ONE of the most wonderful chapters of all the prophetic Word is the one before us in this study. It is like a key, in that it opens to us the great storehouse of prophetic knowledge. It is like a watchtower on the mountain top; for it presents in comprehensive view the great field of prophecy. It sweeps backward to that time when man was not, and forward to that eternity when sin shall be no more. This prophecy is like a giant door, which, opened, reveals to us God’s temple of historic knowledge for His children, marshalling in panoramic scenes the great controversy of the ages, the prizes sought and lost and won, the actors in the great drama, and the glorious end. These things will be developed as we pursue our study. We will find the symbolism bold and startling, but by comparing scripture with scripture, we shall find clear and consistent Biblical interpretation. With these preliminary thoughts let us proceed to
Question the Text.
With what statement does this vision open?
“And a great sign was seen in heaven.” Verse 1.
What was this sign?
“A woman.”²
What was her appearance?
“Arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”³
What was her condition?
“And she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered.”⁴ Verse 2.
Explanation and Comment.
1. “A Great Sign.”—The word “sign” in the original means that which signifies, a mark or symbol. So God “signified” the Revelation, by these visions to the Church. Ch. 1:11. These signs can not, therefore, mean the objects used in the symbol, but must signify something else. For instance, the woman does not signify a literal woman nor the dragon a literal sea or land reptile. “In heaven,” as tho appearing on the clouds or in the sky, placed high in its revealing, where all could see it, above earthly things in nature and importance. It is in the spiritual realms that the things symbolized occur; and they can be truly seen only in the light of God’s Word by the eye of faith.
2. “A Woman.”—A pure woman in prophecy symbolizes the true church, or body, of God’s people; says the prophet: “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.” Jer. 6:2. “I have espoused you to one husband,” says an apostle, “that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Cor. 11:2. The woman seen “in heaven,” upheld by the power of God, is, it is clearly evident, the symbol of the people, or church, of God.
3. “The Appearance of the Woman.”—The “sun,” the physical source of light, well symbolizes the glorious “Sun of Righteousness,” Christ Jesus, and the fuller revelation of the Gospel at His first advent. The moon, the lesser luminary, shining with a borrowed light, is a fitting symbol of ages previous under the types and shadows pointing to the Light of the world. The moon underfoot would indicate a cast-off garment. Previous to our Lord’s first coming, the light of truth shone more dimly, represented by the light of the moon. The shadows were deeper and darker. Truth was revealed in symbolic sacrifices, offerings, and ceremonies, which in themselves had no virtue, but whose virtue lay in the One typified, Jesus Christ, even as the moon shines by light which it receives from the sun. The increased spiritual light which came at Christ’s first coming as compared with the dimmer light before existing, is clearly set forth in the scriptures following. Said Zacharias of John the Baptist:—
“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:76–79.
“The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.” Matt. 4:16.
“For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” Matt. 13:16.
“How that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery [the Gospel]; . . . which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; . . . unto me . . . was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the stewardship of the mystery, which from all ages hath been hid in God, who created all things; to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eph. 3:3–11, R. V., margin.
The same increase of light is shown in Rev. 5:1–9, where the opening of the book of the Gospel, the revealing of the saving truth of God, was accomplished by the overcoming and death of Christ. There is another significance to the expression “arrayed with the sun.” Jesus Christ is called “the Sun of righteousness.” Mal. 4:2. When transfigured, “His raiment became shining, exceeding white.” Mark 9:2. The church is espoused to Him. Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 11:2. He clothes her in His own royal robes, invests her in His own apparel; bestows upon her His own name. See Isa. 61:10; Rev. 19:8; Ps. 42:13. The glorious dress of the church eighteen centuries ago was but the outshining of the glory within—Christ’s righteousness.
The Crown of Twelve Stars.—The crown shows that the church had conquered in some great struggle. The twelve stars represent both the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles. In the glorious restitution the apostles will rule over the tribes, the names of whom are in the foundations of the eternal city. Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:12, 14. This first verse also reveals to us the view-point of the prophet in time, namely of the first advent of Christ, with its retrospect and prospect. It can not be confined to an exact moment. Of necessity it fluctuates according to the nature of the event under particular consideration.
4. The Woman’s Condition.—“And she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered.” This represents a condition previous to her victory, to her crowning and being clothed with the sun. She was with child, and during this time she was in pain to be delivered. The figure is a forcible one and known to all. Some minds may be shocked with the simile which the prophet uses, but it will be only those wrongly educated or whose minds have become basely corrupt, who look upon marriage as a license to gratify lust, and the begetting and bringing forth of children as libidinous and shameful, instead of the important and blessed and holy thing which God designed it should be. “Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” In early times it was considered by holy women a disgrace to be without offspring,—offspring legitimate, begotten of their own lawful husbands, developing unselfishness in their own lives, strengthening love for each other, and enlarging the heart with almost infinitely tender and strong outreaching for blessing and power to bestow upon the lives of their lives. The figure is too serious and too sacred to every one born of woman for low jest or vile thought. Thus all have come into the world, and the burden has been4the mother’s. There are no longings so great as those in the heart of the true mother before her child is born. Her pain, her anguish at the time of its birth is not alone for herself, but for him in whom she is to be glorified.
So the church, with a hundredfold intensity, is represented as longing with pain and anguish for her Child. Not only is He to be her glory, but her Deliverer.
When Did the Travailing Begin?
The church of God as an organized body came into existence when God delivered His people out of Egypt and adopted them for His own, in order that they might serve Him by revealing Him to the world and so save others. For that purpose He bestowed upon them “the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants [old and new], and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” But He did it all that His people might reveal His glory, His law, His covenants, His service, to others, that others also might receive His adoption. And so the Lord said: “I was an husband unto them.”
As long as God’s people were faithful to Him they prospered; this prosperity reached its earthly climax under the reigns of David and Solomon, each of whom were types of Christ. From that time the glory began to decline. The ten-tribe kingdom was subverted; only the tribe of Judah, to whom the promise of the Shiloh was made, remaining independent, having her own king, and preserving the true worship of God. In her backsliding the Lord chastened her, and in returning to Him He prospered her, till at last her wickedness grew so great that the Lord removed from her His protecting arm, and the daughter of Zion was carried to Babylon. See 2 Chron. 36:14–21.
In the Babylonian humiliation began the travailing of the church, the anguish, the crying, the longing for the Deliverer. Her condition in captivity is thus set forth:—
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” Ps. 137:1–4.
In Jerusalem, obedient to God, she could sing His praise in the joy and prosperity of His presence. In captivity she mourned for the things she had lost, and longed for the Deliverer: “O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!” Ps. 14:7. She waited with anxiety for the coming of the “Desire of all nations.”
The prophet Micah, contemporary with Isaiah, after referring to the wickedness in Judah among priest and prophet, as it existed in the time just preceding her captivity, as shown by Jeremiah, predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people, as well as the restoration. Thus He speaks of the church as she was going into the captivity, and was surrounded by her foes:—
“Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail? Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon.” Micah 4:9, 10.
A little farther along in this prophecy, after referring to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), the prophet again refers to the time this anguish, pain, longing, and travailing are to continue, in these words:— “Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she who travaileth hath brought forth; then the residue of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.” Verse 3.
The anguish and travail began, therefore, at the time the people of God—the daughter of Zion—went into captivity, about six hundred years before Christ, and terminated when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Then was manifest the Shiloh of the tribe of Judah, to whom the gathering of the nations should be, and not to a literal king at Jerusalem on earth.
We have learned thus far that the woman of Rev. 12:1, 2, symbolizes the church of God in her triumph after having passed through her anguish, pain, and longing of six centuries of captivity. In our next we will trace other predictions of the prophecy.