Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

The events of Revelation 12 are pivotal to the rest of the book, and it’s important to understand them now before moving on.

The story told here has 4 main characters. To understand the story, we must know who the characters represent.

The characters are:

1. The Mother
2. Her Male Child
3. Her Other Offspring
4. The Dragon

Of these four, only the Mother’s identity is less than obvious. The bulk of this lesson will focus on identifying her. First, let’s take care of the three easy ones.

Her Male Child: That this is a “male child” rather than just a “child” points to a specific person (rather than a genderless concept or group of people). He “will rule all nations with an iron scepter” and he was “snatched up to God and to His throne” (v. 5). The male child is obviously Jesus Christ.

Her Other Offspring: These offspring are siblings of the male child — brothers and sisters of Jesus — because they share the same mother. In v. 17, “the rest of her offspring” are identified as “those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” This is clearly the church.

Side Note: Who is behind the voice from Heaven in v. 10? We can’t say for sure, but it doesn’t seem to come from Jesus (since he is a separate character in this story). The speaker says those who “did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” are his brothers. Since angels are nowhere else in the Bible associated as “brethren” of Christians, it is likely that the person behind the voice is one of the martyrs of 6:9-11.

The Dragon: This guy is the only one who is clearly named — it is Satan (v. 9).

The Mother: It’s tempting at first to think the mother is Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus. But there are several reasons to think otherwise:

• The whole story up to v. 9 takes place in Heaven — outside of time and space. It is a spiritual scene, not a physical one.
• She is clothed with the sun, the moon is under her feet, and she has 12 stars on her head. It is difficult to relate this majestic description to anything else the Bible says about Mary. The sun and the moon represent time, as in days and months (they stood still whenever time stopped — see Josh 10:13 and Hab 3:11). To the point, the imagery here shows the mother as having existed throughout history.
• None of the attacks described by Satan against the mother relate to anything we know about Mary.
• It doesn’t make sense to describe Mary as the mother of the church. She is the mother of Jesus, yes, because she bore Him and gave birth to Him. But we the church are Jesus’ spiritual siblings, not His physical siblings. This would point to a common “spiritual mother” between Jesus and the church.

“Jesus’ mother” doesn’t automatically mean Mary any more than “my Father” automatically means my dad.

So, we need to identify a spiritual mother of Christ and the church. Fortunately, Paul made that just a little bit easier in a rather obscure, but fascinating passage. Let’s take a fun diversion as we explore Galatians 4:21-31.

Read the following carefully:

21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. 24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written: “Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” [Isaiah 54:1] 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” [Gen 21:10] 31 Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

In vv. 21-23, Paul builds the tension between freedom and slavery — Sara and Hagar — who gave birth to Abraham’s two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. As a reminder, Isaac was born to Abraham’s wife through a miracle; Ishmael was born to Abraham’s slave through a sin. Isaac became the father of the nation of Israel; Ishmael became the father of the Arab nations.

In vv. 24-25, Paul says that “Free Sara” and “Slave Hagar” are figurative. They represent the two covenants — the covenant of Grace and the covenant of Law. Grace is freedom, Law is slavery.

Pause for a moment. Make sure the above is clear before moving on. If we were picking teams for a dodgeball game, here are the team members:

Freedom - Sara, Isaac, The Grace Covenant

Slavery - Hagar, Ishmael, The Law Covenant

Do you realize how strong those words were to any Jews that might have read Galatians (although Paul himself was of Jewish descent)? He said pretty plainly in v. 25 that anyone who is looking for salvation through the Law is, figuratively speaking, a child of Hagar and a brother of Ishmael! And to twist the knife a bit, he points out that Mount Sinai is in Arabia, as if this were God’s plan all along.

Now verse 26: “But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” There is a heavenly Jerusalem – which is figuratively represented by Sara, Isaac, Grace, and Freedom. This is our “spiritual” or “heavenly” mother. This is in distinction from the earthly Jerusalem which Paul said in the previous verse is in slavery.

He goes on to quote Isaiah 54:1 to show that the children of slavery through Law outnumber the children of freedom through grace. He also points out that Ishmael persecuted Isaac and says in v. 29 “it is the same now.” It is, of course, the same now in the 21st century as well.

Finally, in v. 31 this Jew (Paul) writes to these Gentiles (the church in Galatia) that “we [the church] are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.”

To summarize then, the mother of the church in Galatans 4 is the heavenly, spiritual Jerusalem. We, the church, are Abraham’s offspring through her.

Turning back to Revelation now, the Mother, I believe, is this Ideal Jerusalem which is represented by grace and freedom. Grace and freedom are, in turn, the enemies of Satan and the very things he wants to destroy. He operates by putting people in slavery, and bondage to death.

With this understanding of the main characters, we will look more thoroughly at the story of Revelation 12 in our next lesson.