Revelation 12:1-2 (The Woman)

The Problem of Reading Revelation 12 as Modern Signs

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. Revelation 12 is a complicated passage for many reasons and As we talked about last week, I think the main reason why it's such a complicated passage is Because we mess up and we miss use and confuse the signs that are given.

We take the signs as though they were applied to our time and our day and our culture and our Situation and when we do that when we rip the signs out of their place Well, then we get into all sorts of trouble.

The signs were given for a particular people at a particular time for them and if we understand that rightly then we'll understand Revelation 12. If we understand that wrongly then we'll do what we talked about last week and want to talk about this week on the broadcast which is is looking at Uncle Sam as if he's Uncle Samuel from the Old Testament and us looking at the Locust as if they're Apache helicopters in our time.

If we take the time or the signs out of the times, we will bring confusion into.

Everything.

Now.

Today, I want to apply this teaching.

To.

Specifically to Revelation 12 because in Revelation 12, we have an incredible scene of a woman who's Pregnant who's ready to give birth? We have a scene of a woman who is near it with child and she's in the throes of her labor and we have to understand who that is because The bad teaching on this passage has abounded for 2 ,000 years.

Today I want to discuss six wrong views quickly of Who this woman is and then I want to discuss who she really is And all of her beauty and her glory and by the end of that I want us to figure out what that means for Christmas.

How does that apply to us today?

Now.

With that let us read our passage in Revelation 12. Let us pray and let us begin. Revelation 12 1 through 2 says this a great sign appeared in the heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars and She was with child and she cried out being in labor and in pain to give birth.

This is the Word of the Lord. Let us pray Lord help us today as we try to understand and consider who this Revelation 12 woman is Lord our understanding of Christmas will be deepened and enriched by understanding who she is, but also Our understanding of Christmas will be depleted and diminished if we do not understand who this woman is.

Lord help us to see the truth in This passage help us to feel it to enjoy it to praise God for it. It's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen the first wrong view of who this woman is is this woman is Israel national Israel and The reason that this view is wrong, even though it has lots of biblical support.

Why because the Old Testament refers to Israel as a woman. There's other passages in my notes that are not here. There's other passages like Micah and Isaiah that talk about Israel is being pregnant. So here you have two Old Testament signs that are pointing to Revelation 12.

You could say all this must be Israel and The Messiah is born out of this woman so you could think okay, maybe this is Israel. But the reason that this view is wrong, or I would say the reason this view is limited.

Is that it doesn't go far enough. This can't be national Israel for one very explicit and powerful reason. Because national Israel was destroyed in 722 BC by the Assyrian Empire the Assyrian Empire came in and Totally destroyed the ten northern tribes.

Israel by the time of Jesus's day was ten tribes that were totally decimated in the revolt or in the in the siege of Samaria by the Assyrians. What the Assyrians did was they took the Israelites and They broke families apart.

They would move father. Let's put it into our context. They would move father to California to that pagan land and then they would move mother to Massachusetts that pagan land. So they would separate families so that families would have to be remarried children wouldn't have parents and by the end of it what you Had is you had Israel ethnically genocided.

They intermarried in with the people. So the only legacy that we have of national Israel the ten tribes is The Samaritans in the New Testament who are the half-breeded Israelites and Gentiles and if you remember the Jews hated the Samaritans, so how could Israel?

Which national Israel is the ten northern tribes? How could she be the one that gives birth to the Messiah? That's a huge glaring point. About all of this also national Israel died in her idolatry. You remember that for most of Israel's life.

She was bowing the knee to Baal or she was bowing the knee to Asherah. She was bowing the knee to Moloch. This is not the picture of a celestial woman Who's ready to give birth to the Messiah? This is a woman in Revelation 12 that that's an exalted woman.

This is a woman who's been pure this woman who's beautiful. This is a woman who loves God who's getting ready to give them forth the Messiah. How could this be Israel? She was destroyed in 700 years before Jesus was born and she died in utter Idolatry not in an elevated heavenly posture.

So that's the first view that she's Israel. I don't think that that's right. The second view is that she is the church. Now the first century that were the third century. There's there's lots of people like Hippolytus and Victorinus look at my memory Victorinus I remember his name because I was like one letter difference and his name would be victorious and that's pretty epic Victorinus.

Maybe we'll name a child that if we have more anyway. He thought that this was the church because he said that the church is always bringing forth the birth of Christ always declaring the birth of Christ to the nations and it is the church if you remember in Revelation 12 and the later parts who's persecuted the woman is persecuted.

So he said this must be the church and I would say that this is the most prominent view in the third fourth Century of who this woman is, but it does not go far enough. Because logically think about it this way if this was the church How could the church?

Give birth to her Messiah. Right how a child can't give birth to its mother. So the church can't give birth to its Messiah because the church doesn't even exist. Until Jesus dies on the cross and raises from the dead.

So this view is on its own the surface. It's flawed. The third view of the three reasonable views that I'll give you is the least reasonable and It's that this woman in Revelation 12 is Mary. Roman Catholics see this woman as Mary and this became a part of Marian devotion in the Middle Ages.

This view does not show up in the first second third fourth all the way to the 10th century. This view does not show up until the view of Mary starts being elevated to where Mary is this Elevated heavenly woman who we pray to and we do all of this.

Mary is our maitre d not your fancy waiter. It means in Latin the mother of God. She's the queen of heaven according to Catholic theology. She is this high and exalted woman and As veneration for her increased so did this passage Revelation 12 being pointed to by Popes and Catholic scholars as proof that this woman was Mary.

Now there's many reasons and we could go through the history of this because this view is well supported in the Catholic Church. They love this passage. There's many reasons why we could do that. But I think just to suffice it to say this is a false view.

For a couple different reasons. Number one. The woman in this passage is not a person. The woman in this passage is a collective. She's a corporate. She is not an individual. She is a nation. She is a people.

She is a corporate group, which is why the Bible talks about her with heavenly language. Did you know that there is nowhere in the Bible where an individual human person is compared to constellations.

Astrological phenomenon and all of that. It's always nations nations are described in this way or Satan. But we're not talking about him. Nations are described in this way. For instance Isaiah 54 1 through 6 and Micah 4 10 talk about the nation of Israel being being pregnant with the Messiah to Zion is going to be the one who brings forth the Messiah and it talks about this in astrological language.

Or astronomical, excuse me, this woman is A corporate symbol. Isaiah Ezekiel and Joel talk about sun moon and stars going dark. Why not at the end of the world? Isaiah 13 talks about Babylon and its downfall.

The Sun will go dark. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky. When Tyre and Sidon are destroyed in Ezekiel sun moon and stars go dark. Strange things happen in the heavens when nations fall in the Old Testament and in Joel chapter 2 a passage about the downfall of Judah.

Which happened shortly after the Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost. Joel to prophesy go read it. It's amazing. After the Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost Judah will be destroyed. Do you know what happens.

The Sun goes dark the moon doesn't give its light and the stars fall from the sky. This is not end-of-the-world language in the Bible. This is the downfall of nation language because think about it this way in the ancient way of viewing things.

It was there's two groups of things two groups of creatures or created things that are given the responsibility to rule do you know what it is. And Genesis 1 human beings were told to rule and It was the Sun the moon and the stars that were told to rule to rule over the heavens and humans were to rule over the earth.

So when the rulers of earth start turning their back on God the rulers in the heavens turn their back on them. That's what that means when you see the Sun going dark in the moon and all of those. It doesn't mean that the Sun falls out of the sky because if that were the case The universe would have been totally ripped apart six different times in the Old Testament because the Sun goes dark.

The moon doesn't give us light and all the stars fall from the sky about six times in the Old Testament. These are not end-of-the-world Phenomenon, this is nations are falling nations are dying nations are being judged by God.

And what I mean the reason I say that Mary can't be the woman. Because no woman no human is talked about with such Astronomical phenomenon it has to be a nation that's being talked about. Another reason that this is not Mary is that Mary does not adopt in history a wilderness lifestyle.

After in Revelation 12, it says after the ascension of the of the child He ascends to heaven that the woman goes out into the wilderness. Mary did not do that. Mary did not become a monastic or an aesthetic and move out into the wilderness to live out her days on locust and honey.

This is not what happened in history. Mary is not the candidate and while the Romanist and the papist adopt this view it fails to account for Scripture. So it's a false view. Now there's those are the three reasonable use that this woman is Israel.

This woman is the church and this woman is Mary. All three are wrong. The first two are pretty good. The last one is not so good. The next three are really bad. This is the view of the heretics and I only picked three because if you study church history There is a lot of heresy that we could sort through.

There's a dumpster and I pulled out three pieces out of it. The first one is Joanna Southcott. Joanna Southcott was a self-proclaimed prophetess in the 18th century and she claimed that God told her that she was the woman of Revelation 12 and That she was going to get pregnant with a son.

She announced this great vision from God when she was 60 years old. About 10 years later when she died childless. All of her followers had to basically say well, it was a spiritual birth. The next wrong view is by Anne Lee.

Do you know who Anne Lee is? She's the founder of a group called the Shakers. The Shakers were a group that were the opposite of Gnostics or no, no, actually they were hyper Gnostics, excuse me. She believed she also was the Revelation 12 woman, but instead of being pregnant she said no.

That's not what this passage means. I'm the Revelation 12 woman and I'm here to declare to you that no one should ever get pregnant again. So they forbid sex they forbid marriage. They forbid any of that because they thought that the flesh was evil and that the mind and the spirit was good and Thankfully such a view doesn't do well in history because they fail to reproduce.

So there's varying there's probably very few Shakers left on earth. The third wrong view is by a man named David Berg. The children of God sect. This is more recent. You may have heard of it. Have you heard of Joaquin Phoenix the actor?

There's another lady who was in this too. Their parents brought them up into this sect. Terrible awful cult where the man who was over it said that he was. He was the messianic figure and that his church was the woman and Because of that he did awful despicable things.

He prostituted the females and his group with hundreds If not thousands of men as a way of evangelizing to try to get people into this revelation cult that they had he used his authority for abuse in despicable ways and There's some people that think that River Phoenix From the trauma that he suffered through this cult one of the reasons why he ended his life.

So.

Getting revelation wrong. Badly wrong is a big deal. Now we've looked at the six wrong views that I want to show you. There's a lot more but those are the six that I want to show you that the woman is Israel.

The woman is the church. The woman is Mary and then these three heretical views. Now I want us to look at the identity of who the woman actually is. Who is she? Because we need to understand that if we want to understand Christmas.

What I'm gonna argue is that the woman is not national Israel and she's not national Judah. She's spiritual Israel. She's true Israel. She's the Israel of God. That's what I'm gonna argue. I'm gonna argue that she's not the blood Descendants of the Jews or of the Israelites.

She is the past present and future people of God who are bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. She's a people not limited by time space or geographic boundaries. She is the Old Testament elect the New Testament elect both Jew and Gentile male and female slave and free this woman is the Israel of God.

Now in order to get to that point We actually have to do some work. Because what I want to show you is that she's she's got sort of a trifold nature to her. She's prototypical Israel. Which means she's like quintessential Israel, which I sorry I had to find another word with a larger word.

She's she's like pure Israel. She's prophetic Judah and she's also the persecuted church. She's all three of these things. Now, let me show you this. She's prototypical Israel. She is the Israel that was supposed to be Israel from the very beginning.

Revelation 12 says it this way a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and with the moon Under her feet and and her head a crown of 12 stars. Now we are not going to be able to exhaust the meaning of this passage by no means whatsoever.

I spent lots of hours cutting things out of the sermon We are not going to be able to get an exhaustive treatment. But I want to identify the signs because I want to teach you how I came to this conclusion in Revelation.

I want this to be somewhat teaching also as it's preaching.

Okay.

When you look at this passage, you see a woman you also see Sun Moon and stars. Where do we see Sun Moon and stars? Well, we can look at astrological things or we can look at the Bible because the source material for the signs that these.

That's in Revelation is the Old Testament. So, where do we see the Sun the moon and the stars together in one place? Well, I think one of the most prominent places that we see this is in Genesis 37. Genesis 37 says this if you remember this is Joseph just had a dream and The dream made his family really frustrated to say the least here's the passage.

Now he had still another dream and he related it to his brothers and said no I have had still another dream and behold the Sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me and He related it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him and said what is this dream that you've had?

Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground. It's at this point that Jacob was questioning his parenting style. He's like I've given him a coat of many colors.

I got him candy every time we went to the gas station and now he thinks that we're all gonna worship him. But Jacob in this passage tells us what he thinks this means. He he does the work for us on what this dream actually means.

He interprets this he says that the meaning of the dream is that Joseph is going to rise up and that Jacob Leah and his and his other wives and the twelve sons are all going to bow down and worship Joseph.

He tells us the interpretation of the dream and this is exactly what happens in history. The Sun representative of Jacob the moon representative of Leah. The 11 stars representative of the 11 brothers.

What happened in the following chapters of Genesis? Well, the brothers got angry that he said that they were gonna bow down and worship him. This is like a great Greek tragedy play where it all turns in this incredible way in the end so they get angry at Joseph and then they throw him into a pit whenever their father sends him to go find them and give them a message and Then they take his coat of many colors and they coat it in blood and they say to the father We don't know what's happened.

Is this your son's coat and The father assumes that Joseph is dead. But Joseph wasn't dead because his brother sold him into slavery. To a traveling caravan of Midianites who the Bible says just so happened to be coming while they were debating on what to do with him.

There is no just so happens by the way in the providence of God. So he sells him into slavery. Joseph ends up in a man's house named Potiphar who becomes his master and Joseph becomes the most trusted slave and then his wife Lies about him and gets him thrown into prison and he sits in prison and he sits in prison and he sits in prison.

And he becomes the most trusted prisoner and the favor of the Lord. It says was upon him and what happened. Two men come down into prison they have dreams and Joseph by the Lord by the Lord's providence and grace interprets the dreams and He tells them when you're restored by Pharaoh.

He tells this to the one who was going to be restored. Remember me and tell him that I was the one that interpreted the dream and guess what happened the chief baker and The cupbearer got out of prison and they forgot Joseph and left him in prison.

For years and years and years until one day Pharaoh has a dream himself and the cupbearer says, oh, I Know someone who can interpret really hard dreams. And they call for Joseph. I don't know how long he was in prison, but it was a long time.

They call for Joseph. He's probably stunk so bad the scripture says that they made him shave and take a bath before he went into the presence of Pharaoh and He goes into the presence of Pharaoh and he tells him the dream and what happens.

Pharaoh elevates him to the second position and all the kingdom a great famine happens and Israel Jacob all his wives and the eleven brothers come and bow down to Joseph. So the dream actually was true, but the dream refers to Israel.

It refers to Jacob and all of his children. That is Israel if you remember Israel was founded when Jacob wrestled with God and his name was changed to Israel. Israel never meant bloodline. Israel meant those who wrestle with God those who belong to God through covenant standing with God.

So you have here this woman is Prototypical Israel sun moon and stars same thing that shows up in Joseph's vision. She is true Israel. She's the true Israel that wrestles with God, which means that she is the Old Testament.

Believers.

Not the Israel who turned their back on God in the wilderness and who died there in that whole generation. Not the ones who the earth swallowed up and consumed them. This is the Israel that wasn't just circumcised of the flesh.

This was the Israel that was circumcised of the heart. This is the true Believers in God throughout Israel's history. That's who this woman is. She's not typical Israel that bows down and worships Baal.

She's.

Prototypical Israel, she's pure Israel. She's the Israel that Israel was always supposed to be. Revelation 12 says that she has the sun moon and stars motif and it tells us that she is Israel. But because of her glorified state she's faithful Israel.

That's the first thing but the second thing is that can't account for everything because she's also prophetic Judah. It says in the passage. And on her head was a crown of 12 stars. If you remember in Joseph's dream, there's only 11 stars so now there's 12.

What is going on. Well, you remember when Judah or when Jacob goes to bless his sons. He divides Joseph into two tribes and He sets apart Judah as the ruling tribe so that the ruling tribe has the crown and then there's 12 Brothers who were underneath him and subservient to him.

We look at Genesis 49 8 through 10 to see this aspect of the passage. At the end of his life Jacob looks at his son Judah and he says this. Judah your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

Your father's sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's welt from the prey my son you have gone up. He crouches he lies down as a lion and as a lion who dares to rouse him up and this is really important.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes and To him shall be the obedience of the peoples in this moment. Jacob is putting the crown on top of Judah's head.

He's saying you are the ruling tribe. You're the one who's in charge of the people of Israel. You're the one who's gonna rule with an iron fist. You're the one who's gonna make the nation's obey you. You're the one who the ruler staff is not going to depart from you until.

Until what? The Shiloh comes. So the rule of Judah as the ruling tribe has an expiration date and The expiration date is the coming of Jesus Christ. You will rule. The scepter will not depart from your feet until the Shiloh comes and this is exactly what happened in Israel.

Judah became the ruling tribe when Moses designates the positions that the tribes are going to be in in relationship to the Ark of the Covenant. Judah was the ruling tribe. Judah was the tribe from where the Kings come from if you remember Judah is where David came from.

Because Judah is the ruling tribe of Israel. It's where the Kings come from. So in this sense, this woman is both Israel. But she's also true Judah. She's the one who is going to lead. She's the one who's going to rule.

She's the one who has the crown on top of her.

Head.

There's another proof that this woman is Judah. The first is that She actually survives to give birth to the Messiah. Judah doesn't get destroyed. And the Old Testament you remember that Israel was destroyed as we talked about earlier the ten tribes.

But Judah wasn't Judah in the prophets. It says that she was worse in her idolatry at times than her older sister Israel and yet God did not destroy her. Why? Because the scepter shall not depart from Judah until the one to whom it belongs comes.

God was protecting Judah. Keeping Judah not because she was faithful. But because she had a purpose and her purpose Was to bring forth the birth of Jesus Christ and she would not be put down Until she accomplished that very purpose.

Micah 4 9 tells us this tells it this way. Now, why do you cry loudly? Is there no King among you or has your counselor perished? Let me just stop right there for a second. In 586 BC Judah was destroyed by Babylon her king had his eyes poked out.

Their nation was led in chains to Babylon and for the next 586 years until the birth of Christ. She had no king. No no legitimate King at least. She was ruled by Babylon. Then she was ruled by Persia.

Then she was ruled by Greece then she was ruled by the Seleucids. Then she was ruled by Rome and then Rome installed a fake Edomite King over her named Herod. She never had a king again even though God promised that the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes.

For 586 years. People were wondering what has happened. Where is the scepter? It was Christ who came to reinvigorate it. It says why do you cry out loudly? Is there no King among you or has your counselor perished that agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth?

Writhe and labor to give birth daughter of Zion like a woman in childbirth for now. You go out of the city dwell in the field and go to Babylon there. You will be rescued there. The Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

Do you see what this is saying? This is an important passage for understanding Revelation 12. Here you have a a Woman who's representative of a Judah? She's crying out in her travails. She's crying out in her labor pains and She's being promised deliverance.

What does Revelation 12 say. The woman in Revelation 12 cried out in labor? Waiting for the Savior to come. This woman is a representative of prototypical Israel at the time of of Jacob and his and his offspring, but she's also Representative of Judah who from the exile all the way into the birth of Christ was in great labor pain.

Waiting for her Messiah to come because she had no king. She's true Israel. She's true Judah, and she's also the persecuted Church. Revelation 12 Takes a really surprising turn. Right after we get past the birth of Christ and his ascension to heaven.

This is what it says in verse 5 through 6 and also verses 13 through 17 and She gave birth to a son a male child. That's Jesus Who will rule all the nations. How many? Just making sure we know that who rule all the nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God.

That's the ascension and to his throne. That's his reign. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God. So that there she would be nourished for 1260 days and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth.

He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place. Where she was nourished for a time and a times and a half a time.

From the presence of the serpent and The serpent poured out water like a river out of his mouth after the woman so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood but the earth Helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.

So that the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her children. Who keep the commandments of God and who hold the testimonies of Jesus? This woman in Revelation 12 is true Israel.

Who believed in God and who would be saved when Christ came? She's true Judah who wailed and waited for the Messiah to come and to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. She's also the persecuted church. Who fled to the wilderness as soon as Jesus ascended into heaven and was persecuted by the Jews.

Day and night. What Paul did to Stephen was what many Jews were doing to many Christians all throughout the first 40 years of the church. She was persecuted. She was murdered. She was delivered up into their synagogues.

She was falsely accused. She was beaten. She was whipped. She was martyred. And you may be asking how is it that the Jews? Did this when you said that this woman is true Judah? It's because the Jews that persecuted Christians were not true Judah they were false Judah.

They're the Judah in Revelation 17 who's drunk with the blood of the Saints. They're the Judah in Revelation 18 who has a harlot is destroyed. The true Israel of God that includes Israel Judah and the church is this woman?

Who fled into the wilderness? Who was rescued by God time and time again just as this woman was rescued in the wilderness. She is the spiritual true people of God past present and future. So what we have here is this woman represents the elect of God.

Those who were saved in the Old Testament. Did you know that that people were saved in the Old Testament? How were they saved. They were saved by Christ in the same way that we were. They looked forward to the coming of Christ.

We look back to the coming of Christ, but we're all looking at Christ. This woman is the elect of God past present and future. But here's what's so interesting about this woman. Judah and Israel were separated in the Old Testament and when you get to the New Testament the church and Judah are separated as well.

So what I want you to see here is that this woman is all three of these things because of one very important reason. She's come to unite the people of God who were fractured. She's coming to bring Israel Judah and the church together.

Jesus came to make one people of God out of all the people of God to unify them to bring them together. He was born into this Eschatological woman the people of God so that he could save the people of God so that he could unite the people of God so.

That he could weave them together as one people Jew and Greek male and female slave and free one people one Lord one faith. One baptism, this is why Jesus was born. This is what Christmas is about. Christmas is not about stables and cattle mowing.

That's great. It's not about tinsel and shiny paper and all of that it's not about Christmas trees and lights. Christmas is about the reunification of the people of God through the Messiah. He came to bring Old Testament believers and New Testament believers together with his blood.

Not if that makes sense. Social pressure is real. She is the tree that Israel and the Gentiles were both grafted into. Ephesians 2 14 through 16 says for he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and Broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments.

Contained in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man. The Old Covenant people the New Covenant people into one. Thus establishing peace and he might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.

Ephesians 2 14 through 16 says quite easily what Revelation 12 says quite. Densely with image. Galatians 3 28 through 29 talks about this as well. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free male nor female for all are one in Christ Jesus.

And if you belong to Christ and you are Abraham's descendant heirs according to the promise, did you know that you're Israelites?

Did.

You know that if you have faith your children of Abraham. Did you know that you are more authentically Israel than the secular to met democratic nation that is in the Middle East? You are the people of God you are Israel and you're that because the Messiah came born at just the right time to Reunify the Old Testament people in the New Testament people into one people for his purposes.