THE FOURTH VISION: THE SEVEN VISIONS (12:1—15:8)
The First Vision - The Great Red Dragon
So far in the Revelation, John and the seven churches have seen that God knows their faith, their challenges, and their sins; and God wants them to know that he has them in his hands. He is with us and he has not forgotten us. In the end, it will be the Lamb of God who will set into motion the events that will end the world and open the gates of heaven for the bodies and souls of all believers. The whole New Testament time, from Pentecost to the Last Day, has been represented by visions of seven seals (chapters 4-7) and seven trumpets announcing seven plagues (chapters 8-11).

Now in the fourth (and central) vision, the entire time of the New Testament world is again described, this time in seven shorter visions: (1) the woman and the dragon, (2) the beast out of the sea, (3) the beast out of the earth (4) the Lamb and the 144,000, (5) the three angels assuring us that false teachers will never silence the gospel, (6) the harvest of the earth, and (7) seven angels with seven plagues. First, the strange scene of the woman and the dragon:

The Dragon and the Child
12.1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. (NIV)

The woman with her heavenly sun/moon clothing and “victory wreath” (Greek stephanos) of stars is clearly the Christian church. From out of the true church a woman gave birth to a special child: Jesus Christ. After Christ’s ascension into heaven, the church must flee into the wilderness -- no longer a nation, as Israel was, but taken care of by God wherever it is to be found for the 1,260 days. Those 1,260 days are the same amount of time as 3½ years or “time, times and half a time” -- the period of the New Testament, from Pentecost until the Last Day. It is the time you and I are living in today. We Christians are not a nation. We are a people who dwell where we are while we wait for our Savior to return again.

The enormous red dragon is certainly the devil. Just as the child was born, the dragon stood ready to devour the child. The devil's actions are seen clearly in Herod's murder of the boys in Bethlehem. Then, at the end of his ministry, this same child, the Christ, ascended (“was snatched up to God”). Since that time we await his return.

While we wait, we remind each other that our Savior's work on our behalf is precious. The forgiveness he won for us has snatched us from the jaws of the dragon. The cross protects us from the sweep of the dragon's tail. And the dragon's fiery redness has no command over us. We are covered in another red, the blood of Jesus, who has made us his own, and taken away our sins forever.

Your sins are forgiven. You are at peace with God.