by Doug Newell

Revelation 12 paints the picture of the epic story of redemption.

The story begins with a woman, clothed with the sun, standing above the moon wearing a crown of 12 stars.  She is nine months pregnant and has gone into labor. In this vulnerable position we see slithering toward her, a red, seven-headed dragon. This wicked beast is on the prowl, hunting her child. With a hideous grin, smiling through his vicious fangs, he waits to destroy her child. However, we read that the son is born, ascends to Heaven and the women escapes. The dragon missed his shot.

The woman is the nation of Israel. The son, is the child of Isaiah 7-9; Immanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ. As God’s people looked and longed for the Messiah to come, so had the dragon; also known as Satan.

About 4,000 years’ prior, the dragon rebelled against the Lord God and fell from Heaven like lighting. On Earth, God had created Adam and Eve and placed them in a perfect paradise. Enter the dragon, who spins a deceptive lie about God. They foolishly chose to listen to him, and rebelled against their creator and plummeted humanity into corruption. The dragon had won, despoiled paradise and usurped the role as ruler of the world. In the midst of this sad tale of destruction, God made a promise to Eve. Through the seed of a woman, a child would be born who would grow up and crush the head of the serpent. The dragon’s day is coming. For generations, in a preemptive strike, the dragon tried and failed to destroy the woman before the son was born, but he had failed. So when this promised  child was born, the dragon circled the woman ready to destroy the Son who came to destroy him.

Christ Jesus was born and lived and Satan did his level best to destroy the Son. The Son was hanging on a cross outside of Jerusalem, and the dragon seemed to have prevailed. The Son was dead and laid in a tomb. But as God said in the garden, the crushing of the serpent’s head would bruise the Son’s heel. The defeat of the dragon came by the death of the Son, but the Son did not stay in the tomb.  He conquered the dragon, thwarted his plan. Jesus rose from the dead, leading captivity captive and ascended to heaven giving gifts unto men.

Even though the dragon was defeated, he is still at large. Since he missed his opportunity to defeat the Son, he turns his anger to defeat the kingdom of the Son. He turned to finally devour the woman, but she is gone, hidden in the wilderness. He turns his wrathful eye upon the Son’s Bride. Since that time, the dragon has been at war with her. The dragon came and murdered king Adam and his bride, and stole the kingdom. Our champion, the Lord and King Jesus, will come again, finally slay the dragon and rescue His bride.