The Seven Signs, Part 1
We now find ourselves seeing John receive four different visions in succession, each with seven signs each. The visions are not identical, but they appear to be related. And so, as a study vehicle, we will study these signs in parallel, including the two interludes within the seven signs.
Because these visions are related in some way, with some parallelism (remember our look into Hebrew poetry?), we will try to understand the seven signs as a whole, using the combined content of the four visions to help us understand the often-confusing imagery.
Note that this is not the definitive understanding of Revelation. This is your pastor realizing that the four visions of seven symbols are related. Based on that, he is then using that premise to help understand the meaning behind the symbols in all four visions. This is based on:
- Revelation being a book of signs and symbols (Revelation 1:1)
- The four visions of seven symbols being related.
1st Seal
6:1-2
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four living beings saying: Come! And behold a white horse: and the One sitting on it had a bow; and a crown was given to Him: and He went forth conquering, and in order to conquest.
1st Trumpet
8:6-7
And the seven angels who had seven trumpets prepared themselves to trumpet. And the first trumpeted, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and a third part of the trees was burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
1st Censer
16:1-2
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured our his bowl upon the earth; and there fell an evil and painful sore upon the men who have the mark of the beast, and who worship the image.
If these signs are related, this is what we can figure out so far.
– The white rider most likely represents Jesus, with white representing His purity and sinlessness. The crown represents Him as king and the bow as a conqueror whose “arrows are sharp” in the heart of His enemies (Psalm 45:5).
– The first trumpet reminds one of the plagues inEgypt. But the warfare is devastating, with “they” being cast to earth and a third being mentioned.
– The remarkable similarity with the trumpet and censer (bowl) shows them to be a form of parallelism: where the same event is repeated using different words and imagery. This shows the battle to be spiritual, with the “mark of the beast” and those who “worship the image.”
These visions are cryptic and partial. And so we take a deeper look into the first of seven visions beginning in Chapter 12.
1st Sign
12:1-6
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars: and she being with child cried out and laboring and travailing to be delivered.
– What is taking place here?
– Who is the mother and the child?
12-Part structures: Twelve is the number for the Church (12 tribes ofIsrael and 12 disciples/Apostles).
– What is the significance that the woman has a crown of 12 stars.
– Bring the two together, without denying the woman or the crown of 12 stars.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven, and threw them to earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, and order to devour her child whenever it was born.
– If you were to guess, who is the great red dragon? Why?
– Does the one-third now make sense?
– What is the dragon trying to prevent? Why?
And she brought forth a son, a male child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: as her child was caught up to God, and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there 1,260 days.
– The woman gives birth to her son. Yet, He is then mentioned as one who has absolute rule and sitting on a heavenly throne. Remember, John is viewing things from an eternal perspective, outside of time. Discuss.
– What time existed in Jesus’ life where He had to flee with His mother (and stepfather) to prevent Him from being murdered?
12:7-16
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And they were not strong enough; neither was a place found for them in heaven any longer. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
This event predates humanity’s Fall into sin in Genesis. Yet, it is tied inextricably to Mary and Jesus, to His incarnation and our salvation. We find this moving around, as if time did not exist, as jarring. But if we don’t see John’s visions from this eternal, outside-of-time way, we cannot properly make sense of what John sees.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come the salvation, and the strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ: because the accuser of our brethren has been cast down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
– Where, ultimately, was the accuser “cast down”?
And they overcame him on account of the blood of the Lamb, and on account of the word of their testimony; and they did not love their live unto the death.
– Who is “they”? Whom did “they” overcome (in other words, who is the “him”)?
On account of this rejoice, you heavens, and the one tabernacling in them. Woe to those who dwell on the earth and the sea! Because the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast to earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the male Child. And to the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, in order that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she was being nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be washed away.
– What is this describing again?
12:16-18
And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was angry at the woman, and went away to make war with the remnant of her seed, the ones keeping the commandments of God, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ. And he stood upon the sand of the sea.
– Who is the remnant of the woman’s seed?
Making Sense of this Vision from Genesis to Revelation
After our Fall into sin, God spoke His promise of our deliverance in Genesis 3:15.
I [God] will put hostility between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He [the woman’s seed] will strike your [the serpent’s] head, and you will strike his heel.
The vision John saw in Revelation 12 uses the same characters in Genesis 3:15: the woman (Revelation 12:1, 4, 6, 13-17), “her Seed’ (Revelation 12:2-5, 17), the serpent (Revelation 12:9, 14, 15), and the serpent’s seed (Revelation 12:4, 7, 9). This is part of the assumed knowledge the reader/hearer of Revelation is to have.
Revelation 12 shows, through imagery, the hostility and warfare that Genesis 3:15 mentions. The serpent (dragon) is at war with both the woman (Revelation 12:13,15) and her Seed, Christ, the “male-child” (Revelation 12:4).
Genesis 3:15 prophesies the serpent’s defeat when his head is crushed under the foot of the woman’s Seed. Revelation 12 also depicts the serpent’s defeat; but here, the woman’s Seed, the male-child, conquers the dragon (devil) when He is caught up to heaven and casts the dragon down to earth (Revelation 12:5, 7-10).
The woman’s Seed is Christ. He is the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 and He alone crushes the head of the Serpent. However, God also crushes the Serpent’s head under the feet of all Christians–because they have become members of Christ’s body (Romans 16:20). That is how we in the Church receive and share in Christ’s victory. Yet, we don’t experience the fullness of this victory until the Last Day and in eternity.
The woman’s Seed takes on a duality. She gives birth to only one child, the male-child, Christ (Revelation 12:5). Yet, at the end of Revelation, chapter 12, the dragon (devil) wages war against her seed. This time “her seed” represents all Christians “the ones keeping the commandments of God, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).
Revelation 12 confirms the dragon represents Satan “that old serpent… who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). This goes all the way back to Satan as the serpent in Genesis. The male child is Jesus, since He rules and shepherds all nations with a “rod of iron” (Psalm 2:9) and has ascended to God’s throne. The Serpent’s seed are Satan’s angels, who were thrown from heaven with him (Revelation 12:9), and, implicitly, all the wicked, since they persecute Christians (Revelation 12:11-12). The woman is the Virgin Mary, since she gave birth to Jesus (Revelation 12:5).
