The Final Countdown - The Woman and the Dragon - July 9, 2023

Let me remind you that the book of Revelation is not written in chronological order. Chapters 4-9 take us all the way through the end of the Tribulation Period. Chapters 10-11 are passages that stand as like a parenthesis in the action. They reveal some of the “behind the scenes” activities of the Lord. Chapter 11 takes us to the very edge of eternity. It closes with the Lord Jesus claiming His rightful dominion over this universe and it reveals as the inhabitants of that glorious land praise their King. Chapters 12-19 take us back through the Tribulation once again. While chapters 4-9 deal with the timeline or the plan of the Tribulation, chapters 12-19 deal with the characters, or the people of the Tribulation. We are introduced to some of the individuals who will figure greatly during that period of time. So, we are going to tread once again on ground we have already visited. As one writer said, “In Revelation 4-9 we see the events of the Tribulation through a telescope; in Revelation 12-19 we see things through a microscope.” In other words, we are about to get a more detailed look at the events of this period. What is said in chapter 12 is essential to a proper understanding of what is going to be said in the rest of the book. If we misinterpret things here, we are going to be off tract the rest of the way through Revelation.The Woman and the Dragon12 A great 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. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its 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 it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.