When you think of reading the Christmas story, you most
likely think of Luke 2. You may also turn to the gospel of Matthew to read more
about Joseph and the wise men. Passages preached in Christmas messages also
include the prophets, particularly Isaiah and Micah. Additionally, I have
always loved Galatians 4:4-7 in the context of the Christmas story which relays
how God sent Christ to be born in the “fulness of time.” However, one place we
do not typically go to for the Christmas story is the book of Revelation. Yet
it is there, in this unlikely place, told in an unusual way and pointing to a
great reality. Let’s take a look.
Revelation 12:1-6 goes like
this: “And
a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She
was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving
birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red
dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven
diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast
them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give
birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth
to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,
but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled
into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to
be nourished for 1,260 days.”
Revelation is a
book that describes John’s symbolic visions, pointing to things yet to come. As
the ESV Study Bible notes, it “unveils the spiritual war in which the church is
engaged: the cosmic conflict between God and his Christ on the one hand, and
Satan and his evil allies on the other.” Its purpose is not for the believer to
be able to “decode” every piece of symbolism or for the church to argue for
years to come about its timeline and what to take literally. Its main message
is simple: Christ will return as conquering king and will judge the world. And
the church, in the meantime, can stay encouraged by this truth, persevering despite
hardship until that day comes.
So, with this in
mind, look back to the above telling of the Christmas story. The pregnant woman
could specifically refer to Mary or more generally to the Israelite nation into
which Jesus would be born. The descriptive words (sun, moon, 12 stars) point to
Israel. Meanwhile, the red dragon, Satan himself, with the descriptors that
show power, is seeking to do what he can to prevent this child’s coming into
the world. His goal is to devour that child. What methods does he employ? The
one that stands out clearly to me is when Herod has all the young boys in
Bethlehem killed in an effort to eliminate any rivals to his throne. But we can
think back even further to the Old Testament: Pharaoh’s attempt to have the
Hebrew male babies killed in Egypt, the famines, and the captivities. Satan did
not want this child to be born.
This passage in
Revelation then skips straight from the birth of the Christ child to his being
“caught up to God and his throne.” In other words, Satan could not stop him.
God protected Christ’s life while he was on earth so he could submit to the
Father’s plan, dying on the cross for the sins of man so we could now be right
with God through faith in Him. I love this shortened version of the Christmas
story because it does what Revelation sets out to do: It shows the cosmic
battle that continues today that will not be won by Satan. He was not able to
stop Jesus, and he will not be able to stop Jesus’s church. The rest of
Revelation repeatedly bears this out in a variety of ways. The same Jesus who
was born in Bethlehem will return, though this time not as a baby but as a
conquering king (Rev. 19:11-16).
I think it’s appropriate
that at Christmas time, we don’t just focus on Jesus’s first coming as a baby,
but we remember that we are in a time of waiting for Jesus’s second coming. And
thus, we heed the message of Revelation: We are in a battle, so let’s fight
well and let’s persevere. And above all, let’s keep our eyes fixed on the sky,
knowing that the victory already belongs to God and to His Christ, and that one
day Jesus will return, put an end to all that is wicked and broken, and take us
home.
-- Amy O’Rear
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