A
great and wondrous 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. She was
pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another
sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and
seven crowns on his heads. His 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 he might devour her child the moment it was born.
She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an
iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman
fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be
taken care of for 1,260 days. Revelation 12:1-6
From this passage we
know this about the pregnant woman:
·
It is not a constellation
nor a supernova giving birth to a star
·
The woman escapes
Satan's attacks
·
The woman gives birth to
a male son who becomes a king
In Genesis, Joseph had a
dream using this imagery about the stars, moon and sun.
Then
he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had
another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down
to me.” Genesis 37:9
Joseph was talking about
himself, his brothers, the twelve tribes and Israel. Stars, moon and sun in the Bible have always
represented the twelve tribes of Israel.
So the woman could be
Israel giving birth to the Messiah.
Israel is protected from destruction for a limited amount of time.
OR, the woman could be a
direct allusion to Mary giving birth to Jesus.
She and Joseph had to escape from Herod's attacks on the children in
Bethlehem by fleeing into the wilderness and landing in Egypt. Jesus eventually ascends to his throne in
heaven.