EMMDEV 2012-02-22 [Revelations Reassurances] Bethlehem revisited

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. 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 his heads. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. Revelation12:1-6

This passage forms part of the "Fourth Act" of Revelation which is a re-telling of the world's history from a cosmic perspective.

The woman represents Mary, the Israelites and the Church. Her child is Jesus Christ, our Messiah, and the dragon is Satan who misled a third of the angels (stars) and they were flung to the earth.

The dragon's attempt to devour the Child reminds us of Herod and the command to kill all the baby boys. But the Child is destined to rule with an iron scepter (a rule of power and authority) which points towards Christ's victorious resurrection. The "snatching up" refers to the Ascension.

The woman - now representing the church goes into the desert (a place of spiritual shelter) for 1260 which is three-and-a-half years which is half of seven and simply points out that the church goes through periods of trial and tribulation.

In the verses that follow we read that the Dragon and his followers go to war against the armies of heaven and are finally defeated...

So, here we have the story of the history of human-kind.
As John sees it, it all centres around the birth of the Christ-child and hinges on the Church.

While the Bethlehem-baby-in-a-manger narratives of Matthew and Luke are comforting to us, John's cosmic story reminds us of the high stakes and that the birth of Jesus is really really significant.

Maybe it is appropriate that we consider this passage on Ash Wednesday. It is a powerful reminder that Christmas, Lent and Easter are about a war. A war in which God gave His Son and established the Church. We go into Ash Wednesday cognisant that God went to war for us!

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
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