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Because the timing of Revelation 12:1’s sign of the woman giving birth and the sign of the red dragon in heaven is so poorly understood, let’s look at why Revelation 12 is occurring at the 7th Trumpet, in sequence, as one would naturally read it right after Revelation 11. It is not taking place suddenly two thousand years ago - it is taking place at the time of the arrival of the kingdom of heaven, the founding of Zion.
Revelation 12:1 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.
To establish that the Revelation 12:1 sign of the woman giving birth and the sign of the red dragon in heaven is continuing the narrative sequence on from Revelation 11, we need to look at the Old Testament. This sign of the red dragon in heaven (Rev 12:3) is present in Isaiah 30:6 as the ‘flying fiery serpent’.
Isaiah 30: 1 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; 2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. 4 For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes, 5 everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”
6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them. 7 Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.” 8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.
We know from Hebrews 2:4 that God bears ‘witness’ by signs and wonders. This ‘witness’ in Isaiah 30:8 is a sign to Israel that records the ‘travel’ of ‘Judea’ into spiritual Egypt. The Negeb region is in southern Judea whereby one would travel to get to Egypt. A portion of ‘Israel’ is trying to ‘return to Egypt’, the place that God had rescued them from. The ‘oracle’ (often translated here as ‘burden’ in which there is a play on words between the donkey’s burden of the goods being borne and the burden of prophecy - i.e. the ‘oracle’) is that on this journey to Egypt they would encounter: 1) lions, 2) adders, and 3) the ‘flying fiery serpent’.
We see these spiritual signs in each of the three woes of Revelation (the 5th, 6th & 7th Trumpet, respectively). The term, ‘woe,’ here is defined as pain for those who do not look to God for help with their problems and instead look to those that will not help them (ie Egypt).
Isaiah 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!
Revelation 8:13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
Again, in Isaiah 30:6, we saw the lion, adder (snake), and flying fiery serpent.
Isa 30:6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.
In Revelation, we see that the locusts of the 1st Woe (the 5th Trumpet) have ‘lion’s teeth’ (Rev 9:8) (correlating to the lions), the horses of the 2nd Woe (the 6th Trumpet) have ‘tails like serpents with heads’ (Rev 9:19) (correlating to the adders/ serpents), and at the 3rd woe (the 7th Trumpet) we see the ‘flying fiery serpent’ which correlates to the ‘sign of the red dragon in heaven’ (Rev 12:3).
Rev 9:7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
and
Rev 9:18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
and
Rev 12:3 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.
In the last sign, the Greek here for ‘red dragon’ is ‘pyrros drakon’. ‘Drakon’ means ‘dragon’ which means a ‘serpent’. ‘Pyrros’ means ‘fire-like’ or ‘fiery red’. When Isaiah says that the ‘fiery serpent’ is ‘flying’, it is ‘in the sky’. The Greek word for ‘heaven’ (‘ourano’) can either mean spiritual heaven or the skies above. So when Revelation 12:3 says, ‘a great red dragon appeared in the sky’ as a ‘sign’, we can directly point to it being the same sign in the heavens as Isaiah’s ‘flying fiery serpent’ because it is a witness (and thus a sign) forever (Isa 30:8) (Heb 2:4) - a 'flying' (in the sky) 'fiery' (red) 'serpent' (dragon).
As Isaiah 14 is dealing with the wicked king of Babylon (the angel Lucifer/ Morning Star), it makes sense then that when the king of Babylon breaks the covenant and calls himself God at the 7th Trumpet (Dan 9:27), it is described in the same terms as Satan being thrown down in Revelation 12. When Satan/ Lucifer breaks the covenant, he ‘goes into heaven to be like God’ from which he is cast down into the earth.
Isaiah 14:12 How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. 13 You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.
And
Rev 12:7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Remember that the term, ‘star’, can mean an angel which is where we get the idea of ‘Lucifer’ (the King of Babylon) being an angel (‘Lucifer’ is just a different translation of ‘day star, son of the dawn/ morning’). In Hebrew, the term for ‘fiery serpents’ is ‘seraphim’, which in other contexts is left untranslated as ‘seraphim’ and it means a type of angel as in Isaiah 6:1-7.
When we look further at Isaiah 14, we see another reference to the ‘flying fiery serpent’. This time it is in conjunction with a reference to Isaiah 7 and 8’s beginning of the kingdom of heaven where the poor find pasture and safety. This is why the Revelation 12:1 sign of the woman in heaven giving birth is so intricately linked to the sign of the red dragon in heaven in Revelation 12:3 – they are both occurring at the 7th Trumpet which is the beginning of the kingdom of heaven on earth, the founding of Zion.
Isaiah 14:29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken. For a viper will spring from the root of the snake, and a flying fiery serpent from its egg. 30 Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety, but I will kill your root by famine, and your remnant will be slain. 31 Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city! Melt away, all you Philistines! For a cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there are no stragglers in its ranks. 32 What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”
The idea here is that the firstborn of the poor will find pasture and it is directly connected to the Isaiah 7-8 sign of Immanuel we saw with Revelation 12’s woman giving birth. Because the ‘poor find pasture’, then the child gets to eat ‘curds and honey’ due to herd animals having more pasture and bees taking over the post-war landscape. Let’s look at these passages again.
Isaiah 7:10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”
18 In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.
20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.
21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
Isaiah 8:3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz [quickly plunder]; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
