Revelation 12 forms another kind of theological break in the action. It stands in the very center of the book and helps to explain further the source of all the church’s trouble in this world. Remember the state of the churches addressed in chapters two and three. Some are patiently enduring heavy persecution. Some are preparing for persecution. Other churches are harassed by false teaching while others, because of worldly compromise, are in danger of losing their status as a lampstand.

John then proceeds to depict the raging of the nations (Psalm 2:1) as they spread war and famine and pestilence throughout the world. God’s people are not exempt from experiencing the terror of those disasters. And, added to that, are the ways in which the church continues to struggle with her own sins. But why should it be like this? Why all this sin and sorrow and suffering? Why must the church of Jesus Christ be such a continuous target of the world’s malice?

John’s vision depicts the church as caught up in a great spiritual battle between God and the devil. While the kingdom of the world will eventually fall and give way to the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, we live in that time before the full inauguration of the great eternal kingdom of God. In chapter 12, the vision gains greater specificity as three characters in the cosmic drama are identified: a woman, a child, and a dragon.

Satan, the dragon, has been defeated. But even though the wound he has received is fatal, he fights on. This fatal wound has been dealt to him by the One who came into the world through the holy seed of his redeemed (Genesis 3:15). It is through his beloved people, the holy line of the redeemed, that God brought about the Messiah, the One who came to crush the dragon once and for all.