Vi. Seven Significant Signs (12:1-14:20)
VI. SEVEN SIGNIFICANT SIGNS (12:1-14:20)
The seven trumpets followed immediately on the opening of the seventh seal, and indeed the seventh seal leads into the trumpets. We might expect that similarly the seventh trumpet will lead into the seven last plagues. This proves not to be the case however. In between come another series of visions which we may call ‘seven significant signs’. There is no common factor like seals or trumpets or bowls and some prefer not to see them as a series. But it is unlikely that there should be just seven unrelated visions. It seems that John intends them to be seen as a series.
This group of visions is concerned with the troubles of the church. It is, of course, true that the whole of Revelation is written to a church that faced persecution, and that whatever else it may be meant to do, every section of the book is designed to help harassed believers. But especially is this so with the section to which we now come. It stresses the important truth that God has decisively defeated the devil. Satan opposed Christ from the beginning and tried to destroy him, but without avail. The evil one has been cast out of heaven. His power on earth is, to be sure, terrifyingly real to believers. But this is not because he is triumphant. It is because he knows that he is beaten and has but a short time. Let the church then take heart. She will have her martyrs, but ultimately triumph is sure. All this is clear. Yet we should add that no part of the book is more difficult to interpret in detail. While we may speak with some confidence of the main thrust of the visions the significance of many of the details eludes us. We must not expect too much.
Some commentators discern references to a number of pagan myths in chapters 12 to 14 (Beasley-Murray has a convenient summary). None of the parallels is very exact, but it is just possible that John has taken some of his material from such myths. If so, his purpose will be to show that the true answer to people’s problems is in Christ, not in paganism. ‘The true mother of the incarnate Son of God is the messianic people - not Leto, nor any other goddess of pagan veneration. And the true Son of God is Christ, not Apollo; it is Christ whose witness and warfare will result in the dragon’s ultimate defeat - He and His loyal servants are the true actors in the great struggle between light and darkness’ (Kiddle).
But John’s imagery is to be understood from its use in Revelation, not from the imagery of the myths. The ‘woman clothed with the sun’, for example, is to be understood in contrast to ‘the great prostitute’ (17:1). Any lesson we can learn by thinking of a pagan sun-goddess is purely incidental. John is an artist in words with a divinely-given message. We must not degrade him to the level of a copyist of ill-digested pagan myths. Moreover it is plain from his whole book that he abominated paganism. It is thus most unlikely that he would borrow significantly from that source, or that pagan religion will give us the key to his ideas.
We must let his own usage be our guide.