been lashed out at all that is good and wonderful, in anger and frustration at his heavenly defeat (verse 12).

There is so much to talk about here that one could write a book simply on these few verses. But a quick rundown will have to suffice here and now. The powerlessness, the vulnerability and sacrifice of the martyrs John is writing to are being made into the very substance of power in Heaven. The greatest sacrifice, and so they greatest power, is that of Jesus Himself. Before this happened, mankind could not have direct access to God, because in a very real sense Heaven was held hostage by the prosecuting attorney, who used guilt and judgment to block us from the power of God’s love. The struggle of those on earth to do what is right in the face of great evil is given an ultimate significance: it is the very power by which heaven is freed from the threat of satan, and it opens up the way between God and man. Additionally, it is given an explanation: the pain we experience is no sign that we are lacking access to God. Heaven is open for business in a way it never has been. Rather it is a manifestation of the fact that satan has taken up residence here on earth, and seeks revenge against all who contributed to his downfall.

After satan’s defeat he pursues ‘the woman who gave birth to the child’. For some interpreters, this represents Mary’s flight into Egypt. But this does not fit in with the narrative as it is given to us. A straightforward reading brings us again to Israel: this may be the attack of Rome on Jerusalem, the Holocaust, or some other historical or even ahistorical (for-all-time) reference. The spewing of the water may surprise some...don’t dragons breath fire? But remember what water symbolizes: chaos and uncreation. The earth swallowing the water may refer to the treaty that keeps the Jews from having to take part in the Roman Imperial Cult. The dragon, satan, frustrated at its inability to destroy the Jewish nation, then turns its attention on “those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus.” This is clearly a reference to the church.

Think about the magnitude of this passage. Here the church is called the offspring of Israel. This is an important message at the time John is writing. Some Jews continued to support and find kinship with Christians. This continued until the 4th century, and intermarriage between Jews and Christians was common until that time. Those Jews who are trying to throw Christians out of synagogues are being told by God that we are their children, and that the persecutions we face under the Romans are caused by the same evil source that drove the Romans to destroy the Temple. Jews and the Church are seen as co-enemies of the same satan.

The final scene has the dragon at the edge of the sea, the realm of water, of chaos. It is from this chaos that the dragon will summon or create those monstrous and demonic entities that will be the vehicle of his revenge against those who orchestrated his expulsion from Heaven.