Sunday, December 20, 2020
Revelation 12
Just as chapter 11 retold the whole of Scripture in just 19 verses, so does chapter 12. But now we get new imagery and a more specific focus: the nation Israel (the pregnant woman); her enemies (the dragon); and the Messiah (the child).
I’ll be honest, Revelation 12 and 13 are crammed-full with Old Testament allusions and imagery, as well reappropriating popular Greek myths. Dragons and Serpents bring us back to the garden in Genesis 3; the leviathan monsters of the Psalms and Job; the visions of Daniel. Pregnant mothers reminds us of all the stories of birth in the Old Testament; of Israel being compared to mother giving birth to a remnant. It’s dense and sometimes hard to decipher all that’s going on.