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.