My grandchildren are at the age when they love fairy tales with their stories of princesses, knights in shining armour and wicked witches. Disney’s version of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ has the valiant Prince Phillip battle the evil fairy Maleficent who turns into a fierce dragon, overcoming her with the sword of truth. Dragons are mythical creatures associated with cunning, fire and deception; there is little wonder that the devil himself is described in Revelation 12:3 as ‘an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.’
We must never dismiss the allegory and imagery of Revelation as somehow being untrue because it engages our imagination and may not describe truth in a totally literal way. The power of the imagination to understand good and evil should not be underestimated. Revelation 12 speaks to us of the spiritual warfare described elsewhere throughout the Bible (Genesis 3, where Satan is described as a crafty serpent; Isaiah 14, where we see the fall of Lucifer; Ephesians 6:10-20, where Paul vividly describes the nature of the spiritual battle with which we are engaged.) It shows us much about the nature, activities and accusations of our enemy, for the devil loves to accuse, deceive, lead astray and lie. This chapter describes for us Satan’s hatred of the child born to save the world and his antipathy towards the people of God (symbolised by the woman), but it also shows us that God’s forces for good will triumph (Michael and his angels are much more powerful than Disney’s Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, who nonetheless give Phillip the weapons he needs to defeat Maleficent!)
Rev 12:11 gives us hope that God’s people (which includes us!) will ultimately triumph. Victory is assured because of the blood of the Lamb, reminding us that we have a great high priest who advocates for us no matter what the accusations against us (‘there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’, as Rom 8:1 reminds us) and through the word of our testimony. The sword of truth in our hands is powerful; when we speak God’s word, the devil cannot stand. We can cheer as loudly as the child who watches good triumph over evil in a film; our God is the victor and we are victors with Him!
