I remember hearing this passage read in church when I was small, and I didn't really know what was going on. How can a woman appear in the sky, up with the sun, moon and stars? Why was a dragon in the sky? And the dragon wants to devour the child that's about to be born? It's a pretty weird story for a 5-year old.
Looking at it now, I see that the woman and dragon are both referred to as signs that appear in heaven, presumably meaning the sky. This is not a completely literal story, which makes me feel a little better. So who is the woman? The child about to be born is fairly clearly Jesus, so is Mary the woman? She gave birth to Him, after all. Could it be that the woman is actually the nation of Israel, since that nation birthed Jesus?
Once the child is born and rescued from the dragon (Satan), the rest of the chapter describes a war that is waged between God's angels, and the Satan/demonic/evil angel team. It's a classic "good guys/bad guys" story, but one with the greatest level of significance.
So what can we learn from this chapter? A couple ideas that stood out to me:
- Satan is an "accuser" (v. 10)
- he is defeated by those who had the courage to "not love their lives so much as to shrink from death", so selflessness is an attribute to pursue (v. 11)
- Satan is relentless, continuing to pursue the woman who had given birth to the Savior, even after he is hurled to the earth. He also pursues the rest of the woman's offspring (other Christians), once the "woman" is protected from him (v. 13, 17)
- Provision is made by God for those who are engaged in this battle/war, in that the woman had a place "prepared for her" (v. 14)
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