“Then a great and mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a woman, whose dress was the sun and who had the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was soon to give birth …” Revelation 12:1-2a, GNT

 

This chapter is the start of a second main part of Revelation. The first eleven chapters are about the struggle between the faithful and the world. In the next few chapters, we will see the other side of this same struggle. It is now pictured as a spiritual struggle. It is not about a completely new struggle, but the same struggle is now seen from a different angle.

 

In this vision, we see a pregnant woman and a huge red dragon. The woman is the church out of which the Christ would come forth and the dragon is Satan, who stood ready to prevent the coming of the Messiah. When we use the word “church”, it is by lack of a better word. The church, in this connection, is already visible in the Old Testament. Everybody who belonged to God since the covenant with Abraham, can be called “church” of God.

 

Right from the beginning, Satan tried everything in his power to prevent the coming of the Messiah – slavery in Egypt, exile in Babylon and the story of Esther, where Satan planned to wipe out all the Jews. After Jesus was born, Herod tried to kill him and Satan took him into the desert to tempt him. Above all, Satan was hoping that when Jesus died on the cross, his plans would finally bear fruit, not knowing that this was the point where his plans would finally be destroyed. In the vision, we see “… the child was snatched away and taken to God and his throne”.

 

Jesus did the full circle from birth to cross and when he rose from the grave, he became the victor over death itself; when he ascended into heaven, he was raised to God and his throne. Nothing that Satan tried, throughout the centuries, could stop God’s plan to redeem mankind.

 

Prayer: Lord, we thank you that you are almighty and that you have prevented Satan from obstructing your plan of salvation for the world. Amen