Dr. Rodney Plunket

For a period of about 400 years, a type of very graphic and vivid literature flourished in the ancient world.  It is called “apocalyptic” literature, and it is a “literary genre that flourished from about 200 BC to about AD 200, especially in Judaism and Christianity.”[1]  It used picture language to open eyes to the cosmic struggle between good and evil, between God and Satan.  The word “apocalyptic” comes from the Greek word, apokalupsis.  This word means, “an unveiling.”  It is the very first word in the Greek text of the New Testament (NT) book of Revelation.  The Apostle John wrote that book, and it appears that he did not want his readers to have to figure out what type of material he had written, so he told them with his very first word.

Much is made of the fact that contemporary people have a difficult time understanding such material and in understanding the book of Revelation, and we do have problems; that cannot be denied.  Revelation is probably that book of the Bible which frightens and intimidates us more than any other.

In spite of the fact that Revelation is a difficult book for us, I believe that the difficulty is not as great as we might think.  We have a generation that has been heavily impacted by filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.  They have produced movies which are populated by bizarre and outrageous characters; and the stories they tell are dominated by battles between good and evil, darkness and light.  Fantasy fiction, a popular form of writing, has been thriving for a very long time and continues to thrive today.  The fact that the powerful portrayal of arrogant evil and humble goodness in J. R. R. Tolkien’s popular Lord of the Rings trilogy has inspired an incredibly successful movie series also seems indicative of the contemporary world’s ability to receive the kind of communication employed by apocalyptic literature.

I suspect that the difficulties which we have in understanding the book of Revelation are magnified by the tendency to read this book in an effort to analyze the quite weird viewpoints which are said to be based upon it.  When this final book in the Christian Bible is studied, the concern is too often simply to tackle this view or that, this interpretation or that.  Far better to come to Revelation sim­ply to be fed, and after being fed, then to spend sometime possibly reflecting upon the discordant chorus created by those who want to see everything from the Pope to bar codes clearly predicted in this book.

Please open your Bible to Revelation (Rv) 12 and follow along as I read the first verse of that chapter:  “A great portent appeared in heaven:  a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”  This first verse causes our imaginations to conjure a glorious and regal figure.  Dignity and brightness are her chief characteristics.  She is majestic.

Now look with me at verse (v) 2:  “She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth.”  This verse jars the reader because unexpected elements are added to the picture drawn by the previous verse.  This regal woman is pregnant and crying out with the pains of imminent delivery.

A second character enters.  Look with me at verses 3 & 4:

Then another portent appeared in heaven:  a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.  His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.  Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.

Now we are confronted by a jolting contrast to the previous figure.  We meet a red dragon with seven heads that wears seven crowns.  Those crowns make clear that he too, like the woman, is a ruler.  One wonders, What sort of realm would he rule, this grotesque monster with red scaly skin.  The dragon is highly agitated, and in this state his tail whips about and sweeps a third of the stars right out of the sky.  The size and power of this serpentine beast are strikingly conveyed.  And notice the dynamic tension of this first act of the drama into which we are drawn.  The dragon is waiting for the luminous woman to give birth so that one its seven salivating mouths can fight for the right to be the one that devours the child before it emits its first infantile cry.

Focus on this dragon.  See its power.  See its apparent control.  Realize that the situation is hopeless.  In spite of the woman’s obvious glory, she has been caught at the most vulnerable of times.  Surely she is without hope; her child will be born but born straight into the jaws of death.

But wait.  Look with me a v 5.  “And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.  But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; . . .”  The child is born.  But the inevitable does not occur.  God steps in, and with the ease available only to the eternal God, God snatches this child straight up into heaven, straight up to the throne.

But what about the woman?  Please look at v 6:  “and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.”  God looks after the woman in the wilderness, the wilderness, that place where God so frequently in the Bible communes in a special way with God’s people.

Now let’s stop, stop and be fed.  Stop and realize that the child is Jesus, and the dragon is Satan.  This story is making clear that from the birth of Jesus right through to His resurrection and ascension, the Devil was spitting and snarling and doing everything he could to derail the work of salvation which God planned to perform in Christ, and over and over again the Devil thought he had the upper hand.  Out in the desert when Jesus was famished, there the Devil thought he would devour and destroy this special messenger from God.  He thought he could make Him slip, but our Savior wavered not.  When the Devil turned the religious leaders of the Jews against Jesus, I bet he thought he was gaining an edge.  And when the nails were pounded into Jesus, I bet Satan laughed with glee with every hammer blow.  As Jesus experienced unimaginable pain, the Devil experienced a sick and twisted joy that only the very evil find delicious.  He tasted the sweetness of victory, Satan did; but the taste went sour in his vicious mouth when Jesus rose as the Lord of all and was snatched up, snatched up to the very throne of God.

Read this story and be fed.  Look at how hard the dragon works.  See the thrashing of his massive tail.  See his concern to be totally prepared for this birth.  Then see his complete ineffectiveness.  He works so hard to no avail.  He exer­cises himself with all the evil energy of Hell.  God still wins.  God always wins.  But God often waits until the last minute to deliver/to save/to provide the means of escape.  And the means will not always be to our liking.  For Israel the means was a frightening dash through the sea and a sojourn in the desert.  For Jesus the means was the cross, that cross which killed Him and saves us.

Oh, how powerful evil seems.  You can almost sense sometimes that Satan, that awesome dragon, is near to hand.  You can almost see the shadow of those seven repulsive heads, a shadow formed as his serpentine body blocks out the light and makes us feel that all is darkness, all is lost.  Sin will vanquish because we are like powerless newborns, destined to be devoured by unrighteousness and corrup­tion.

Whenever we feel that we cannot stand against evil and whenever we think that Satan is omnipotent/all-powerful, we can remember the dragon story of Rv 12.  Whenever we think that the temptation is too great, we can remember how God protected this totally helpless baby without even breaking into a sweat.

In the next section of the story a great battle is fought.  It seems that due to the birth and ascension of the child the dragon is to be cast out of heaven away from the God before whom he has accused God’s people.  The names “Satan” and “Devil” mean accuser.  Satan is the great accuser as can be seen in v 10 of Rv 12 as well as in Job 1 and Zechariah 3.  But because of the victory won in Christ, the dragon will accuse God’s people no more.  He is cast out of heaven.  He has lost access to God, and he cannot accuse if he is barred from appearing before the Supreme Judge.

Please catch the power of this element within the story.  See that, because of Christ, God no longer listens to Satan as Satan seeks to indicts God’s people.  God listens to Jesus who forgives us, who intercedes for us.  Our fear of the dragon should be replaced by gratitude for Christ’s work of deliverance.  Truly, perfect love casts out fear, as John himself says in 1 John 4:18.

But the story continues.  Satan is down but not out.  The remainder of this chapter presents the anger of the dragon due to his relegation, his loss of status.  He pursues the woman whose role in the story is to represent both Israel and the church.  She is Israel as she gives birth.  She is the church as she battles the dragon following the birth of her child.  This is appropriate.  For the church is seen as the true Israel in the NT, the true Israel because characterized by the faith of Abraham and created by the promise given to Abraham in Genesis.

This woman and her offspring are hounded by this angry dragon.  It appears again that all is lost as the dragon emits a flood from his mouth to sweep the woman away and drown her.  But God opens up a great fissure in the earth, and the flood is benignly swallowed by God’s world.  This is a delightful image because the ground opening up tended to be associated in ancient literature with chaos and the forces of darkness, the forces of evil.  Not here.  Not in the Bible because in the Bible the planet, the entire planet, is God’s; and God has ultimate control over it.  But the dragon continues to pursue.  He does not give up, and the book of Revelation makes clear that the war against the dragon will not end until the Devil and his angels are cast into Hell for eternity.  Then the war will end.  Then we will be in heaven where all will be as God intends, and where God’s rule will be complete and our lives can be all that God created them to be.

Feel the power of the story and be fed.  God will win no matter how hideously powerful the opposition may seem.  God has won the victory.  God has secured the triumph.  And God will win every battle in our lives through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.  Through Christ we have the victory; we must not fear.  We have the victory; we can be bold and courageous.  We have won it all in Christ; let’s live with joyful confidence and an assurance that cannot be extinguished.  Let’s live the victory because the most hid­eous monster of Hell is a whimpering little lizard when taken in hand by the power of our God.

Please confess that with me using a statement which conveys the spirit of the message declared by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:31.  Since God is for us, no one can stand against us.  Please say that with me, “Since God is for us, no one can stand against us.”  Again, “Since God is for us, no one can stand against us.”  Feel that triumph.  See Satan’s wiles constantly frustrated by the superior power of our God.

Would the servers please move to the foyer?

I want us now to eat the Lord’s Supper in a spirit of conquest and victory.  This Supper reminds us of the event which sealed God’s triumph, God’s triumph over Satan and evil.  So, as we eat this meal, let’s take in the joy of God’s victory through Jesus Christ.  Let’s take in the power of that victory.  And may all of us together adopt a posture of submission.  Let’s realize that our lives will experience more of the transforming power of God’s victory as we recognize our absolute powerlessness before the seven-headed dragon.  God will always win over the dragon.  On our own, we will always lose.  This meal reminds us of the victory that God gave us.  That is the only way we would have ever received it.  It is a victory that we could never have won!

Would the servers please come forward?

As we eat this bread, remember that the body sacrificed on Calvary’s cross paid the debt that we owed and thereby won the victory that Satan sought to win over our souls.  If you feel comfortable, as you pass the plate to the person next to you, please say, “Remember the Victory.”  Please join hands up and down the aisles as we pray.  [Prayer].  Remember the Victory.

As we take of the cup, celebrate the victory won by Jesus’ blood, a victory so complete that every sin for which Satan could indict us was washed away as if it never happened.  If you feel comfortable, as you pass the plate to the person next to you, please say, “God’s Victory over Satan.”  Again, please join hands up and down the aisles as we pray.  [Pray].  God’s Victory over Satan.

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