Tuesday 13th December
Read Revelation 11:19-12:6
“Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm. 12 1A great 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 its heads. 4 Its 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 it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who ‘will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.’ And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.” (NIVUK)
As we continue our adventures in the great less-told Christmas story let’s reflect on the elephant in the room – or perhaps we should say the enormous red dragon! If the woman in childbirth is one protagonist (v2; cf Genesis 3), it is unsurprising that the other should be described as a giant serpent. Later John saw that ‘The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.’ (Revelation 12:9) (NIVUK). So the angels hurled down with him are those stars swept aside by the dragons’ tail (v4). The heads, horns and crowns (v3) indicate that the dragon has real power and authority amongst those who dwell upon the earth, power enough to ‘lead the whole world astray’, power to deceive just as the serpent deceived the woman in the garden in ancient times.
What form does this power to deceive take? Like all deception it is often found in words and teaching. Consider what John then hears:
“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
‘Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10) (NIVUK)
The deception of the devil began a long time ago and continued incessantly ‘day and night’. John’s visions will provide much greater detail on the nature of this deception and how to respond (Revelation 13) that we won’t consider in this series. But when Jesus came we read of just such deception being planned and executed by the ruler and authority of that day, Herod. When he heard of the birth of this Messiah from the Magi he sought, by deceptive words, to immediately destroy the child, or in the language of John: ‘to devour her child the moment he was born’. The result of which was brutal (cf Matthew 2:16-18).
This Christmas story asks us to live with ears wide open, to not be deceived, but be wise and faithful…
