Revelation 12
The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon
12:1 Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars.
John will see a great sign in heaven. This sign will be symbolic of Israel's past history. According to Joseph's dream in Genesis 37, this woman is Israel. The sun is Jacob. The moon is Rachel. The twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel.
12:2 She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth.
Israel became pregnant and gave birth to the Messiah.
12:3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns.
John will see another sign of Israel's past in heaven. The huge red dragon is Satan. According to Revelation 13, the seven heads and ten horns will be future nations which the Antichrist will control.
12:4 Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.
Satan caused one third of the angels in heaven to rebel against God and join the satanic rebellion. Since the stars are innumerable, the angels are innumerable as well. It may be possible that there was a star created for each angel.
The fallen angels currently have access to the heavenly atmosphere and to the earthly atmosphere. When Israel gave birth to the Messiah, Satan attempted to devour the Messianic child. He used human government to do so. Herod the Great attempted to kill the Messiah by killing all of the babies of two years or younger who were living around Bethlehem.
12:5 So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne,
Israel gave birth to the Messiah. According to Psalm 2:9, this Messianic child will eventually rule the entire world with "a rod of iron." The Messiah was crucified, resurrected, and then He ascended into heaven. The current throne of the Messiah is at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is waiting for the Father to eliminate His enemies on earth. Once this is done, the Father will transfer the kingdoms of the world from Satan to the Son.
12:6 and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days.
This vision will move from past to future. In the middle of the Great Tribulation, Israel (who is the woman and wife of Jehovah), will be on the run. She will run into the wilderness. This wilderness will be prepared by her husband, Jehovah. She will stay in the wilderness for the next three and a half years, or until the end of the Great Tribulation.
War in Heaven
12:7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
An angelic war will break out in heaven. Michael and his angels will fight against the dragon, which is Satan and his fallen angels.
12:8 But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels.
Satan, once the mightiest and most beautiful angel of all, a cherubim above God's throne, will be defeated by Michael, who is a lesser angel. At this time, Satan will be dwelling in his third of his six abodes. His first abode was heaven, where he was the guardian angel at God's throne. His second abode was the mineral Garden of Eden, where he once reigned. His third abode and current abode is the atmospheric heaven, where he accuses the saints.
12:9 So that huge dragon – the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world – was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him.
A lesser angel will humble Satan and throw him down into his fourth abode. Satan's fourth abode will limited to that of the earth.
12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down.
Satan is the accuser. He used his access in the third abode in order to accuse the saints.
12:11 But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
The only reason that Michael and the other angels will be able to defeat Satan will be by the blood of Christ. Many martyrs were willing to lose their physical lives in order for the Kingdom of God to prevail on earth.
12:12 Therefore you heavens rejoice, and all who reside in them! But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you! He is filled with terrible anger, for he knows that he only has a little time!”
Heaven will rejoice when Satan is removed from his third abode, the atmospheric heavens. He will no longer be located in the atmospheric heavens to accuse the saints. However, a woe will be given to the earth and sea, because Satan will now make the earth his fourth abode. He will be very angry, because he will know that he will only have three and a half years left to rule upon the earth. After the three and a half years, he will be locked in the Abyss for 1000 years.
12:13 Now when the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
Satan will persecute Israel. Jesus told the nation of Israel that He would not return until they cry out, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Satan knows that Jesus will not return until the Jews cry out for Him. Therefore, Satan will attempt to kill all of the Jews so that they cannot make this call. However, it will be this satanic persecution which will cause Israel to make this call.
12:14 But the woman was given the two wings of a giant eagle so that she could fly out into the wilderness, to the place God prepared for her, where she is taken care of – away from the presence of the serpent – for a time, times, and half a time.
Israel, the wife of Jehovah, will flee from Satan's persecution. She will run to a place that God has prepared for her. This place in the wilderness will be called Bozrah, or Petra. Bozrah is the Hebrew name. Petra is the Greek name. They are both the same location in Edom, or modern Jordan.
12:15 Then the serpent spouted water like a river out of his mouth after the woman in an attempt to sweep her away by a flood,
In the Old Testament, a flood of water is a symbol of a military invasion. In the middle of the Great Tribulation, Satan will invade Israel, take control of her temple, and attempt to exterminate all of the Jews. Adolph Hitler could have been Satan's dry run. Adolph Hitler killed six million Jews, which was about one third of the Jewish population on the earth during this time. According to Zechariah, the Antichrist will kill 2/3 of the Jewsish population. This will be the invasion of Israel prophesied in Daniel 11:41.
12:16 but the earth came to her rescue; the ground opened up and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth.
It will take a miraculous intervention to stop the armies of the Antichrist from exterminating all of the Jews.
12:17 So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus. And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.