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? The faithful part of mankind, including the line of Seth before the Flood and Israel, from Eve to Mary? Is this woman Mary herself, the mother of Jesus? Or does it refer to all the mothers of the previous generations in Israel, including women such as Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba, because God’s grace is all-powerful and stretches out beyond Israel as well?2 Or is it the Lord Himself? Will the Lord Himself not cry out like a woman in childbirth, Isaiah says?3 This passage refers to the Messianic promise and the wrath of God—a reference to and prophetically pointing towards the final struggle in the Book of Revelation. The woman brings forth a ‘Son’ who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.4 This is said of Christ,5 but it is also promised to the Church.6 It is also said about the woman, that there is ‘the rest of her offspring’.7 Does this therefore refer to the Church—the visible Church of all the ages—and is the child the invisible, true Church that is snatched up to God and His throne,8 so that the true Church is there while the apostate, outward church institution remains as an empty shell, as the false church? Why, in that case, would that false church on the run be protected by God?9 And is ‘the rest of her offspring’ Israel in that case? The faithful remnant? But can Israel belong to the seed of the Church? The Church brought not forth Israel, but Israel brought forth the Christ and He brought forth by the Holy Spirit His Church, consisting of Jews and Gentiles. So, who is the woman? These and many other possibilities have been suggested by theologians over the centuries. Who is the ‘woman’? What does she represent? What spiritual principle is given in this ‘sign’ in Heaven?
All these questions and problems are solved once and for all if we think of Galatians 4:26 NIV, where Paul says: “But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” KJV: “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” The Heavenly Jerusalem! That is the celestial paradigm, the ‘sign’ of the pregnant woman. She is timeless. She is of all time. She is the ‘sign’ of God’s history of salvation, from Eve until the very end of God’s plan salvation. She is a sign. She is the spiritual principle of what God brings forth into this world. She is the mother of us all. She is the Lord who cries out like a woman giving birth and who brings forth the God-fearing generation on earth—the men and women of old, Abraham and Israel, Mary and the Lord Jesus, the true Church, the remnant from Israel that is saved and finally ‘all Israel’ as well. The Heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all—in which the Holy Spirit plays such an important role. The Holy Spirit is present in the world, creating and re-creating. Doing God’s ‘birthing’ into this world from the Heavenly Jerusalem. God’s history of salvation on earth is brought forth by this (re) creating and life-giving force. The Heavenly Jerusalem: the mother of us all. The woman, as a ‘sign-in-Heaven’, a divine principle, the Heavenly Jerusalem above that is free and that is the mother of us all.
The problem of ‘who is this ’woman’, who does she represent’ is only solved by recognising that the pregnant woman in Heaven is a great sign, in which the whole of the salvation-history motherhood of the Messiah is embodied. This sign points to God’s work of salvation throughout the ages, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all. This contrasts with the other ‘sign’ that soon will become visible in Heaven: the dragon trying to devour everything that the woman is birthing. It shows the principle of the powers of darkness who desire to destroy everything this woman brings forth on earth, because the devil and his angels hate everything that comes from God. The ‘seed’ sanctified by God will inherit the blessed earthen realm however, says Psalm 25:6 in the Old Dutch Psalter.
Psalm 25 NASB verse 12-14 “Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct Him in the way He should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity, And His descendants will inherit the land/earth. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His Covenant.” The true seed of Abraham is Christ. The seed of woman promised to Eve is Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the Promise.10 This is what really counts for all of us! Are you part of the spiritual seed of Abraham?
• When the Heavenly Jerusalem is shown in the Book of Revelation, she is called the Bride, the Lamb’s betrothed and she has the names of the Twelve tribes of Israel and the names of the Twelve Apostles (who were Jewish, by the way, as well) on her gates and foundation stones! She will radiate the Glory of God. “I did not see a Temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.”11
Bible References:
1.NIV 2.Matthew 1:2, 5–6, see Genesis 38:27–30; Joshua 2:1, 6:25; Ruth 4:13– 17; 2 Samuel 11:3, 12:24 3.Isaiah 42:13–17 4.Revelation 12:5 5.Psalm 2:9 6.Revelation 2:27 7.Revelation 12:17 8.Revelation 12:5 9.Revelation 12:6 10.Galatians 3:16, 29 11.Revelation 21:9–14, 22
