A great sign was seen, and it was seen in Heaven. God’s Temple had opened up in Heaven and the ‘Ark of His Covenant’ had become visible. For the remnant of Israel, this is the assurance of total victory.
What is the image, the ‘sign’ of the woman in Heaven with the sun and stars and ready to give birth supposed to make clear? Who does she represent? Israel? The nation Israel, which has always been pregnant and was called to bring forth, to give birth to the Messiah?
What does the celestial ‘sign’ in Heaven of the pregnant ‘woman’ who is to deliver a baby-boy, a son point to? The chosen people of Israel who in the end brought forth the Christ?
Just as the ‘sign of the woman’ cannot be nailed down to a particular moment in the history of redemption, that of the ‘dragon’ cannot be either. The ‘woman’ is Eve, Mary, the Church, Israel, Jerusalem that is above, the mother of us all.
We have been able to see how the ‘signs’ of the ‘woman’ and the ‘dragon’ show us the spiritual background of the things that are happening on earth. The background for the chaos and tribulation on earth…
In the Book of Revelation, the adversary, Satan, is revealed and becomes more visible. He grows ever more violent in his opposition, because the end of his power approaches as the revelation of Jesus Christ increases.
‘A viper will come forth from the root of the serpent and its fruit will be a flying dragon’, so Isaiah says. The dragon (always) stands in front of the ‘woman and her child (children), to devour them, for she has also ‘the rest of her offspring’.
What a tremendous moment! The climax has come! The devil and his angels are finally thrown out of Heaven – once and for all. The devil has not been able to achieve anything.
The word ‘devil’ comes from ‘diabolos‘, which stands for scrambler or blasphemer, divider. (This means literally throwing everything in a mess, in a jumble). The devil, the ‘dragon’, the old serpent, Satan (adversary) and his angels are cast down to earth.
First of all the devil sowed doubt about the Word of God, and so Eve let go of that Word slightly. The devil then pressed on further. ‘It is absolutely not true that you will die, on the contrary!
The devil has to bite the dust time and again in the history of Creation. John has seen that divine principle in the Heavenly ‘sign’. Perhaps Satan did already bite the dust between Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2 when he was cast out of Heaven onto the earth…
The victory over the powers of darkness can nevertheless mean your physical death. “I tell you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.
