There is a lot of confusion lately about a possible fulfillment of the vision of Revelation 12. Prophecy teachers are being sucked into reckoning end times events by conflating astrological phenomenon with a valid biblical vision, that of the woman clothed in the Sun.
There is no doubt that there are such things as recognizable constellations, or Mazzeroth, as in a question asked of Job by the Most High, in the book of Job:
Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? (Job 38:32)
God refers to Orion, Ursa, and Pleiedes as in Amos 5:8:
“He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning
and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name.”
Having said all of that, we are forbidden to try to divine events by the position of the stars, even if it seems to fulfill Scripture. Divination of any kind is forbidden by God, we have the scriptures, by them God is well able to share the secrets of the future with his chosen people.
In view of the recent folly of the coming epiphany set for 9/20-21/2017, in which there is said to be an alignment of the constellation Virgo which will seem to cloth Virgo with the stars and sun and moon, I have decided to offer this commentary on the vision of Revelation 12, and its possible meaning, so that God’s people would be turned away from astrology and to the exposition of the truth in Scripture.
First of all, just read the following chapter (Revelation 12) out loud and let the words of this beautiful and mysterious vision soak into your being…
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
I intend to expound on certain aspects of this mysterious vision in the future; but first I exhort you to simply read the vision in its entirety, and pray to the Lord that we all may benefit front this Divinely given revelation.
There are four statements which I want to make to lay a foundation for this exposition of the vision.
1) All of the Bible is one. There are sixty-six books written over a period of one thousand five hundred years, written by 40 different human vessels, and on three different continents, yet all of the Scripture is one, a united whole, a seamless garment. Each book has a spiritual relationship with every other book of the Bible.
2) There are some books of the Bible that have a stronger relationship with each other, than others. There is a very strong and continuous relationship between Genesis and Revelation. All of the problems raised in Genesis find their resolution in Revelation. Even the Tree of Life re-emerges in the Revelation. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be at the end.
3) There is a special relationship between the vision in Revelation 12 and the account of the fall of man in Genesis chapter three. What do we have in Genesis three? A woman, ( and her husband, who didn’t count for much),a serpent, and the promise of a victorious child to be born, “the seed of the woman”.
By the time we get to Revelation 12, the woman is clothed, and pregnant, and in labor. The Serpent has become a dragon, and has obtained much worldly power, and many victories (Horns and crowns). And the man-child is safely born and caught-up to God.
4) I want to emphasize that the Revelation is not entirely chronological. This vision is partially an explanation of what has been happening all along, and partially an explanation of where it is all going.