A Study of Revelation 12

Part of the

Series

Presented on May 31, 2015

at Calvary Bible Church East

in Kalamazoo, Michigan

by

Calvary Bible Church East

5495 East Main St

Kalamazoo, MI 49048

CalvaryEast.com

Copyright © 2015 by Bryan Craddock

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the

ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),

copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good

News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved

— 1 —

There was a time in history when warfare was

relatively simple and straightforward. The enemy

lined up on the opposite side of a field wearing a

different colored uniform. Modern combat situations

are not so simple. Battles often take place in crowded

cities where terrorists blend into the general

population. Soldiers can easily find themselves

targeting the wrong person.

Christians face a similar problem. We blame

temptation and opposition on the culture, the media,

a political party, some group, or individual. We go on

— 2 —

the attack thinking that we are defending a righteous

cause, but we end up fighting the wrong battles

against the wrong enemies in wrong ways for wrong

reasons. We forget what Paul said in Ephesians 6:12,

For we do not wrestle against flesh and

blood, but against the rulers, against the

authorities, against the cosmic powers over

this present darkness, against the spiritual

forces of evil in the heavenly places.

The reality of spiritual warfare is developed more

fully in the book of Revelation. The Christians to

whom the book was originally written, were facing

powerful temptations and intense opposition. They

needed a knowledge of the future so that they would

understand the true nature of their battles and have

strength to persevere. The book describes the end

times events leading up to the return of Christ and the

establishment of his kingdom, but in chapter 12 John

is given a vision that reveals our true enemy. In this

chapter he is called the great red dragon, the ancient

serpent, the devil, or Satan.

John’s vision in Revelation 12 tells the story of

three strategies of the devil and how they are each

— 3 —

overcome. The pivotal verse in the chapter is verse 11.

A voice from heaven says,

And they have conquered him by the blood

of the Lamb and by the word of their

testimony, for they loved not their lives even

unto death.

As we walk through the chapter we will see how God

responds to each strategy and we will also come back

to verse 11 to see how we should respond.

— 4 —

Strategy 1: Derail God’s Plan ....................................... 5

God’s Response: The Ascension of Christ ................................ 9

Our Response: Proclaim Christ’s Kingdom ............................ 10

Strategy 2: Exhaust God’s Grace ............................... 12

God’s Response: Satan’s Expulsion ........................................ 13

Our Response: Trust Christ’s Blood ........................................ 15

Strategy 3: Attack God’s People ................................. 16

God’s Response: Wilderness Protection ................................. 18

Our Response: Follow Christ’s Example ............................... 20

Conclusion .................................................................. 22

Questions for Further Reflection ............................... 23

— 5 —

For as many trains as there are operating in the

United States, derailments are rare. Trains are

massive, and it’s not easy to get them off track. The

same can be said of God’s kingdom plan. God is

unstoppable, yet the devil still attempts to throw him

off track. Revelation 12:1-6 tells us,

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a

woman clothed with the sun, with the moon

under her feet, and on her head a crown of

twelve stars. She was pregnant and was

crying out in birth pains and the agony of

— 6 —

giving birth. And another sign appeared in

heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with

seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads

seven diadems. His tail swept down a third

of the stars of heaven and cast them to the

earth. And the dragon stood before the

woman who was about to give birth, so that

when she bore her child he might devour it.

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to

rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but

her child was caught up to God and to his

throne, and the woman fled into the

wilderness, where she has a place prepared

by God, in which she is to be nourished for

1,260 days.

John clearly states that the woman in his vision is

not an actual person, but a sign, a symbol. The way he

describes her connects with other women in biblical

history. First, there is a connection with Eve. Verse 2

emphasizes her pain in giving birth, and that pain was

part of God’s curse pronounced upon Eve and all

women for Eve’s disobedience.

The connection with Eve is even more pronounced

in the description of the dragon and his enmity

toward the child in verse 4. God mentioned this

— 7 —

enmity when he spoke to the serpent in Genesis 3:15.

He said,

I will put enmity between you and the

woman, and between your offspring and her

offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you

shall bruise his heel.

As Revelation 12:5 says, this child will be the one

to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, an expression

used in Psalm 2. From the very beginning the serpent

has known that at some point the child would be born

who would end up defeating him. Ever since that time

he has been watching and waiting for the chance to

devour him.

John’s description of the woman also ties back to a

dream that Joseph, the son of Jacob, had relating to

his mother, Rachel. Genesis 37:9 says,

Then he dreamed another dream and told it

to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have

dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun,

the moon, and eleven stars were bowing

down to me.”

Jacob, or Israel as he was also known, immediately

recognized the meaning of the dream. Genesis 37:10

says,

— 8 —

But when he told it to his father and to his brothers,

his father rebuked him and said to him,

What is this dream that you have dreamed?

Shall I and your mother and your brothers

indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground

before you?

The sun, moon, and stars in Joseph’s dream

represented his entire family from which the nation of

Israel developed. These three elements are all

incorporated into a single woman in John’s vision to

show that the promised son of Genesis 3:15 was going

to be an Israelite.

The dragon has attacked Israel repeatedly

throughout history in his efforts to derail or squelch

God’s plan. The seven crowned heads and ten horns

that John describes in Revelation 12:3 suggest that

Satan has worked and will continue to work through

the mighty nations and world empires of history. The

stars that he swept down from heaven are angels who

followed him in his rebellion against God and who

now work to carry out his plan on earth.

The dragon was the one who prompted the

Egyptian Pharaoh in Exodus 1 to order the execution

— 9 —

of all the Hebrew baby boys. He was the one who

prompted Balaam to have Moabite women seduce

Israelite men and draw them into idolatry in Numbers

25 in order to corrupt the Messianic line. Later on,

when God specified that the promised son would be a

descendant of David, the dragon brought a slew of

trials and temptations upon David’s family to derail

the fulfillment of God’s promise. He attacked again

through Haman, seeking to wipe out all of the Jewish

people as recorded in the book of Esther. The dragon

was the one behind Herod’s execution of all the baby

boys in Bethlehem soon after Jesus was born, and

ultimately he was the one who orchestrated the

crucifixion of Jesus.

God responded to Satan’s attacks on his plan with

the Ascension of Christ. Both Luke’s Gospel and the

book of Acts tell us that after Jesus rose from the

dead, he ascended into heaven. John refers to this

event in Revelation 12:5 when says, “Her child was

caught up to God and to his throne.” Jesus was taken

to a safe place away from the dragon’s reach. King

— 10 —

David prophesied this event almost 1,000 years before

the time of Jesus in Psalm 110:1, “The LORD says to

my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your

enemies your footstool.’” The victory of Jesus is

certain.

God’s plan will not be derailed. In God’s timing, he

will return to establish his kingdom and crush the

serpent. We’ll see more in a moment about how God

protects the woman, but for now we need to consider

how we respond to the devil as we wait for Christ’s

return.

We can respond to Satan’s attacks on God’s plan

by proclaiming Christ’s kingdom. Revelation 12:11

says that believers have conquered or overcome the

devil by the word of their testimony. When we are

silent, we give the impression that the devil has won.

But whenever we speak of our faith in God’s plan of

salvation through Jesus Christ and our hope of eternal

life in his kingdom, we remind the devil that he

cannot win. Whenever someone hears our testimony

and believes, the devil loses his control over that

— 11 —

person’s life and God’s kingdom plan continues to

advance. Are you proclaiming Christ’s kingdom?

— 12 —

At the beginning of the Iraq War military leaders

spoke of their “shock and awe” campaign. Using

equipment like the stealth fighter, they were able to

catch their enemy completely unaware and attack

with a huge show of destructive force. Their goal was

to so demoralize the enemy that they would lose the

will to fight and simply surrender.

The devil uses a similar strategy. The book of Job

tells how he came before God and accused Job of

having a false faith. He wanted to tempt Job by

afflicting him with all sorts of suffering, but he could

— 13 —

not do it without God’s permission. Though it is an

unachievable goal, his strategy was to exhaust God’s

grace by draw Job away from God.

He took the same approach with the Apostle Peter.

Luke 22:31 tells us that Jesus said, “Simon, Simon,

behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might

sift you like wheat.”

The devil continues this same strategy against

Christian believers today. In 1 Peter 5:8, Peter

warned, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adver-

sary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion,

seeking someone to devour.” Revelation 12 does not

elaborate on this strategy, but it does show God’s

ultimate response and how we can respond until then.

At some point in the future, God will stop the

devil’s exhausting strategy by cutting off his access to

heaven. In Revelation 12:7-12, John tells us

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his

angels fighting against the dragon. And the

dragon and his angels fought back, but he

was defeated, and there was no longer any

place for them in heaven. And the great

— 14 —

dragon was thrown down, that ancient

serpent, who is called the devil and Satan,

the deceiver of the whole world--he was

thrown down to the earth, and his angels

were thrown down with him. And I heard a

loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the

salvation and the power and the kingdom of

our God and the authority of his Christ have

come, for the accuser of our brothers has

been thrown down, who accuses them day

and night before our God. And they have

conquered him by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony, for they

loved not their lives even unto death.

Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who

dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and

sea, for the devil has come down to you in

great wrath, because he knows that his time

is short!"

The Bible gives us very limited insight into the

activity of angels, but here it becomes clear that they

are able to fight. Daniel 12:1 indicates that this

Michael is a leader among God’s angels who exercises

particular care over the Jewish people. The book of

Jude also says that he contended with the devil over

the body of Moses. Michael’s campaign against the

devil described here in Revelation 12 seems to be one

— 15 —

of the many steps in preparation for the return of

Christ and the establishment of his kingdom, but how

do we respond to the devil’s attacks until that point?

Verse 11 says, “They have conquered him by the

blood of the Lamb.” Thus far in Revelation, the most

common way of referring to Jesus is as the Lamb.

Under the Old Testament Jewish believers would offer

up animal sacrifices to atone for their sins, but when

Jesus died on the cross, he offered himself up as the

perfect, once for all sacrifice. Hebrews 9:14 says,

how much more will the blood of Christ,

who through the eternal Spirit offered

himself without blemish to God, purify our

conscience from dead works to serve the

living God.

When the devil brings temptation into our lives,

the blood of Christ is the answer. How can a believer

take that precious sacrifice for granted? When we do

fail and the devil accuses us of sin, the blood of Christ

is the answer. His blood cleanses us from all our sins

and makes us acceptable to God. Are you trusting in

Christ’s blood?

— 16 —

It was almost 14 years ago that terrorists hijacked

four commercial jets and crashed them—two into the

World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one

that fell short of its intended target. Terrorist attacks

like these that killed almost 3,000 people on

September 11, 2001, do not achieve a military

objective. They are senseless acts born out of

desperation.

The same could be said of the devil’s actions at the

end of Revelation 12. The Messiah had already been

born. Though he was killed, he rose from the dead and

— 17 —

ascended into heaven. His triumphant return will

already be in progress when the devil is thrown down

from heaven.

There will be nothing the devil can do to prevent

or weaken the kingdom of Christ, but in Revelation

12:13 John says, “And when the dragon saw that he

had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the

woman who had given birth to the male child.” Based

upon what we have already seen about this woman, it

makes sense to continue to understand her as a

symbol of Israel.

Even though many Jewish people since the time of

Christ have rejected their Messiah, the fact remains

that God chose Israel to be the vehicle for fulfilling his

kingdom promises. As we saw in our study of

Revelation 11, many of the people in and around

Jerusalem will have a change of heart and will give

glory to God after seeing the two witnesses rise from

the dead and ascend into heaven. At some point in

this series of events, God draws them to himself.

— 18 —

God’s response to Satan’s pursuit is to provide

protection for his people in the wilderness. In

Revelation 12:14-16 John says,

But the woman was given the two wings of

the great eagle so that she might fly from the

serpent into the wilderness, to the place

where she is to be nourished for a time, and

times, and half a time. The serpent poured

water like a river out of his mouth after the

woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But

the earth came to the help of the woman,

and the earth opened its mouth and

swallowed the river that the dragon had

poured from his mouth.

The Bible is full of examples of God miraculously

protecting his people, providing for them, and

working in their hearts in the wilderness. Moses spent

forty years in the wilderness as God prepared him to

lead the Israelites. After the exodus the entire nation

spent another forty years in the wilderness as God

prepared to lead them into the land he had promised

them. David spent time in the wilderness when he fled

from King Saul, and Elijah fled there when he was

pursued by Ahab and Jezebel.

— 19 —

It’s not clear exactly what these eagle wings

represent. The river from the mouth of the dragon

may be a literal flood. The mention of 1,260 days in

verse 6 and a time, times, and half a time in verse 14

both equate to 3 and a half years, placing these events

in the second half of Daniel’s 70th week, also known as

the Tribulation period. It’s clear that as God

miraculously protects Israel from the devil’s attacks in

the wilderness, he prepares them to enter the true

promised land--the kingdom of Christ.

When the devil finds himself foiled, he turns

elsewhere. In Revelation 12:17 John says,

Then the dragon became furious with the

woman and went off to make war on the rest

of her offspring, on those who keep the

commandments of God and hold to the

testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the

sand of the sea.

This may refer to other Jewish Christians who were

not around Jerusalem, or perhaps to non-Jewish

believers who become grafted in, as Paul says in

Romans 11, through faith in Christ. In their case, there

is no mention of the same kind of protection in the

wilderness.

— 20 —

Though we do not face the devil’s attacks on the

same intensity level, he still attacks believers today,

and like the believers in this verse, we do not

necessarily see miraculous intervention. So how do we

respond?

We should respond to Satan’s attacks by following

Christ’s example. Revelation 12:11 says that they

conquered the devil, “for they loved not their lives

even unto death.” The devil seems to assume that the

threat of suffering and death will cause believers to

turn away from Christ. Even today believers in some

parts of the world face these kinds of threats.

The problem with this strategy is that true

believers are those who understand the cost of

following Jesus. Luke 9:23-24 tells us that Jesus said,

If anyone would come after me, let him deny

himself and take up his cross daily and

follow me. For whoever would save his life

will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my

sake will save it.

Those words must have seemed strange to those who

first heard them. They did not know that Jesus was

— 21 —

going to literally be forced to carry a cross on which he

would be put to death. We, on the other hand, are

fully aware that we have a crucified Savior. Have you

counted the cost of following him? How would you

respond if we faced life threatening persecution?

— 22 —

We have learned from Revelation 12 that the devil

attempts to derail God’s plan, to exhaust his grace

through tempting and accusing believers, and to

attack his people directly through persecution. God

responds by taking Christ to heaven, eventually

expelling the devil from heaven, and miraculously

protecting his people in the wilderness. Here and now,

we overcome the devil by trusting in Christ’s blood,

proclaiming his kingdom, and following his example.

What is your response to all of this? Do you need

to begin trusting Christ’s blood? Jesus is the perfect

sacrifice to cleanse from all the guilt of our sins. You

cannot earn that cleansing, but you can receive it by

faith as a gift of God’s grace. If you want to learn more

about the whole idea of sacrifice and cleansing for sin,

I would encourage you to read Hebrews 9.

If you are a believer, I encourage you to overcome

the devil by proclaiming Christ’s kingdom this week.

You might also be encouraged by committing

Revelation 12:11 to memory. No matter what the devil

— 23 —

throws our way, God has given us what we need to

overcome.

1. How have you personally experienced these

strategies over the past month?

2. Who have you blamed other than Satan? Why?

3. Upon which response do you most need to focus?

What practical steps can you take to do that?

Bryan Craddock has served as the Pastor of Calvary Bible Church

East in Kalamazoo, Michigan since the church began in 2007. He

is a graduate of the Master’s College and Seminary (B.A. and

M.Div.) and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

(D.Min.). He and his wife, Shari, live in Kalamazoo, Michigan,

with their three children.

Calvary Bible Church East is an independent, non-

denominational, Bible church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, guided

by a three-part vision. First, we seek to understand the Bible in

order to live out its teaching as Spirit-filled worshippers of God

and followers of Jesus Christ. Next, we seek to deepen our love

for one another as the family of God. Finally, we seek to be

actively engaged in our community in order to shine Christ’s

light through meeting pressing needs and communicating the

gospel of Jesus Christ. For more information, visit us online at

CalvaryEast.com.