Original Meaning
The Mother (12:1)
THE FIRST CHARACTER to appear in the text is the “woman,” a frequent symbolic character in ancient vision reports.5 This woman is a mother, somehow the antecedent of the faithful bride of Christ, the new Jerusalem (21:2), and a contrast to the harlot, Babylon (17:5). Scholars have proposed various backgrounds for the woman, many of them compatible with other proposals.6 One source is the Greek and Egyptian myth of the mother in childbirth who confronts a hostile dragon; we will treat this myth in further detail below. But if John uses symbolism from this myth (as he probably does), he also reinterprets it to communicate a different meaning, so our quest cannot stop here. Some have suggested that the woman is God’s creation through whom he brings the Messiah, but this reading is too general.7
More to the point, the woman represents Israel or the faithful remnant of Israel. The theological source most widely available to early Christians would have been the Old Testament, though they would have also shared the common experience of the life and thought in the Greco-Roman world. The prophets portrayed righteous Israel as the mother of the restored future remnant of Israel (Isa. 54:1; 66:7–10; Mic. 4:9–10; 5:3; cf. Isa. 7:14; 9:6; 26:18–19), an image they mixed with that of Israel as a bride (Isa. 62:5). In Jewish tradition Zion or Jerusalem often appeared as a mother.8 Here, as often in the Bible, images become conflated; the offspring of Jerusalem may be the restored or new Jerusalem (4 Ezra 10:44–46).
The sun, moon, and twelve stars on the woman confirm this vision as symbolizing Israel or its faithful remnant (Gen. 37:9).9 If she symbolizes the Old Testament righteous remnant before Christ’s exaltation (12:1–5)—that is, righteous Israelites and Gentile converts—she probably continues to symbolize the righteous remnant of Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus after his exaltation (12:6–17), although this interpretation is debated.
Because the woman is Jesus’ mother, many scholars naturally link her with Mary (usually in connection with, rather than instead of, Israel).10 Yet Revelation nowhere provides explicit teaching about Mary, and we cannot extrapolate from this passage about her without further comment in the text. One may also doubt that Mary was specifically persecuted after Christ’s enthronement, requiring protection for 1,260 days (12:6, 13–16).11 More helpful, sometimes in conjunction with Mary, scholars have found here hints of the story of Eve.12 God had promised that this woman’s “seed” would ultimately crush the serpent (Gen. 3:15), a promise surely echoed in Revelation 12:9, 17. This association supplements but does not overpower the image of God’s people here.
Bridging Contexts
MARY AND CHURCH TRADITION. Some regard the woman in this passage as Mary and use it to support later Catholic traditions about an exalted Mary (not all Catholic exegetes, however, hold this view). Protestant and Catholic commentators often differ here less in their interpretation of what is explicitly in this text than in their decisions about acceptable interpretive methods. If one begins with the premise of sola scriptura and cannot read later traditions into this text, it provides little if any direct teaching about Mary. By contrast, if later tradition can interpret Scripture, then one may find clues about Mary’s exalted status implicit in the text.52
This raises a legitimate interpretive issue. I have sometimes talked with Catholic friends disgusted with liberal Protestant conclusions about matters such as the Trinity or Jesus’ deity, who felt that the best way to prevent heresy was to appeal to the continuity of the orthodox faith in Catholic history. I respond that I agree with the essentials of their orthodox faith but insist that we share the same view because it grew from the apostolic witness preserved for us in Scripture. They reasonably counter that Scripture must be interpreted, and who better to interpret it than the orthodox tradition? I then argue that Scripture is best understood in light of its original context, which provides the meaning at the foundation of the original orthodox tradition. They in turn maintain, in a tradition going back to second-century apologists, that the Bible is the church’s book, authored by and for the church.
Although I agree that God gave the Bible for the church (Rom. 15:4), I hold that the church is meant to be the Bible’s community and that the Bible stems not from the whole people of God but from God’s inspiration of apostles and prophets, often challenging the errors of God’s people. The church must always stand under Scripture’s teaching, reapplying it only after we have understood its original meaning as the authors were inspired to address their audiences.
Lately, more evangelicals have adopted this traditional Catholic line of argument, and for reasons that are understandable. Longstanding historical tradition provides a helpful line of defense against faddish critical theories about the Bible and theology and surely merits a voice in critiquing ideas that would never have occurred to anyone outside the artificial culture of academia. At the same time, its value in determining details of the faith remains debatable. If the Bible is the “church’s” book, who defines the church? The Roman Catholic Church cannot historically claim to be older than the Eastern Orthodox churches; the earliest claims to primacy for the bishop of Rome are over a century after the rise of monarchial bishops in the East.53
Nor does early Catholic tradition guarantee unanimity on all details, though it provides a broad consensus for the faith (which I and other orthodox Christians embrace). And Protestants who appeal to church tradition will certainly have a worse time of it than Catholics, for we do not offer even a pretense of unanimity! One also wonders how Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or others would feel about some who in their name privilege theological traditions above firsthand study of Scripture itself.
I believe that, as valuable a corrective as church tradition is, it must always stand under the judgment of God’s Word in Scripture (Mark 7:6–9). The collective mind of later Christians is helpful, but it is not the same as the inspiration experienced by holy apostles and prophets and hence cannot serve as a “canon” or measuring stick to the same degree. Moreover, its corrective value must be free to cut both ways. Recognizing our traditions may help us evaluate the source of our presuppositions so that we can try to read Scripture in a way that is free to challenge rather than merely rehearse our presuppositions. Only in this way can Christians raised in diverse traditions surmount those barriers in honest dialogue.
Much of the symbolism surrounding the woman evokes Israel. How modern interpreters apply that connection diverges, based on their interpretation of the text; but even if her “seed” includes both Jewish and Gentile believers (whoever holds to Jesus’ testimony and keeps God’s commandments, 12:17), this symbol suggests continuity in salvation history. Such continuity has implications for how we read Scripture in general; some tend to read only discontinuity between the Testaments, but there are numerous points (including here) that suggest a substantial measure of continuity as well.
Dealing with tribulation. If, as we have argued above, Revelation’s “tribulation” differs from that predicted by Daniel and Jesus (which was already fulfilled by Revelation’s day), does that mean that there is no future tribulation? To the contrary, suffering is inseparable from the preaching of the gospel (see comment on 6:9–11), and the end will come only after Jesus’ followers have carried out the Great Commission (Matt. 24:14). When we see a generation of believers radical enough to endure martyrdom to evangelize the most resistant areas, we will also see intensified tribulation. But while such tribulation may be part of the backdrop of Revelation’s portrait of tribulation, its direct point in 12:6 is probably that our experience between Jesus’ first and second comings includes the devil’s enmity. Yet in the midst of such tribulation, we should be of good courage: Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33).
On spiritual warfare. Revelation 12:7–9 portrays spiritual warfare in the heavens corresponding to Christ’s triumph on the earth (12:5, 10). Clearly this indicates that our battle is spiritual, a reality recognized even as early as Jacob’s preparation to face his brother Esau (Gen. 32:26) and Elisha’s awareness of heaven’s armies on his side (2 Kings 6:17).54
Some contemporary interpreters have misapplied biblical teaching about spiritual warfare, however. Once I visited a “prayer meeting” where the entire meeting was spent addressing and rebuking the devil; God was rarely if ever addressed. The Bible gives plenty of precedent for expelling a demon if it is present (e.g., Mark 1:25–26; Acts 16:18), but not a single text supports addressing the devil, as if he were omnipresent, during prayer. Texts that are often cited in support are frequently misapplied by well-meaning believers; they refer to resisting the devil, not rebuking him.55 That no text supports addressing the devil as present during prayer at the very least should suggest that some contemporary spiritual warfare practices are overdone. The practice of ridiculing the devil, popular in some peripheral charismatic circles today, is explicitly unbiblical (Jude 8–10).56
Today some spiritual “warriors” seek spiritual shortcuts to changing reality by “casting down” forces in the heavens. Perhaps they think Daniel had to wait twenty-one days (Dan. 10:2–3) only because he did not know any better; but it seems more likely that our culture’s emphasis on instant gratification has made them too impatient with traditional methods of prayer.57 Although angels of nations, “territorial spirits,” appear to be a reality (Dan. 10:13, 20; Eph. 1:21; 6:12), Scripture remains silent on many details about them, presumably because there are some issues into which we are not supposed to delve (Deut. 29:29; Rom. 16:19; 2 Peter 2:10–11).
This is not to deny that God may indeed respond to such believers’ faith despite their method, but to suggest that their method is not, strictly speaking, biblical. Revelation 12 portrays angelic war in the heavens, but the outcome here has already been decided by Christ’s exaltation, and the rest of the battle is carried out by ground forces (12:10–11). God can provide us plenty of “air cover” in response to our prayers to him for his work, but genuine spiritual warfare requires the advance of ground forces. Jesus appears to have bound the strong man (Mark 3:27) by resisting his temptation (1:13), and (if we rightly understand the passage) the god of this age retreated from his position of authority as Jesus’ disciples preached God’s reign and cast demons from those possessed by them (Luke 10:17–19).58
Based on such texts and on Paul’s discussion of God’s armor (Eph. 6:10–18), it appears as if Christians deal with the devil by delivering the oppressed and proclaiming the gospel, waging a “ground war”; in response to our ground war and prayers, God removes the heavenly rulers. The one offensive weapon in the spiritual armor God has provided us is his “word” (Eph. 6:17), which in the context of Paul’s usage means the gospel (e.g., Eph. 1:13). We read the same principle in this passage: The woman’s offspring overcame the devil “by the word of their testimony,” that is, by their verbal witness for Christ (what “testimony” means elsewhere in Revelation). If we are teaching people spiritual shortcuts that neglect actually evangelizing the world, we may be undercutting rather than serving God’s purposes in the world.
The whole and its parts. I usually prefer to preach from a paragraph (an expository sermon) rather than a textual sermon on one verse. But each book of the Bible, including Revelation, was meant to be taken as a whole—possibly excepting Psalms and Proverbs. Thus, whether we preach an entire paragraph or even a verse, we should use the specific unit as a sort of prism to refract the themes of the book.
Once in Africa I preached from 12:11, but used that verse merely to provide structure for touching on three themes of the book as a whole. Starting with the theme of “overcoming,” I traced the immediate context of the passage, hence what it meant for these believers to overcome. Then I turned to how that overcoming might look different to believers in different situations, following the theme of overcoming in the letters to the churches (and applying the lessons to some of the sorts of situations my audience faced). Focusing next on “the word of their testimony,” I traced the theme of witness through the book. I concluded by detailing what Revelation taught about giving our lives for the gospel and how those who suffer for the gospel are truly God’s triumphant army (6:9–11; 7:1–17; 14:1–5). The better our understanding of any unit in Revelation is informed by the whole, the more we will understand and communicate it the way God inspired it to be understood.
Reading Revelation’s symbols in light of modern Western ideas instead of their ancient significance is a popular temptation. Hal Lindsey, for example, made the eagle a symbol of the United States (fortunately for both Lindsey and other Americans, Ben Franklin failed in his attempt to make the national bird a turkey). Thus, Lindsey suggests that 12:14 may refer to an airlift from U.S. aircraft, such as the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean; not wishing to speculate unduly, he suggests merely that they might be removed to Petra.59 But no one in the rest of history could have understood the symbol as the United States, and the text itself provides us no reason to understand the symbol in such terms.
Contemporary Significance
INTERPRETING BIBLICAL IMAGES for today. Christ is the dragon-slayer and Caesar, who may have claimed to be dragon-slayer, was merely a puppet of the dragon. Shortly before Roman officials in Carthage ordered Perpetua’s execution as a Christian, the young woman had a vision of a ladder leading to heaven with a dragon at its foot. “ ‘He will not harm me,’ I said, ‘in the name of Christ Jesus.’ ” Then she stepped on his head and climbed up the ladder; she understood this vision as the Lord’s assurance that she would triumph through her martyrdom.60
There is a place for reappropriating the world’s stories, songs, dramatic themes, and so forth for the gospel. When our culture emphasizes personal sexual gratification, we can respond by speaking of the truest love found in Christ, who will never betray you. When the world packages its violent action heroes, we can speak of the truest hero, who courageously received our violence and shamed what is wrong in our values.
The image of conflict here also reminds us that God’s people must always be ready to confront the world’s hostility; the contrast between the mother in chapter 12 and the prostitute in chapter 17 reminds us that the city of God and Babylon never coexist naturally in this world. Especially in view of the use of the image of labor pains in the Hebrew Bible, this image here further reminds us that God’s purposes are often accomplished only through suffering (cf. John 16:21–22; Rom. 8:22–23). The devil’s hostility, probably expressed as slander (see comments on 12:15), also warns us to expect false accusations, though we should do our best to prevent them (1 Tim. 3:7; 5:14–15).
That Revelation recycles the ancient serpent of Genesis for its own day further underlines the continuity of the same enemy throughout history. It should not surprise us that many of Satan’s devices (e.g., sexual temptation, political oppression, unforgiveness) remain the same today as they have been. Unlike Satan, however, his agents (e.g., the Roman emperor identifying with Apollo) repeat the arrogance of all their evil predecessors, while remaining seemingly oblivious to the fate of those who perished before them. Each generation has its own crop of antichrists (cf. 1 John 2:18), but the character of supernatural evil behind them remains unchanged until the Lord’s return. Both the earthly pursuit of the woman and the image of heavenly warfare warn us not to grow content with any truce we have with the world in secular, materialistic America or elsewhere. Comfort is a goal of our society, but given the right conditions our bold witness (“the testimony of Jesus,” 12:17) will invite opposition.
That Revelation reapplies Christologically both the fall of the stars and the period of Tribulation reminds us of Christ’s centrality in everything; as Christians, we must view both past and future through the lens of God’s purposes in Christ. As the angels learned, the greatest rebellion is rebellion against Christ’s Lordship, acting as if our own lives belong to us.
Retreat or engagement? The desert theme is important. Some survivalist groups in the United States have withdrawn into the wilderness in order to survive coming troubles.61 Such behavior may prolong life in the event of a nuclear or perhaps biochemical holocaust, but it misses the point of Revelation. The rest of this book teaches that our goal as Christians is not to escape suffering or death but to announce Jesus to the world (6:9–11; 11:3–7; 19:10). We must not withdraw from sinners (though we must withdraw spiritually from the world’s corruption, cf. 18:4), but invade the world with the message and example of God’s redeeming love.
The real point of the desert in this passage (see Original Meaning section) is not a call to universal monasticism but a picture of the present era as a time between our first and final redemption. After Israel sighed on account of its bondage and God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt, they experienced an interim period, led by God in the desert, until they entered their “inheritance.” Early Christians used such language to depict the interim period between the first and second comings, to explain why God brought salvation in two stages (e.g., Rom. 8:14, 17, 23; Eph. 1:14).62
In other words, Christians live in what some scholars call the “already/not yet”: We have begun to experience the life of the coming world even though we have yet to enter it fully. Our bodies remain mortal, but God has empowered us to live our lives in obedience to the ways of the future kingdom. The desert theme is thus one of present suffering and detachment from material wealth (like the redefinition of the Tribulation), not a retreat from engaging our culture when we are able to engage it.
Cosmic spiritual warfare. Although Jesus’ side has won the victory, much of the world does not know this and remains in deception. Thus what we call spiritual warfare continues today on a cosmic level; for example, the worldview shift in the United States toward New Age and Eastern mystic thought. Roughly half of the country believes in extrasensory perception, a quarter in ghosts, a quarter in astrology, and ten percent in channeling.63
The Bible provides essential insights for our warfare in this age. The battle is a spiritual one, and God is sovereign; the devil’s time is limited and continues only by God’s permission. The angel greeted Daniel, a man of prayer, as highly esteemed before God, then went on to recount how the kings who seemed to move the nations were merely pawns in the larger plan of God for history. The future belongs to God!
Witnessing and suffering in our day. Many Christians in the United States are afraid that their witness may offend someone, but this passage emphasizes that our witness for Jesus is worth even our lives (12:11). As noted above, when I preach on this passage, I sometimes use 12:11 as a prism to refract themes that run through Revelation. After dealing with the immediate context, I deal with overcoming (especially in the letters to the seven churches) and with suffering for our testimony as the Lamb did (5:6; 6:9–11). In many parts of the world, in fact, believers have been laying down their lives; and, given the truth of Christ’s message, that is a cost well worth paying. As F. F. Bruce notes on this passage:
Their only means of resisting the enemy’s attack … is patient endurance and faithful confession. This may mean suffering and death; but it was precisely by suffering and death that their Leader had conquered. It is to Jesus, not to Caesar, that world dominion belongs; it is Jesus, not Caesar, who is Lord of history, and those who confess him faithfully before Caesar and Caesar’s representatives participate in his victory and kingly power.64
Experts estimate tens of thousands (some estimate hundreds of thousands) of martyrs for Christ annually around the world. Thus, individual examples of suffering for Christ can easily be multiplied. For instance, the Cuban government imprisoned Noble Alexander, an Adventist youth pastor, for twenty-two years. For refusing to renounce Christ,
he suffered food poisoning for eating maggot-ridden gruel. He lost consciousness being dunked in an icy lake while bound. He passed out three times from the pain of being whipped with electrical cables. He sustained gunshot wounds in his hand, leg, and thigh.
He spent ninety days “inside a coffinlike box where he could barely move” for having a Bible; for refusing to work on the Sabbath he was “dunked into a cesspool of rotting debris and putrid excrement for three hours.” His hardest suffering was that his Christian wife divorced him while he was in prison; this brought him so much despair that he did not remarry until twenty-eight years later. “No one can be truly certain of his faith and endurance until he is forced to test them,” Alexander warns.65
One encouragement in any of our testings is that Satan’s time is limited (12:12); we must endure for only a limited duration of time. I know a celibate, single thirty-nine-year-old who would like to be married but happily reasons that if it does not happen, he has less than half his life left to wait. If we have already endured some tests successfully, we know from experience that God can give us the strength to finish the race. Further, the devil can no longer accuse us before God (12:10), so the most important issue is settled. We also know that the remnant of the church will triumph in the end (15:2; 21:7). If the eagle’s wings allude to Exodus 19, they indicate God’s intimate care for us.
The book of Revelation helps us by preparing us for hardship. Billy Graham notes that his wife grew up in a missionary family in China and saw “how God prepared His church there during times of trouble to withstand the even greater troubled times ahead.” He notes that the hardships actually have strengthened the church and that God’s warnings provide help.66 By portraying the time between Jesus’ comings as a Great Tribulation, like the one Daniel spoke about, Revelation reminds us that Jesus’ followers share his cross; hence, it warns us to prepare. Suffering belongs to us in this world, but our Lord Jesus is victorious anyway (John 16:33).
Original Meaning
Labor Pains and the Dragon (12:2–3)
AS NOTED ABOVE, the prophets portrayed righteous Israel as the mother of the restored future remnant of Israel. The Dead Sea Scrolls depict a period of great tribulation as childbirth, probably with reference to the bringing forth of the new community (1QH 3.7–12).13 In one passage God promises the suffering, pregnant Israel that she will truly bear new life in the time of the resurrection (Isa. 26:17–19), the day of God’s wrath in which he will slay the serpent (26:20–27:1).14
Biblical tradition announced that the serpent Leviathan had many heads (Ps. 74:14), identified in Canaanite tradition as seven.15 Many in the ancient world believed giant serpents or dragons existed literally in other parts of the world, but John again tells us that he speaks symbolically, of a “sign” (12:3).16 Serpents (sometimes called “dragons”) proved significant in pagan religion, especially the cult of Asclepius, who was worshiped in some of the cities to whom the book of Revelation was addressed.17 But for John the dragon is especially the “ancient serpent” (12:9), the one in Genesis who led Adam and Eve to death by enticing them to disobey God (Gen. 3:1–15; Jub. 2:17–23), just as Balaam later did with the Israelites (cf. Rev. 2:14). Jewish tradition sometimes identified the serpent with the devil or linked him with the devil in other ways.18
Yet these associations do not exhaust the dragon’s significance for John. Like some other apocalyptic writers, Revelation adapts widely used themes of ancient myths to communicate its point more graphically. The Old Testament emphasized God’s conquest of the primeval dragon Leviathan (Ps. 74:14; Isa. 27:1); this seems to symbolize especially God’s conquest of Egypt (nicknamed “Rahab”) in the Red Sea (Ps. 89:10; Isa. 30:7; 51:9), which is fitting in a tale of a new exodus (Rev. 12:6).19 Jewish tradition developed various stories about Leviathan as a literal beast whom God would destroy at the end.20
A similar story line was widely repeated among pagans by the late first century, when John wrote, and his audience would have recognized the irony in the way he retells the story with different characters. In Egyptian mythology, Isis (Hathor), portrayed with the sun on her head, birthed Horus, and the red dragon Typhon sought to slay her, but she escaped to an island and her son Horus overthrew the dragon.21 In the Greek version of the story, the great dragon Python, warned that he would be killed by Leto’s son, pursued the pregnant Leto, who was hidden by Poseidon on an island, which he then temporarily submerged. After Python had left, Leto birthed the god Apollo, who in four days was strong enough to slay the dragon.22
Most commentators do not stop with such general pagan background for the image. In the first century, coins reveal that some emperors linked themselves with the sun-god, Apollo. In Roman propaganda in Asia Minor the goddess Roma was the new mother goddess and the Roman emperor her child, the world’s savior. In John’s vision it is the Lord Christ who will ultimately slay the dragon and its related beast; the emperor in reality is simply one of the dragon’s puppets! Most commentators understand such a conflict with the imperial cult as part of the background here.23
The meaning of the stars also deserves comment. One can take their fall as a description of cosmic catastrophe (6:13), but 12:4 probably implies more than that. In Jewish symbolism, stars could represent the righteous, as even in this context (12:1; cf. Gen. 26:4; Dan. 12:3); hence this passage may be describing apostasy (cf. perhaps Dan. 8:10).24 One can also describe a fall from greatness into shame as a fall from heaven to earth (Isa. 14:12, 15; Lam. 2:1; Sib. Or. 3.359–62). But in Revelation the stars usually symbolize angels (1:20; 9:1), which is also a frequent application of the image in Jewish literature.25 Pagans often viewed stars as divine beings, whereas many Jewish people viewed them as angels.26 Jewish people recognized that Satan’s revolt had long ago led to the fall of many angels (often associated with Gen. 6:2), a view apparently supported in 1 Peter 3:19–22; 2 Peter 2:4.
But John provides a Christocentric reapplication of this fall story: The greatest revolt of Satan and the ultimate goal of angelic apostasy was opposition to Jesus’ mission on earth (12:4). But Satan and his angels failed, and precisely at Jesus’ exaltation Satan’s kingdom received its complete notice of defeat (12:7–9)!
Bridging Contexts
MARY AND CHURCH TRADITION. Some regard the woman in this passage as Mary and use it to support later Catholic traditions about an exalted Mary (not all Catholic exegetes, however, hold this view). Protestant and Catholic commentators often differ here less in their interpretation of what is explicitly in this text than in their decisions about acceptable interpretive methods. If one begins with the premise of sola scriptura and cannot read later traditions into this text, it provides little if any direct teaching about Mary. By contrast, if later tradition can interpret Scripture, then one may find clues about Mary’s exalted status implicit in the text.52
This raises a legitimate interpretive issue. I have sometimes talked with Catholic friends disgusted with liberal Protestant conclusions about matters such as the Trinity or Jesus’ deity, who felt that the best way to prevent heresy was to appeal to the continuity of the orthodox faith in Catholic history. I respond that I agree with the essentials of their orthodox faith but insist that we share the same view because it grew from the apostolic witness preserved for us in Scripture. They reasonably counter that Scripture must be interpreted, and who better to interpret it than the orthodox tradition? I then argue that Scripture is best understood in light of its original context, which provides the meaning at the foundation of the original orthodox tradition. They in turn maintain, in a tradition going back to second-century apologists, that the Bible is the church’s book, authored by and for the church.
Although I agree that God gave the Bible for the church (Rom. 15:4), I hold that the church is meant to be the Bible’s community and that the Bible stems not from the whole people of God but from God’s inspiration of apostles and prophets, often challenging the errors of God’s people. The church must always stand under Scripture’s teaching, reapplying it only after we have understood its original meaning as the authors were inspired to address their audiences.
Lately, more evangelicals have adopted this traditional Catholic line of argument, and for reasons that are understandable. Longstanding historical tradition provides a helpful line of defense against faddish critical theories about the Bible and theology and surely merits a voice in critiquing ideas that would never have occurred to anyone outside the artificial culture of academia. At the same time, its value in determining details of the faith remains debatable. If the Bible is the “church’s” book, who defines the church? The Roman Catholic Church cannot historically claim to be older than the Eastern Orthodox churches; the earliest claims to primacy for the bishop of Rome are over a century after the rise of monarchial bishops in the East.53
Nor does early Catholic tradition guarantee unanimity on all details, though it provides a broad consensus for the faith (which I and other orthodox Christians embrace). And Protestants who appeal to church tradition will certainly have a worse time of it than Catholics, for we do not offer even a pretense of unanimity! One also wonders how Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or others would feel about some who in their name privilege theological traditions above firsthand study of Scripture itself.
I believe that, as valuable a corrective as church tradition is, it must always stand under the judgment of God’s Word in Scripture (Mark 7:6–9). The collective mind of later Christians is helpful, but it is not the same as the inspiration experienced by holy apostles and prophets and hence cannot serve as a “canon” or measuring stick to the same degree. Moreover, its corrective value must be free to cut both ways. Recognizing our traditions may help us evaluate the source of our presuppositions so that we can try to read Scripture in a way that is free to challenge rather than merely rehearse our presuppositions. Only in this way can Christians raised in diverse traditions surmount those barriers in honest dialogue.
Much of the symbolism surrounding the woman evokes Israel. How modern interpreters apply that connection diverges, based on their interpretation of the text; but even if her “seed” includes both Jewish and Gentile believers (whoever holds to Jesus’ testimony and keeps God’s commandments, 12:17), this symbol suggests continuity in salvation history. Such continuity has implications for how we read Scripture in general; some tend to read only discontinuity between the Testaments, but there are numerous points (including here) that suggest a substantial measure of continuity as well.
Dealing with tribulation. If, as we have argued above, Revelation’s “tribulation” differs from that predicted by Daniel and Jesus (which was already fulfilled by Revelation’s day), does that mean that there is no future tribulation? To the contrary, suffering is inseparable from the preaching of the gospel (see comment on 6:9–11), and the end will come only after Jesus’ followers have carried out the Great Commission (Matt. 24:14). When we see a generation of believers radical enough to endure martyrdom to evangelize the most resistant areas, we will also see intensified tribulation. But while such tribulation may be part of the backdrop of Revelation’s portrait of tribulation, its direct point in 12:6 is probably that our experience between Jesus’ first and second comings includes the devil’s enmity. Yet in the midst of such tribulation, we should be of good courage: Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33).
On spiritual warfare. Revelation 12:7–9 portrays spiritual warfare in the heavens corresponding to Christ’s triumph on the earth (12:5, 10). Clearly this indicates that our battle is spiritual, a reality recognized even as early as Jacob’s preparation to face his brother Esau (Gen. 32:26) and Elisha’s awareness of heaven’s armies on his side (2 Kings 6:17).54
Some contemporary interpreters have misapplied biblical teaching about spiritual warfare, however. Once I visited a “prayer meeting” where the entire meeting was spent addressing and rebuking the devil; God was rarely if ever addressed. The Bible gives plenty of precedent for expelling a demon if it is present (e.g., Mark 1:25–26; Acts 16:18), but not a single text supports addressing the devil, as if he were omnipresent, during prayer. Texts that are often cited in support are frequently misapplied by well-meaning believers; they refer to resisting the devil, not rebuking him.55 That no text supports addressing the devil as present during prayer at the very least should suggest that some contemporary spiritual warfare practices are overdone. The practice of ridiculing the devil, popular in some peripheral charismatic circles today, is explicitly unbiblical (Jude 8–10).56
Today some spiritual “warriors” seek spiritual shortcuts to changing reality by “casting down” forces in the heavens. Perhaps they think Daniel had to wait twenty-one days (Dan. 10:2–3) only because he did not know any better; but it seems more likely that our culture’s emphasis on instant gratification has made them too impatient with traditional methods of prayer.57 Although angels of nations, “territorial spirits,” appear to be a reality (Dan. 10:13, 20; Eph. 1:21; 6:12), Scripture remains silent on many details about them, presumably because there are some issues into which we are not supposed to delve (Deut. 29:29; Rom. 16:19; 2 Peter 2:10–11).
This is not to deny that God may indeed respond to such believers’ faith despite their method, but to suggest that their method is not, strictly speaking, biblical. Revelation 12 portrays angelic war in the heavens, but the outcome here has already been decided by Christ’s exaltation, and the rest of the battle is carried out by ground forces (12:10–11). God can provide us plenty of “air cover” in response to our prayers to him for his work, but genuine spiritual warfare requires the advance of ground forces. Jesus appears to have bound the strong man (Mark 3:27) by resisting his temptation (1:13), and (if we rightly understand the passage) the god of this age retreated from his position of authority as Jesus’ disciples preached God’s reign and cast demons from those possessed by them (Luke 10:17–19).58
Based on such texts and on Paul’s discussion of God’s armor (Eph. 6:10–18), it appears as if Christians deal with the devil by delivering the oppressed and proclaiming the gospel, waging a “ground war”; in response to our ground war and prayers, God removes the heavenly rulers. The one offensive weapon in the spiritual armor God has provided us is his “word” (Eph. 6:17), which in the context of Paul’s usage means the gospel (e.g., Eph. 1:13). We read the same principle in this passage: The woman’s offspring overcame the devil “by the word of their testimony,” that is, by their verbal witness for Christ (what “testimony” means elsewhere in Revelation). If we are teaching people spiritual shortcuts that neglect actually evangelizing the world, we may be undercutting rather than serving God’s purposes in the world.
The whole and its parts. I usually prefer to preach from a paragraph (an expository sermon) rather than a textual sermon on one verse. But each book of the Bible, including Revelation, was meant to be taken as a whole—possibly excepting Psalms and Proverbs. Thus, whether we preach an entire paragraph or even a verse, we should use the specific unit as a sort of prism to refract the themes of the book.
Once in Africa I preached from 12:11, but used that verse merely to provide structure for touching on three themes of the book as a whole. Starting with the theme of “overcoming,” I traced the immediate context of the passage, hence what it meant for these believers to overcome. Then I turned to how that overcoming might look different to believers in different situations, following the theme of overcoming in the letters to the churches (and applying the lessons to some of the sorts of situations my audience faced). Focusing next on “the word of their testimony,” I traced the theme of witness through the book. I concluded by detailing what Revelation taught about giving our lives for the gospel and how those who suffer for the gospel are truly God’s triumphant army (6:9–11; 7:1–17; 14:1–5). The better our understanding of any unit in Revelation is informed by the whole, the more we will understand and communicate it the way God inspired it to be understood.
Reading Revelation’s symbols in light of modern Western ideas instead of their ancient significance is a popular temptation. Hal Lindsey, for example, made the eagle a symbol of the United States (fortunately for both Lindsey and other Americans, Ben Franklin failed in his attempt to make the national bird a turkey). Thus, Lindsey suggests that 12:14 may refer to an airlift from U.S. aircraft, such as the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean; not wishing to speculate unduly, he suggests merely that they might be removed to Petra.59 But no one in the rest of history could have understood the symbol as the United States, and the text itself provides us no reason to understand the symbol in such terms.
Contemporary Significance
INTERPRETING BIBLICAL IMAGES for today. Christ is the dragon-slayer and Caesar, who may have claimed to be dragon-slayer, was merely a puppet of the dragon. Shortly before Roman officials in Carthage ordered Perpetua’s execution as a Christian, the young woman had a vision of a ladder leading to heaven with a dragon at its foot. “ ‘He will not harm me,’ I said, ‘in the name of Christ Jesus.’ ” Then she stepped on his head and climbed up the ladder; she understood this vision as the Lord’s assurance that she would triumph through her martyrdom.60
There is a place for reappropriating the world’s stories, songs, dramatic themes, and so forth for the gospel. When our culture emphasizes personal sexual gratification, we can respond by speaking of the truest love found in Christ, who will never betray you. When the world packages its violent action heroes, we can speak of the truest hero, who courageously received our violence and shamed what is wrong in our values.
The image of conflict here also reminds us that God’s people must always be ready to confront the world’s hostility; the contrast between the mother in chapter 12 and the prostitute in chapter 17 reminds us that the city of God and Babylon never coexist naturally in this world. Especially in view of the use of the image of labor pains in the Hebrew Bible, this image here further reminds us that God’s purposes are often accomplished only through suffering (cf. John 16:21–22; Rom. 8:22–23). The devil’s hostility, probably expressed as slander (see comments on 12:15), also warns us to expect false accusations, though we should do our best to prevent them (1 Tim. 3:7; 5:14–15).
That Revelation recycles the ancient serpent of Genesis for its own day further underlines the continuity of the same enemy throughout history. It should not surprise us that many of Satan’s devices (e.g., sexual temptation, political oppression, unforgiveness) remain the same today as they have been. Unlike Satan, however, his agents (e.g., the Roman emperor identifying with Apollo) repeat the arrogance of all their evil predecessors, while remaining seemingly oblivious to the fate of those who perished before them. Each generation has its own crop of antichrists (cf. 1 John 2:18), but the character of supernatural evil behind them remains unchanged until the Lord’s return. Both the earthly pursuit of the woman and the image of heavenly warfare warn us not to grow content with any truce we have with the world in secular, materialistic America or elsewhere. Comfort is a goal of our society, but given the right conditions our bold witness (“the testimony of Jesus,” 12:17) will invite opposition.
That Revelation reapplies Christologically both the fall of the stars and the period of Tribulation reminds us of Christ’s centrality in everything; as Christians, we must view both past and future through the lens of God’s purposes in Christ. As the angels learned, the greatest rebellion is rebellion against Christ’s Lordship, acting as if our own lives belong to us.
Retreat or engagement? The desert theme is important. Some survivalist groups in the United States have withdrawn into the wilderness in order to survive coming troubles.61 Such behavior may prolong life in the event of a nuclear or perhaps biochemical holocaust, but it misses the point of Revelation. The rest of this book teaches that our goal as Christians is not to escape suffering or death but to announce Jesus to the world (6:9–11; 11:3–7; 19:10). We must not withdraw from sinners (though we must withdraw spiritually from the world’s corruption, cf. 18:4), but invade the world with the message and example of God’s redeeming love.
The real point of the desert in this passage (see Original Meaning section) is not a call to universal monasticism but a picture of the present era as a time between our first and final redemption. After Israel sighed on account of its bondage and God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt, they experienced an interim period, led by God in the desert, until they entered their “inheritance.” Early Christians used such language to depict the interim period between the first and second comings, to explain why God brought salvation in two stages (e.g., Rom. 8:14, 17, 23; Eph. 1:14).62
In other words, Christians live in what some scholars call the “already/not yet”: We have begun to experience the life of the coming world even though we have yet to enter it fully. Our bodies remain mortal, but God has empowered us to live our lives in obedience to the ways of the future kingdom. The desert theme is thus one of present suffering and detachment from material wealth (like the redefinition of the Tribulation), not a retreat from engaging our culture when we are able to engage it.
Cosmic spiritual warfare. Although Jesus’ side has won the victory, much of the world does not know this and remains in deception. Thus what we call spiritual warfare continues today on a cosmic level; for example, the worldview shift in the United States toward New Age and Eastern mystic thought. Roughly half of the country believes in extrasensory perception, a quarter in ghosts, a quarter in astrology, and ten percent in channeling.63
The Bible provides essential insights for our warfare in this age. The battle is a spiritual one, and God is sovereign; the devil’s time is limited and continues only by God’s permission. The angel greeted Daniel, a man of prayer, as highly esteemed before God, then went on to recount how the kings who seemed to move the nations were merely pawns in the larger plan of God for history. The future belongs to God!
Witnessing and suffering in our day. Many Christians in the United States are afraid that their witness may offend someone, but this passage emphasizes that our witness for Jesus is worth even our lives (12:11). As noted above, when I preach on this passage, I sometimes use 12:11 as a prism to refract themes that run through Revelation. After dealing with the immediate context, I deal with overcoming (especially in the letters to the seven churches) and with suffering for our testimony as the Lamb did (5:6; 6:9–11). In many parts of the world, in fact, believers have been laying down their lives; and, given the truth of Christ’s message, that is a cost well worth paying. As F. F. Bruce notes on this passage:
Their only means of resisting the enemy’s attack … is patient endurance and faithful confession. This may mean suffering and death; but it was precisely by suffering and death that their Leader had conquered. It is to Jesus, not to Caesar, that world dominion belongs; it is Jesus, not Caesar, who is Lord of history, and those who confess him faithfully before Caesar and Caesar’s representatives participate in his victory and kingly power.64
Experts estimate tens of thousands (some estimate hundreds of thousands) of martyrs for Christ annually around the world. Thus, individual examples of suffering for Christ can easily be multiplied. For instance, the Cuban government imprisoned Noble Alexander, an Adventist youth pastor, for twenty-two years. For refusing to renounce Christ,
he suffered food poisoning for eating maggot-ridden gruel. He lost consciousness being dunked in an icy lake while bound. He passed out three times from the pain of being whipped with electrical cables. He sustained gunshot wounds in his hand, leg, and thigh.
He spent ninety days “inside a coffinlike box where he could barely move” for having a Bible; for refusing to work on the Sabbath he was “dunked into a cesspool of rotting debris and putrid excrement for three hours.” His hardest suffering was that his Christian wife divorced him while he was in prison; this brought him so much despair that he did not remarry until twenty-eight years later. “No one can be truly certain of his faith and endurance until he is forced to test them,” Alexander warns.65
One encouragement in any of our testings is that Satan’s time is limited (12:12); we must endure for only a limited duration of time. I know a celibate, single thirty-nine-year-old who would like to be married but happily reasons that if it does not happen, he has less than half his life left to wait. If we have already endured some tests successfully, we know from experience that God can give us the strength to finish the race. Further, the devil can no longer accuse us before God (12:10), so the most important issue is settled. We also know that the remnant of the church will triumph in the end (15:2; 21:7). If the eagle’s wings allude to Exodus 19, they indicate God’s intimate care for us.
The book of Revelation helps us by preparing us for hardship. Billy Graham notes that his wife grew up in a missionary family in China and saw “how God prepared His church there during times of trouble to withstand the even greater troubled times ahead.” He notes that the hardships actually have strengthened the church and that God’s warnings provide help.66 By portraying the time between Jesus’ comings as a Great Tribulation, like the one Daniel spoke about, Revelation reminds us that Jesus’ followers share his cross; hence, it warns us to prepare. Suffering belongs to us in this world, but our Lord Jesus is victorious anyway (John 16:33).
Original Meaning
The Final Exodus (12:5–6)
IN THE COMMON myth, the child born to the woman was a god or the emperor worshiped without controversy by the world system; John reinterprets the myth so that the child is the Lord Jesus, the crucified leader of the persecuted sect of Christians. That Jesus and not his church is in view here is clear not only from his ruling with a rod of iron (cf. 19:15)—his servants will rule but only with him (2:27)27—but also after Jesus is caught up, the woman has other offspring who follow Jesus (12:17).28 This story is the centerpiece of Revelation and the centerpiece of its review of history; no one other than our Lord Jesus Christ may fill that role.
Further, whereas the common myth focused on the birth of a divine child, Revelation focuses not on Jesus’ birth but on his exaltation (12:5). Jesus was “begotten” as king at his resurrection and enthronement (Ps. 2:7; Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:3–5). If read together with John’s Gospel, Revelation may even depict Jesus’ enthronement as beginning with the cross, where he was crowned “king of the Jews” (John 19:19–21; cf. 16:21); it was at the cross that Satan was “cast out” of heaven (12:31; 14:30; 16:11; cf. Rev. 12:9, 13); it was by the cross that Jesus “prepared a place” for his followers (John 14:2–3; cf. Rev. 12:6).29
Time is also different in Revelation than in the apocalyptic tradition. The “1,260 days” likely adapts Daniel’s Great Tribulation (cf. Dan. 12:11); working from a 360-day year, 1,260 days would be three and a half years (7:25; 9:27; 12:7).30 Revelation here reinterprets the traditional Jewish symbol of end-time tribulation in light of Christian beliefs about Jesus. Following Daniel, writers could envision a final three-and-a-half-year Tribulation (Dan. 9:24–27; 12:1, 11). Various Jewish traditions adapted the duration of the final Tribulation at various lengths (most commonly forty years). But Revelation seems to employ this figure to tell us about the kind of time rather than the length of time, emphasizing primarily that it is tribulation. If Jesus is king and Christ, and if Jesus has come and yet will come again, then Christians are already living in the final era, regardless of that era’s length (e.g., Acts 2:17; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1; 2 Peter 3:3). Likewise, John’s Jewish contemporaries anticipated Satan’s future defeat, but John, for whom the Messiah has already invaded history and staked his claims, declares Satan’s defeat in the past.31
For several reasons, John’s adaptation of his contemporaries’ prophecy charts should not surprise us. (1) Revelation rarely takes over Jewish symbols of the end, even those from the divinely inspired Old Testament, without reapplying them in light of what Christians know about Jesus. Revelation is full of symbolic numbers (see comment on 7:1–8). (2) The book of Daniel itself, under God’s direction, reapplies Jeremiah’s seventy years prophecy to a much longer period, which leads to the length of Tribulation stated there (Dan. 9:2, 24; cf. Test. Moses 3:14). (3) Jesus regarded Daniel’s Tribulation as at least partly literally fulfilled in the events of A.D. 66–70, when the Temple was desecrated and destroyed, and became a site for sacrifices to Caesar.32 (4) Some of John’s contemporaries had also symbolically reapplied Daniel’s figure for the Tribulation.33
Such arguments support only the possibility that John reapplies the figure, but it is the text of Revelation itself that takes us further, for the narrative reads as if Jesus’ exaltation is immediately followed by the Tribulation (12:5–6). Moreover, Satan’s expulsion from heaven cannot be a future event here; rather, it accompanies the arrival of “salvation” and God’s “kingdom,” and such language suits only two moments. One is Christ’s return in glory (19:1; cf. 11:15), but this cannot be in view here, for that would hardly leave Satan even a “short” time (12:12). The other is Jesus’ triumph through his death, resurrection, and enthronement (1:9; 2:27; 7:10), which therefore must be in view here.34 As John’s audience are already aware, believers will face tribulation in the world, but Jesus promises that his finished victory matters much more than such tribulation (John 16:33).35
In the Isis and Leto myths, the woman escaped to an island; John offers a distinctly different image here, deliberately recalling Israel’s exodus into the desert (12:6). Because the prophets had promised a new exodus into the desert at the time of Israel’s future redemption (Isa. 40:3; Hos. 2:14), some Jewish people literally withdrew into the desert to await its arrival (1QS 8.14–15; 9.19–20).36 Others anticipated messianic figures in the desert (Matt. 24:26; Acts 21:38; Josephus, Ant. 20.189; War 2.259, 261–62); in addition, even apart from engaging insurgencies and guerilla warfare, the desert was the natural place to seek refuge (Ps. Sol. 17:17). But John uses the desert symbolically to refer back to the first Exodus, as in his Gospel (John 3:14; 6:31, 49), announcing a spiritual new exodus (1:23).
Revelation then shifts, like a good apocalypse, to a heavenly perspective on the events just described. Christ’s triumph over the dragon on earth is envisioned in terms of a heavenly combat between God’s and Satan’s forces, with Satan’s forces inevitably losing.37 As noted above (see comment on 12:4), Jewish people often talked about the fall of angels in the distant past; now John relates this event specifically to Christ’s triumph (12:7–11). Satan’s fall here clearly refers to a past event; “salvation” and God’s “kingdom” (12:10) are completed at Christ’s return, but were begun at his death, resurrection, and enthronement.
Bridging Contexts
MARY AND CHURCH TRADITION. Some regard the woman in this passage as Mary and use it to support later Catholic traditions about an exalted Mary (not all Catholic exegetes, however, hold this view). Protestant and Catholic commentators often differ here less in their interpretation of what is explicitly in this text than in their decisions about acceptable interpretive methods. If one begins with the premise of sola scriptura and cannot read later traditions into this text, it provides little if any direct teaching about Mary. By contrast, if later tradition can interpret Scripture, then one may find clues about Mary’s exalted status implicit in the text.52
This raises a legitimate interpretive issue. I have sometimes talked with Catholic friends disgusted with liberal Protestant conclusions about matters such as the Trinity or Jesus’ deity, who felt that the best way to prevent heresy was to appeal to the continuity of the orthodox faith in Catholic history. I respond that I agree with the essentials of their orthodox faith but insist that we share the same view because it grew from the apostolic witness preserved for us in Scripture. They reasonably counter that Scripture must be interpreted, and who better to interpret it than the orthodox tradition? I then argue that Scripture is best understood in light of its original context, which provides the meaning at the foundation of the original orthodox tradition. They in turn maintain, in a tradition going back to second-century apologists, that the Bible is the church’s book, authored by and for the church.
Although I agree that God gave the Bible for the church (Rom. 15:4), I hold that the church is meant to be the Bible’s community and that the Bible stems not from the whole people of God but from God’s inspiration of apostles and prophets, often challenging the errors of God’s people. The church must always stand under Scripture’s teaching, reapplying it only after we have understood its original meaning as the authors were inspired to address their audiences.
Lately, more evangelicals have adopted this traditional Catholic line of argument, and for reasons that are understandable. Longstanding historical tradition provides a helpful line of defense against faddish critical theories about the Bible and theology and surely merits a voice in critiquing ideas that would never have occurred to anyone outside the artificial culture of academia. At the same time, its value in determining details of the faith remains debatable. If the Bible is the “church’s” book, who defines the church? The Roman Catholic Church cannot historically claim to be older than the Eastern Orthodox churches; the earliest claims to primacy for the bishop of Rome are over a century after the rise of monarchial bishops in the East.53
Nor does early Catholic tradition guarantee unanimity on all details, though it provides a broad consensus for the faith (which I and other orthodox Christians embrace). And Protestants who appeal to church tradition will certainly have a worse time of it than Catholics, for we do not offer even a pretense of unanimity! One also wonders how Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or others would feel about some who in their name privilege theological traditions above firsthand study of Scripture itself.
I believe that, as valuable a corrective as church tradition is, it must always stand under the judgment of God’s Word in Scripture (Mark 7:6–9). The collective mind of later Christians is helpful, but it is not the same as the inspiration experienced by holy apostles and prophets and hence cannot serve as a “canon” or measuring stick to the same degree. Moreover, its corrective value must be free to cut both ways. Recognizing our traditions may help us evaluate the source of our presuppositions so that we can try to read Scripture in a way that is free to challenge rather than merely rehearse our presuppositions. Only in this way can Christians raised in diverse traditions surmount those barriers in honest dialogue.
Much of the symbolism surrounding the woman evokes Israel. How modern interpreters apply that connection diverges, based on their interpretation of the text; but even if her “seed” includes both Jewish and Gentile believers (whoever holds to Jesus’ testimony and keeps God’s commandments, 12:17), this symbol suggests continuity in salvation history. Such continuity has implications for how we read Scripture in general; some tend to read only discontinuity between the Testaments, but there are numerous points (including here) that suggest a substantial measure of continuity as well.
Dealing with tribulation. If, as we have argued above, Revelation’s “tribulation” differs from that predicted by Daniel and Jesus (which was already fulfilled by Revelation’s day), does that mean that there is no future tribulation? To the contrary, suffering is inseparable from the preaching of the gospel (see comment on 6:9–11), and the end will come only after Jesus’ followers have carried out the Great Commission (Matt. 24:14). When we see a generation of believers radical enough to endure martyrdom to evangelize the most resistant areas, we will also see intensified tribulation. But while such tribulation may be part of the backdrop of Revelation’s portrait of tribulation, its direct point in 12:6 is probably that our experience between Jesus’ first and second comings includes the devil’s enmity. Yet in the midst of such tribulation, we should be of good courage: Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33).
On spiritual warfare. Revelation 12:7–9 portrays spiritual warfare in the heavens corresponding to Christ’s triumph on the earth (12:5, 10). Clearly this indicates that our battle is spiritual, a reality recognized even as early as Jacob’s preparation to face his brother Esau (Gen. 32:26) and Elisha’s awareness of heaven’s armies on his side (2 Kings 6:17).54
Some contemporary interpreters have misapplied biblical teaching about spiritual warfare, however. Once I visited a “prayer meeting” where the entire meeting was spent addressing and rebuking the devil; God was rarely if ever addressed. The Bible gives plenty of precedent for expelling a demon if it is present (e.g., Mark 1:25–26; Acts 16:18), but not a single text supports addressing the devil, as if he were omnipresent, during prayer. Texts that are often cited in support are frequently misapplied by well-meaning believers; they refer to resisting the devil, not rebuking him.55 That no text supports addressing the devil as present during prayer at the very least should suggest that some contemporary spiritual warfare practices are overdone. The practice of ridiculing the devil, popular in some peripheral charismatic circles today, is explicitly unbiblical (Jude 8–10).56
Today some spiritual “warriors” seek spiritual shortcuts to changing reality by “casting down” forces in the heavens. Perhaps they think Daniel had to wait twenty-one days (Dan. 10:2–3) only because he did not know any better; but it seems more likely that our culture’s emphasis on instant gratification has made them too impatient with traditional methods of prayer.57 Although angels of nations, “territorial spirits,” appear to be a reality (Dan. 10:13, 20; Eph. 1:21; 6:12), Scripture remains silent on many details about them, presumably because there are some issues into which we are not supposed to delve (Deut. 29:29; Rom. 16:19; 2 Peter 2:10–11).
This is not to deny that God may indeed respond to such believers’ faith despite their method, but to suggest that their method is not, strictly speaking, biblical. Revelation 12 portrays angelic war in the heavens, but the outcome here has already been decided by Christ’s exaltation, and the rest of the battle is carried out by ground forces (12:10–11). God can provide us plenty of “air cover” in response to our prayers to him for his work, but genuine spiritual warfare requires the advance of ground forces. Jesus appears to have bound the strong man (Mark 3:27) by resisting his temptation (1:13), and (if we rightly understand the passage) the god of this age retreated from his position of authority as Jesus’ disciples preached God’s reign and cast demons from those possessed by them (Luke 10:17–19).58
Based on such texts and on Paul’s discussion of God’s armor (Eph. 6:10–18), it appears as if Christians deal with the devil by delivering the oppressed and proclaiming the gospel, waging a “ground war”; in response to our ground war and prayers, God removes the heavenly rulers. The one offensive weapon in the spiritual armor God has provided us is his “word” (Eph. 6:17), which in the context of Paul’s usage means the gospel (e.g., Eph. 1:13). We read the same principle in this passage: The woman’s offspring overcame the devil “by the word of their testimony,” that is, by their verbal witness for Christ (what “testimony” means elsewhere in Revelation). If we are teaching people spiritual shortcuts that neglect actually evangelizing the world, we may be undercutting rather than serving God’s purposes in the world.
The whole and its parts. I usually prefer to preach from a paragraph (an expository sermon) rather than a textual sermon on one verse. But each book of the Bible, including Revelation, was meant to be taken as a whole—possibly excepting Psalms and Proverbs. Thus, whether we preach an entire paragraph or even a verse, we should use the specific unit as a sort of prism to refract the themes of the book.
Once in Africa I preached from 12:11, but used that verse merely to provide structure for touching on three themes of the book as a whole. Starting with the theme of “overcoming,” I traced the immediate context of the passage, hence what it meant for these believers to overcome. Then I turned to how that overcoming might look different to believers in different situations, following the theme of overcoming in the letters to the churches (and applying the lessons to some of the sorts of situations my audience faced). Focusing next on “the word of their testimony,” I traced the theme of witness through the book. I concluded by detailing what Revelation taught about giving our lives for the gospel and how those who suffer for the gospel are truly God’s triumphant army (6:9–11; 7:1–17; 14:1–5). The better our understanding of any unit in Revelation is informed by the whole, the more we will understand and communicate it the way God inspired it to be understood.
Reading Revelation’s symbols in light of modern Western ideas instead of their ancient significance is a popular temptation. Hal Lindsey, for example, made the eagle a symbol of the United States (fortunately for both Lindsey and other Americans, Ben Franklin failed in his attempt to make the national bird a turkey). Thus, Lindsey suggests that 12:14 may refer to an airlift from U.S. aircraft, such as the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean; not wishing to speculate unduly, he suggests merely that they might be removed to Petra.59 But no one in the rest of history could have understood the symbol as the United States, and the text itself provides us no reason to understand the symbol in such terms.
Contemporary Significance
INTERPRETING BIBLICAL IMAGES for today. Christ is the dragon-slayer and Caesar, who may have claimed to be dragon-slayer, was merely a puppet of the dragon. Shortly before Roman officials in Carthage ordered Perpetua’s execution as a Christian, the young woman had a vision of a ladder leading to heaven with a dragon at its foot. “ ‘He will not harm me,’ I said, ‘in the name of Christ Jesus.’ ” Then she stepped on his head and climbed up the ladder; she understood this vision as the Lord’s assurance that she would triumph through her martyrdom.60
There is a place for reappropriating the world’s stories, songs, dramatic themes, and so forth for the gospel. When our culture emphasizes personal sexual gratification, we can respond by speaking of the truest love found in Christ, who will never betray you. When the world packages its violent action heroes, we can speak of the truest hero, who courageously received our violence and shamed what is wrong in our values.
The image of conflict here also reminds us that God’s people must always be ready to confront the world’s hostility; the contrast between the mother in chapter 12 and the prostitute in chapter 17 reminds us that the city of God and Babylon never coexist naturally in this world. Especially in view of the use of the image of labor pains in the Hebrew Bible, this image here further reminds us that God’s purposes are often accomplished only through suffering (cf. John 16:21–22; Rom. 8:22–23). The devil’s hostility, probably expressed as slander (see comments on 12:15), also warns us to expect false accusations, though we should do our best to prevent them (1 Tim. 3:7; 5:14–15).
That Revelation recycles the ancient serpent of Genesis for its own day further underlines the continuity of the same enemy throughout history. It should not surprise us that many of Satan’s devices (e.g., sexual temptation, political oppression, unforgiveness) remain the same today as they have been. Unlike Satan, however, his agents (e.g., the Roman emperor identifying with Apollo) repeat the arrogance of all their evil predecessors, while remaining seemingly oblivious to the fate of those who perished before them. Each generation has its own crop of antichrists (cf. 1 John 2:18), but the character of supernatural evil behind them remains unchanged until the Lord’s return. Both the earthly pursuit of the woman and the image of heavenly warfare warn us not to grow content with any truce we have with the world in secular, materialistic America or elsewhere. Comfort is a goal of our society, but given the right conditions our bold witness (“the testimony of Jesus,” 12:17) will invite opposition.
That Revelation reapplies Christologically both the fall of the stars and the period of Tribulation reminds us of Christ’s centrality in everything; as Christians, we must view both past and future through the lens of God’s purposes in Christ. As the angels learned, the greatest rebellion is rebellion against Christ’s Lordship, acting as if our own lives belong to us.
Retreat or engagement? The desert theme is important. Some survivalist groups in the United States have withdrawn into the wilderness in order to survive coming troubles.61 Such behavior may prolong life in the event of a nuclear or perhaps biochemical holocaust, but it misses the point of Revelation. The rest of this book teaches that our goal as Christians is not to escape suffering or death but to announce Jesus to the world (6:9–11; 11:3–7; 19:10). We must not withdraw from sinners (though we must withdraw spiritually from the world’s corruption, cf. 18:4), but invade the world with the message and example of God’s redeeming love.
The real point of the desert in this passage (see Original Meaning section) is not a call to universal monasticism but a picture of the present era as a time between our first and final redemption. After Israel sighed on account of its bondage and God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt, they experienced an interim period, led by God in the desert, until they entered their “inheritance.” Early Christians used such language to depict the interim period between the first and second comings, to explain why God brought salvation in two stages (e.g., Rom. 8:14, 17, 23; Eph. 1:14).62
In other words, Christians live in what some scholars call the “already/not yet”: We have begun to experience the life of the coming world even though we have yet to enter it fully. Our bodies remain mortal, but God has empowered us to live our lives in obedience to the ways of the future kingdom. The desert theme is thus one of present suffering and detachment from material wealth (like the redefinition of the Tribulation), not a retreat from engaging our culture when we are able to engage it.
Cosmic spiritual warfare. Although Jesus’ side has won the victory, much of the world does not know this and remains in deception. Thus what we call spiritual warfare continues today on a cosmic level; for example, the worldview shift in the United States toward New Age and Eastern mystic thought. Roughly half of the country believes in extrasensory perception, a quarter in ghosts, a quarter in astrology, and ten percent in channeling.63
The Bible provides essential insights for our warfare in this age. The battle is a spiritual one, and God is sovereign; the devil’s time is limited and continues only by God’s permission. The angel greeted Daniel, a man of prayer, as highly esteemed before God, then went on to recount how the kings who seemed to move the nations were merely pawns in the larger plan of God for history. The future belongs to God!
Witnessing and suffering in our day. Many Christians in the United States are afraid that their witness may offend someone, but this passage emphasizes that our witness for Jesus is worth even our lives (12:11). As noted above, when I preach on this passage, I sometimes use 12:11 as a prism to refract themes that run through Revelation. After dealing with the immediate context, I deal with overcoming (especially in the letters to the seven churches) and with suffering for our testimony as the Lamb did (5:6; 6:9–11). In many parts of the world, in fact, believers have been laying down their lives; and, given the truth of Christ’s message, that is a cost well worth paying. As F. F. Bruce notes on this passage:
Their only means of resisting the enemy’s attack … is patient endurance and faithful confession. This may mean suffering and death; but it was precisely by suffering and death that their Leader had conquered. It is to Jesus, not to Caesar, that world dominion belongs; it is Jesus, not Caesar, who is Lord of history, and those who confess him faithfully before Caesar and Caesar’s representatives participate in his victory and kingly power.64
Experts estimate tens of thousands (some estimate hundreds of thousands) of martyrs for Christ annually around the world. Thus, individual examples of suffering for Christ can easily be multiplied. For instance, the Cuban government imprisoned Noble Alexander, an Adventist youth pastor, for twenty-two years. For refusing to renounce Christ,
he suffered food poisoning for eating maggot-ridden gruel. He lost consciousness being dunked in an icy lake while bound. He passed out three times from the pain of being whipped with electrical cables. He sustained gunshot wounds in his hand, leg, and thigh.
He spent ninety days “inside a coffinlike box where he could barely move” for having a Bible; for refusing to work on the Sabbath he was “dunked into a cesspool of rotting debris and putrid excrement for three hours.” His hardest suffering was that his Christian wife divorced him while he was in prison; this brought him so much despair that he did not remarry until twenty-eight years later. “No one can be truly certain of his faith and endurance until he is forced to test them,” Alexander warns.65
One encouragement in any of our testings is that Satan’s time is limited (12:12); we must endure for only a limited duration of time. I know a celibate, single thirty-nine-year-old who would like to be married but happily reasons that if it does not happen, he has less than half his life left to wait. If we have already endured some tests successfully, we know from experience that God can give us the strength to finish the race. Further, the devil can no longer accuse us before God (12:10), so the most important issue is settled. We also know that the remnant of the church will triumph in the end (15:2; 21:7). If the eagle’s wings allude to Exodus 19, they indicate God’s intimate care for us.
The book of Revelation helps us by preparing us for hardship. Billy Graham notes that his wife grew up in a missionary family in China and saw “how God prepared His church there during times of trouble to withstand the even greater troubled times ahead.” He notes that the hardships actually have strengthened the church and that God’s warnings provide help.66 By portraying the time between Jesus’ comings as a Great Tribulation, like the one Daniel spoke about, Revelation reminds us that Jesus’ followers share his cross; hence, it warns us to prepare. Suffering belongs to us in this world, but our Lord Jesus is victorious anyway (John 16:33).
Original Meaning
Celestial Combat (12:7–12)
THE CELESTIAL COMBAT portrayed here reapplies many traditional Jewish images. The end-time theme of holy war, as in Qumran’s war scroll (cf. comment on Rev. 7:1–8), is reapplied to a heavenly conflict whose outcome was fully established at the cross.38 Based on Daniel (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1), Jewish people recognized that Michael was their guardian prince, who would defend them from the angels of the other nations who sought to oppress them.39 Michael could single-handedly ward off angels of other nations (Dan. 10:13, 21).
Yet there were limits to Michael’s power. He could not overstep his own authority, hence could not act against Satan himself without God’s permission (Jude 9); moreover, he would be ordered to stand out of the way so Israel could experience the final Tribulation (Dan. 12:1; perhaps 2 Thess. 2:7). Here, however, Michael and his forces cast down Satan’s forces, because Michael and his allies represent the heavenly victory won by Christ on earth. God not only rules the world through events in the heavens; he also fits these events to his acts on earth. John perceives not only the fallen angels but even the activity of Michael through his focus on our Lord’s triumph.
Satan’s being hurled to the earth ends his position of privilege in God’s court.40 Ironically, Satan’s loss of “place” (topos, 12:8) contrasts starkly with the “place” (topos) of refuge God provides his own people persecuted by Satan (12:6, 14). The Bible already declared that Satan functioned as an accuser (Zech. 3:1), including directly before God’s throne (Job 1:6; 2:1). Jewish tradition amplified this idea, so that in later texts he was said to accuse Israel day and night, except on the Day of Atonement.41 Here, however, his accusations against the saints have been silenced, for Christ’s victory is sufficient to silence all objections of the once-heavenly prosecutor (12:10). The opposite of a prosecutor was an advocate, and John’s audience is probably already familiar with the idea that Jesus is our sufficient advocate (1 John 2:1; also John 14:16, where “Counselor” translates “advocate”). Satan’s activity here is “day and night”; like the torment of his followers (14:11; 20:10), this contrasts with the unceasing role of God’s worshipers in 4:8; 7:15.
Satan’s defeat in heaven does not mean an end to physical suffering on earth. The saints here continue to overcome the devil as they overcome the world—by faithfully testifying of Christ’s victory even to the point of death (12:11). This is a sacrifice to which Jesus long ago called anyone who would be his follower (John 12:25), but in the context of “overcoming” (translated “overpower” and “conquer” in Rev. 11:7; 13:7), may recall especially the image of military martyrs (see comment on 7:1–17).42 The victory is past, won by Christ’s “blood” (12:11; cf. 1:5; 7:14); the conquering Lion was a slain Lamb (5:5–6). The saints implement that victory by faith (cf. 1 John 4:4; 5:4–5), boldly proclaiming Christ regardless of the cost to themselves (Rev. 12:11; 20:4), thus hastening the coming of the end and the fulfillment of God’s purposes in human history (6:9–11).
Satan oppresses Jesus’ followers (12:10–12) and pursues the woman into the desert, just as Pharaoh pursued Israel in the Exodus. In Jewish tradition, Belial (Satan) would be unleashed in special fury against Israel in the end time (CD 4.12–13). Here that time of suffering for God’s people corresponds to their deliverance before God; Satan’s only activities remain earthly deception and repression. The devil’s “short” time (12:12), like the “little while” between the cross and resurrection (John 16:16–19), is an interim period that involves both suspense and hardship—but whose outcome is predetermined. The devil’s “time” (kairos, 12:12) will run out when the “delay” (chronos, 10:6) ends—that is, when God’s purposes are complete (10:7) and the kingdom becomes his at the time (kairos) of his judgment (11:15–18). This is the same span of time (chronos) for the saints’ remaining sufferings (6:11).43
The woman fled to the desert for an extended period. The period “times, time and half a time” (12:14) refers to three and a half years, the period of Great Tribulation (as in Dan. 7:25; 12:7; for the symbolic significance of this number, see comment on 12:6). The psalmist prayed for bird’s wings to flee into the desert (Ps. 55:6–7), but the eagle’s wings that God provides her (Rev. 12:14) probably allude to God’s own help. The Exodus tradition spoke of God’s bearing his people on eagle’s wings (Ex. 19:4; Deut. 32:11), an image also applicable to the new exodus (Isa. 40:31; 1 En. 96:2; Test. Moses 10:8).44 The miraculous provision in the desert here echoes the manna God gave his people at the first exodus; he provides “daily bread” (cf. Matt. 6:11).
In Greek stories river deities could send floods against their enemies (Homer, Il. 21.248–327); in Scripture, the serpent God overthrew in the first exodus lived in the waters (Ps. 74:13; Ezek. 29:3; 32:2). That “water like a river” comes from the serpent’s mouth (Rev. 12:15; cf. 16:13) may be a symbol for slander, as with Satan’s agents of accusation in 2:9 and 3:9; Satan, who can no longer accuse the saints to God, accuses them to the world instead. In prophetic language, a “flood” could represent any sufferings (cf. Ps. 32:6), including divine judgment (Isa. 28:2; Jer. 47:2), but also including unjust opposition (Ps. 18:3–4; 69:1–4, 14–15; 124:2–5).45
Mouths in Revelation typically function as symbols for speech, especially for God’s Word (1:16; 2:16; 10:9–10; 19:15, 21), even when they adapt another image (11:5). In the next chapter, the mouth of the wicked is used for arrogant words and blasphemies (13:2–6) against God, but affecting the saints (cf. Dan. 7:8, 20, 25); by contrast, the saints have no lie in their mouths (Rev. 14:5). What supports the slander interpretation more clearly is that serpents’ mouths appear for slander in Psalm 140:1–5. Whatever the trial of waters, God promised to bring his people through them (Isa. 43:2); it also appears as a significant irony that the earth’s “mouth” counters the dragon’s “mouth” in Revelation 12:16.
In the most common form of the Greek myth, the serpent Python was a Titan son of Earth, but here the earth, obeying God, helps the woman (12:16). The image would be a familiar one. Other Jewish texts portray the earth protesting lawlessness (1 Enoch 7:6; Apoc. Moses 40:5; cf. Isa. 26:21). At God’s command, the earth might swallow something to protect it (2 Bar. 6:9; 4 Bar. 3:10, 19), or swallow Israel’s oppressors (1 Enoch 90:18) or other sinners (Num. 16:32; 26:10; Deut. 11:6; Ps. 106:17; T. Abr. 10A; 12B); or Sheol might open its mouth to swallow the end-time invaders of the holy land (1 Enoch 56:8).46 Perhaps most important, the defeat of Israel’s enemies at the first exodus in the Red Sea is described as the earth swallowing them (Ex 15:10, 12).
That the woman before Jesus’ coming in 12:1–5 is the faithful remnant of Israel is fairly clear; her precise identity through the rest of the chapter is more debatable. Does she refer to the church, to ethnic Jewry, or specifically to Jewish Christians? John would likely hold that all these groups survive through the end time, and modern interpreters usually answer these questions according to their broader theological frameworks. After the coming of Jesus, the faithful remnant is comprised only of Jewish Christians or (as more interpreters hold, with some good reason) of all Christians, or could one give either answer depending on the context? What is clear in any case is that, regardless of the woman’s corporate survival, individual believers can still suffer death from the serpent’s mouth.
The dragon’s rage against the woman (12:17) carries forward his “fury” (12:12) and that of his agents (11:18), but now he focuses his activity against her seed.47 That he “went off to make war” may suggest that individual saints are not all shielded in the desert; they may be portrayed more like the witnesses, confronting the world with the gospel (11:8). The woman’s “offspring” or “seed” here (12:17) echoes the language of Genesis 3:15; they may suffer the serpent’s bite but will emerge victorious (cf. Rom. 16:20).48 These other offspring represent those who keep God’s commandments, that is, true disciples of Jesus (Rev. 3:10; 14:12; cf. John 14:21; 1 John 3:22); they hold the testimony of Jesus (cf. Rev. 1:2, 9; 19:10; 20:4).
Some doubt that the woman’s seed refers to believers in Jesus throughout history, protesting that “the church” is mentioned in Revelation 1–3 but never in chapters 4–19.49 This protest is hardly consistent: The church is not mentioned on earth in these chapters, but neither is it mentioned in heaven. In 19:8, the bride of Christ also consists of the “saints,” not the “church.” Furthermore, chapters 1–3 mentions “churches,” not the “church” as a whole; given the rest of the book, there is simply no reason to doubt that those to hold to the “testimony of Jesus” (12:17) are all believers (1:2, 9; 2:13; 19:10). The “saints” or “holy ones” are the righteous, which Jewish tradition applied to the righteous remnant of Israel (e.g., 1 En. 100:5), but which early Christian sources apply, in every case where the context makes the sense clear, to believers in Jesus (e.g., Rom. 1:7; 8:27; 1 Cor. 1:2; 6:1–2; Phil. 4:22).50 The price they must be prepared to pay for this testimony is death (Rev. 12:11).51
Precisely how does the devil make war with the rest of the woman’s seed (12:17)? The answer is the theme of the following chapter, describing the world’s repression.
Bridging Contexts
MARY AND CHURCH TRADITION. Some regard the woman in this passage as Mary and use it to support later Catholic traditions about an exalted Mary (not all Catholic exegetes, however, hold this view). Protestant and Catholic commentators often differ here less in their interpretation of what is explicitly in this text than in their decisions about acceptable interpretive methods. If one begins with the premise of sola scriptura and cannot read later traditions into this text, it provides little if any direct teaching about Mary. By contrast, if later tradition can interpret Scripture, then one may find clues about Mary’s exalted status implicit in the text.52
This raises a legitimate interpretive issue. I have sometimes talked with Catholic friends disgusted with liberal Protestant conclusions about matters such as the Trinity or Jesus’ deity, who felt that the best way to prevent heresy was to appeal to the continuity of the orthodox faith in Catholic history. I respond that I agree with the essentials of their orthodox faith but insist that we share the same view because it grew from the apostolic witness preserved for us in Scripture. They reasonably counter that Scripture must be interpreted, and who better to interpret it than the orthodox tradition? I then argue that Scripture is best understood in light of its original context, which provides the meaning at the foundation of the original orthodox tradition. They in turn maintain, in a tradition going back to second-century apologists, that the Bible is the church’s book, authored by and for the church.
Although I agree that God gave the Bible for the church (Rom. 15:4), I hold that the church is meant to be the Bible’s community and that the Bible stems not from the whole people of God but from God’s inspiration of apostles and prophets, often challenging the errors of God’s people. The church must always stand under Scripture’s teaching, reapplying it only after we have understood its original meaning as the authors were inspired to address their audiences.
Lately, more evangelicals have adopted this traditional Catholic line of argument, and for reasons that are understandable. Longstanding historical tradition provides a helpful line of defense against faddish critical theories about the Bible and theology and surely merits a voice in critiquing ideas that would never have occurred to anyone outside the artificial culture of academia. At the same time, its value in determining details of the faith remains debatable. If the Bible is the “church’s” book, who defines the church? The Roman Catholic Church cannot historically claim to be older than the Eastern Orthodox churches; the earliest claims to primacy for the bishop of Rome are over a century after the rise of monarchial bishops in the East.53
Nor does early Catholic tradition guarantee unanimity on all details, though it provides a broad consensus for the faith (which I and other orthodox Christians embrace). And Protestants who appeal to church tradition will certainly have a worse time of it than Catholics, for we do not offer even a pretense of unanimity! One also wonders how Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or others would feel about some who in their name privilege theological traditions above firsthand study of Scripture itself.
I believe that, as valuable a corrective as church tradition is, it must always stand under the judgment of God’s Word in Scripture (Mark 7:6–9). The collective mind of later Christians is helpful, but it is not the same as the inspiration experienced by holy apostles and prophets and hence cannot serve as a “canon” or measuring stick to the same degree. Moreover, its corrective value must be free to cut both ways. Recognizing our traditions may help us evaluate the source of our presuppositions so that we can try to read Scripture in a way that is free to challenge rather than merely rehearse our presuppositions. Only in this way can Christians raised in diverse traditions surmount those barriers in honest dialogue.
Much of the symbolism surrounding the woman evokes Israel. How modern interpreters apply that connection diverges, based on their interpretation of the text; but even if her “seed” includes both Jewish and Gentile believers (whoever holds to Jesus’ testimony and keeps God’s commandments, 12:17), this symbol suggests continuity in salvation history. Such continuity has implications for how we read Scripture in general; some tend to read only discontinuity between the Testaments, but there are numerous points (including here) that suggest a substantial measure of continuity as well.
Dealing with tribulation. If, as we have argued above, Revelation’s “tribulation” differs from that predicted by Daniel and Jesus (which was already fulfilled by Revelation’s day), does that mean that there is no future tribulation? To the contrary, suffering is inseparable from the preaching of the gospel (see comment on 6:9–11), and the end will come only after Jesus’ followers have carried out the Great Commission (Matt. 24:14). When we see a generation of believers radical enough to endure martyrdom to evangelize the most resistant areas, we will also see intensified tribulation. But while such tribulation may be part of the backdrop of Revelation’s portrait of tribulation, its direct point in 12:6 is probably that our experience between Jesus’ first and second comings includes the devil’s enmity. Yet in the midst of such tribulation, we should be of good courage: Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33).
On spiritual warfare. Revelation 12:7–9 portrays spiritual warfare in the heavens corresponding to Christ’s triumph on the earth (12:5, 10). Clearly this indicates that our battle is spiritual, a reality recognized even as early as Jacob’s preparation to face his brother Esau (Gen. 32:26) and Elisha’s awareness of heaven’s armies on his side (2 Kings 6:17).54
Some contemporary interpreters have misapplied biblical teaching about spiritual warfare, however. Once I visited a “prayer meeting” where the entire meeting was spent addressing and rebuking the devil; God was rarely if ever addressed. The Bible gives plenty of precedent for expelling a demon if it is present (e.g., Mark 1:25–26; Acts 16:18), but not a single text supports addressing the devil, as if he were omnipresent, during prayer. Texts that are often cited in support are frequently misapplied by well-meaning believers; they refer to resisting the devil, not rebuking him.55 That no text supports addressing the devil as present during prayer at the very least should suggest that some contemporary spiritual warfare practices are overdone. The practice of ridiculing the devil, popular in some peripheral charismatic circles today, is explicitly unbiblical (Jude 8–10).56
Today some spiritual “warriors” seek spiritual shortcuts to changing reality by “casting down” forces in the heavens. Perhaps they think Daniel had to wait twenty-one days (Dan. 10:2–3) only because he did not know any better; but it seems more likely that our culture’s emphasis on instant gratification has made them too impatient with traditional methods of prayer.57 Although angels of nations, “territorial spirits,” appear to be a reality (Dan. 10:13, 20; Eph. 1:21; 6:12), Scripture remains silent on many details about them, presumably because there are some issues into which we are not supposed to delve (Deut. 29:29; Rom. 16:19; 2 Peter 2:10–11).
This is not to deny that God may indeed respond to such believers’ faith despite their method, but to suggest that their method is not, strictly speaking, biblical. Revelation 12 portrays angelic war in the heavens, but the outcome here has already been decided by Christ’s exaltation, and the rest of the battle is carried out by ground forces (12:10–11). God can provide us plenty of “air cover” in response to our prayers to him for his work, but genuine spiritual warfare requires the advance of ground forces. Jesus appears to have bound the strong man (Mark 3:27) by resisting his temptation (1:13), and (if we rightly understand the passage) the god of this age retreated from his position of authority as Jesus’ disciples preached God’s reign and cast demons from those possessed by them (Luke 10:17–19).58
Based on such texts and on Paul’s discussion of God’s armor (Eph. 6:10–18), it appears as if Christians deal with the devil by delivering the oppressed and proclaiming the gospel, waging a “ground war”; in response to our ground war and prayers, God removes the heavenly rulers. The one offensive weapon in the spiritual armor God has provided us is his “word” (Eph. 6:17), which in the context of Paul’s usage means the gospel (e.g., Eph. 1:13). We read the same principle in this passage: The woman’s offspring overcame the devil “by the word of their testimony,” that is, by their verbal witness for Christ (what “testimony” means elsewhere in Revelation). If we are teaching people spiritual shortcuts that neglect actually evangelizing the world, we may be undercutting rather than serving God’s purposes in the world.
The whole and its parts. I usually prefer to preach from a paragraph (an expository sermon) rather than a textual sermon on one verse. But each book of the Bible, including Revelation, was meant to be taken as a whole—possibly excepting Psalms and Proverbs. Thus, whether we preach an entire paragraph or even a verse, we should use the specific unit as a sort of prism to refract the themes of the book.
Once in Africa I preached from 12:11, but used that verse merely to provide structure for touching on three themes of the book as a whole. Starting with the theme of “overcoming,” I traced the immediate context of the passage, hence what it meant for these believers to overcome. Then I turned to how that overcoming might look different to believers in different situations, following the theme of overcoming in the letters to the churches (and applying the lessons to some of the sorts of situations my audience faced). Focusing next on “the word of their testimony,” I traced the theme of witness through the book. I concluded by detailing what Revelation taught about giving our lives for the gospel and how those who suffer for the gospel are truly God’s triumphant army (6:9–11; 7:1–17; 14:1–5). The better our understanding of any unit in Revelation is informed by the whole, the more we will understand and communicate it the way God inspired it to be understood.
Reading Revelation’s symbols in light of modern Western ideas instead of their ancient significance is a popular temptation. Hal Lindsey, for example, made the eagle a symbol of the United States (fortunately for both Lindsey and other Americans, Ben Franklin failed in his attempt to make the national bird a turkey). Thus, Lindsey suggests that 12:14 may refer to an airlift from U.S. aircraft, such as the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean; not wishing to speculate unduly, he suggests merely that they might be removed to Petra.59 But no one in the rest of history could have understood the symbol as the United States, and the text itself provides us no reason to understand the symbol in such terms.
Contemporary Significance
INTERPRETING BIBLICAL IMAGES for today. Christ is the dragon-slayer and Caesar, who may have claimed to be dragon-slayer, was merely a puppet of the dragon. Shortly before Roman officials in Carthage ordered Perpetua’s execution as a Christian, the young woman had a vision of a ladder leading to heaven with a dragon at its foot. “ ‘He will not harm me,’ I said, ‘in the name of Christ Jesus.’ ” Then she stepped on his head and climbed up the ladder; she understood this vision as the Lord’s assurance that she would triumph through her martyrdom.60
There is a place for reappropriating the world’s stories, songs, dramatic themes, and so forth for the gospel. When our culture emphasizes personal sexual gratification, we can respond by speaking of the truest love found in Christ, who will never betray you. When the world packages its violent action heroes, we can speak of the truest hero, who courageously received our violence and shamed what is wrong in our values.
The image of conflict here also reminds us that God’s people must always be ready to confront the world’s hostility; the contrast between the mother in chapter 12 and the prostitute in chapter 17 reminds us that the city of God and Babylon never coexist naturally in this world. Especially in view of the use of the image of labor pains in the Hebrew Bible, this image here further reminds us that God’s purposes are often accomplished only through suffering (cf. John 16:21–22; Rom. 8:22–23). The devil’s hostility, probably expressed as slander (see comments on 12:15), also warns us to expect false accusations, though we should do our best to prevent them (1 Tim. 3:7; 5:14–15).
That Revelation recycles the ancient serpent of Genesis for its own day further underlines the continuity of the same enemy throughout history. It should not surprise us that many of Satan’s devices (e.g., sexual temptation, political oppression, unforgiveness) remain the same today as they have been. Unlike Satan, however, his agents (e.g., the Roman emperor identifying with Apollo) repeat the arrogance of all their evil predecessors, while remaining seemingly oblivious to the fate of those who perished before them. Each generation has its own crop of antichrists (cf. 1 John 2:18), but the character of supernatural evil behind them remains unchanged until the Lord’s return. Both the earthly pursuit of the woman and the image of heavenly warfare warn us not to grow content with any truce we have with the world in secular, materialistic America or elsewhere. Comfort is a goal of our society, but given the right conditions our bold witness (“the testimony of Jesus,” 12:17) will invite opposition.
That Revelation reapplies Christologically both the fall of the stars and the period of Tribulation reminds us of Christ’s centrality in everything; as Christians, we must view both past and future through the lens of God’s purposes in Christ. As the angels learned, the greatest rebellion is rebellion against Christ’s Lordship, acting as if our own lives belong to us.
Retreat or engagement? The desert theme is important. Some survivalist groups in the United States have withdrawn into the wilderness in order to survive coming troubles.61 Such behavior may prolong life in the event of a nuclear or perhaps biochemical holocaust, but it misses the point of Revelation. The rest of this book teaches that our goal as Christians is not to escape suffering or death but to announce Jesus to the world (6:9–11; 11:3–7; 19:10). We must not withdraw from sinners (though we must withdraw spiritually from the world’s corruption, cf. 18:4), but invade the world with the message and example of God’s redeeming love.
The real point of the desert in this passage (see Original Meaning section) is not a call to universal monasticism but a picture of the present era as a time between our first and final redemption. After Israel sighed on account of its bondage and God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt, they experienced an interim period, led by God in the desert, until they entered their “inheritance.” Early Christians used such language to depict the interim period between the first and second comings, to explain why God brought salvation in two stages (e.g., Rom. 8:14, 17, 23; Eph. 1:14).62
In other words, Christians live in what some scholars call the “already/not yet”: We have begun to experience the life of the coming world even though we have yet to enter it fully. Our bodies remain mortal, but God has empowered us to live our lives in obedience to the ways of the future kingdom. The desert theme is thus one of present suffering and detachment from material wealth (like the redefinition of the Tribulation), not a retreat from engaging our culture when we are able to engage it.
Cosmic spiritual warfare. Although Jesus’ side has won the victory, much of the world does not know this and remains in deception. Thus what we call spiritual warfare continues today on a cosmic level; for example, the worldview shift in the United States toward New Age and Eastern mystic thought. Roughly half of the country believes in extrasensory perception, a quarter in ghosts, a quarter in astrology, and ten percent in channeling.63
The Bible provides essential insights for our warfare in this age. The battle is a spiritual one, and God is sovereign; the devil’s time is limited and continues only by God’s permission. The angel greeted Daniel, a man of prayer, as highly esteemed before God, then went on to recount how the kings who seemed to move the nations were merely pawns in the larger plan of God for history. The future belongs to God!
Witnessing and suffering in our day. Many Christians in the United States are afraid that their witness may offend someone, but this passage emphasizes that our witness for Jesus is worth even our lives (12:11). As noted above, when I preach on this passage, I sometimes use 12:11 as a prism to refract themes that run through Revelation. After dealing with the immediate context, I deal with overcoming (especially in the letters to the seven churches) and with suffering for our testimony as the Lamb did (5:6; 6:9–11). In many parts of the world, in fact, believers have been laying down their lives; and, given the truth of Christ’s message, that is a cost well worth paying. As F. F. Bruce notes on this passage:
Their only means of resisting the enemy’s attack … is patient endurance and faithful confession. This may mean suffering and death; but it was precisely by suffering and death that their Leader had conquered. It is to Jesus, not to Caesar, that world dominion belongs; it is Jesus, not Caesar, who is Lord of history, and those who confess him faithfully before Caesar and Caesar’s representatives participate in his victory and kingly power.64
Experts estimate tens of thousands (some estimate hundreds of thousands) of martyrs for Christ annually around the world. Thus, individual examples of suffering for Christ can easily be multiplied. For instance, the Cuban government imprisoned Noble Alexander, an Adventist youth pastor, for twenty-two years. For refusing to renounce Christ,
he suffered food poisoning for eating maggot-ridden gruel. He lost consciousness being dunked in an icy lake while bound. He passed out three times from the pain of being whipped with electrical cables. He sustained gunshot wounds in his hand, leg, and thigh.
He spent ninety days “inside a coffinlike box where he could barely move” for having a Bible; for refusing to work on the Sabbath he was “dunked into a cesspool of rotting debris and putrid excrement for three hours.” His hardest suffering was that his Christian wife divorced him while he was in prison; this brought him so much despair that he did not remarry until twenty-eight years later. “No one can be truly certain of his faith and endurance until he is forced to test them,” Alexander warns.65
One encouragement in any of our testings is that Satan’s time is limited (12:12); we must endure for only a limited duration of time. I know a celibate, single thirty-nine-year-old who would like to be married but happily reasons that if it does not happen, he has less than half his life left to wait. If we have already endured some tests successfully, we know from experience that God can give us the strength to finish the race. Further, the devil can no longer accuse us before God (12:10), so the most important issue is settled. We also know that the remnant of the church will triumph in the end (15:2; 21:7). If the eagle’s wings allude to Exodus 19, they indicate God’s intimate care for us.
The book of Revelation helps us by preparing us for hardship. Billy Graham notes that his wife grew up in a missionary family in China and saw “how God prepared His church there during times of trouble to withstand the even greater troubled times ahead.” He notes that the hardships actually have strengthened the church and that God’s warnings provide help.66 By portraying the time between Jesus’ comings as a Great Tribulation, like the one Daniel spoke about, Revelation reminds us that Jesus’ followers share his cross; hence, it warns us to prepare. Suffering belongs to us in this world, but our Lord Jesus is victorious anyway (John 16:33).