What or Who Is The Dragon?

Let’s look at the dragon. What or who is the dragon? He is clearly called in verse 9 “…that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world….” He will also be identified the same way in chapter 20 and verse 2 [“…that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan….”]. In fact, in chapter 12 there occur for us more names for the devil than in any other place in Scripture. He is pictured here as being horrible, as being cruel. He’s pictured here as having horns, which indicates his power. You’ll recall that under the Old Testament scheme of things and in the economy [of words—the management of words] of also the 1^st Century world that “horns” were representative of power, so he is pictured as having great power.

He has seven heads crowned with diadems, symbolizing, possibly, his cleverness and his sovereignty over men.

And the stars that he drags down from the heavens are those that he, as the arch foe of God, has drawn down with him. Several writers agree that they represent his angels. There is one writer who writes this: “He traces through the Old Testament the various efforts that were made to try to thwart the coming of Christ into the world to block God’s plan of redemption.”

Well, this is a rather impressive story, whether or not that’s what is primarily referred to in this passage. It would appear, though, that what is being spoken of here in this passage does concern—it is connected with—Satan’s desire, Satan’s attempts, to destroy the Messiah as He comes into the world.

We see, of course, that if we look at the imagery here, that if we look at it on the grand scale, there is this contest. Satan knows what is transpiring. He knows what it will mean when the Son of God comes to the world, to his realm, to his domain. This, by the way, is something that has been anticipated, something that has been looked forward to, all the way from Genesis, the third chapter, right after the fall of man. And so, Satan, in anticipation of the coming of the Son of God, has done everything that he can do to be prepared, to be ready. We see in his workings with God’s people under the Old Covenant, that they were always in apostasy; they were always engaging in idolatry and other pagan behavior and whatnot. But he is very concerned about the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God, because he understands, he knows, what that is going to mean. And if he can in some way, in some fashion, destroy “the second Adam,” he will be victorious. He was involved in the successful fall of the first Adam, and Jesus is used metaphorically, of course, as “the second Adam.” Satan was successful in being a part of, a party to, the fall of the first Adam. So, his desire, his intention, is to make “the second Adam” fall as well.

We know that Satan’s involvement, his activity, his work, began almost immediately after the birth of the Child, Jesus. We know what happened in the city of Bethlehem when Herod, the King, called for all the male children, ages two years and below, to be slaughtered, to be murdered. Do you think Satan had any involvement, any participation, in that? Well, of course he did! Do you think that that was an attempt on his part, perhaps, to annihilate, to wipe out, the Messiah, the Son of God? Of course it was!

Then we see, as Jesus is about to begin His earthly ministry, that Satan is directly involved in the very specific, the very direct, temptation of our Lord. Of course, we know that he was unsuccessful with that, Matthew, chapter 4. We know that that was not the last, the final, attempt by Satan to tempt, to cause the Son of God to sin, to fall, to be unsuccessful, in His mission on behalf of His Father, but this continued throughout the earthly ministry of our Lord [Luke 4:13: “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”].

Satan, no doubt, used direct attempts, but moreover, he was involved in the trouble, the problems, the confrontations that Jesus always encountered, whether it was with the Pharisees, whether it was with those who were close to Him, who followed Him, and so on. And then, of course, Satan was involved in all of the events leading right up to the death of Jesus.

I think this is the sense of what this sign would be that John is seeing here, that the Son of God, that the Messiah, is to come forth. Of course, what John is seeing here had already transpired, it had already taken place; it’s history. But what John is relating to these people of the 1^st Century to whom he writes, who are so oppressed and so persecuted, brings encouragement to them by refreshing their minds, their memories, about the victory that Christ had over Satan.

I think that we can see ALL of these things, then, in that first section of Revelation, chapter 12—this image of the Child, of the woman and of the dragon, who is Satan, or the devil.

The “Man Child”

When the woman brought forth her child, it was a “man Child.” The Greek text here is very strong in the way that it’s written. It literally reads, “son, a male child,” which is a redundant expression. Redundancy used in this way makes the point very specific. The “maleness” of this Child is particularly emphasized, as if to say that He was strong, that He was powerful, that He was a ruler, that He was a leader, that He would be One Who would rule all nations with a rod of iron.

That Satan, that the devil, failed to kill Him as he had slaughtered the male babies in Bethlehem—that he failed to thwart the Messiah through the temptations to distract and to derail Him from His purpose—that Satan failed to overwhelm Him even through the instrumentality of those who were closest to Him, those like Peter, when Peter attempted to dissuade Him from the path of going to Jerusalem to face death and Jesus would say, “Get thee behind Me, Satan,” Matthew 16, verse 23—and that Satan failed to kill Him, or to overcome Him, in the struggles of Gethsemane—all of these eloquently proclaim the dragon’s failure.

Can you see now this picture, this image that John has before him, of the birth of the Messiah, of the Son of God, Him coming forth into the world, and the dragon, the devil, Satan himself, ready to devour Him, desirous of devouring Him? But at every turn, at every attempt, he failed to do so.

The Child would eventually be snatched up to God’s throne and to fellowship with God. For not even death could overwhelm Him [Romans 6:8-9: “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.”].