John saw “a great portent” in heaven (Revelation 12:1). The problem with portents is that it’s obvious they mean something, but it’s not always obvious what. Here, for example, the woman seems to mean Mary the mother of Jesus (12:5), but maybe she stands for the church under persecution (12:17).

The chronology as well is not what we might expect. The dragon plans to devour the child as soon as he is born, but he is snatched away and taken to God (12:4-5). Perhaps this points to Herod’s command to kill the baby boys of Bethlehem, or perhaps to the crucifixion; either way, Jesus’ life, teaching, ministry, death, and resurrection are all summed up in one quick reference to the ascension.

And then, with no warning that the narrative is maybe about to jump out of sequence, John recounts how the devil and his angels were thrown out of heaven (12:7-9) – surely we are to understand that this happened long before the temptation of Jesus? Then John immediately tells us that although cast down from heaven, the devil still accuses the saints before God (12:10). Yet they overcome his accusations because of three things: (1) the blood of the Lamb, (2) the word of their testimony, and (3) their acceptance of martyrdom.

And it is this – a sense of how we are to overcome these accusations – that is the thing that we need to focus on, in the book of Revelation. That is, we should not spend much time fussing about how we’re going to decode all the portents or establish the chronology; instead, we should make sure we understand that as followers of Jesus we will encounter persecution – the dragon will make war on us (12:17). And in the midst of this struggle, we will triumph by (1) knowing we are saved by the blood of Jesus, (2) saying so with clear testimony, and (3) laying down our lives in witness to this truth.

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Ah, Lord Jesus: we need your help so much with all of this. We are frightened of martyrdom, but in truth we often shy away even from offering quiet testimony regarding what you have done, and indeed from recognizing that apart from your death, we are lost. Grant us hearts full of faith, articulate testimony, and courage in persecution.