Revelation 12 first takes us back to the birth of Jesus to show that the
Messiah and God's chosen people are the main focus of Satan's hatred and
wrath. It then moves us forward to the time of Christ's second coming.
Satan's warfare against God's people-including Jesus Christ, the
natural descendants of ancient Israel and all true Christians-is
the primary subject of Revelation 12 and 13. These chapters explain the
devil's motivation and introduce the worldly powers he employs in his end-time
battle against Christ and His servants.
John begins: "Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with
the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland
of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in
pain to give birth" (Revelation 12:1-2). This woman symbolizes the people
of God, chosen to be the light of the world -in contrast
with the woman of Revelation 17, who is the mother of harlots.
The imagery here recalls the ancestral history of ancient Israel. The
patriarch Joseph described one of his revelatory dreams to his family: "Then
he … said, 'Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and
the eleven stars bowed down to me.' So he told it to his father
[Jacob, or Israel] and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said
to him, 'What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and
I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?'" (Genesis 37:9-10).
