The Fourth Vision. The Woman Clothed with the Sun and the Beasts.
The Woman Clothed With the Sun and the Great Red Monster (Revelation 12:1 to Revelation 13:1 a).
‘And a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.'
Now we are to have unveiled before us even more details of what has previously been described, going back in history and going forward to the end. These few verses are setting the scene for the battle between good and evil.
‘A great sign'. This is a symbol in a book of symbols, but the use of ‘great' shows how important it is. In those days people were used to interpreting signs in the heavens. Thus it is seen as having great significance. It is one of three signs to be revealed in heaven, the second is the sign of the monster (Revelation 12:3) and the third, the sign of the seven angels with the seven plagues (Revelation 15:1). These cover all aspects of history, the history of salvation, the history of rebellion against God, and the history of the judgments of God.
‘A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars.' The only place in Scripture where we find this combination of sun, moon and stars applied to man is in Genesis 37:9, where it represents Jacob (Israel) the founding father of Israel, his wife, and his twelve children, the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. The sun represents Jacob, the moon his wife and the twelve stars the sons of Jacob. John thus sees the woman as representative of the chosen people of God, the children of the promise, the true, the righteous Israel.
Her being ‘clothed' with the sun also reveals her righteousness and glory in God's eyes, ‘then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father' (Matthew 13:43). We may see also the expectancy of the coming of Christ, ‘the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings' (Malachi 4:2).
The moon under her feet symbolises the fact that time itself will be put under her feet (Psalms 8:3 with 6). She is everlasting. The moon was seen as controller of times and seasons (Psalms 104:19). It determined the length of the month (Isaiah 66:23), signalled the commencement of the new year (Numbers 28:11), and the new moon was set apart as a holy day (1 Samuel 18:5; 1Sa 18:20; 1 Samuel 18:24; 2 Kings 4:23; 1Ch 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; Psalms 81:4; Isaiah 1:14 and often). It is a symbol of time itself (Psalms 72:7; Psalms 89:37).
The crown demonstrates that she is destined to rule. The twelve stars on the crown are in apposition to the seven heads and ten horns of the monster (Revelation 12:3) and represent the twelve patriarchs and thus the twelve tribes of Israel, and also possibly, but secondarily, the twelve Apostles as successors, continuing their oversight of God's people. They are God's reply to the power and aims of the enemy.
The vision reminds us of the words of the psalmist, ‘When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels, and crown him with glory and honour, you made him to have dominion over the works of your hands, you have put all things under his feet' (Psalms 8:3-6). So humble man (and in Revelation 12 the humble church), who is so insignificant compared with the heavens, is to be exalted, glorious like the heavens, crowned with glory and honour, with all things in submission to him. The psalm is quoted in Hebrews 2:6-8 where it is seen as fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman.
In Isaiah 54:5 Israel is clearly depicted as a woman, and as God's wife, a wife who is restored to full wifehood (v. 6) so that she may receive great mercies. All her children will be taught of the Lord (v. 11). But it is only as faithful Israel that she can be restored.
Hosea says the same thing when he describes God as alluring Israel, bringing her into the wilderness and speaking to her comfortable things, so that she will call Him ‘my husband', and He will betroth her to Him for ever in righteousness and in justice, and in loving kindness and in mercies, and in faithfulness (Revelation 2:14; Revelation 2:16; Revelation 2:19-20). And He will then say to them ‘you are My people' (v. 23). So the fruitful wife of the Lord is an Israel made faithful to Him. Ezekiel 16:12-13 confirms that Israel was seen as crowned, and of royal estate.
It is important to recognise that in the end God's calling was not of the whole of Israel, but of faithful Israel, ‘the remnant' (Romans 9:6). When God chose Abraham only one of his sons, Isaac, was the child of promise, and of Isaac's children only Jacob was the child of promise (Romans 9:13). In the same way not all Jacob's (Israel's) descendants are the children of promise. It is only the elect who respond in faith who enjoy the promise (Romans 11:7).
In Elijah's time this was the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (Romans 9:4). This doctrine of the holy remnant is accepted by the prophets (Isaiah 6:13 - where he speaks of ‘the holy seed'; see also Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 10:20-22; Isaiah 49:3 with 6; Ezekiel 14:22; 2 Kings 19:30-31), and Paul describes them as a remnant in accordance with God's gracious choosing (Romans 9:5).
The so-called ‘children of Israel' were in fact made up of people from many nations, commencing with the servants of the Patriarchs, continuing with ‘the mixed multitude' (Exodus 12:38) and including others who were adopted into the tribes such as Uriah the Hittite (see 2 Samuel 11), and many others. While they called themselves ‘children of Israel' the only real claim of the majority of them to the promises was by entering into and being faithful to the covenant. Indeed only those who were truly faithful to the covenant could be the true Israel
Thus the woman is clearly the holy remnant of Israel (Isaiah 6:13). That this woman can only be the truly faithful in Israel comes out in that she is clothed with the sun. As we have shown this includes reference to the idea behind our Lord's words about the righteous shining forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Righteousness is equated with the shining forth as the sun. Being clothed with the sun is a similar idea to being clothed in white robes. It only applies to the truly faithful.
So while in the world of the nations the sun, moon and stars were to be worshipped (Jeremiah 8:2; Deu 4:19; 2 Kings 21:3; 2 Kings 23:5), in the history of salvation they represent His faithful people to whom the nations will come in final submission (Isaiah 60:14).