March 3 - The Dragon (pt. 1)

March 3 – The Dragon (pt. 1)
Revelation 12:3-4

“Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.”

We’ve met two of the characters from this drama and now we’re going to uncover some of the Biblical truth about the adversary – the dragon.

The picture that we find of him in Revelation 12:3-4 is simply another sign – not great and wondrous, but still a bit startling. We are seeing imagery that is familiar to the ancient Christians. We meet the dragon several times in the Old Testament, though your translation may not identify him specifically. The NIV tends to translate this as a ‘monster’ not a dragon.

We see him in Isaiah 51:9 and then in Psalm 74:12-14 God broke the heads of the monster in the waters. In Isaiah 27:1, the Leviathan slays the monster of the sea (dragon) and in Job 40:15-24 the enemy is portrayed as a behemoth. Three gigantic beasts of terror: the dragon, the leviathan and the behemoth.

The dragon is red in color. While many of you may see red as the color of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, in this instance, it is seen because it is the color of blood. John 8:44 says that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. Blood is always on the hands of a murderer.

Many of the things we know regarding Satan aren’t necessarily biblical, while others are. The image of a tall beast with cloven hooves, 2 horns and a forked tail isn’t one of Satan, but the demonized version of the Greek god Pan (where we get the word ‘panic’).

In Revelation 12:7, we meet the great warrior angel, Michael and his army of angels. A great battle is going on in heaven and the dragon is hurled to the earth.

Something very interesting has occurred here and changed what I believed about Satan.

Satan fell from heaven before mankind was created. In Luke 10:18, Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” However, as we read Revelation 12:10-12, we discover that Satan may have fallen out of grace, but continues to have access to the throne of God. He is no longer part of the angelic chorus, but He isn’t hiding in hell or on earth.

Revelation 12:10 says “…For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down.”

Satan is standing before God constantly accusing us of our sins. Fortunately, 1 John 2:1 reminds us that we have an advocate “But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”

But, this is also in the Old Testament. Zechariah 3:1 says, “Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!’”

In the beginning of the story of Job, we know that Satan and God were having a discussion about Job and from there all of Job’s troubles began. Job 1:12 says, “Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

God allows Satan into His presence. That’s incredible to me. In fact, I have a hard time swallowing it. No wonder we have so much trouble. The accuser is always standing before God – ready to remind God of all our sins. Only because of Jesus’ great sacrifice are we given mercy. Every day Jesus stands there and says, “Never mind, God. I’ve already covered that sin with blood.”

Not only is the devil there as the accuser, but he is a slanderer. The Greek word for devil is ‘diabolos’ which literally means ‘slanderer.’ J. Vernon McGee says that ‘the gossip in our churches originates in the pit of hell.’ The one place we should be protected against evil and it is our mouths that allows Satan access to the church. While there are many scriptures that teach about the evils of gossip, this gives me goosebumps of fear. Our tongues release Satan’s power in our midst.