Revelation 12:1–6 (ESV)
The Woman and the Dragon
12 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She
was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His
tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child,
one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for
1,260 days.
John portrays God’s people as a struggling woman who is stalked by the devil and forced to flee into the desert. God’s people have to contend with demonic
onslaughts. At times, we may despair in this struggle, wondering whether God even remembers us. Yet He unfailingly preserves us in our wilderness sojourn, richly and daily providing everything we need through His Spirit, Word, and Sacraments.
I pray: Lord God, preserve us during our earthly exile. Give us a hunger for Your Word and Sacraments so that we never weaken in our faith. We thank You for sending Your Son to be born
of a woman, under the Law, so that He might redeem us and bring us to our true home in heaven. Amen.
Edward A. Engelbrecht, The Lutheran Study Bible (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 2218.