She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth.She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth.And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.and she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered.
3 sermons cite this verse
… Look at verses 1 and 2 of Revelation 12. A great sign appeared in heaven, John said. I saw a great sign. The great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head, a crown of 12 stars, and she was with child. Who is this woman? You can read every commentary under the sun and get a different idea, but it's not hard to understand who the woman is. if you know your Bible. Remember in Genesis chapter 37, verses 9 to 11, Joseph had a dream. And in his dream, he saw the sun and the moon representing his parents, Jacob and Rachel. And the 12 stars he saw were their 12 offspring, the 12 sons of Jacob. This was a representation of Israel. It's very clear this woman represents Israel. And it says in verse two, she was with child, a woman in labor. You know, the church is never described as a married woman or a woman in labor. She is the bride of Christ. But here Israel is a woman who's about to give birth. And she cried out being in labor and pain to give birth. As we'll see in a moment, the child is Jesus Christ. …
… The dragon tries to kill the child, but God protects him, eventually carrying him up to heaven. The woman then has to flee for her life into the wilderness where she hides for 1,260 days or three and a half years. So the child obviously is Jesus. I think we all can see that pretty clearly. But who is this woman and who is this dragon? Is the woman Mary? Is the woman Mary? I mean, she seems like an obvious answer since she's the one that gave birth to Jesus. So does that mean the dragon is a reference to how Herod tried to kill Jesus the moment that he was born? By the way, how many of you have a dragon in your nativity sets? One day I'm going to get filthy We read it selling a biblically accurate nativity set, one that includes a ferocious dragon that you put right by the manger in the scene. What we need at Christmas is more dragons, right? Or maybe the woman that doesn't represent, maybe it's more than just Mary though. …
… And this interpretation is given strength by what follows. Listen, she was pregnant and crying out in birth pangs in the agony of giving birth. So here's Mary, the mother of God, about to give birth. What are we talking about here but Christmas? Not in an austerely metaphysical way, not through historical narrative, but through this kind of strange apocalyptic symbolism. You know, you might say it's looking at the Christmas story from the highest vantage point, from the vantage point of God. How does God see what's happening? So the woman about to give birth. But now here's what I want you to focus on. Now listen. Wow. That's a very powerful, frightening image, isn't it? Mary, the mother of God, about to give birth, you think, well, how wonderful! The Son of God is being born into the world. Angels will sing, the shepherds will visit, the little drummer boy will come. What a wonderful, wonderful moment. Yeah, true enough. But when we squint at this scene through the lens of an apocalyptic imagination, what do we see? …