A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
In the sports world we are drawing close to the playoffs and bowl games. Before these games ever play television stations will do all they can to hype up the games as much as possible so that people will tune in and boost their ratings. Radio shows also will talk about individual match ups at different positions and try to add intrigue and insight to how the game is played. Sometimes players themselves get involved in some jawing as well. This all adds to the fever of excitement and revs up the fans all the more.
Today’s text hypes not just a game, but a fight; an all out brawl; a grudge match. This is much more than entertainment; for this involves heaven and hell; God and demons fighting over our eternal destiny. In the midst of the battle an especially talented child is born to fight the battle and defeat Satan. Our destiny all revolves around the birth of a child. So this text is fitting for Advent, as we prepare for the birth of Jesus. It gives us a heavenly view of what is about to happen through the life of Jesus; what He is being born to do. We prepare to watch a battle; to cheer on our champion.
Two Signs and One Son
I. Satan’s sign seeks to devour the Son
Listen to the way John reveals to us that battle. He writes, “an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.” Dragons are identified and talked about by a wide variety of people throughout the ages. Some people believe they actually existed at one time. The pictures are similar; fire breathing and flying reptiles with enormous strength and ferocity. A recent children’s book by the name of Eragon has a very picturesque way of drawing out the ferocity of the dragon. This is how John describes Satan.
The first thing he mentions is the seven heads with the ten horns and seven crowns. Seven usually represents God, so it’s kind of surprising that Satan is described with seven heads when he usually is depicted by the number six in Revelation. Yet the fact that he has seven heads shows us that he does a somewhat convincing job of depicting himself as God. But when you see that he has ten crowns for seven heads you can quickly notice that things are not as they appear. Ten crowns don’t fit on seven heads very well. The word for “crown” is actually “diadem.” From my studies on the text I was able to find out that Persian kings liked to wear a diadem which was a blue band marked with white. This diadem was supposed to represent godliness; so if you wore it you were claiming to be a god. This shows us then who Satan is. He is a powerful and ferocious beast who likes to dress up as God. If you read passages such as Ezekiel 28 it seems to be alluding to the fall of Satan as well; and one of his chief sins was pride over his own beauty; his wanting to be like God.
Notice what else Satan has done. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. I have always read this to be representative of the number of angels that Satan convinced to rebel against God; to try and take God from His throne. So if this is an approximation; a third of the angels tried to rebel against God. This is a lot of angels, yet we can take comfort in the fact that it is not a majority; which means that there are more good angels than demons.
Take notice of where Satan has
swept the stars to; the earth. One of
the greatest sins that we are committing today in Christianity involves the way
we are underestimating the devil. Yes,
you hear some talk of “inner demons”, but what they mean by that is just an
inner struggle that we are having of some sort.
The devil is much more than a representation of the inner struggle with
the sinful nature. Peter refers to him
as “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
God’s Word actually refers to Satan as having more power than we would
ever imagine. 1 John
The popular movie of the seventies
and many movies today like to depict demon control as people vomiting and heads
turning in complete circles; having burn marks on their bodies and living with
unbelievable strength. The gospels also
show many people being possessed in this way.
Believe me, things like this happen yet today. Yet demon control does not have to mean
actual physical possession. Control can
happen in any number of ways; by fear; by temptation; by flattery; by
greed. You can control a person by using
his or her wants or fears to get them to do exactly what you want them to
do. So Satan has control over the world
of unbelievers. He gets them to think
like him; to be self righteous; proud; full of accusations; full of anger; ready
to lie; ready to murder; ready to do anything that will seemingly benefit the
self. Demons have control of sinners in
any wide variety of ways; they are able to keep them in pride or despair;
depending on the naturally sinful tendencies of the human. They prowl around the world exploiting humans
to do the most vile things you could imagine.
The recent story of a man who went and found his wife and daughters in
The dragon loves to be in control, and none of his stars are happy when someone escapes from their grasp. We are some of those whom God has rescued through baptism. The Holy Spirit took up residence in our hearts and gave us freedom in the cross of Christ. We no longer are led astray by his temptations as we would have been without faith. But Satan doesn’t want us to have this freedom to approach God with confidence and hopeful faith. So he looks for weaknesses in our armor; he plays on our fears; feeds our pride; does anything he can to get us to fall.
Look at the attack he has made at and in the Christian church of today. Within what we would still define as the church the largest church which has its roots in the earliest branches of Christianity has actually ended up condemning people who say that Jesus’ sacrifice pays for all of their sins and makes them completely holy through faith! Look at how Satan has attacked our beloved sacraments, how he has wormed his way into the church to tell people that baptism is nothing more than an empty ritual that humans make to declare their loyalty to God. The same rings true with the Lord's Supper, which for many Christian denominations has turned into nothing more than a potluck supper. Through half truths and false preachers he has managed to turn the complete focus of worship into feelings and humanism instead of God’s Word and work. Through this proclamation people are being led right back into the abyss of hell and despair they were rescued from. The devil is trying desperately to recall his territory because he knows his time is short.
We dare not underestimate this
situation. It’s real and it is
dangerous! It is an amazing thing to
think about this picture John draws.
Stars are swept from the sky and brought to the earth. You could fit 910,000 earths inside of the
sun! Yet in this picture you have a
third of the stars (which are sometimes much bigger than our sun) beings swept
to our tiny and seemingly insignificant planet!
The picture is clear. Even though
we as humans are tiny and powerless little specs in this universe we are very
important in the heavenly realm of things.
All of creation is described in Genesis as being made for the
earth. So we have at the time of Jesus’
birth stars being directed to line up directly over a little town called
Today’s
text has the hungry dragon coming down to earth for a special delicatessen; a
one of a kind meal which would heartily satisfy his appetite for revenge. The dragon stood in front of the woman who
was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
Satan wants to devour a child; a very special
child; because that child would be the actual Son of God; the Living God
Himself in the flesh; Jesus Christ. So
we see throughout Jesus’ life how He is constantly getting special attention
from Satan; being attacked both physically and spiritually. After Jesus is born Herod will come roaring
into
Why does Satan care about this measly child coming out of this woman on this tiny planet? It is because he is full of hatred to God over his fate of eternity in hell. He could not strike back at God directly; but he found an indirect way to exact his revenge; by striking at God’s human children; the very children God loves. But this child is being born to change their destiny and take Satan’s rule from them; to rule all the nations with an iron scepter. This quote is taken from Psalm 2. It goes on to say,
Psalm
This new king is coming to play for keeps. The child is being born to save the woman he is coming through; and Satan doesn’t want that because he hates God and anyone that God loves.
II. The woman’s sign seeks deliverance from the Son
Who is this woman? The Catholic Church identifies her as Mary. Yet notice that she has a crown with 12 stars on her head. The number 12 is representative of God – represented by the number 3 - having saving interaction with the world, which is the number 4 - standing for north, south, east and west. Revelation chapter 1 refers to the stars as the angels or messengers of the seven churches. So these 12 stars may be the pastors of the churches. One other thing is noted about the woman. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. When you start the book of Matthew you are immediately struck with a string of ancestors giving birth prior to the Savior. Birth after birth is announced. It is pregnant with pregnancy and birth, and Mary is not the only one mentioned. So this child is not just the child of Mary; which shows that Jesus is the child of the church; promised all the way back to the Fall in the Garden of Eden.
Note how this woman is clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet. Back in Psalm 37 the LORD promised the church, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” Jesus also said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Paul also referenced this light when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” So here again we also see a symbolic picture of how the church is clothed in the righteousness of Jesus; bright and shining as the sun. The moon at her feet may represent the church’s power to trample under her feet the far less glorious and temporary things of this world such as riches and fame. So she is not an ugly woman. She is beautifully bright and powerful; pregnant with hope; hope to be redeemed and made glorious by the Son she is giving birth to.
So Satan comes to earth; the powerful dragon to devour the innocent child. What challenge is there between a dragon and a child? It seems like such an easy battle; a hopeless battle. Surely the child will be eaten up and put to death with one bite. Yet every time that Satan tries to bite down on the child he seems to miss; first with Herod; then with the crowd in his home town. Finally, through the scourge of the cross; Satan seems to have dug his fangs into Jesus and devoured Him with death. But what happens? Victory is snatched through the bowels of defeat; as the grave is ripped open and Jesus rises victoriously and ascends into heaven; beyond Satan’s reach. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. Not only does Jesus rise victoriously for Himself; but having died as God and innocent man He was able to pay for the sins of the world. When the Holy Spirit reached into the grave and breathed life back into the Holy Son of God; Jesus was raised from the dead as a victorious King; the conqueror of death and sin and hell. Now everyone who dies believing in Jesus and having been baptized; they also will experience the same escape. So the most unlikely thing happens as a seemingly poor and helpless child defeats an enormous red dragon through the very death that the dragon brings.
One of the closest relationships a person can have is with his or her mother. The child and the mother are meant to have an intimate bond. Surely the child who is now ruling with an iron rod will not leave His own mother behind! Yet what does the Word say? On the night Jesus’ was betrayed He prayed, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15-16) Instead of taking them from this world, He only prays that the LORD would protect them from it. This is what John describes. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. Instead of taking her with Him, the woman has to flee into the desert! Yet this place, barren as it may be, is still prepared for her by God; and she is not left to fend for her self. She is to be fed throughout a 1,260 day period. If you do the math these days add up to 3 and ½ years. This is half of 7, the number of God’s covenant with man. Perhaps it then represents the second half of life; the New Testament era. The number of days for her to live in the desert are numbered precisely as God wants her to be there; and she will be fed just fine there.
It is a strange thing. Instead of just rescuing her and taking her
to heaven; God sends the mother to a desert to live. It reminds me of what happened to
Elijah. As a great prophet he was given
a great victory over the 450 prophets of Baal.
Instead of victoriously returning to
Think of how many times God could have done things so much differently. Later on in his ministry King Ahaziah had sent fifty men to go and arrest Elijah from the top of a mountain. Instead of running, he called on God to send fire down from heaven and devour the fifty soldiers. It happened! This is what we expect from God! None of this running and hiding and being harassed and helpless. But the LORD doesn’t usually work this way. Like with Elijah in his earlier ministry; He lets us be chased and harassed. He takes us to the Ravine of baptism and sets us aside to live as strangers in the world. He feeds us with His Word and His Supper. While we live in the desert He still promises us that Jesus already won the battle and victory is ours in Christ. With these wonderful gifts He gives us what we need when we need it and He keeps us spiritually alive. As we live with pain and disease and suffering and temptation; we long for the day that the Child will come back to take us home.
When John
lived in the desert and baptized in the
Sometimes when two opponents meet to battle one another they absolutely cannot stand one another. Sometimes this hatred is bred into them from birth; perhaps like the Chiefs and Broncos or KState and KU. If one team has a particularly good recruiting class expectations rise. The crowd sits and waits for the battle; if their team wins it can never be by enough; the greater the stomping the happier.
Advent prepares us for a great battle with a seeming David vs. Goliath; a dragon and a child. The sign of Satan is a dragon; vicious and powerful. He is deceptive and has a great following. The sign of the church is a beautiful but powerless woman. She gives birth to a mere child. Odds would be for the powerful dragon. But what happens? The God-child who enters our world and actually defeats the dragon with the body of a mere human? How awesome it is to see this child defeat the devil at every turn; even with his most powerful weapon; death itself? Just when Satan is sure that he has Jesus consumed what do we see but Jesus come flying from the mouth of the grave and ascend into heaven! John gives us a vision of Two Signs and a Son; they help us see what Christmas is all about. Our King is being born to defeat our worst and most oppressive enemy; Satan the dragon. He is coming to deliver us from the desert of this world. So we cheer at the stomping of Satan by the Son of God. Amen.