Revelation chapter twelve introduces several key figures along with some information that helps us identify them…
“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. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne” (Revelation 12:1-5).
So these verses present us with a pregnant woman, an enormous red dragon, and a male child. Who are these characters, and how should we understand their individual roles within this narrative?
One way to answer those questions is hiding in plain sight at the beginning of our text: “Now a great sign appeared…” A “sign” is something that indicates, designates, or points to something else. Much like a road sign that points us to another destination, the same is true of these characters from Revelation 12:1-5.
Let’s first consider the woman mentioned here. She wears the sun as a garment, the moon is beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars adorns her head. In addition to what we read in this passage, there is another portion of Scripture where the sun, moon, and stars play a significant role. That text is found in Genesis 37:9-10, and recounts a dream that Joseph, the famous Biblical figure, once experienced…
“Then [Joseph] dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and 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 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?'”
Notice Joseph’s father’s response to his dream: “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” (NIV). This tells us that he associated these elements of Joseph’s dream with the members of his family.
We can tie these elements together when we recall that Joseph’s father’s name was Israel. His sons later became the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, we should be on solid interpretive ground if we link this woman and these references to the sun, moon, and stars with the nation of Israel.
Image Attribution :Photo by Jan van der Wolf, via pexels.com