Revelation in One Scene: Dragon, Woman, Offspring - Paul Lamicela

Wow. So that, that was the lens. Um, and then there's another piece that you want to— Yeah, I, I don't want to, yeah, I don't want to spend—so the other two pieces, the one is the ending, the new, the vision of new creation, chapters 21 and 22. That puts the whole Bible together. It, it brings in imagery of temple and Eden and marriage, and it like weaves it all together to the end of the story.

We have a, we, we are doing a whole nother episode on specifically that, right? But that's, so if the, if the letters to the churches are a lens, then the ending kind of grounds you at the end of the book, right? To say, okay, the story may do all these strange movements, but we end here. And that's, that's a grounding place. There's one more in the middle, Revelation chapter 12. And we could do a whole episode on this, but it's the story of the woman and the dragon.

Oh, yeah. Whoo. Crazy. This, this is a, again, I mean, again, Revelation's a little bit wild. Uh, this is also bizarre. It is bizarre. Or, or I, I just say that lovingly, but like, it's just— No, it is bizarre. It's just like, it's, it's very— Well, our, um, it's hard to get our heads around a little bit. It's kind of surrealist. Yeah. But what's happening here is, in a sense, right, smack in the middle of the, of the book, it's kind of like a pause. And we say, hey, this chapter kind of gives you a little separate perspective on this whole era of redemptive history, from Jesus' first coming to his second. And that gives you another little lens of, of to help you understand what's happening in the previous chapters and in the succeeding, succeeding chapters.

Um, so it's not supposed to be like, huh, then there's, it's again, it's not sequential. This is like, it's kind of the center point. You're like, okay, uh, I need to zoom out again and see, get a, get a, a full perspective on this. So we have right in the middle, just as you're starting to get really confused, this story to say, okay, just remember, this is sort of the big meta, the big meta story I'm trying to tell, John's trying to tell. Gotcha. Okay. And it's the story of this woman. She has stars over her head. She's apparently a very, she's, she's a rule, she's ruling. She's pregnant. She's crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.

And then there's a dragon. And he stands before the woman so that, uh, when she bears her child, he might devour it. And she gives birth to a male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. This is Psalm 2 again.

And her child is caught up to God into his throne. Who is this woman? Um, because it's, it's a little confusing. Um, then she, um, the woman flees into the wilderness where she is kept preserved by God for this whole time, this whole era of tribulation until Jesus returns, symbolized in the 1260 days.

And then the camera zooms to, goes back to, goes to heaven and says, and from heaven's perspective, there was Michael and the angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon gets kicked out. Why does the dragon get kicked out? Well, because of what had just happened with this child that was born to the woman, Jesus, right?

So he gets kicked out. And the dragon sees that he'd been, when the dragon saw that he'd been thrown to the earth, he pursued the woman that had given birth to the male child. So he realizes his time is short because, um, the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah has come. The accuser of the brothers has been thrown down. He's been conquered by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. Jesus has triumphed through his death and resurrection. So the devil's been, the dragon's kicked down to earth, but he's not destroyed yet. He realizes his time is short. And so what does he do?

He pursues the woman, but the woman is, is, uh, is kept preserved by God for this whole length duration of time that the devil, that the dragon has left. And then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. And you're like, why? Well, the next verse says, I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads. So what is the drag, what does this dragon do? He realizes, bummer, the, the, the son, Jesus, the Messiah, has been born, has died, has risen from the dead.

I'm kicked out of, like my, the accuser of the brethren has been thrown out. The authority of Jesus has, you know, has, has come. I have, my time is short. What am I going to do with that? I'm going to spend the rest of my short time in making war on the rest of the offspring of the woman, which John says is those who keep the commands of God. And the next thing he does is go and, and create these beasts, the beast, right? That is what, that's his, um, that's his plan for the rest of the time he has left is to, um, is to, to generate these beasts out of the sea and the land that are going to persecute, uh, the seed of the woman, the rest of, of the disciple, of, uh, Jesus' people.

So it's a very, it's very, it's a lot, but it's very simple when you, when you come down to it. It's just, I mean, it's saying, uh, Jesus came into the world. Mm-hmm. He died and rose again. He's seated at the right hand of, of God. All authority is given to him. The accuser of the brethren is, is booted, but he's not destroyed yet. And he's very angry. And he's going to spend all the rest of his time, uh, on, on, on, uh, trying to try, make, trying to make war on all the rest of Jesus' people. Wow. And that sets up for the whole, kind of the rest of Revelation with all these beasts and all this stuff.

So when we read about all these crazy beasts, we're supposed to go back to this chapter 12 and say, what this means is the dragon, the devil, is very mad. And he's going to spend there, he, because he knows Jesus has, Jesus is sitting at the throne, on the throne of God.

And, uh, he, he's very angry. And so he's going to spend the rest of his days, which he knows are numbered, um, trying to make war on us. It's, and that's the whole, that's, again, in the middle of the book, this lens that we're supposed to read all these beasts and all this crazy stuff through.