Revelation 12 - Understanding What It Means

I’ve heard different interpretations about who and what the scriptures refer to in the 12^th Chapter of Revelation, for instance, is ‘Mary’ representative of the actual ‘Mary’ that bore Jesus or is it referring to the first church? And I’d like to agree that both are true. In the feasts of the LORD, such as with the Feast of Tabernacles, there is a past reference which signifies the Hebrews dwelling in tents after the LORD delivered them from Egypt, a reference with Jesus during His life on earth, and a reference to His dwelling among us again during His reign here on earth. Revelation 12 can be interpreted in the same way. Revelation 12 can refer to the actual life, death, and resurrection of Jesus here on earth as well as referring to the age of the church. For the purpose of this article, I would like to refer to the Book of Revelation as dealing with the time of the actual life of Jesus here on earth.
Here is a breakdown of each of the verses, use your Bible to follow along:

Verse 1: Refers to Mary, mother of Jesus, crowned with the glory of Israel.

Verse 2: Refers to Mary about to physically deliver Jesus as a baby.

Verse 3: Refers to Satan and his kingdom of principalities and powers of the air.

Verse 4: Refers to Satan seeing Jesus ready to be born on the earth, now tries to physically kill Him because he thinks this is his opportunity to overthrow God’s power in assuming Jesus is now a vulnerable human being – sending a third of the angels below to try to accomplish this, fighting in the spiritual realm against the other angels to try to kill Him.

Verse 5: Jesus is here established as the person to whom these verses have been referring to (an identity verse).

Verse 6: Refers to the time when Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt to protect Him from Herod - Matthew 2.13-15.

Verse 7: Refers to the spiritual battles taking place among the devil and the angels in trying to defeat God/Jesus.

Verse 8: Refers to the defeat of Satan in his trying to overtake the throne.

Verse 9: Refers to Satan and his angels being cast to earth after Jesus dies on the cross (Jesus said in John 12.31-33 that as He was about to go to the cross that the prince of this world was about to be cast out).

Verse 10: Refers to what Jesus accomplished on the cross – our salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God, and the power of Christ Jesus – for the accuser of the brethren is cast out of heaven (Satan is no longer in heaven able to accuse the brethren to God any more).

Verse 11: Refers to now, how the followers of Jesus overcome the enemy which is now in the earthly realm – Satan is unable to accuse us in heaven because the Blood of Jesus covers our sin. It states how we overcome Satan by the Blood of Jesus which has cleansed us from our sins, the word of our testimony being our witness of His salvation and work in our lives, and by not loving our lives to the death.

Verse 12: Refers to the heavenly inhabitants rejoicing because Satan is now out of their domain and how because now that he is in the earthly realm, that those of us in the earthly realm now have woe come unto us because we must face our enemy who has great wrath towards us because he knows his time is short (he and his angels now accusing us within our minds and seeking to devour us – no longer able to accuse us to God).

Verse 13: Refers to the devil persecuting those who bring forth the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus and those who obey Him (Jesus said His mother and His brethren are those who do the will of His Father which is in heaven – Matthew 12.47-50).

Verse 14: Refers to the time of physical death of the brethren, being lifted up to heavenly places with our LORD Jesus and being protected there until the time comes for us to be resurrected unto physical life in the form that we will be in for eternity, for Jesus is the first born of the dead, the only one resurrected in the form of life in which He is now. When Jesus died, He was in the grave for 3 days and was then resurrected, not seen by the brethren until after ½ the day had past (in Hebrew time, the day begins at sundown; therefore, dawn (when He was first seen) would’ve been the half day past to account for the 3 ½ time reckoning from Jesus’ death to Him being seen of the brethren - Matthew 27.63, 28.1), this is the same example for us, who upon death, will be in paradise with Him until we are physically resurrected as He was (Jesus told the sinner on the cross (who admitted his just punishment) that he would be with Him in paradise - Luke 42-43).

Verse 15-17: Refers to the continual persecution from the devil against the people of faith and of the help that we receive to overcome.

What is the importance of understanding Revelation 12 in this way? Do you ever feel condemned, do you feel ashamed for the sins you commit and the iniquity you have because you think and feel that you are constantly being accused to the Father every time you fail or fall short? Well, one of the blessings that comes from understanding Revelation 12 is knowing and understanding that the accuser of the brethren is no longer in heaven accusing us to the Father, as he once was able to do as with Job. We now understand that the condemnation we feel from our sin and iniquity is from the enemy here on earth whispering it in our ears, reminding us again and again so that we feel so ‘unworthy’ and so ashamed that we become spiritually weak and feel disbanded from our LORD. But if we understand that it is our enemy ministering condemnation into our ears and that he is very wroth with us and bringing attacks upon us, then we can begin to be free from the bondages that hold us back from closer relationship and fellowship with our LORD and can begin to be free to do His will with greater peace and faith. We can also begin to realize the voice of the Holy Spirit which tries to lead us into repentance of our sins and iniquities and tries to help us to overcome in our weaknesses – understanding that the Holy Spirit does not accuse us into feelings of condemnation creating barriers against ourselves and our loving Father. We can also see that in knowing that the accuser is wroth with us, we are told how to overcome him: by the Blood of the Lamb (being washed from our sin/being born again/being saved), by the word of our testimony (the witness we have of the saving power of Jesus and of all that we see and know of Him doing and working in our lives), and by not loving our lives to the death (Jesus said we are to take up our crosses and follow Him, even if that means losing our lives – Matthew 10.38-39).

There are many blessings to be received in understanding Revelation 12.

May this help you in your journey here on earth and with your relationship with Jesus and our Father.