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. She is birthing God’s gracious works into the world. She is the mother of the true Israel in the Old Testament and of the people of the Messiah in the New Testament, of the believers of all the ages. She is truly free. She is presented as ‘grace’ in contrast to the ‘Law’, to slavery. To be trying by the power of the ‘flesh’ to fulfil the requirements of the Law with all its 613 applications and its rabbinical teachings. You have been saved by ‘grace’, says Paul in Ephesians 2:5. Are you now returning to the works of the Law, he asks some Judaizing-Christians in Galatians 2:16. ‘Who has bewitched you?’ he asks in 3:1.’Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?’ verse 3. Paul concludes that the present earthly Jerusalem falls under it. On the one hand Hagar, Ishmael, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem-today and on the other hand, Sarah, Isaac, freedom through the completed work of Christ, the Heavenly Jerusalem.1 But now in this verse in the Book of Revelation John is allowed to see a contrast: the ‘sign’ of the dragon, over and against the ‘sign’ of the woman. Another age-old principle. A ‘sign’, again, transcends time. It transcends history, and we need to quietly meditate and contemplate about it, in order to let it get through to us. Then you will be seeing and understanding more and more of it. Now that the seventh trumpet has sounded and the Kingship of the Lord and His Anointed One has been proclaimed the great and final clash begins straight away.2 The ‘dragon’ is a monster—a many-headed monster, red from blood, from tearing, from devouring. He opposes God and man; he is the one “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God displaying himself as being God.”3 This is the climax of his anti-divine power that is against the Lord and His Anointed and His believers. He is the old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, and who leads the whole world astray.4
John will shortly be allowed to see more about those ten horns and seven heads with their seven crowns. According to the Old Dutch translation, the verse reads ‘hats’; in the AV and NIV, ‘crowns’ and ‘diadems’ in the NASB.5 Everything becomes openly visible and public when Jesus is unveiled, is being revealed, including the hidden character and nature of the powers of darkness. This ‘sign in Heaven’, which transcends time and history, is first of all seen in Heaven. The effect of it on earth will be shown later. So before the seed of the ‘woman’ is described on earth and before the works of the ‘dragon’ are revealed on earth. There is a counterpart in Heaven, in the invisible world that explains what will be soon be translated as events happening on earth. Even the ‘Child’ is first seen in Heaven as well!6 The scene only shifts to the earth in chapter 12:13. The whole history of the world is the struggle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. That is why the children of God have trouble in the world.7 Towards the end of the end-times there will be ‘great tribulation’, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equalled again.8 John has already seen some of this on earth in his days. It begins in Heaven, however. That is where the spiritual background is. That is where Christ’s Kingship is proclaimed. That is where the ‘sign of the woman’, the ‘sign’ of the dragon and the ‘sign of the Child’ is seen. What happens there is decisive for what happens here. The principles are shown there first, before the sequel on earth is shown. The origins lay back in time, in the days of eternity.9
• Another example is to be found in Isaiah 66:6–24. The voice goes out from the Temple. Zion is giving birth. Peace is coming, but so is the destruction of the enemies in fire.
• Just like the New Heaven and the New Earth will continue to exist, so will the Heavenly Jerusalem’s children continue to exist forever. But those who are cast into the eternal fire as well…
• The ‘dragon’, as a reference to the powers of darkness, appears as Leviathan, Rahab, Behemoth in the Old Testament,10 and as a sea monster,11 and as a serpent.12 Although some of these descriptions could also be explained as fearsome animals like dinosaurs or other huge creatures of the sea.13
Bible References:
1.Galatians 4:31–31 2.Revelation 11:15 3.2 Thessalonians 2:4 4.Revelation 12:9 5.Revelation 13 6.Revelation 12:5 7.John 16:33 8.Matthew 24:21 9.Micah 5:1; Psalm 90:1–2 10.Psalm 74:13–14, 89:11; Isaiah 27:1, 51:9 11.Ezekiel 32:1–6 12.Amos 9:3 13.Job 40:10–19 (behemoth), 40:20–41:25 (leviathan)
