Revelation 12, The Dragon and his hatred of Israel

Rev 12:1-6 (ESV) 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. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 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. 5 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, 6 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.


• We need to consider an episode of LOST to understand. This is a flashback. We need to understand in order to fully appreciate what God is saying
• First, what does John say he is seeing?
• A great sign
• Therefore, we can't treat this literally. Most of the time we prefer to treat scripture, even Revelation literally
• Remember: Our hermeneutical rule is that we use "common sense" reading of the scriptures
• Who is the woman? What are the possibilities?
• A women in scripture is used to represent a nation or a religion
• Jer 3:20 (NIV) But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, // so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel," //  declares the Lord.
• Isa 26:17-18 (NIV) As a woman with child and about to give birth // writhes and cries out in her pain, // so were we in your presence, O Lord. // 18 We were with child, we writhed in pain, // but we gave birth to wind. // We have not brought salvation to the earth; // we have not given birth to people of the world.
• Gen 37:9-11 9 (NIV) Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." // 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
• Also Hos 2:16-20; Isa 54:1-6; Ezek 16:8-14
• Who or what is the "enormous red dragon?"
• Satan (this will be obvious in the next section)
• Seven heads, 10 horns, 7 crowns: The Antichrist (the Devil's son) will rule the ten kingdoms. Three of the horns will rise up and be put down, and so there will be seven crowns and seven rulers, with the eighth, the Antichrist leading them all. Since the devil leads the Antichrist, he is identified with his son's rule
• Third of the stars -- some have suggested that these are the angels whom Satan led in rebellion
• Isa 14:12-15 (NIV) How you have fallen from heaven, // O morning star, son of the dawn! // You have been cast down to the earth, // you who once laid low the nations! // 13 You said in your heart, // "I will ascend to heaven; // I will raise my throne // above the stars of God; // I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, // on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. // 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; // I will make myself like the Most High." // 15 But you are brought down to the grave, // to the depths of the pit.
• Ezek 28:11-19 (NIV) The word of the Lord came to me: 12 "Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "'You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. 16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. 18 By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. 19 All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.'"
• The dragon tries to destroy the baby. Who is the baby?
• We are given the clue in the passage (vs5, one who is to rule over the nations)
• Jesus
• Verse 5 represent a period of 33 years
• The woman fleeing to the desert would be a picture of what?
• Woman is Israel
• 1260 days is one-half of the tribulation (probably the latter half since the first half has a peace treaty and the second half begins with the breaking of the peace treaty)
• People fleeing to ?
• Israel's "place" of refuge (Rev 12:14) is not specified, but it could be Petra, in present-day Jordan: Zechariah identifies "Azal," a place associated with Petra, as Israel's refuge (see exposition on Zech 14:1-5); Isaiah portrayed a triumphant Christ coming from Edom (see Isa 63:1-6), of which Petra was the capital; Edom will be spared from the Antichrist (see Dan 11:41), perhaps so that it can protect Israel. (from Willmington's Bible Handbook by Harold Willmington Copyright © 1997 by Harold L. Willmington. Produced with permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.)
• APPLICATION: Events affecting the end times have been in place for many years. Satan wants to destroy Israel -- he has always wanted to destroy Israel. That doesn't mean Israel is right in all that it does, but that we need to support their security


Rev 12:7-12 (ESV) Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!"


• So we have a war in heaven, what do we observe?
• Michael and his angels are more powerful than Satan and his demons (former angels)
• Satan and his demons are cast down to earth
• This is not the first time that Michael and Satan have confronted each other
• Jude 8-10 (ESV) Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." 10  But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
• The dragon is very clearly identified as …
• Dragon - Grk drakon - a fascinating serpent; mythical; a monstrous winged lizard (only in Revelation and mostly in chapter 8) -- Probably frightening as well as fascinating
• Serpent - Grk ophis (of'-is); probably from NT:3700 (through the idea of sharpness of vision);  snake, figuratively (as a type of sly cunning) an artful malicious person
• Ancient refers us back to Genesis 2-3
• Devil - Grk diabolos - a traducer (to cause humiliation or disgrace to by making malicious and false statements)
• Satan - Grk Satanas - an Aramaic origin, the accuser, the devil
• So when you read verses 7-10, what goes through your mind?
• Why is he even in heaven? (answered below)
• Why has it not happened sooner? Clearly it is tied to this middle of the tribulation ("… time is short")
• Why doesn't God just "make it happen?"
• Throughout Revelation God relies on Angels to do things
• Emphasizes a principle with God. He uses others to accomplish his will, thereby making them part of what he is doing
• Also, God doesn't seem to be forcing but relying upon others (which might explain why Satan is willing to play a "losing" game)
• Up to this point, Satan has had access to both earth (which he temporarily rules) and Heaven, where he is allowed to visit (and accuse the saints -- example is Job)
• "the time is short" can be viewed a couple of ways
• One, a defeatist view, well we only have a few years and it is all over
• Two, the time is really short. If we are going to still win, we need to go all out
• One of Satan's strategy to win has been to destroy the line of David
• Initially it was to prevent Jesus' birth
• Still, Jesus said he wouldn't return until Israel confesses him as messiah
• One, destroy Israel so that there is essentially no nation to welcome him back
• Two, convince Israel that there is no God protecting them
• Whatever his purpose, we also know that pride and anger drive Satan. An all-out campaign of anti-Semitism will be unleashed
• APPLICATION: Satan is an accuser. He accuses us before God, but he also accuses us (through his servants). And that is when we let ourselves get defeated


Rev 12:13-17 (ESV) And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.


• This further expands the discussion
• The dragon goes after the woman, Israel
• So, this answers the earlier question. In some way, Satan sees his key to victory in going after Israel
• The nation escapes on eagle's wings
• This is probably not the US
• It is an allusion to the Exodus
• Ex 19:3-4 (NIV) Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
• Deut 32:10-12 (NIV) In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.
12 The Lord alone led him;
no foreign god was with him.
• The time, times, and half a time is our reference to the 1260 days or 3 1/2 years. So this is one half of the tribulation. Since there was a peace treaty at the beginning, this would have to be the last half of the tribulation
• This brings up an interesting question: why did Satan bring about the peace treaty with Israel in the first place since it appears his key to victory is Israel's destruction?
• One thought is that he needed to gain power in the world first. The key is by ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was a stepping stone, but clearly not in Satan's interest long-term
• Key thought: Satan is dependent upon others doing his work. Unlike God, who chooses to use others, Satan does not have the power to not use people
• The destination for Israel is Petra or some similar place of protection
• The discussion of the serpent spewing water is difficult
• It could be literal water or flood
• A flood is used figuratively for an Army as in Daniel 9:26; 11:10; 11:40
• Zechariah in describing the end times, suggest that only 1/3 will survive
• Zech 13:8-9 (NIV) In the whole land," declares the Lord,
"two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.
9 This third I will bring into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, 'They are my people,'
and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.'"
• After failing to destroy Israel, where does the dragon put his attention?
• Tribulation saints
• Believers (obey the word)
• Children (in a spiritual sense from Abraham's blessing)
• APPLICATION: Repeated message -- what you do today could determine a person's destiny during the tribulation. It's okay if they won't listen, but don't withhold the gift of life on that perception