Revelation 12:3-5

Verse 3 "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads."

If the website on the interpretation of the constellations was read, you would see the literal astronomical interpretation of this. Here we will deal with the symbolic. We have seen a beast with ten horns before. In Daniel 7 the fourth beast that is dreadful and terrible and devours everything in its path has ten horns. That beast represented the kingdom from which the ten kings would arise in the end times. Out of these 10 horns another horn would arise who would be the beast of Revelation, or antichrist as we refer to him. This verse in Revelation is somewhat different, but reminiscent of that imagery. It shows that the beast with seven heads and ten horns with crowns is ultimately controlled by the red dragon. This red dragon is none other than Satan, who is the king of all of these nations, organizations, and belief systems that have been against God all of these millennia and will be in charge of the world government to come. Satan is referred to as the dragon in scripture, Rev. 12: 9, 20:2. It is his kingdom on earth, through the Babylonian mysteries and the nations that they controlled, that we see in this beast. We will see in the next chapter that this description is indeed a description of the same beast mentioned in Daniel, but there will be slightly more detailed information. The complete interpretation of this beast does not occur until chapter 17. We have seen the ten horns before, (they stand for ten "kings" or "kingdoms") and we will go over them again shortly. The seven heads and seven crowns are a new imagery that will be explained in chapter 17.

Verse 4-5 "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne."

We know that when Satan rebelled back after that first creation week, he took some angels (stars - we have seen this symbol meaning angels before) with him. Now we know exactly how many. Fully one third of the myriad of angels that God created rebelled against God. That is an extremely large number. It is no wonder that Satan can act as if he is omniscient when he has so many minions working for him and informing on us. One has to wonder how many of those are in the bottomless pit waiting to be let out.

Satan was poised and waiting when the woman (Israel) was ready to deliver the Messiah to the world. His intention was to kill Christ as soon as He was born. He inspired Herod to kill all the baby boys under the age of two in order to try to kill Him. He made attempts on Christ's life, and tried to tempt Him to sin, all to no avail. That is, until the day came that he finally thought he had won when Christ went to the cross. What he apparently did not realize, although I do not know why he did not, was that Christ went to the cross willingly for our sins. Without that sacrifice, Satan would have won. Maybe Satan did not know that Christ would be able to resurrect Himself. So while Satan may have tried to devour the child, he ultimately did not. Christ defeated that particular plan of Satan and ascended to the Father and His throne.

The description of the "man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" is included to make sure that it is understood that this talks about Israel and Christ, as this is what the scriptures say Christ will do in the Day of the Lord and during the millennium. Ps. 2:9 "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Rev. 19:15 "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of almighty God."