This passage recapitulates the same story depicted in the previous section but this time in greater detail. There is a basic progression at work: Christ triumphed, Satan attacked, God protects his people. This is the way that human history unfolds. The devil and his angels make war against Christ and His angels and His people. It is exactly what happened during the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. But, it is also the same pattern of spiritual war that takes place throughout human history, that period of time recorded from Genesis 3 through Revelation 21. It is the account of a powerful Son (Christ), a protected woman (The Church), and a furious dragon (Satan).

His evil plans to destroy the Son thwarted, the dragon turns his rage upon the woman’s other children “who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (vv. 6, 17). As we saw in the first half of chapter 12, the woman is a symbolic representation of the church throughout the ages. God has been faithful to keep the ancient promise of Genesis 3:15 to preserve a righteous seed from whom the Messiah would come. That promise was kept in the birth of the Messiah, the protection of the church, and the ultimate defeat of the dragon. “The woman’s other children share her son’s victory as they testify their trust in Jesus the Lamb” (Dennis Johnson, 186).