The Vision of the Universal Woman and the Man-child

Revelation 12:1 And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;

Revelation 12:2 And she was with child, and she cried out, travailing in birth and being in pain to bring forth.

Revelation 12:5 And she brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

in Revelation chapter 12, we have a great sign, in which, there are three main characters: the bright woman, the great red dragon, and the man-child brought forth by the woman. we have to see the significance of these three characters in this sign.

1. the universal bright woman

this woman is the totality of all God's people both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. first, the crown of twelve stars on her head signifies the patriarchs, like Able, Noah, Abraham, etc. second, the moon underneath her feet signifies the Israel people under the law. third, the sun with which the woman was clothed signifies the church composed of all the believers. this women is composed of all God's people, which shows that all the believers, no matter female or male, have the position of woman before God, because God is the unique Man in the universe, the Husband of His corporate wife. in the Bible, woman signifies the weaker vessel, and a life trusting and depending on God. we, as God's people, need to always trust God, depend on God, and rely on God. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. He is our life, our person, and our everything. 

2. the man-child

this women was with child, and she brought forth a man-child, who was caught up to the throne of God. the man-child is the stronger part of the woman, part of the woman, and was brought forth by the woman. how can the man-child be the stronger part of the woman? because he was saturated and permeated with the elements, the essence of God. the man-child is very crucial, because he is the turning point, the starting point of the war in the heaven. after the man-child was caught up to the thron of God, Michael with the other angels went to war with the dragon, and then the dragon was cast down from the heaven to the earth. God needs the man-child, and is waiting for the bringing forth of this man-child, so the war could start, the dragon could be cast down, and this age could be ended to usher in the age of the kingdom. 

how can the woman bring forth this man-child, or how can we be part of this man-child? 

of courrse, first, we have to be part of the universal woman to be part of the man-child. and as the stronger part of the woman, the man-child is not strong in himself, but strong in God. 

here i would like to bring out one of my favourite hymns, hymn 881, which says

"We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender;
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender.
 We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go." 

https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/881

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death.

this verse tells us the way to become the man-child. 

first, it is because of the blood of the Lamb. the blood is our weapon, our covering, and our way to overcome. 

second, because of the word of their testimony, which is thei word testifying that the devil has been judged by the Lord. like how the Lord went to proclaim to the bound angels after His death, we also need to preach, to proclaim the Lord's victory to the devil, to the eival angels, to all the evil forces in the universe. 

third, by not loving their soul-life even unto death. if we love the Lord to the uttermost, then we will not love our soul-life. if there is any love for our soul-life within us, we are defeated. the key point is not trying hard to "not love" our soul-life, but just to love the Lord with our first, best love, which will enable us to be willing to lose our soul-life for the One we love most. 

3. the great red dragon

this is the evil one, God's enemy, Satan. he has always been persecuting the woman, God's people throughout the ages. 

also in Revelation 12, we see the picture of war in the heaven. Michael and other angels went to fight with the dragon and his evil angels. we need to be aware that we are always in the unseen spiritual warfare. Satan and the evil forces haven always been working, attacking God's people so that they can frustrate the fulfillment of God's purpose. we can see this picture in the Old Testament, when Israel people entered into the good land, even before their entering, they had been fighting to take the land. throughout the history, we can see that God has been moving by fighting, fighting in and through His faithful people. Today, the warfare is till here and even become more intense. if we desire to become the man-child, the overcomers, we must be prepared, equiped and engaged in the warfare. the overcomers are those who have been fightging the good fight all the time. moment by moment, we are involved in the fight, fighting for ourselves, fighting for our fellow believers, fighting for the Body and in the Body, for God's interest here on earth. we are not fighing against blood and flesh, but our wrestling is against the evil spiritual forces. therefore, the way to fight is mainly by our prayer, not just praying common or usual prayer, but by fighting prayer. 

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity / Between you and the woman / And between your seed and her seed; / He will bruise you on the head, / But you will bruise him on the heel.

this picture of the bright woman, the man-child and the dragon, is also the consummation from the seed which is seen in Genesis 3, where we also see three characters: Eve, the seed of the woman, and the see of of serpent. here, Eve is also a type of God's people, a women depending on God. the seed of woman, firstly is Christ. then Christ, through death and resurrection, sowed Himself into us as the seed, and made us one with Him to be the corporate seed of woman. the seed of serpent includes all those who are not the seed of woman. there is no neutral ground. if we are not one with Christ, we are one with the devil, and we are the seed of serpant. 

宇宙的な女と男の子のビジョン THE VISION OF THE UNIVERSAL WOMAN AND THE MAN-CHILD ウィットネス・リー　WITNESS LEE 日本福音書房