Die, Dragon!

The traditional Advent theme is that Jesus is on the way. Old covenant prophesies tell us so. Today, I offer something a bit different—a sketch of how Jesus defeats Satan.

The scripture paints this in a grand, epic style. It’s very unlike the dense legal analysis of Jonathan Edwards or Francis Turretin … or the Book of Romans. Instead of logical outlines, Revelation (and good bits of Zechariah and Daniel) tells us its story in a style beyond earthly reality. There are bizarre, otherworldly creatures, vivid pictures, symbolism, and fantastic imagery. There are women in baskets, huge flying scrolls, women with the wings of storks, a seven-headed dragon, a ten-horned beast who crawls out of the sea, a two-horned lamb who bursts out of the earth like a vengeful orc, a woman with a crown of stars, and another who is a dolled-up prostitute with pearls and jewels.

This is a world of fairy tale-like vibes that invites us to experience its message as a fantasy world. It paints in cosmic, sweeping strokes—it is often not about communicating detailed timelines—just contrast the styles of Revelation 12-13 with 2 Thessalonians 2! We know Frozen isn’t set in a “normal” world, even though it communicates real and true things, and so we instinctively re-calibrate our hearts and minds accordingly. We ought to do the same with Revelation—we can’t read it like a legal brief.

The bible paints Satan as an evil dragon who loses a series of battles in the war against God.

• We meet a holy woman, pregnant, glowing in white, with a crown of 12 stars. She cries out, ready to give birth (Rev 12:1-2).
• A dragon stands beside her, waiting to kill the child. He is blood red, with seven heads (Rev 12:3-4). We know this isn’t a good character. Dragons never are. Perhaps we ought to picture a hydra-like creature—if one head is chopped off, another will spring up. His evil is unkillable. We can almost see the dragon flexing his claws, snorting bursts of flame, purring madly. Waiting.
• The child arrives but is caught up to God and his throne. This child will rule the world with a rod of iron. Of course, he is Jesus—the child born at Bethlehem on Christmas morning. The dragon has failed. The woman, who likely represents God’s covenant people from whom Jesus hails, flees to the wilderness (Rev 12:5-6).

Meanwhile, in heaven, now that the child has returned to his throne of glory (Rev 12:7-9; cp. Jn 17:5; Acts 2:22-36) the dragon and his minions are tossed down to earth—a forced eviction (cp. Lk 10:18).

• This is like the scene from an old Western movie where the hero tosses the bully who has been terrorizing the town out of the saloon and into the dirt in the street outside. The bad guy scrambles to his feet, shakes his fist, and vows revenge. He then rides off to gather his crew and start trouble.
• This is what happens to Satan once Jesus accomplishes his work here—he is cast down and will now flail about like a crazed, wounded beast (Rev 12:10-12). He is angry. He is furious.
• But we know the bad man has already lost and John Wayne will surely win—just like Jesus.

Enraged, the dragon races after the holy woman to destroy her (Rev 12:13). God gives her eagles wings (Rev 12:14)—just as he did for his people in the Exodus (Ex 19:4)—and she flees to the wilderness. The dragon breathes out a tidal wave of water to drown her before she can reach safety (Rev 12:15) This is a demonic reversal of the Exodus escape—then the water was a wall of divine protection that allowed God’s people to escape death, here the water is a tsunami intended to kill.

But once again God foils the dragon’s plans. Having failed to strangle the new covenant people (whom the holy woman represents) in the cradle, the dragon storms away “to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17). We are these children—in Jesus communities large and small. We come from this “woman,” who is God’s family—just as surely as the harlot of Revelation 17 represents Satan’s family.

This is the cosmic sketch of world history.

• The dragon tries to destroy the Christ-child. He fails and is “kicked out” of the heavens above and cast down into the dirt. He is on borrowed time.
• Enraged, he tries to kill the holy woman. He fails there, too. Once more, God carries his people on eagle’s wings away from the clutches of evil.
• Now, more furious than ever, the hydra-dragon darts to and fro, trying to immolate the woman’s “children” with fire. Despite local successes, he cannot stamp them all out. Like a divine hydra, God’s new covenant family cannot be killed. There are too many of us.

John’s vision shifts to the dragon standing on the seashore, perhaps huffing and puffing, maybe melancholy. He has failed, but has he given up? Far from it. John shows us two frightening images of the last days, when “the great dragon … the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9) rolls the dice one last time and goes all in on his wicked schemes.

• The first horror is a seven-headed beast who crawls out of the sea, spewing blasphemy against God and his people. Mimicking Jesus, he appears to die and is revived. “And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast” (Rev 13:3). The dragon gives his power and authority to this ghoul, just as God the Father gives his power and authority to Jesus in the incarnation. This creature is the antichrist—Jesus’ “evil twin.”
• The second creature bursts out of the earth as a two-horned lamb (Rev 13:11)—perhaps a deliberate mockery of Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). Like the Holy Spirit, he too performs miracles and points everyone to his Christ-like figure (Rev 13:12-14). The true good news, properly understood, is accepted by willing faith. The kingdom of darkness operates by terror and coercion: “he makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast …” (Rev 13:12).

But the apostle John does not leave us there. The wicked woman, the alluring false front for evil, will be no more (Rev 17). God destroys Babylon, the city of darkness, from on high with great violence (Rev 18). Jesus returns with the armies of heaven, clothed in a robe drenched in his own blood, to slay the two beasts and cast them into the lake of fire to burn forever (Rev 19). An angel casts Satan into prison and shuts him up for 1,000 years, then afterwards the great red dragon joins his creatures in hell (Rev 20:1-3, 7-10). Jesus reigns with his people, “married” to them in an eternal union that will never be broken again (Rev 19:7-10).

What does this have to do with Christmas? Well, this is how it all ends for the serpent from the garden.

• Satan loses. His great creature (the antichrist), the false prophet, his evil city, and his wicked woman are gone forever—never to return. The kingdom of darkness is no more. The dragon is cast down and will burn forever.
• God wins. His eternal Son (the real Christ) reigns forever, heaven is here on a new earth, and the “holy woman” is safe forever in covenant union with him. “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in [the city], and His bond-servants will serve Him” (Rev 22:3).

This is real prophetic history painted in fantasy hues. And it all kicks off with the Savior born in Bethlehem on Christmas morning. This is how it will all end. This is what the boy from Bethlehem will do. This is why Christmas is so beautiful. This is when the dragon’s doom is sealed—it’s the beginning of his end.

Long live the king.