(Daniel 8:9-10; Revelation 12:1-5)
In Revelation 12, we meet a woman and a red dragon. This dragon was the little horn that cast the stars to the ground1Dan 8:10 in Daniel 8. John said the tail of the dragon swept away a third of the stars,2Rev 12:4 a third of the angels. This dragon was Satan who worked through the power of Rome to persecute the woman.
The woman was clothed with the sun, had the moon under her feet, and was surrounded by twelve stars.3Rev 12:1 In Chapter 21, she represents New Jerusalem, surrounded by twelve angels, twelve stars. In her, the light of God and Christ replace the light of the sun and the moon.4Rev 21:23 Here, we understand that the sun represents God, and the moon represents Christ for Christ reflects the glory of God.
The woman, New Jerusalem, represents the saints “who dwell in heaven.”5Rev 12:6 Those who worship the beast, the false Christ, are called “those who dwell on the Earth”6Rev 11:10; 13:14; 17:2 throughout the Book of Revelation.
The woman was in labor and in pain, about to give birth to her first child.7Rev 12:2 Jesus described this pain before He went to the cross, saying, “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.”8John 16:21
New Jerusalem’s first Child was Christ. He became the first Son of God when He became the firstborn from the dead.9Rev 1:5; 12:5; Acts 13:33; Rom 1:4
The red dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she had given birth, he could devour her first child.10Rev 12:4 Satan used the power of Rome to crucify Christ.
But the Child ascended to God and His throne as soon as He was born.11Rev 12:5 So, Paul said that He was “declared the Son of God … by the resurrection from the dead,”12Rom 1:4 —“[God] raised up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten you.’”13Act 13:33
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