Wondrous Wilderness Woman

Series on Revelation

II The Viewpoint

C Cycle Three, Seven Symbolic Histories

1 The Poles

Text: 12:1-6

Introduction

In this passage we embark on a new section of Revelation. We have seen the seven seals opened and the seven trumpets sounded and there are seven bowls or vials yet to come. In the meanwhile we have a series of seven symbolic histories. These are the woman who gives birth, the dragon in the sky, the beast, the second beast or false prophet, the Lamb on Mt, Zion, The three angelic messengers and the two reapers. In this passage we are on the threshold of an important part of Scripture which relates to the actual Revelation or Unveiling of the glorious Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we are given the esoteric, or inside, view of the same period already covered in earlier chapters and we are given the hidden spiritual background for the visible opponents of the cause of God and the truth. As we read verses 1-6 we are introduced to the dragon, but this section is primarily about the experience of the woman. Here we see her pregnancy, peril, presentation, and place.

I Pregnancy

In verses 1 and 2 we read about a pregnant woman, A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. We cannot understand this picture apart from the account of the first sin in Paradise in Genesis 3. We read there that God pronounced a curse on the man, the woman and the serpent, and in Genesis 3: 14 and 15 God says to the serpent, in the literal translation, Because thou hast done this, cursed thou above all the cattle, and above every beast of the field: on thy belly dost thou go, and dust thou dost eat, all days of thy life; and enmity I put between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he doth bruise thee — the head, and thou dost bruise him — the heel. This woman is not Eve, and it is not Mary the descendant of Eve and biological mother of Jesus. This woman is the whole nation of Israel which brought forth the Messiah and includes all those who are grafted into Israel in the Church of Jesus Christ. Christ is the seed of the woman and Abraham’s seed as Paul writes in Galatians 3:16, The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. However Paul also makes clear that Christians are Abraham’s seed because they are in Christ in Galatians 3:7 and 8, Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” The whole description of the woman is intended to portray the glory and beauty of the Church, the mother of us all. Augustine reminded us that no man has God for his father that does not have the church for his mother. The sun is the light of life, the moon is under her feet because she is permanent and treads underfoot the moon, the symbol of changing times and seasons. The crown of 12 stars intimates the 12 patriarchs of the Old Testament and the 12 Apostles of the New Testament. The image of the nation giving birth is a common one in the Old Testament. Isaiah uses this image to prophesy the future blessings on Israel and God’s judgment on His enemies in Isaiah 26:15 and 17, You have enlarged the nation, O Lord; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land…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. Thus this woman cries out in pain and this curiously is also hearkening back to Genesis 3, for when God gives the promise of the woman’s seed he also says to the woman, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.

II The Peril

The woman is in danger along with her newborn as we read in verses 3 and 4, Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. The dragon is clearly identified later in verse 9 as the serpent, and Satan. This is the devil whom the Bible refers to as the ruler of this present evil age in which we live. As Paul tells us Satan is assisted by a host of other evil spirits. He writes in Ephesians 6:11 and 12, Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. The reference to heavenly realms does not mean heaven itself, but rather, the atmospheric envelope around the world. In the Bible there are three heavens referred to: the atmosphere, the starry skies and the heaven of heavens or third heaven which is God’s dwelling. The number one third is of no great consequence except to point to a large number taken down in Satan’s rebellion and this is supported by other Scripture including Ephesians 6. The most important thing about this portion of our text is the satanic effort to devour her child the moment it was born. We see his when the Devil moves the pagan king Herod to murder all the male infants of Bethlehem under two years as recorded in Matthew 2:16, Then Herod, seeing that he had been mocked by the magi, was greatly enraged; and sent and slew all the boys which in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years and under, according to the time which he had accurately inquired from the magi. The devil’s attempt failed then and it failed again when he met Jesus in the wilderness of temptation in Matthew 4:8-10, Again the devil takes him to a very high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory, and says to him, All these things will I give you if, falling down, you wilt do me homage. Then says Jesus to him, Get thee away, Satan, for it is written, you shall do homage to Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve. And then at the end of Jesus ministry as he was about to be betrayed we read in Luke 22:3 and 4, And Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve how he should deliver him up to them. The relentless attempts of the dragon to devour the woman’s child never stopped, and they still continue upon the followers of Jesus, the seed of the woman. Later the dragon is described with 7 heads and 10 horns The heads and horns are both declared in Revelation 17 to typify kingdoms. The numbers seven and ten are both symbolical of completeness so we have in this picture of the dragon, the idea of the full and complete power of the world arrayed on earth against God and his Church.

III The Presentation

The woman gives birth and we read in verse 5, She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. Thus we are presented with the Christ, the long awaited Messiah, made of woman, made under the law, that He might redeem those under the curse of the law. The words of Psalm 2:8 and 9 were fulfilled with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, literally it says, Ask of Me and I give nations—thy inheritance, And thy possession—the ends of earth. Thou dost rule them with a scepter of iron, As a vessel of a potter Thou dost crush them. Psalm 2 is quoted in Hebrews 1 as applying to Jesus. Also, in Revelation 2:27 Jesus promises the believers in Thyatira who overcome that they will share in his authority and “they shall rule with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they break to shivers: even as I received of my Father.” Christ’s “snatching up” is his ascension into heaven and His coronation at the right hand of the Father as triumphant King and Judge. Many years earlier Paul had written to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 2:6 reminding the believers there that God had “raised them up together, and made them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Thus the believers in Thyatira, and all believers throughout the centuries, including us, share in the victory and authority of their Lord.

IV The Place

Not only is the baby, the Messiah and Lord rescued through His resurrection from the dead, but the woman who gave birth, that is the true Israel, the people of God is rescued to through seclusion as we read in verse 6, The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. This resembles other desert experiences in the Bible, but especially Israel in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt. In the desert of Sinai God took care of them and led them. That experience was multi-faceted. First, it taught them to completely depend on God to provide the material and spiritual necessities of life; second it was always intended to be temporary; and last it was a place where God trained His people spiritually and prepared them. The same is true of the Church today, we are in the wilderness of a fallen world where God takes care of us, we are being trained, and we know this is temporary because we are headed to the promised land. The time period 1260 days has been explained earlier, but I remind you that this is the same period the two witnesses of chapter 11 testify, and it is also the same period, 42 months during which the court of the temple is trampled by the Gentiles, so it is the “time of the Gentiles.” In verse 14 the woman is hidden for a time, times and a half time, which is three and one half years or the same as 1260 days. Then we shall see in chapter 13 that the beast of the earth, or anti-christ is given a mouth to blaspheme God’s name and to exercise authority for a period of forty-two months. The devil, therefore, has been given exactly the same length of time the church on earth has received. In short, the meaning of these numbers in chapters 11-13 is the same. Thus during this period which stands for the gospel age the church is protected, the witness goes forth, and the antichrist rages. The place of the woman or the church is the wilderness in which we daily live as put so well in Michael Card’s song, “In the Wilderness.” “In the wilderness, In the wilderness, He calls his sons and daughters To the wilderness, And he gives grace sufficient to survive any test And that’s the painful purpose of the wilderness.”