The Dragon Ready to Devour the Child (verses 3-4)

“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 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.”

And then John sees, again, as a sign, there in verse 3—“another sign appear[ed] in heaven.” This, John sees, is a hideous dragon, red on color, with seven heads, ten horns, and each head crowned with a diadem [a band; a crown; an ornamental headband], or a type of crown. Its huge tail draws down to the earth a third of the stars of heaven in it’s sweep.

The picture here—the scene that is before John’s eyes and that he relates to us—is that this horrid dragon stands ready to devour the Child as soon as the Child is born. It is obvious, it is apparent, that the dragon is the foe of the woman as well as the foe of her Child. And it is obvious, as well, that the radiant woman has a special place, a special way, in the protection of God.

Identifying Who and What These Things are and What They Represent in Verses 1-6

Who Is The Child?

First, let’s ask the question, “Who is the Child?” Well, upon the interpretation of this basic question rests the proper identification of the woman who is so dramatically pictured here.

Verse 5 of the text makes His identify very clear. Notice there: “She bore a male Child Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” Well, this male Child is described in his maleness, if you will, as One Who is “to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” Any idea who this might be? Obviously, it is a reference to Christ, is it not? There is an Old Testament passage, Psalm 2, and verse 9, which is recognized as a Messianic prophecy, which has this very description of Him ruling the nations with a rod of iron [Psalm 2:7-9: “I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.’”]. And so, this is understood; this is applied to Christ.

We see, though, that the dragon, even though he would seem to be poised, ready to destroy, ready to devour the Child when its born, is not able to do that. Instead, the Child is caught up to the throne of God before the dragon can devour Him [“And her Child was caught up to God and His throne,” verse 5b]. It becomes very clear that the Child cannot be anyone else except Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the true Messiah of His people.

What or Who Is The Woman?

If the Child, then, is clearly Christ, then who is the woman? The identification of the woman is not going to be quite so easy for us. Roman Catholics identify the woman as the Virgin Mary. And in popular art she is often depicted as having the moon under her feet and stars in her crown. There are a number of famous paintings and works of art that depict her in this way. Yet, the further description of her in later verses in this chapter makes it very difficult to apply and to characterize the woman here as Mary the mother of Jesus.

Some have equated the woman with the nation of Israel, and that is acceptable—that’s an agreeable identification. Others have identified the woman as the church, but since the church was not in existence at the time that Christ was born, it would seem that the church could not be, or would not be, identified as the woman.

Actually, we’ve seen here three identifications of the woman here:

1) Maybe the most obvious, the easiest, is Mary the mother of Jesus. But once again, this does not seem acceptable. This is not able to be fully carried out as we go on through this chapter.

2 & 3) What about the nation of Israel? What about the church? Well, actually, from what reading I have done on this, many, if not most, scholars combine these two. They say that this is a depiction, a sign that is described as a woman giving birth, but it represents the people of God of both the Old Covenant as well as the New Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, this meant the faithful remnant of fleshly Israel from whom the Messiah comes. And under the New Covenant, it means the faithful Christians, the spiritual Israel—the church—the continuing people of God today.

The figure of a “woman” was something that was used in the Old Testament in reference to “the children of Israel,” and something that was also used in the New Testament in reference to “the church.” Let’s take a moment and look at a couple of those references:

References in the Old Testament:

Isaiah 54:5-6: “‘For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His Name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. 6 For the LORD has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, Like a youthful wife when you were refused,’ Says your God.” Well, this is, of course, the prophet speaking of the nation of Israel. He is a prophet to the nation of Israel. He’s speaking here in the illustrative terms about the nation, using this idea of a woman, or of a wife.

Jeremiah 6:2: “I have likened the daughter of Zion To a lovely and delicate woman.” Well, “the daughter of Zion” is another clear reference to the children of Israel.

And so we see here in the Old Testament (and there are other references as well, but these are two clear references) where the figure of a woman is used to represent the people of God, the nation of God, the chosen of God.