The Battle

Introduction

We're going to get a bit cultured this morning! Here are some paintings by Claude Monet of Rouen Cathedral. He painted them one by one, one after another for years in the 1890s. What we have here is one building from many perspectives—many pictures painting one place. Each with its own nuances and differences, but almost unmistakably the same.

In the book of Revelation, we have almost the same thing. Many pictures, but one story, told over and over. The story ends and then starts again at the beginning from another angle. Revelation really is like the roads around Otley. How is it like the roads around Otley? It has many cycles! And Revelation 12 begins a new one.

The story ended in Revelation 11 with the final trumpet sounded, the dead judged, and the kingdom of the world becoming the kingdom of Christ. And now, having ended for the second time in Revelation—the first time after the seven seals, now after the seven trumpets—we have the beginning of a new section of seven signs, which will take us up to chapter 14.

But this morning, we're just looking at chapter 12, and it really does take us back to the beginning of the Gospel. We could almost do this for Christmas—don't worry, we won't! But the goal is the same as the rest of the book: to encourage and challenge the church to keep going through tough times and to trust in God. So let's look at the first part of our vision. I'll warn you: this one, whilst easier to understand, is particularly weird!

First: A Dragon Tries and Fails to Eat a Baby (Verses 1–6)

The first part of the vision introduces the characters. Firstly, we have a pregnant woman dressed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars around her head. John doesn't tell us directly who this is, but there are some clues.

The description John gives us has its roots, you guessed it, in the Old Testament. In Genesis 37, Joseph dreams: 'Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.' When he tells it to his father and brothers, his father rebukes him, asking if he, his mother, and his brothers will bow to the ground before Joseph. His brothers are jealous, but his father keeps the saying in mind.

The woman also gives birth to a male child who, in verse 5, was born to rule the nations with a rod of iron. That is the Christ from Psalm 2. In other words, the baby born is none other than Jesus Christ!

But who is the woman? This is not Mary. That would be to ignore the Old Testament allusion, though that's why Mary in Catholicism is often depicted with twelve stars around her head. This is the people of God more generally. Why a woman? Well, she has to give birth, so that's one reason. But also because we're going to get into some Genesis imagery in the next few verses. With that lens, this woman is also a bit like Eve.

Why is that significant? Because Eve was promised one of her offspring would crush the serpent's head. Genesis 3:15 tells us: 'I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.' The devil would be awaiting the day when the offspring of the woman would rise to crush him. And the devil is the next character we meet in verses 3 and 4.

We know this is the devil because John tells us later, in verse 9. So how is he described here? Like a dragon, a serpent. A serpent with seven heads. Heads stand for wisdom or cunning here, and this serpent really is more cunning than the other animals of the garden! It has ten horns. Horns stand for strength and might, as we saw in chapter 5. Jesus was pictured there with seven horns—almighty, all powerful. The devil here has ten horns, meaning a lot. He has a lot of strength, a lot of power. But he is not almighty like Jesus is.

It also has seven diadems or crowns. The other crowns we've met so far have been different. The word for the crowns we've met so far is 'stephanos', meaning a victor's crown—a crown won by hard endurance. This word here is 'diadema', which we've just carried into English as an ornate crown. It's the crown of pomp, the crown of all the trappings of earthly rule. The devil's crown is not a victor's crown; it's all for show. And the devil has seven of them. He epitomises show rule—he likes to look in charge when really he holds no true right to rule.

He also casts down a third of the stars. This is probably a reference to fallen angels, mentioned later. Stars in Revelation usually represent angels, as we see in Revelation 1:20, where 'the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.' A third in Revelation is a significant chunk but not all. So Satan has a following and minions at his command.

What follows then is the Devil versus Christ and his people. The devil wants to devour the baby as he's born. Right from birth, the Lord Jesus was under attack. Let's not forget that Jesus spent his early life in Egypt, on the run from King Herod, who murdered all the baby boys of Bethlehem just to try and get him. The devil was after him from day one.

But the dragon doesn't get the baby. The child is pictured here being born and going straight up to heaven. The child is snatched from the dragon's jaws and brought to God's throne. Here we have an incredibly abridged account of Jesus' earthly life. It starts with his birth and ends with his ascension. And the devil is left unable to harm him.

But what about the woman? She flees into the wilderness to a place prepared by God and is nourished for 1,260 days. That's the same period of time we saw last week, which we defined as the period from Jesus' first coming to his second coming—the church age, the time we live in now. The people of God remain, nourished by God, until Jesus returns. There's more to this story, but we'll come back to it in point three.

This is meant as an encouragement for the church, an encouragement for us believers. The most powerful evil force in the universe took on the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus was not vanquished. The devil's plan was thwarted, and the child was taken up to heaven to rule. Our Lord is so much greater. And he provided protection for his people.

So if this vision were translated into the language of the rest of the New Testament, it would say this: the devil tried and failed to destroy Jesus. He tried, but he failed. The devil was no match for our Lord Jesus! But wasn't the offspring of the woman not just to escape the serpent's clutches, so to speak, but to crush his head? The devil was supposed to be defeated, not just dodged. And so our second point, the next part of the vision, addresses this.

Second: The Dragon Is Cast Down (Verses 7–11)

The scene changes and we now see what is going on in the heavens. Michael and his angels are fighting the dragon and his angels. Jehovah's Witnesses say that the angel Michael is Jesus. But as we've said numerous times before: Jesus is no angel. He is, as Hebrews 1:4 tells us, 'as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.'

Michael is one of only three named angels in the Bible. The other two are Gabriel and Lucifer (the devil). Michael appears in the book of Daniel and the book of Jude. In Daniel 10, he is an angelic prince who aids another angel to deliver his message by fighting against oppressive forces. In Daniel 12, we are told: 'At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.' Seemingly here, he is associated with the deliverance of God's people, especially when trouble and tribulation are in mind.

We saw last time that all this takes place during the 42-month, 1,260-day, three-and-a-half-year period—the angel speaks to Daniel about this later in the chapter. In Jude 9, we are told that Michael 'contended with the devil over the body of Moses.' He is, then, a fighting angel, one who takes on the devil and his forces. We could not say the same of Gabriel, for example, who exclusively delivers important messages. The angel Michael is no messenger boy; he's a warrior. When we look at it that way, it's not so strange that he's the one leading the fight here.

And Michael and his angels win! There's a hymn of praise in verses 9 and 10. The devil and his minions are defeated and are cast out of heaven down to earth. What is fascinating, though, is how that victory is described in verse 11. The victory has been won by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Their being 'the brothers' mentioned in verse 10. The victory is in heaven, but there's some way that this victory was accomplished on earth. It seems here that the brothers—believers—were fighting too. And they overcome by the blood of Jesus and their testimony to him, even to death.

The devil is cast down by Jesus' blood and believers' faithful testimony. It sounds strange, but it's what we read elsewhere in the New Testament. In Luke 10, Jesus sends out his disciples to go and preach and heal in the villages and towns up and down Israel. When they return, this is what he says: 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.'

The thing that makes this tricky is locating this in time. It can't be the beginning of time because the victory is by Jesus' blood and their testimony, which puts it after Jesus' death. But it can't be the very end because the devil remains active afterwards. Isaiah 14:12–14 and Ezekiel 28:12–18 speak of Satan's fall in the past tense, looking back to the time of creation and the events surrounding the garden of Eden.

But that's what Revelation does, isn't it? It takes Old Testament images to tell New Testament truths. What better image of Satan's defeat than his casting out of heaven? And as people trust in Jesus' blood, his sacrifice on the cross, as they apply it to their lives, as they faithfully speak for Jesus, even if it costs them their lives, it's as if the devil is being cast out of heaven all over again. It's like a repeat of his fall from grace.

That's why Jesus can speak of it like that to his disciples after they come back from their preaching and healing mission. That's why Paul can write to the Corinthians that 'the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.' Christ vanquished Satan on the cross. He disarmed him and triumphed over him on the cross, as Paul tells us in Colossians 2. And we now apply that in our lives. Victory is possible because the devil is a defeated foe.

And again, that's an encouragement for believers. Not only has Christ evaded the devil's attacks—he has decisively beaten him. The devil lives on, but he knows his days are numbered. That makes him a vanquished foe, but still a dangerous one, as we'll see in a moment. But to put this simply: the devil is defeated.

Third: The Dragon Still Rages Against the Woman and Her Children (Verses 12–17)

The devil is enraged by his defeat, and in a hurry because he knows his days are numbered. He's lost; he knows he's lost, but he's going to cause as much pain and mayhem before he goes. Having failed to defeat the child, he now goes after the mother. But she is given eagles' wings to fly away to the relative safety of the wilderness. She is to stay there for a time, times, and half a time—three and a half years, 42 months.

So the devil tries another tack. He opens his mouth and spews forth a flood to destroy her. But the ground opens its mouth and swallows the flood. Exactly what this river of water is remains somewhat up for grabs. Some see it as lies and accusations against believers. The river comes from the dragon's mouth, and his deceit and accusations are mentioned in verses 9 and 11. Others see it as a river of blood—the killing of believers. They look back to Abel's blood in Genesis 4, where the ground is said to have opened its mouth to receive his brother's blood.

Both are true, of course, but the first one, I think, is more likely. Let's face it: in Revelation, if you wanted to depict a river of blood, you could! It's more likely the accusations and lies against the church. In the first century, there were all sorts of lies circulating about Christians. They were atheists. They were cannibals. They were sexually immoral—marrying people they called brothers and sisters. And lies still circulate today. We're bigots. We're hateful. We're intellectually stunted. In some countries, we're blasphemers. The devil uses them to discourage Christians who face those lies, whether spoken or just implied, with sighs and rolling eyes.

But there are other ways the devil uses lies within the church. He introduces false teaching into the church. Part of the flood, no doubt, is the onslaught of false teaching down through the ages—the destructive heresies brought in secretly, spoken about in 2 Peter. In many parts of the world, it's easier to hear the message of cults and sects than to hear the Gospel. We've had 2,000 years of breakaway groups and false teaching, and it can feel like a flood. The devil uses this counterfeit Christianity to draw away believers and trap unbelievers.

The devil also uses lies to split believers, creating division where there need not be—where it's not over the truth of the Gospel but over rumours and gossip. How many families of churches have come apart because of deceit and deliberate misconstruing of others to demonise them? The devil sends his flood!

But the woman is saved. The church ultimately is safe. The earth opens up its mouth and swallows the river of lies. The church stands firm against the flood. There have been times when the church globally has almost looked as if it would be swept away—nearly overcome by heresies, nearly decimated by splits and schisms, nearly destroyed by scandals. But Jesus' encouraging message here to John is that all these attacks are ultimately doomed to fail. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

And that's an encouragement, isn't it? We are involved in building something that will last. The church will never be a relic of a bygone age. The church will never be a footnote in a history book. God is at work, protecting the church and nourishing it. He has been at it for nearly 2,000 years! The devil cannot defeat the church. Jesus himself said: 'I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' The devil cannot win against the church.

So, that's it, then? The devil gives up? Not quite, no! In fact, quite the opposite. He goes after the woman's children. We're told who they are: those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus—individual believers. The woman really is the church viewed as a whole. He can't defeat that, any more than he could defeat Christ. So, he goes after individual believers. We'll find out more about how he does that next week. He has two pets that do his bidding—one from the land and one from the sea—which is why he stands on the shore here.

But from what we've seen so far, we already know some of his strategy. It hasn't changed in the long ages since time began: deceit and accusation. He whispers lies in believers' ears. He reminds us of our sin and tries to convince us that it cannot be forgiven. He tries to make us think that it's just us who struggle with sin. He can't ultimately beat the woman, but he can try and harm her children. And try he does, because he knows his time is short.

Conclusion

To put it simply: the devil still rages against the church and believers. But whilst he still rages, everything else we've seen should give us confidence in the face of the enemy. He didn't defeat our Lord Jesus. He himself has been defeated. And ultimately, we cannot be defeated.

Martin Luther composed a hymn—not for Rouen Cathedral, but for the cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany. The hymn he wrote was 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.' He wrote about the devil in the third verse. Literally, he says: 'The prince of this world, how enraged he is—it doesn't matter. He's finished, he's judged. A little word can cut him down.' We can stand against the devil. We can stand against his schemes and attacks. Why? Because evil has been defeated on the cross. The devil is done for. The serpent is cast down and soon will be crushed.

We need only keep going and keep going until that day, nourished and protected by God. Let's pray that God would give us the strength to do that.