And a great sign was seen in the heaven a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars;
A woman appears in the sky, dressed in sunlight, standing on the moon, wearing a crown of twelve stars. The whole vision turns on who she is, and her clothing is the answer.
John calls this a sign, not a wonder. And the place where it appears is not where the woman stands.
"A great sign appeared in heaven," not "wonder," as the older King James translation has it. A "wonder" is a surprise. A "sign" has a meaning, and points to a definite subject or object (Rev. 15:1). The word great is used six times in the chapter, and the chapter is one of great subjects. The first of them in order, though not in greatness, is a woman. The Man-Child is the chief subject of the chapter. The woman is not actually in heaven, but on earth. Only the sign is there. Why is it in "heaven," when her greatness and her sorrow are on earth? So that God's thoughts and purposes about her might be known in His dwelling-place, "heaven." It is history read and known in heaven, in the light of God's presence.
Writers here rule out two popular answers and name a nation instead.
The woman is seen here wearing all the symbols of authority. She is neither the Church nor Mary, but Israel, seen from the standpoint of God's purposes. The proper calling of the nation is to govern and lead the peoples of the earth.
Another writer identifies her from the child she gives birth to.
Who the woman is should be quite plain. The child she gives birth to is the One who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. That is certainly Christ. And the mother of Christ is not the virgin Mary, as what follows makes clear. Still less is she the Church, of which Christ is in no sense born. She is Israel, and of Israel the apostle says, "from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ" (Rom. 9:5).
One writer takes each part of her clothing as a period of her history: her coming glory, her past, and her tribes made whole.
"Clothed with the sun" points to God's purpose for her in the Millennium, when she is clothed with the glory of "The Sun of Righteousness," the blessed Christ of God (Mal. 4:2). The moon under her feet stands for Israel as she has been through all her past history. That history is the night, set against the day of the coming kingdom. Her proper character was to reflect the sun, as the moon does, however poorly she has done it. The crown of twelve stars on her head stands for the twelve tribes, all intact in the day to come.
Another writer reads the same three lights as authority at every level. He also sets this woman beside the other symbolic women in Revelation.
There are four representative women in Revelation, and each one stands for a body of people or a system… The lights of heaven — sun, moon and stars — are gathered here in all their glory. Together they present a complete system of government. All authority centres in the woman: supreme authority like the sun, derived and lower authority like the moon, lesser lights and rulers like the stars. She has royal dignity too, as the crown on her head shows. But why twelve stars? The reference is clearly to Joseph's dream (Gen. 37:9), which pictures the future glory of Israel, of the twelve tribes.
Commentators differ over the twelve stars. Most take them as the twelve tribes. One writer offers another possibility.
She wears a crown of stars, which speaks of full administrative power. The twelve may refer to the twelve apostles, who in the coming day will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
The order of the visions matters.
The sign in heaven shows that the place of honour and the glory in government that will be hers come from God Himself. See the contrast in chapter 13. The two beasts that will claim world-wide rule, before God sets Israel in the place meant for her, come up out of the sand of the sea and out of the earth. Before they appear, God shows His purpose for Israel.
- Sign — a picture with meaning, not a marvel to stare at.
- Seen in heaven — the woman herself stands on earth. Heaven is where God makes His thoughts about her known.
- She is Israel — the Child she bears will rule the nations. She is not Mary, and not the Church.
- Clothed in glory — the sun is Christ's coming glory. The moon is her older, borrowed light, now under her feet. The twelve stars are her tribes, complete.
- Purpose before the powers — God shows His plan for Israel first. Only then do the beasts of the next chapter grab at world rule.
and being with child she cried, [being] in travail, and in pain to bring forth.
The chapter opens with a sign in heaven: a woman crowned with stars, and now that same woman crying out in labour. The picture raises two questions at once. Who is she? And why does a scene of glory turn straight into a scene of pain?
One writer marks the change of role and names both the woman and the child:
The woman has been before us as a queen; now we see her as a mother. Her glory and majesty belong to the first role, her suffering and pain to the second. Who is the woman? And who is the child? The woman is ISRAEL. The child is CHRIST. Most commentators apply the vision of the woman to the Church. Now both Israel and the Church stand closely related to Christ — Israel as the mother, the Church as the wife. Once you see that verse five applies to Christ, and in fact must refer to Him personally and to no one else, all argument is over.
Another writer settles it by asking where Christ came from:
This, I have no doubt, is the Jewish people, nothing else. Christ is not born of the church. Seen as reigning and glorious in the world, He was born of the Jews: "from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ." The idea of Christ being born of the church makes no sense at all.
One reading takes the crying and pain as the nation's own history in the centuries before Christ came:
The woman in labour with child brings to mind the sufferings the nation went through before Christ was born. All had failed — people, priests, and kings. Israel had gone into captivity through every kind of humiliation, suffering and sorrow. A remnant had been restored, only to sink into dead formality. When at last the time had come for the birth of Christ, only a sorrowing few were left in the middle of a conquered and downtrodden nation, looking for redemption in Jerusalem. In the middle of all these humiliations the cry at last goes out, "To us a child is born."
Commentators differ here. Others find it hard to match this anguish with what happened when Christ was born, and answer from the prophets:
It may be hard to square the mother's anguish, applied to Israel, with what actually happened when Christ was born... The solution is contained in Isaiah 66: "Before she was in labour she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son" (v. 7). The labour and pain refer to Israel's coming hour of trial, the Great Tribulation. But before that great event the Messiah, the Man-Child, is born. Micah confirms this: after speaking of the birth of the Messiah (Micah 5:2), he adds that God will give them up "until the time when she who is in labour has given birth" (Micah 5:3). The woman's labour is at least two thousand years after the birth of the Messiah, and refers to her sorrow in the coming Tribulation... Why then is the woman's labour put side by side with the birth of the Messiah?... It shows the deep interest the Messiah takes in His people... The nation is about to pass into its awful sorrow, and the point of going back to the birth of Christ is to connect Him with them in it.
A third approach reads the birth as a picture. The pain and the delivery show God's plan for Israel coming to term, not a date on the calendar:
This shows that the birth of the man child is not a literal reference to Christ's birth into the world. We are to take it in connection with the carrying out of God's purposes concerning Israel. Christ was born (Micah 5:2). Then comes His rejection. Then comes the calling of the church, which measures, as it were, His rejection on earth and His exaltation in heaven. But the prophecy here passes by everything to do with the church. It takes up Christ's birth as a figure, tying it to the unfolding of God's purposes, which is itself pictured as a birth.
On any reading, the pain in this verse is not the end of the story:
The day for God to carry out His purpose in joy and triumph has not yet come. Isaiah announces that day to Israel in his last chapter: before Zion is in labour she is to give birth, and before her pain comes she is to give birth to a son. There is weakness and suffering yet, but all is secured, and the end pledged on high.
- Mother — the woman is Israel, not the church. Christ came from Israel according to the flesh; the idea that the church gave Him birth makes no sense.
- Pain — the crown of verse 1 and the crying here belong to one woman. She is queen in her glory and mother in her suffering.
- Timing — commentators differ. Some read the labour as the nation's long humiliation before Christ's birth. Others place it in her coming hour of trial, since Isaiah 66:7 says she gave birth before the pain came.
- Purpose — taken as a figure, the birth pictures God's plan for Israel reaching its term. The prophecy passes the calling of the church by in silence.
- Pledge — the weakness and suffering are real and still going on, yet the end is already secured and pledged in heaven.
And another sign was seen in the heaven and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems;
The first sign in this chapter was a woman; the second is her enemy — a dragon wearing royal crowns. Who is he, and what do his heads, his horns and his colour mean?
The chapter does not leave his identity to guesswork.
These heads and horns we shall soon find upon the fourth beast, or world-empire. But we are not left in doubt as to who the dragon is. Here is the first of those explanations, given here and there from now on through the book: the dragon is "that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world." So as dawn rises over the battlefield, we can make out who the fighters are. Satan here, as the "prince of this world," appears as if he had taken bodily form in the last world-empire. "Seven heads" show perfection of world-wisdom; and every one of these heads wears a diadem, or despotic crown.
The picture is not new. Scripture had already used this creature for rulers who crushed God's people — though never before for Satan himself.
Why is the dragon used as a symbol of Satan? Scripture calls Pharaoh, king of Egypt, "the great dragon" (Ezekiel 29:3-4), for his cruelty to God's people and his proud and haughty independence of God. It speaks of Nebuchadnezzar in the same way, for his violence and cruelty (Jeremiah 51:34). The Psalms and the first three of the greater prophets refer many times to the crocodile, the ruler of the seas, identified with the dragon. Put those references together, and insatiable cruelty seems to be the main feature… This is the first time in Scripture that Satan is directly called a dragon. At the time of our chapter he is the prince of the world, its virtual ruler, and the Roman power is the instrument through which he acts.
The colour carries its own message about how he treats those who belong to God.
His colour, "red," shows how ready Satan is to shed the blood of God's saints.
The next chapter gives the beast the same seven heads and ten horns. But the crowns sit somewhere else, and that detail carries the meaning.
What is said of the dragon here is also said of the Beast (Revelation 13:1). Only here the golden band, or diadem, encircles the heads. In the East that band is the emblem of arbitrary, despotic power. On the Beast, the crowns sit on the ten horns instead. The dragon and the Beast are distinct, however closely related. The first is a spiritual power, the second the historical world power… The dragon is the unseen force behind the empire, so the diadems sit on his heads, not on his horns.
He had offered this power once before, and to Christ Himself.
The Roman beast is said to have "ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns" — the same things that we saw in Satan (Revelation 12:3). There he was regarded as the possessor of the power of the world, and especially of Rome. We may all remember what he said to the Lord Jesus, when showing Him all the kingdoms of the world: "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will." Now here he gives it to the Roman beast. Satan was, of course, a usurper; but still he was in fact the prince of the world.
Set the dragon's numbers beside the woman's and something is missing.
The dragon has seven heads — that is, the completeness of ruling authority. He also has ten horns. That is not exactly completeness, but at any rate a very wide distribution approaching it, in the instruments of the power he wields in the west. Man is never complete in this way. What God gave the woman we saw — twelve stars. The dragon has only ten horns.
He wears a crown that is not his, and not for long.
Here we have the great usurper, Satan. What right has he to the diadem? "The last words of David," a man of long experience, were, "When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God" (2 Samuel 23:3). How opposite to this is Satan's course! God may allow him to wear his diadems for a day or two ("a thousand years as one day" with God). But his triumph and power will be short-lived.
- Named. The dragon is not a riddle — the chapter itself calls him the ancient serpent, the devil and Satan.
- Red. The colour is his character. He is cruel, like Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar before him, and ready to shed the blood of God's people.
- Crowned. Seven crowned heads mark complete despotic authority. Ten horns mark its reach — still short of the twelve stars God gives the woman.
- Hidden. The crowns sit on his heads, not his horns. He is the unseen power behind the empire, and he hands it his throne.
- Brief. He wears the diadem as a usurper with no right to rule, and his triumph is short-lived.
and his tail draws the third part of the stars of the heaven; and he cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, in order that when she brought forth he might devour her child.
This verse shows two acts of one enemy. First his tail sweeps stars out of heaven. Then he crouches in front of a woman in labour, waiting to devour her child.
The dragon has crowned heads, but his tail does the deeper harm. One writer treats the head and the tail as two different weapons. He also notes the tense of the verb: where the ESV reads "swept down," the text he follows reads "draws."
We have already had the dragon's power to plan and his wisdom in his "seven heads." Here in his tail we have the picture of his soul-destroying influence — in other words, his lies (Isa. 9:15). Scripture calls Satan a murderer and a liar. He murders the bodies of men and ruins their souls. His power is in his head. His evil influence, in false and damning teachings, is in his tail... Note the present tense, "his tail draws," not "drew." His work is going on now.
Another writer makes the same link to Isaiah, and says why Satan favours this weapon.
The "tail" points to the false prophet (Isa. 9:15). So what is meant here is a falling away from God among people who claim to be His. False teaching marks satanic power in every age, and it succeeds far better than open violence.
How far does that sweep reach? One writer answers from the shape of the old Roman world.
Does the "third part" not mean the specifically Roman side of the empire? We saw "the third part" in the earlier trumpet judgments, in the first four and in the sixth as well. It seems to stand for the western empire, the part that was Roman in the full sense. The Romans held a great deal that had belonged to Greece, for instance, and to Medo-Persia and Babylon, because they had conquered it. Babylon lay far east; the Roman part proper was western Europe. That is where the dragon's evil influence would be felt most, at least in those who held the place of rulers.
Another writer names the strategy behind that map.
The third part stands for the Roman Empire. The dragon draws that third of the stars of heaven and casts them to the earth. As he tries to frustrate God's purposes, Satan's chief power lies in corrupting and controlling the Roman power.
Why stars for people? The picture comes from the work God gave the lights in the sky.
The Scriptures make it just as plain that the sun, moon, and stars stand for ruling authorities. The sun is the supreme authority, the moon a borrowed one, and the stars lesser authorities under them. This meaning comes from the actual work God gave these lights in the sky.
So to be "cast to the earth" is not a move to a new address. It is the loss of a place. As one writer puts it, they "lose their place of connection with God, carried away by Satan's power" (J. N. Darby). Commentators differ over who these stars are. Some see the rulers already described. Grant reads it differently: "the analogy of the action of the little horn in Daniel (8:10)" points him to Jews, "not Christians, and certainly not angels."
The second half of the verse shows a posture: crouched and waiting. One writer traces what Satan knew, and how his plan ended.
We learn from this that Satan knew of the promised seed — the seed of the woman who would bruise the serpent's head. He knew of the expected coming of David's Son and David's Lord, the One who would reign until all enemies were subdued. And in his hatred of God and man, he lay in wait to destroy the true Heir as soon as He might appear... It looked as if the dragon had devoured the Child. But, as every believer knows, what seemed to be Satan's triumph became the means of his everlasting disgrace and defeat.
Matthew 2 tells the same event from ground level. This verse tells it from above.
The special object of Satan's hatred was not the woman, and not Israel. It was not her, but her Seed, that he wanted to destroy... Matthew 2 shows that hatred. But there we see only the human agents. Now Revelation 12:4 shows us who set that attack on the woman's Seed in motion: Satan... Here the curtain is drawn back, and Satan, not Herod, stands revealed as the real murderous enemy of Christ.
- Tail — Satan's deadliest weapon is not his crowned heads. It is his lying tongue. False teaching succeeds where open violence fails.
- Third — his sweep is wide, but it has limits. It reaches the Roman world and its rulers, never the whole of God's world.
- Stars — rulers set to give light under God. To fall is to lose all real connection with Him.
- Standing — the crouched dragon explains Herod. Behind the human killer stood the one who knew the promise of the woman's seed and set out to break it.
- Failing — the stars he drew down could not touch the one Child he waited for. What looked like Satan's triumph became his defeat.
And she brought forth a male son, who shall shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to his throne.
In one short verse a son is born, marked out to rule the nations, and taken up to God. Two questions follow. Who is this child? And why is the whole story between His birth and His going up to God left out?
Who the son is tells us who the mother is. One writer rests the case on a simple point. The church never gives birth to Christ:
This is the Jewish people, I have no doubt — nothing else. Christ is not born of the church. Seen as reigning and glorious in the world, He was born of the Jews: "from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ." The idea that Christ was born of the church makes no sense at all.
The verse says nothing about the church, and nothing about the cross. That silence tells us what this vision is set on:
Everything here concerns the earth. You can see it from this: there is no mention at all of the church period. The verse names only the kingdom. If Christ is born, it is to rule all nations with a rod of iron, according to Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. The cross is not even mentioned, although we know it came before He was caught up to God and to His throne.
The verse steps from the birth straight to the throne. It passes over the whole life, and the death itself, in a single line. There is a reason for that:
God is going back to His purpose in Christ, born as the heir of the world — not in connection with the calling of the church, but as the man of might, destined to govern all, and with no weak hand. Christ's death and resurrection are not mentioned here, but His birth and His being caught up (not His death) are given in brief summary. We see the woman in pain, about to give birth. The male child is born. Then He is taken away to the throne of God above. Of course this is not given as history. The Lord Jesus had been born and had died long before. If this were history, His all-important death would not, could not, have been left out.
One writer notes whose hand holds the rod, and how the word for "rule" really reads:
The rod is the sign of power — "the rod of Your power" (Psalm 110:2) — and here it is in the shepherd's hands. The shepherd is the true pattern of kingship as God sees it. Even the iron rod that Christ will strike His enemies with is still shown in a shepherd's hands. In every passage it really reads, "He shall shepherd them with an iron rod." Hard as the blow may be, love guides it. How terrible for those whom everlasting love must strike in this way!
The verse names a rule that has not yet begun:
The child here is clearly Christ. He did not take the power — He took nothing, but was caught up to God.
Man's sentence against Him seemed to be the end. It was not:
Only the nation itself could pass the sentence that would destroy it, as far as man could do so. That sentence stood in Pilate's handwriting on the cross. But the woman's Seed escaped in victory from the cross and the guarded grave: "her child was caught up to God and to His throne."
Commentators differ here. Some hold that the child means more than Christ alone. They point to a promise given to those who overcome:
To rule the nations with a rod of iron is the promise made to the overcomer in Thyatira. That is, the Lord associates His saints with Himself in the day when He takes His power and will rule and reign. When He does that, dear fellow-believer, you and I will be with Him, and therefore I take it that the taking up of the "man child" includes the church.
Others read the chapter differently:
The subject of this chapter is not the church, but the history of those (Israel above all) who suffer under Satan and his great servant, the Man of Sin.
- Promise — The woman is Israel; the son born of her is Christ, heir of the world, marked out to rule all nations.
- Threat — Man's sentence against Him was written in Pilate's hand and fixed to the cross.
- Rescue — The cross and the sealed tomb become the very route of escape; the child is caught up to God and to His throne.
- Delay — He holds the title to rule, but He took nothing yet. The life, death and resurrection are passed over, because this vision is not history.
- Rod — When He does rule, the iron rod stays in a Shepherd's hand: it strikes, but love guides it.