The Woman and the Dragon
A pregnant woman, and a dragon waiting to eat her child. The child is snatched to our Father's throne, the woman flees to the wilderness, and Michael throws the dragon out of heaven. Beaten, it turns on her other children — furious because its time is short.
12 1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman dressed in the sun, moon under her feet, a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and crying out in birth pains, in the agony of giving birth.
3Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge fiery-red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns on its heads. 4His tail dragged a third of heaven's stars to earth. The dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, ready to devour her child the moment it was born. 5She bore a son, a male child—Jesus—who will rule all nations with an iron rod. But her child was caught up to our Father and his throne. 6The woman fled to the wilderness, to a place our Father prepared, to be fed there 1,260 days.
7War broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, deceiver of the whole world—was hurled to the earth, his angels with him.
10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven: 'Now our Father's salvation, power, and kingdom have come, and his Christ's authority. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our Father day and night, was thrown down.' 11They overcame him through the blood of the Lamb and through the word of their testimony; they did not cling to their own lives, even to the point of death. 12Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who live in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you in great fury, knowing that his time is short.
13Seeing he was thrown to earth, the dragon pursued the woman who bore the male child. 14The woman received the great eagle's two wings, to fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be nourished for a time, times, and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. 15The serpent spewed water like a river from his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away in the flood. 16Earth helped the woman, opening its mouth to swallow the river the dragon spewed from his mouth. 17Enraged at the woman, the dragon went to war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep our Father's commandments and hold to Jesus' testimony.
