In the last post, we saw that the woman in Revelation 12:1-6 represents the people of God, the true Israel, the Church. In this post, we’ll take a brief look at the child and the dragon…

The child is the Christ, of this we can be certain; He “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” (Rev. 12:5 cf. Psalm 2:9). In citing this messianic passage from Psalm 2, John paints the child as the seed of the woman, which relates to Genesis 3:15 (cf. Gal. 4:4). If that were not enough, you might recall that these words were applied to Christ already, in Revelation 2:24. What I think is really interesting here is the connection between the son (seed) of this woman and Genesis 3:14-15…

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

Our current vision from Revelation 12-14 will see the fulfillment of this curse against the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and when we view Scripture in this context, we will see that the entire Old Testament tells of this story, the implications of which are nothing short of massive for the Body that is here symbolized by the woman. The woman, representing God’s people, is ready to give birth to this “seed” and before her is the great dragon, ready to destroy the child. If you apply this to the story of the birth of Jesus, can you see a parallel?

Remember King Herod’s reaction to the news of the birth of the Christ child in Bethlehem? Yes, that’s right… he sent his soldiers to murder all male children aged 2 and under… but an angel warned His parents, and the child was secreted away. Have you ever wondered why Jesus was assaulted by demon possessed people wherever he went, even though demon possession is almost never mentioned in the Old Testament? Yes, that’s right: the whole realm of darkness was trying to destroy Him, and in the fullness of time, they were able to have Him killed, only to rise from the grave and be taken to heaven.

This brings us to the dragon, which represents Satan (Rev. 20:2). His seven crowned heads represent his world dominion (cf. Eph. 2:2; 6:12). His crowns are not the crowns of victory that we have seen elsewhere in Revelation, these are the crowns of his stolen power that marks his illegitimacy. His horns represent his destructive power, and there he stands waiting to destroy the seed of the woman. With his tail, he sweeps a third of the stars of heaven down to the earth, obviously not a literal thing, but representing the fallen angels formerly of heaven. (See Job 38:7; 2Pet. 2:4; Jude 6).

Next time, we will pick up at verse 7; see you then!