The Great Red Dragon, Satan

The red dragon is identified in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 as none other than Satan himself. The reference to the red dragon as being “great” points to the magnitude of Satan’s power and activity in the world. “Red” emphasizes his murderous and bloodthirsty character and behavior throughout history (John 8:44). The seven heads and ten horns refers to the seven nations, and ten kings of the confederacy he will use in his final attempt to establish total dominion over the earth. The sweeping away of a third of the stars of heaven refers to the unfaithful angels who followed Lucifer in his revolt against God (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-14) and identified by the apostle Paul as a demonic host (Ephesians 6:12).

In his vision John saw the dragon standing, “before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child” (Revelation 12:4).

From the time of the judgment in the Garden of Eden that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, to the first advent of Christ there were numerous attempts by Satan to defeat God’s purposes through the seed of the woman. Many believe that in Genesis 6 Satan tried to infiltrate the human race in order to destroy the promise of Genesis 3:15 by corrupting the bloodline of humanity. In Genesis 10 and 11, Satan instituted the politico-religious system of Babylon with its mother-child cult under Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis. Satan also attempted repeatedly to rid the world of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through Pharaoh, through Amalek, through Balak and Balaam, and others, but always to no avail. Finally, in Matthew 2:13, after Messiah was born, he tried through Herod to destroy the baby Jesus by putting to death all the boy babies two years and under (Matthew 2:13-18).

“And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.” These words take us from the birth of Christ to His ascension. Though the earthly life and death of Christ are not mentioned, this points to the historic facts of the cross and the resurrection which were both necessary for Christ to defeat Satan and rule on the earth (Hebrews 2:14; Acts 17:30-31; John 16:10-11; 12:31-33). As Genesis 3:14-15 anticipates, Satan bruised Christ’s heel, but Christ crushed Satan’s head by His death and resurrection and His ascension (Colossians 2:15). The woman flees into the wilderness were she will be protected for three and a half years, 1260 days.