“Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great fury, because he knows his time is short.” (v. 12)

It’s important to note what is actually going on in this section of Revelation:

We are told that these depictions—the woman and the Son and the dragon—are featured in a “great sign.” It’s a symbolic retelling, a revelation of heaven’s point of view, of the drama of the Gospel. We slide out of prophetic apocalypse and into contextualization.

This helps us “get” what has been and what will be.

Let’s pick up one thread:

The dragon.

You know who this is. The Word tells us: he is the enemy and the devil and the accuser. And, from the start, he is defeated.

But he isn’t quite done, is he?

In fact, he’s in a rage. He’s furious about his eviction from heaven, about the birth of the Son, and about the defeat that is promised. And he unfolds that fury on the earth, lying and stealing and killing and destroying.

He knows his time is short—so he makes the most of it, on the way to Revelation.

It’s good news and bad news. The sign reminds us that he loses, and soon. But it also assures us that he will thrash after you with the time he’s got.

See the enemy in the sign, and stay on guard.

— Tyler