(Ver 3.8)  This is the Part 1 of a series of extremely advanced spiritual Bible lessons that will reveal and help us to understand the “True Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12“.  It is intended for spiritually mature Christians that are not easily offended at learning things that they have not seen before in the Bible.  There are many opinions on who this woman is in Revelation 12.  Is she a natural physical woman or a spiritual symbolic  woman describing someone else?  We can go and search the internet and find various approaches to the interpretation of this chapter.  However, the vast majority of these interpretations that I found are based upon limited scriptures and more on significant human reasoning and personal opinion of the subject.  These sound like they are private types of invalid interpretations of the scripture based upon 2 Peter 1:20.   In 2 Peter we are told very clearly that no scripture is of a “private interpretation”.  What we learn from Peter is that the Bible will interpret itself.  In other words the Author God will explain the passage somewhere else in the Bible!  Otherwise, the interpretations is just an opinion which is always trumped by a known fact of truth.  A factual truth will always take precedence over any opinion.  Which is always overruled by God’s Truth.  Therefore we must seek to learn what God says on the subject.  That is our goal in this Bible study series!.

INTRODUCTION

Let us recognize a basic law of solid Bible interpretation.  What God has declared in His Word about a subject will always take precedence over any natural fact, theory, or opinion that is known and believed to be true by a human.  So in this lesson series we are going to focus primarily on what does God say in His Word about this woman.  In doing this we will also search the Bible for God’s definitions of the words and symbols used in chapter 12 of Revelation.

We will also analyze some predominate theories that have been widely taught in the church about this woman to either confirm or show them to be less than truthful using the Bible only. Following this Biblical approach to interpretation by allowing the Bible to interpret itself, we will ultimately conclude our beliefs to be based upon the best scriptural evidence that we are able to find with the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  While doing this we must ultimately put aside human doctrines, traditions, opinions, biases, prejudices and presumptions to allow the Word of God to overrule.

Finally, if you are a true believer and have been born again, you have the same Holy Spirit inside of you that the Apostle John, Peter, Paul, etc. had in them.   You are in the same church that every writer of the Bible was in and this included Paul.  Often times I think that we forget this, or don’t know this or just ignore this fact.  The same author of the Bible that was on the inside of the writers is on the inside of us to help us to understand the words.  But because we may not know this we may not realize that what God did for all the Bible writers, including Paul, He will do for us also.  The Bible clearly says that God is no respecter of persons (Act 10:34).  Therefore, if He does not do what He did for someone else He has become unjust.  However, please understand we must do the things of those that received this ability or we would fail to qualify to receive.   This is what Paul said about what he taught:

Gal 1:12  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So where did Paul claim to get the information that he was teaching?   Apparently it was not from any seminary, synagogue temple or human teacher on this earth.  Neither did he attempt to privately interpret the Old Testament with his own individual effort of reasoning. Therefore, this information that he has written for us  did not originate on the earth, but rather came directly from the O.T. author, God.

So when I read through some of the lessons on the subject of the identity of the woman in Revelation 12, I was very surprised to see how many quoted sources that came from some external Bible human reference or commentary.  Many of the lessons simply said “I think this woman is __________.  What do you think?”   Few could provide significant Biblical proof or evidence for the identity to the woman, and much of what was taught was based upon ignorance, human reasoning, presumption or speculation.  I do not believe that is a valid approach to the interpretation of the Bible.

I cannot emphasize enough the complexity of the Bible and the infinite knowledge of the Holy Spirit Author.  He has written the Bible in a fashion that conceals vast amounts of spiritual information, making it very challenging for natural thinking humans to understand.  However, we should begin to learn to see and think in spiritual terms as He thinks.  We can begin to do this by learning the methods and techniques that God has used in writing the Bible to conceal information in plain sight.  As we continue to grow spiritually, we will soon begin to understand much more of the Bible.  If you would like to study some of the techniques that God uses for “Hiding the Truth in Plain Sight” then please read that first.

Finally, I would like to reemphasize one key to understanding any part of the Bible is to first learn that the Bible ALWAYS interprets itself.  Knowing this we must then learn that there are divinely designed spiritual laws of interpretations that must be known and applied with the Holy Spirit’s help in order to begin to understand any subject.  The woman in Revelation 12 is no exception.  Please, let us keep this in our minds as we study this subject.  Also ask questions while we read the chapter and then look for the answers to the questions in the Bible and I believe the Holy Spirit will lead us to the truth (John 16:13).

STUDY STRATEGY
ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS AND FINDING GOD’S ANSWERS

In this lesson we will be going over several key subjects found in the chapter.  These topics will lay the foundation for all of the lessons that will follow.  We will address numerous described descriptions and issues that will be key to understanding this woman and her true identity.  Here are the sections that will be covered in today’s lesson:

1. WHO CAN THE REVELATION 12 WOMAN POSSIBLY BE?
2. WHEN DOES THE EVENTS IN REVELATION 12 OCCURR?
3. WHAT ARE THE SYMBOLS RELATED TO THE WOMAN?
4.  WHAT DO THE GIVEN SYMBOLS MEAN TO GOD?
5. WHAT IS THE CROWN OF 12 STARS? – “THE NUMBER 12”
6.  WHAT IS THE CROWN OF 12 STARS? – “THE STARS”
7.  WHAT IS THE CROWN OF 12 STARS? – “THE CROWN”
8. WHO IS THE SYMBOLIC SUN?
9. WHO IN THE BIBLE IS TOLD TO WEAR THE SUN?

This will be a lot of questions to answer and new information to learn.  I would recommend that you break this lesson into sections and take one at a time.  Read what is written and revealed by the Holy Spirit and then go look up all the scriptures in your own Bible to verify that this is what the Holy Spirit inside of you says (Acts 17:11).  Let’s get started.

WHO CAN THE REVELATION 12 WOMAN POSSIBLY BE?

Let us start with an identification of the possible candidates for the identity of the woman in Revelation 12.  I would strongly suggest that you go find your Bible and open it and read the entire chapter 12 of Revelation.  There are only 17 verses in the entire chapter and we will find it begins with the woman’s description and it ends with radically new descriptions of the same exact woman. However, there appears to be a paradox given to us.  The woman in verse 1 appears in Heaven and the woman at the end of the chapter is clearly on the earth.  That is a very important fact to remember and who this woman must be able to conform with being in two dimensions simultaneously, one being the natural earth and the other being the spiritual heaven.

Everything in chapter 12 between verse 1 and verse 17 is a description of a warfare that is taking place between the woman and Satan.  Write down all of the symbols and descriptions in a list to help you organize your thoughts.  There is only one woman listed in this chapter and she is our focused priority.  However, there are many other symbols and descriptions that are used by God to describe her and all of these are very important.

What does “identity” means?    Here is one definition that I found; “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is”.   Ok, when a crime is committed in modern times a video camera usually captures images of a suspect.  The police detective is charged with the assignment of evaluating the images to determine the “identity” of that suspect.  In other words, the suspect is initially labeled as “unknown” and this is how the woman in Revelation 12 should be classified to begin our study.  Please do not bring any preconceived bias into this process of identifying the woman.  These types of biases will normally only hinder us from finding the truth.

Many times the police detective will use facial recognition software to compare the images with other known criminals from the past.  If that does not give them an answer, then sometimes I have seen them post the picture on the news to allow others to call in and help identify the suspect.  Well that is a similar paradigm for us to follow in determining the identity of the woman in Revelation 12.  We will become Bible detectives charged with discovering her identity by examining previous Bible suspected women.

Like the detective of a crime the suspect woman in Revelation 12 might be a brand new never identified woman or she is more likely a known woman that has been described before in the Bible. I am a believer that this woman in Revelation 12, is someone who occurs in the Bible and has been previously identified using another name or description we could call her alias or really her true identity.   Therefore, I will start by providing a list of possible suspect women that I have found in the Bible.

However, it is a good time to ask another logical question to begin our search.  We should ask “Is this woman in Revelation 12 a literal previously named or unnamed physical Bible woman or is she a symbolic representation for a known or unknown spiritual woman?”  These are the only two categories of valid types of women I have found in the Bible.  We all know that God is a Spirit (Jn 4:24) and He created the natural realm (Gen 1).  Therefore, this woman could be a single spiritual female being (Zec 5:9), or a physical naturally created female (Gen 2:22), or she could be a symbolic woman for a group of people either natural (Jer 31:32) or spiritual (2 Cor 11:2).

Hopefully you have already read chapter 12 of Revelation and can see as I do that this woman being described must be a symbolic woman representing a larger group of individuals either natural or spiritual.  However, there are people who believe this woman is the single physical virgin woman named “Mary” that gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem.  Therefore, we will at least consider her as one of our suspects.

From everything that I have studied so far in the Bible, here are the possibilities with the greatest probability to be a suspect in our attempt to find the identity of the woman in Revelation 12:

1. The Earthly Jerusalem, the natural nation of Israel, the Old Testament Covenant Wife of God Jehovah (Gal 4:25, Jer 31:32). This would be a symbolic woman that represents a completely natural nation of people named Israel in the O.T.
2. The Heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22), the spiritual mother of Jesus, the church (Gal 4:26) and all those born from the dead (Col 1:15-18, Rom 8:29).  This would be a symbolic woman that is a representation for a completely spiritual group of beings.
3. The New Jerusalem, the Church, the Bride, the New Covenant Wife of Jesus Christ and the Lamb (Rev 21:2).  This would be a woman that represents a new spiritual nation of believers in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9).
4. Finally, the physical natural woman named Mary, the natural virgin mother of the naturally born Son of God/Son of Man named Jesus (Mat 1:16).  This would represent a woman that is an individual created female.

No doubt there will be many that will read this list of 4 possible suspect candidates and not understand it.  Possibly you have other women in the Bible that you can think of that this woman in Revelation 12 could possibly fit the suspect profile for.  If you would like to leave a comment and share her with us, I will read what you think.  I would however, ask that you please give us Bible verses that help to confirm what you are saying.

Perhaps you noticed from the list of suspects, three symbolic women were all named “Jerusalem“.  However, they were made to be individual and separate by the qualifiers, “earthly”, “heavenly” and “new”.  I believe that if we study the Bible very carefully to observe what is said, we will discover that there are 3 completely different covenant cities in the Bible which are all called by the exact same name Jerusalem.  This is just one technique that God used to conceal truth from us in the Bible (Prov 25:2).  God calls multiple separate things by the exact same name and this causes us to ask which one is He referring to in every occurrence of the singular name “Jerusalem” with no qualifier.

We should already realize that there are natural things and spiritual realities that can and do co-exist simultaneously and these can be called by the same name, title or description.  I’ll give you a very important example from the book of Hebrews.  In Hebrews 8:4-5 God writes to teach us the difference between earthly priests and the temple and the spiritual same.  God very clearly says that Moses was given “patterns” of things that pre-existed in the heavenly temple to build here on earth.  This is tremendous knowledge to learn from and has vast implications attached to it.  This implies the Heavenly Temple had a Heavenly High Priest and that what was made on temporary earth for the natural nation of Israel was made in the image of the existing spiritual reality.

In other words Heaven exist first, then came the natural later.  Who could this Heavenly Priest been before Jesus came into the world?  I believe it was Satan.  Remember Satan is described having a breastplate like a High Priest in Ezekiel 28:13.  We do know from reading Hebrews 8 that Jesus is our High Priest in the New Covenant.  Wow, do you see the repeated patterns being transitioned from the Heavenly to the Earthly and then back to the Heavenly in the New?  This is one reason why I believe in 3 cities named “Jerusalem”.

I believe every one of these cities named Jerusalem (Heavenly, Earthly and New) represents a symbolic female (nation of individuals) in a separate covenant relationship with God.  I know this is brand new information to most of my new readers.  But please do not discard it very quickly without studying it in full.  Something new does not mean it is something untrue.

Also, I have found verses that all four of these suspect women in my list are described in the Bible as having children and being mothers.  For example, the Heavenly Jerusalem is called a spiritual mother of the church in Galatians 4:26.  The virgin Mary is obviously called a mother in Matthew 1 and Luke 1.  The natural nation of Israel which is also called Earthly Jerusalem is called a mother in Matthew 23:37 and Galatians 4:25.  We will hopefully get to the verses about the New Jerusalem being a mother later in the series as we learn.  But, any of these suspected women could fit the pattern description of being the pregnant woman in Rev 12.  I do not have the time to completely explain all of this in one lesson, so please go and study it for yourself or be patient to see what else will come next.  I also have multiple other Bible lessons on this website that will help you.

WHEN DO THE EVENTS IN REVELATION 12 OCCUR?

There are 5 basic “W” questions to ask when studying any Bible subject.  This is for us to ask God “who”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “why”.  I would like us to address these questions in this Bible study series.  We will start this lesson on Revelation 12 with the basic and very important question “when does these chapter 12 events of Revelation occur?”   I believe that when we understand the timing given to the events being described we can better understand which suspected women can be eliminated because of their potential alibies of being at some other place at some other time with some other people.  Ha ha!   It should be obvious that Revelation 12 is either:

1) a past historical event,
2) a present day current event or
3) a future coming event. 

This may be a very new approach for many Bible students.  I have never seen anyone attempt to explain this woman in this way before.  We also will begin this study from a very different scripture than what you might expect. Since we are studying about chapter 12 of Revelation, I would like for us to back up and begin reading with Revelation chapter 1 and verse 19.

Rev 1:19  Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 

Notice how Jesus gives John the outline for the entire book of Revelation here in this verse.  Jesus instructs John to write about things that he has seen in the past first.  Then write about things he is seeing currently now in the present tense.  And finally, to write about things that will happen in the future tense LAST!  Wow, that sounds important to know.  Jesus certainly understood what was going to be written.  Therefore, we just learned how the information should flow and be organized.

Now we need to read chapter 4 to learn something very important that God says concerning the timing of the events in Revelation 12.   Determining the correct timing will help us tremendously to understand which interpretation is applicable and valid and which interpretations are easily excused or dismissed as suspects.  I pray so sincerely that this is understood?   Let us read Revelation 4:1 to find out the timing of the Revelation 12 events:

Rev 4:1  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Some obviously read scriptures and just ignore them, don’t understand them or fail to apply them later.  With any o these we are going to fall short in our understanding of the Bible.  Here in this verse we have God in Heaven telling the apostle John “after this” to “come up” to heaven so that He can be shown the things that will occur after what was previously discussed and written about.  What was previously written in chapters 2 and 3?  We should all know that these were the 7 letters to the 7 churches.  We may or may not know that these represent 2 perspectives.

First, the 7 letters to the 7 churches were literal physical churches that existed at the time this book of the Bible existed in 90 A.D.  Second these 7 churches represent 7 periods of time within the entire 2000 year time of the church age.  If these churches were not listed in this specific order and described in these specific ways, there would not be an accurate ability to apply them to this time period.  What is my point?  The point is Revelation 4:1 begins with “After this” and this can be used to inform us that what is happening next in the Book of Revelation is after the church age has ended.

This would mean that from this point in time forward of Revelation 4:1 everything is after the church has been raptured into heaven.  We know this by studying the Greek word “metah-taupah” that was translated as the English word “after this” and “hereafter” in Revelation 4:1.  This is the exact same word that used in Revelation 1:19 where Jesus gave us the outline of the book of Revelation to John saying “write what you have seen (Past Tense), the things that are (Present Tense) and the things that will come hereafter (Future Tense) “metah-taupah”.  Revelation chapter 1 is the past tense division of the book.  Revelation chapters 2 and 3 were the present tense division of the book being applicable to the church age.  Then beginning in Revelation 4 and following these are ALL the things that had not occurred during the church age and are a designated division of future tense events.

Therefore, we should realize that from chapter 4 forward, whatever was written by John, God says has NOT occurred at the exact time of the words being written down.  If you disagree with this please just leave a kind  comment and explain why.  Otherwise, let us all please take the Bible literally at every opportunity that is permissible.   One good law of basic Bible interpretation is that “when the plain sense makes good sense, apply no other sense, or we can stumble into nonsense”.  That would be different than takin the woman in Revelation 12 literally as she is described to be wearing the Sun, while standing on the moon.  That makes no plain sense, therefore we must apply the new sense of symbolism to understand what is being communicated.

I think what potentially confuses some, is the fact that God uses future  symbolism in Revelation which describes previous scriptural people, events, things and individuals.  All of these new symbols existed prior to this writing of Revelation and were written about in other books using different names, titles or descriptions.  Therefore, some of these future symbols will reflect historical and existing spiritual and physical realities like Jesus, Satan, angels, the church, the nation of Israel, and other spiritual entities that must already pre-exist before Revelation 4:1.  We can see and learn this very clearly by reading Revelation 12:9.  We are introduced to a key figure in Revelation 12 called the dragon and God defines who this symbol represent in verse 9 very clearly.  Here God says the “dragon” represents the “old serpent” called the “Devil” and “Satan”.  Wow, that is a major revelation of how God defines symbols in the Book of Revelation and chapter 12 specifically.

Therefore, what is prophesied to happen to these historical or existing entities in the future could be easily confused with past event occurrences that have already occurred because of the similarities and patterns that are given to us in these future descriptions of new events that happen to existing spiritual beings like Satan.  God makes it so clear by calling the “dragon” the ancient serpent from Genesis 3:1.  He then connects these two symbols, the serpent and the dragon to be one named spirit being named “Satan”.  This information is vital to learn and know and it teaches us so much about interpreting the woman in Revelation 12 also.

Please understand there is a difference between something that is prophesied to happen to someone that already exists and something that has already happened to someone a longtime before.  The first conforms with the declaration of Revelation 4:1 about future events and the second is , is a major conflict and a problem.  We must change our perspective to say  the prophesied birth of the woman’s child has not occurred when the book of Revelation was written.  Because that would violate the definition of a prophecy and conflict with the scripture we just read in Revelation 4:1 where God says everything that is stated from this point forward has NOT yet occurred.  I pray that this brings us clarity and agreement.

What we are going to soon discover is that there are statements found in Revelation 12 that will cause most people to gravitate to a specific pre-drawn conclusion of the identity of the woman in Revelation 12 because she is described to be 1) pregnant,  2) her child after birth is said to be caught up (raptured) to heaven and 3)  because her child is said to rule with a rod of iron.  Therefore, we all have automatically been drawn to and concluded without studying or taking into account Revelation 4:1 that the child must be the birth of the naturally born Jesus described in Matthew 1 and Luke 1, born in the town of Bethlehem.  I use to think this way.  But, I learned this thinking forces the woman in Revelation 12 to either be 1) the one physical woman Mary or 2) the collective symbolic woman of the natural nation of Israel (aka Earthly Jerusalem).

However, I believe that this rapid jump into a premature conclusion interpretation that potentially causes God’s Word to appear to be confused. God would seem to be someone that does not know the truth.  I do not personally believe that God is confused or that this event of the child’s birth has already occurred as we know from Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels!  Therefore, we should begin to understand that this interpretation of the child in Revelation 12 being naturally born Jesus causes a major conflict with scriptures.  We would have to ignore Revelation 4:1 or explain it away to mean something it does not say.

This type of pre-drawn fast conclusion in Bible study would be like a police detective assuming a suspect’s identity without first examining all of the evidence that has been found at the crime scene.  Because a few facts point us to  one assumed main suspect that is easily remembered does not produce evidence beyond a reasonable doubt for a conviction.  This is often times called “circumstantial evidence”.  The circumstances being described to us in Revelation 12 appear to be only 1 suspect that does not make it the truth.  Like I said before maybe this person has an alibi and this would cause an injustice to be initiated for our suspected woman’s identity.

Let me try to say this a different way.  Just because one man fits a partial description of someone we think is Jesus Christ does not mean the suspected mother identity should should be arrested and found guilty without examining all of the rest of the substantial proof and evidence of every known truth in the rest of the chapter.

What if our suspect candidate that was arrested had an unknown twin sister and she committed the crime?  What if that twin that did not commit the crime became the identified and assumed suspect and got arrested, tried and convicted based upon just the video camera recordings?  Is that fair to her?  Why then is it fair to this woman in Revelation to claim that she is the virgin Mary or natural nation of Israel when all of the evidence has not been found or analyzed?

Clearly in Revelation 12 God is now revealing new information to John a long time AFTER the physical birth, death, resurrection and the ascension of Jesus into heaven.   I also would like to point out that Revelation 12 says the “child” is “caught up” and that does not match the description of the ascension given  in Acts 1 of the man Jesus rising slowly into heaven.  Also, Jesus was a full grown mature man of at least 33 1/2 years of age and Revelation 12 says her son that is caught up as a child.  We also need to know that this word translated as “caught up” in Revelation 12, is G726 (harpazo) and it literally means to “seize suddenly by force”.  The ascension of the man Jesus in Acts 1 uses a different Greek word G1869 (epairo) and this does not match the type or method of Jess going up.  The evidence is just not in complete alignment and agreement for this child to be Jesus, even though there are some similarities.  I think we are getting off of our main line of thought so let’s wrap this part of the lesson up and move on to the next topic.

What I believe is that God is trying to get us to see, is the fact that the prophecies going forward from Revelation 4 are all about coming future events and not about historical past events that have already occurred.  We can easily disagree with God, if we would like to but that is probably why our Bible interpretations seem to conflict with other scriptures.

Forgive me for saying this again, but if God says that He will show us things to come in Revelation 4:1, we know that chapter 12 comes after chapter 4 and must have not occurred. If this is true there is a major problem with the majority of interpretations of the woman in Revelation 12 that I have heard and read being the natural nation of Israel.

I believe that too many teachers have jumped to a quick conclusion that the child born must describe the birth of the physical natural child named Jesus in Bethlehem and therefore the woman must be the natural nation of Israel or the physical woman Mary.  And we know they teach this way even though this birth of physical Jesus took place even before the church age began.  This is ignoring critical scriptural evidence that must be applied in this lesson series to help us understand that she must be a different pregnant woman suspect than the obvious one that everyone believes.

Maybe this will help us to ask this, when did John write this book?  Was it after Jesus was born or before Jesus was born?  Most Bible scholars will agree that the book of Revelation was written a long time after the birth of Jesus and could have been written somewhere around the year 90 to 96 AD.  Obviously it should be clear in our minds that Revelation was written well after the physical birth of Jesus.  Therefore, we must conclude that the baby described in Revelation 12 can NOT be physical Jesus using this information, and logical application of the factual truths of Revelation 1:19 and 4:1.

I know that this may upset a great number of readers that have already predetermined who the woman and her child represents.  But yet we are just reading and studying the Bible and seeing what God says.  If God would have said in Rev 4:1 come up here and I will show you the things that have already happened and the things that will come hereafter, then that changes our prospective view of the possible interpretations significantly.  Since that is not the case, what we must conclude based upon the Word of God is that the pregnancy of the woman and the birth of the child in Revelation 12 are both future events that will happen after the minimum of 90 AD.

I personally believe that God says what He means and means what He says.  Therefore, let us continue to study and move forward asking more questions so that the Holy Spirit on the inside can help us resolve these conflicts that we are seeing in the scriptures.  We have spent enough time trying to answer the “when” question.  But, I could spend a lot more time on this topic but I will conclude this section with asking you when do the other events of Revelation 4 through 22 occur?  Please go study and read them and ask have any of these other events occurred yet?  Has the anti-Christ been revealed?  Has the judgments of God been initiated?  Are there two witnesses standing in the city of Jerusalem preaching to the nations?  Are there a 144000 with 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel being used by God yet?  Has the whore Babylon been destroyed?  Has the star wormwood hit the earth and turned a lot of water to an undrinkable condition?  On and on we could go.  I know that some say that these have already occurred but they are clearly wrong.  Don’t be deceived to believe these events have occurred already.  They are ALL about to happen in a very short time from now.  Amen.

WHAT ARE THE SYMBOLS RELATED TO THE WOMAN?

In order to identify the woman in Revelation 12 correctly, I found that it was critical to accurately identify the woman’s associated symbolic characteristics and descriptions first.  This is us asking some of the “what” questions about the woman.  What is she wearing, what is she standing on, what is she doing?   What does it mean to be wearing a crown?  What does it mean to be clothed with the Sun?  What does it mean to be standing on the moon?

What we will discover when we study to find the answers to these question concerning the given symbolic descriptions of the woman’s features, these clearly point us to ONLY one possible valid truthful identity in our suspect list.  It is what I call “dependent truth relationships”.  Until we identify the “parent” truths, we will never understand the “child” truths.  I am not really sure if you understand this concept that I just introduced you to.  But, please give me a chance to explain and please be patient to learn.

This concept of truth dependency is found in the Bible, and naturally created patterns like computer programming and other paradigms.  For example we view this truth in the natural world when speaking of children born from their parents.  But, in object oriented computer programming languages this feature can be called “inheritance”.  This is where one computer object (class) inherits or takes on the qualities and features from another pre-defined dependent object (class) that existed prior to the creation of the new object.  We can not fully understand the new child’s object capabilities without first fully understanding the source of inherited parent’s object characteristics.  If you do know anything about object oriented computer programming you still may be struggling with this concept applying to the Bible.  So I’ll try to apply this concept by teaching  about the parent symbols found in Revelation 12 to help us understand the woman’s dependent characteristic identities and this will help us narrow the woman’s identity eliminating everyone else that she can’t be..  Most of these dependent parent symbol truths start with information found in Revelation 12:1:

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

We can see immediately in verse 1 that this referenced woman is “clothed” with a very significant object referred to as a symbolic “sun”.  Then we are informed that she is “standing with her feet” upon another very significant specific object named to be a symbolic “moon”.  Finally on her head she is “crowned” with another symbolic item of a crown containing “12 stars”.  What we should start with, is to realize that this information dictates facts of truth that this described woman MUST be a symbolic representation of a greater spiritual truth because of the nature of the symbolic descriptions selected and their placements on her physical body which are used by God to describe her.

Normally God gives us symbolic information using natural objects that we can understand to help represent spiritual truths that we have never seen or understood.  Jesus used this technique numerous times in the form of parables like the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, etc.  By us understanding these natural object identities we can then transfer this knowledge into understanding the dependent unstated and unseen spiritual truth dimension.  What are the given key symbols from Revelation 12:1?

1.  A Woman
2.  Clothed with Sun
3. Standing on the Moon
4.  Crowned with 12 Stars

The most important things to take away from what we have read so far is to understand that there is a woman, the sun, the moon and the 12 stars and these must ALL be symbolic references using naturally created God objects pointing us to much greater hidden spiritual truths.  We know this fact of truth because it is impossible to physically wear the literal “sun” as clothing.   We could place a picture representation of the sun on our shirt, pants, robe or whatever we were wearing but that is not what God said.  God literally says she is wearing the sun not a picture.  Therefore, this is a word description and association containing a hidden definition that God must provide their meanings to us somewhere in His Word.

I’ll try to go further with the objected oriented programming concepts because this does apply to understanding the Bible and our specific subject.  If you are not a computer programmer you may want to jump to the next paragraph.  But in computer programming any named object (class) can possess pre-defined data members and member function methods.  These can be inherited by a new dependent object type of a similar kind with new or modified data and feature methods.  Let’s go a bit deeper.  For example, the Sun can synonymously  also be called a Star.  Therefore, the Sun object could inherit specific characteristics from the more generic (general) Star object.  But the Sun implementation can contain new specific data, information and methods that pertain only to our closest star object we call our sun.  If you are struggling with this concept, I understand.

Maybe this will be more understandable for non-programmers if we view it in the terms of a new child born to any human woman.  This new child will obviously inherit DNA characteristics from the contributing parents (mother and father).  These DNA characteristics will include possible hair color, nose shape and size, eye color and shape, height, weight and on and on we could go.  I know people when they looked at my son, they knew I was his father because of the passed down resemblance of his characteristics and features.  This is called a type of inheritance.  My son inherited features from me and my wife.  Hopefully, this knowledge will help us as we continue to study because it is taught relates to what we are seeing in the Bible about Revelation 12.

I’ll give you a quick Bible reference to inheritance in the beginning of the Bible to assist us how this applies.  For example, go and read Genesis 1:26 when God said “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness…”.  The Hebrew word translated as “image” means a “resemblance” or “a representative example”.  This would be like a model of a car or an airplane.  The small model is not the real airplane but viewing the model we can discover the real’s main characteristics and features.

Believe it or not that describes the Object Oriented programming type of inheritance also.  We can look at the Originating God Creator (class/object) and begin to understand the created model man (class/object) because of man’s similar inherited features, abilities, etc.  I hope and pray that this knowledge does not complicate your ability to understand this study.  If you are struggling, that is OK.  Just keep reading and it will come into focus as we continue.  Let’s move on to explore the dependent symbols given to us by God.

These symbols of the woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon and crowned with 12 stars are six of the most important dependent parent to child truths that I was referring to earlier.  These 6 must be understood accurately in order to correctly identify the dependent woman in Revelation 12 with confidence.  In other words, if we understand these symbolic object in detail, we will be more assured of who the woman truly represents.

This is where many Bible teachers and students have started to miss it in their interpretations.  Many have focused in on the woman and her child predominately and only 3 of her dependent object relationships, while ignoring the other 3 key symbols given to us by God that are very significant.  They usually focus only on the existence of a sun, a moon and the stars and do not attempt to explain what wearing the sun means, standing on the moon means or to be crowned with 12 stars means.  Uh oh, that sounds like a very significant problem of partiality or fact and truth omission.  This would be like taking 3 facts that you believe you understand and ignoring the other 3 because you don’t understand them.

I will briefly teach concerning the predominate reasoning given by the majority of Bible teachers for the identity of the woman in Revelation 12.  The majority of modern Bible teachers believe the woman is Israel because these 3 objects (sun, moon & stars) were found in Genesis 37 given to Joseph by God in the dream.  In this dream Joseph was shown that the sun, the moon and 11 stars bowed down to him.  Therefore, these teachers have concluded that this dream is close enough to be used to claim these objects collectively represent only the nation of Israel.  The key word is “ONLY” in that last sentence.  Joseph’s father Jacob interprets the dream and he informs us the sun is him, the moon is Joseph’s mother and the 11 stars are Joseph’s brothers.  But, let us ask this question, is that all these objects represent and is this the first time they are mentioned in the Bible?  The correct answers to both of these questions is essential to understanding the truth of Revelation 12.

So let me ask you how do we resolve these apparent conflicts?  Did you see the conflicts between applying this dream and our application to the woman in Revelation 12 her associated symbol placements?  One set of symbols are bowing uniformly in the dream and the other corresponding symbols in Revelation are spread out all over her body from head to toe.  Then there is the problem there are only 11 stars and not 12.  To this the common answer is Joseph is the 12th star and 11 is close enough to the number 12.

So how do we apply Jacob’s interpretation to Revelation 12?  If we did this the woman (Israel) would be clothed with Jacob, standing on Rachel and being crowned with Rueben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.  Does any of these placement make any common or plain sense to you?  The most significant problem of conflict would be for the nation of Israel to be standing on Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife.  Being stood upon is not a position of respect or honor.  I believe this is a very major fact that is being completely misunderstood or ignored by modern Bible teachers.  We will look at this subject in more depth later in this series, but for now let us continue forward to complete this section of our lesson.

Our approach in studying these symbol subjects will be radically different that the approach to other good Bible teachers.  We will examine the woman and the child with less focused priority to begin with and shift to focus in on these other three object symbols first.  Specifically we will attempt to discover the meanings of how these 3 objects are mentioned by God with their direct functions of being clothed, standing on and crowned with.  I believe that when we do this, we will obtain the keys to unlock the identity of this woman in Revelation 12 more precisely.   I believe that this is a transformational departure from natural human logic and reasoning.  We will soon discover how this new approach will benefit us tremendously in our understanding of truth, while eliminating other women suspects that do not fit with this method of study.

WHAT DO THE GIVEN SYMBOLS MEAN TO GOD?

What does the sun, the moon and the stars all have in common?  They are ALL heavenly created bodies that can be seen and observed from the earth.  That information right there ought to start us thinking in a different way.  What does the earth represent in other symbols given to us in the scriptures?  Jesus taught us in the parable of the sower that earth represented the hearts of men.  I believe that is very relevant to know so keep that in mind.  Then consider this, these objects exist in varying distances from the earth.  Also know that the earth revolves around one main object called the sun.  Second, the moon revolves around the earth primarily and the sun secondarily and this is very important to understand.  Third, the stars are just very distant suns that are too innumerable to count in the heaven.   This is just basic cosmological information that we can gather on the internet.  But, I believe very sincerely that all of these natural objects have much greater spiritual significance by God’s divine wisdom and design.  I believe this based upon Roman 1:20 where God informs us His invisible qualities can be seen being found in the things that He has created in our world.  I believe this included the sun, moon and stars.

Let us begin our detail symbol analysis of these objects individually by digging into the crown of 12 stars first and then we will move to the sun clothing next and finally her position of standing on the moon object last.

WHAT IS THE CROWN OF 12 STARS? – THE NUMBER 12

Let’s start briefly with the crown of 12 stars and the number 12.  I believe that many Bible teachers focus with too much emphasis of the woman’s identity without noticing the significance of the number 12.  We should know from Bible study that the number 12 has a lot of significance throughout the entire book from Genesis to Revelation.   This number could apply to the natural nation from the man God named Israel who progenerated his 12 sons (Gen 35:22) to produce the 12 tribes of Israel. But the number 12 could also apply to the spiritual church (a spiritual Israel according to Galatians 6:16, 1 Peter 2:9 and others) that also produced 12 spiritual tribes (James 1:1) that originated from the 12 called apostles of the Lamb (Mat 10:2).  There are also other twelves in the Bible that I find very interesting.  For example, did you know that Ishmael the first son of Abram by Hagar had 12 sons (Gen 25:16)?  I wonder why God put that in the Bible?  There appears to be a connection to Hagar and the Earthly Jerusalem from reading Galatians 4.  However, that is a new problem for a different Bible study.  Did you know that the Levite High Priest wore a breastplate with 12 stones with the names of the 12 tribes on them?  Did you know that Satan’s breastplate only had 9 stones with one row missing from the Israel Hight Priest breastplate?  That too is another problem for another lesson.  Did you know that the foundation of the New Jerusalem had 12 layers of similar stones like the High Priest and will contain the names of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb (Rev 21:14)?  Did you know that the Tree of Life at the end of Revelation produced 12 kinds of fruit 12 months of every year? There are just a lot of patterns that are in parallel.  Did you know that there are 12 gates into the city New Jerusalem?  Also in the New Jerusalem we find it is 144 cubits tall which is twelve multiplied by twelve as well as being 12,000 furlongs square?  We could go on and on with the number 12 study.

The Number 12 in Biblical numerological terms typically represents a perfected governmental foundation.  For example, a jury in a court of Law normally is comprised of 12 Jurors in the U.S.  There are over 180 references in the Bible to the number 12.  There are 22 references found in the book of Revelation alone.  We could spend days on this study of the number 12.  It is also important to note that the number 12 is very specifically related by God to be a descriptive quantifier for the number of  the “stars” on her head and does not specifically address or identify the woman directly.  Even though this number 12 does appear important it is not specific enough to anyone that I have found in the Bible as to establish one possible candidate suspect individually.

What I am trying to teach in this section is that the number 12 is; in and of itself not sufficient evidence to determine which possible candidate could be selected.  However, it may be sufficient to exclude or eliminate at least 1 possible candidate.  Using this number “12” information alone we could interpret that the woman is potentially either 1). natural Israel or 2). the spiritual church because of the 12 tribe son association.  Currently I do not know of any Bible number of 12 that God has associated with the physical natural woman Mary.  Therefore, based upon this information we can almost guarantee that the woman is not the physical virgin Mary.  However, if you search the internet you will find many people that believe this woman is Mary and they have created pictures of a woman that they call Mary wearing a crown of 12 stars.  Personally, I do not agree with them because of what we will learn very soon.  But we will explore Mary more as we continue our search and confirmation.

WHAT IS THE CROWN OF 12 STARS? – THE STARS

Let’s now go through a brief discussion of the Bible subject of the “stars”.  From my study I have found that there are many references in the Bible that directly or indirectly identify stars to be symbolic references to angels.  We can see one very important example of this directly in this chapter 12 of Revelation in verse 4.  In verse 4 God describes the tail of the dragon sweeping 1/3 of the stars down to the earth from heaven.  Most Bible scholars believe this is a clear reference to the number of angels that fell with Lucifer in time past.  I do agree with that interpretation completely.

The Greek word G792 translated as “star” is the word that we are currently discovering.  This is the Greek word found in Revelation 12:1 and 4.   It is used by God in the New Testament 24 times in 21 verses.  Wow, 12 + 12 = 24 and there are 12 stars on her head.  I wonder if that is significant?  Revelation chapter 1 verses 16 and 20 also provides some very relevant star information and definition.  In verse 16 of Revelation 1, Jesus is described to have seven stars in His hand.  Then in verse 20 Jesus Himself defines what this symbol means by saying the 7 stars are the 7 angels of the 7 churches.

Now we are really getting much deeper into this star subject than I really wanted to, but we will continue.  The Greek word G32 is this word translated as angel widely in the New Testament.  However, God does occasionally use this word to mean a “messenger” and even a “pastor”.  We know heavenly angels are widely used as messengers for God, sent to people on the earth.  We can find this in the Old and New Testament several times.  In the KJV Bible, translators chose to translate G32 as “messenger” in 7 verses.  For example, it is used this way in Matthew, Mark and Luke to describe John the Baptist and his disciples.  It is translated as “messenger of Satan” in 2 Corinthians 12:7 in reference to the thorn in Paul’s side that he prayed for God to take from him three times.  Finally, in the book of James it is written and used to describe the two spies that were sent into Jericho for Rahab the harlot’s salvation.

Ok, this word translated as angel, angels, messenger or messengers is also used in the seven letters written to the 7 churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.  Remember Jesus said in Revelation 1 the 7 stars in His right hand were the 7 angels.   But, I believe that these references should also be messengers or more specifically “pastors”.  You see Jesus said in the letters “Unto the angel of the church of ….”.  Why would Jesus write a letter to an heavenly angel when He can simply call them over and talk to that angel in heaven at anytime He wants.  That just doesn’t logically make sense to me.

No, I believe these 7 angels in Revelation 2 and 3 should be referred to as the 7 pastors that bring the message of God to His people in the church.  Jesus is bringing us information for the benefit, edification, correction and warning to church people here on the earth.  These 7 letters were written for all of our benefit.  We in the church are the ones that require the help that is offered.

What I have concluded is that the 12 stars on the head of the woman in Revelation 12 represents the 12 Apostles of the Lamb who were shepherds (aka Pastors) to spread the good news of Jesus to others in the world.  Through them this good news spread and the church grew.  On the Day of Pentecost there were 120 that were filled with the Holy Spirit (12 times 10 equals 120 an interesting 12 relationship).  While the number of 12 Stars does not specifically confirm the church it certainly does not eliminate the church either to be the woman.  I can see how some could believe the 12 stars could possibly represent the 12 tribes of Israel.  However, why they are found on a crown should raise a lot of new questions If you are able to see things differently you are welcome to share your verses with me.  Let us move the study to that of the “crown” found on her head.  This symbolism represents greater priority based upon its direct contact and physical positioning.  Which woman does the Bible claim is to be crowned?

WHAT IS THE CROWN OF 12 STARS? – THE CROWN

I will now go over the specific “Crown” symbol to determine who can qualify Biblically to be this crowned woman in Revelation 12.  We are going to do this by studying the Greek word G4735 that was translated as “crown”.  This Greek word is defined as an  “intertwined or woven wreath worn on the head as a symbol of royalty, or as a symbol for the prize for winning the victory in the public games, or as a symbol of honor.   I think all of these are great descriptions and helps to narrow the focused candidates very significantly.  Think about the definition and then think what else we know of the Bible.  If nothing comes in your mind immediately I’ll give you a few important things to consider.

The Greek word translated as “crown” (G4735) is used by the Holy Spirit in 18 N.T. verses.  That is a fairly narrow number to study them all but I will be selective to limit the size of the lesson.  I would suggest that you go and read them all when you have the time.   We will begin with an overview of the Gospels first.

In the Gospels, this Greek word is found 4 times in association with the crucifixion of Jesus.  However, in this example it was not used as a crown of victory, honor or royalty but rather as a crown of mockery because it was made of “thorns”.  It caused Jesus great pain and great humiliation and caused His head to bleed.  Roman’s used this symbol as a mockery to laugh at him crying “Hail the King of the Jews”.  Wow, that is the opposite of how the woman in Revelation is described.

Ok, next is the letters to the church and the first time this Greek word is mentioned is in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25.  Here we have a very applicable description for the church obtaining this crown.  Verse 24 speaks of people running a race and in verse 25 Paul wrote of them seeking for a “corruptible crown”.   A corruptible crown is one that will not last, in other words it represents a temporary honor given from a temporary victory.  You see in these types of games they never end.  It is like the Olympics where runners run every 4 years to compete for the same prize.  Someone will obtain the victor’s crown for that race but they know that there will soon be another contest that may be won by another faster, stronger, and younger competitor.  It is a very fleeting recognition and victory.

Now Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit compares this temporary crown to a crown that the church is seeking to obtain. This crown he called an “incorruptible crown”.  This is a lasting type of honor rewarded from a victorious ending from a life-time of victories.  Incorruptible means this crown will not decay or fade to nothing.  It will be one that endures eternally.  This is a spiritual reward from a spiritual contest.  You see the church is told to “Fight the Good Fight” (1 Tim 6:12).  The Church is told “Run the Race” (1 Cor 9:24).  The church is told “we wrestle not with flesh and blood….” (Eph 6:12).  All of these admonitions are types of Olympic events and contests to whom the winner gets the reward.  Wow, I think that is amazing.  This crown of victory worn by the woman in Revelation 12 sure sounds like the description of a victorious church and we will learn a lot more about who this victory is over very soon in this lesson series.

I am not going to go over any more verses, because of the amount of information, space and time it would take to write about it in full and the time increase required for you  to read about it.  I will recommend again that you go and search your New Testament for the Greek word G4735 and study them all.  I believe you will find overwhelming evidence that this woman in Revelation 12 is only confirmed to be the church based upon this symbol.  I have not found a direct reference to it being anyone else using this divinely chosen Greek word.  If you know of any verses that describe natural Israel to be a woman with a crown please shared them.  I will tell you that there is another woman in Revelation 17 called the “Mystery Babylon the Whore” that claims that she is a queen in Rev 18:7.   This certainly does appear to indicate she has or had a crown at one time or the other on her head.  She is also called a mother in Rev 17.  Wow, we can’t go any deeper in this lesson about this woman, but it is noteworthy to mention.

I will end this section on the crown with 1 Peter 5:4 “When the Chief Shepherd (Jesus) shall appear you will receive a crown (G4735) of glory that will not fade away”.  Wow, Wow and Wow.  Praise the LORD!  Let’ change subjects and learn the most important dependent subject, the Sun.

WHO IS THE SYMBOLIC SUN?

What we need to do now is to address the easiest and most profound symbol concerning the identity of the woman in Revelation 12, the “Sun”.  There are literally more confirmations  in scripture to the identify the Sun symbol than any other Revelation 12 symbol topic.   It is also essential to understand that this woman is said to be “clothed” with the sun and this means that she is literally “wearing” this object.  We understand that like any natural clothing this sun must have been “put on” in order for it to be worn.  This demonstrates a voluntary act of freewill choice.  In other words, a woman goes to her closet and chooses which garment to place on her body on purpose.  Therefore, this “sun” clothing is a highly dependent qualifier that MUST be understood in order to determine her identity correctly.   Also what it means to be selected as clothing is another major dependent qualifier for determining identity. There are just so many questions that should come to mind if given any thought.  For example:

1. Who or what is this sun? Is the sun literal or symbolic? 
2. Why is she wearing the sun? 
3. What purpose or benefit would it be to be clothed with this object?
4. Why is this object described as clothing and not some other relationship? 
5. What does a woman do with clothing? 
6. How does a woman choose her clothing?
7. If she is wearing the sun, she is wearing light.  Who should be a light in the world today?  

There are so many questions that could be asked with the need to be understood and answered using the Bible.  Let’s get started learning about the “sun”.

The Greek word translated as “sun” in Revelation 12:1 is G2246.  This word is used by God in 30 N.T. verses.  Strong’s definition is the “sun” as in “a ray”.  Thayer says this word means “sun”, “rays of the sun” and “the light of day”.  These are just basic facts, but they may not directly help us in understanding God’s symbolic definition of this object enough to identify the object.  However, I believe the object’s characteristics will become very relevant, very soon.  It is recommended that you go and read every verse where this verse is found, but for time sake we will not list or study these all in this lesson.

The Greek word translated as “clothed” is G4016 and it means “to put on” or to “invest with clothing”.  This is an absolutely fascinating concept.  The sun is very bright, very warm and hot, the source of life and light for our planet earth.  Without the sun’s exact distance from the earth our planet earth would be as all the other planets without life.  The sun is also the closest star to our planet and the center of our solar system that everything else in this system revolves around.  These physical attributes actually give us parallels into the spiritual realm and help us to identify who this symbolic spiritual sun is. Let us list the physical qualities of the sun again for any that may have missed them.  The Sun is:

1. The Source of Natural Day Light
2. The only Bright Light of Day
3. One Major Source for Life on Earth
4. The Source of Natural Heat and Warmth
5. Only Visible during the Day when we normally work
6. Not Visible at Night when we normally sleep

These might seem very obvious, but yet we still may not understand the significance to what they could mean.  We just read 6 descriptive characteristics of the natural sun that the woman is clothed with.  In knowing these we could describe that this woman is wearing, life, light, brightness, warmth and the day.  Her clothing is described in these very specific terms.  Keep these in mind as we go forward with this study because they are all very important.  Also begin to ask yourself who should be clothed with these types of features in the Bible?

So what or who does this symbolic sun represent?  I will not keep you in suspense any longer because the “Sun” according to many verses found in the Bible is one of the key symbols for  “the Lord Jesus Christ”.  It is always good to just search the entire Bible for the word “sun”. Then read all of the verses.  I did this to find the word 160 times in the KJV Bible in 152 verses.  The vast majority of verses God is speaking of the literal created sun object in the sky.  But there are a number of verses where God uses the term in a figurative or symbolic way to describe a greater spiritual truth.  We do not have the time to address every verse, but,  I found one quickly that literally should shake our internal spirit being.  After I read this verse I knew in my spirit that must apply to our subject search.  Let us read a direct verse reference example of a figurative “sun” found in the book of Malachi:

Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Here we see a verse that God speaks directly about Jesus Christ, but without using His direct name.  God in this verse does not call Jesus His “SON of Righteousness”, but rather He names Him the “SUN of Righteousness”.   God says “Sun” not “Son”.  If this was me speaking it could have been a typo, because I am human and have done that kind of mistake before.  But, because it is God speaking, I believe He said what He meant and meant what He said.  Surely everyone can see this and understand who God is talking about?  If not, take note of the fact that something or someone is named as the Sun and that he or it will be rising somewhere to bring healing to someone through the gift of righteousness.  Also, note that God says this sun rises and this must be a symbolic spiritual prophecy of someone or something that will bring healing.

Finally note the beginning statement from this prophecy that claims this is ONLY for them that “fear His name”!  Who can that be?  That is one of our first major clues because we should all claim to be “IN” that classification.  Please pay attention to what I just said using the word “IN”.  Could this a factor for identifying who is wearing the sun in Revelation 12?  Isn’t being clothed with something the same as saying she is “IN” it?  Could these people be those that possess the “fear” (honor, respect, and awe) of God’s name?  Now with all that in mind, let’s research, find and confirm who this Sun of Righteousness represents:

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

In this verse we can see some amazing parallels to what we just read in Malachi 4:2.  Here we can see another reference to Jesus being a light that rises and shines in the hearts of us believers.  We can also clearly see that He is called the “Day Star“.  This is just another way to describe the closest star to our planet that shines during the daylight hours and is normally called our “Sun”.  Do you get it?  Remember when we learned that the “Sun” object could inherit from the parent “star” object to contain additional new features with specific new data types, methods and descriptions.  God created the sun as a “day star” and it is usually the only object that is visible until the sun sets.  The other stars are not normally visible until the darkness of night.  These are very important created facts that teach us things in the unseen spiritual dimension of truth that we may have never learned.

Calling and describing the exact same object by different symbols, names, titles and descriptions is a very wise method that God uses to hide the meaning of the sun.  Using these differing symbols, names, titles and descriptions permits Him to conceal it while simultaneously placing it in plain sight.  This methodology of composition makes the information more challenging to search and find.  But, it also gives us new descriptive qualities to learn about in every different example.

Jesus is clearly again called the spiritual Sun (Star Shinning during the Day) that rises in the human heart.  The reference to dawn is a description of sunrise when light first breaks in the morning and the darkness has to vanish. Notice how the earth is the one that turns and not the sun.  Notice how this turning of the earth reflects symbolically a position of repentance moving out of the darkness and into the light of day!  God’s wisdom seen in the creation of these natural objects is amazing.

These are all spiritual truths reflected using natural symbolism.  Who in this verse is God referring to that the “Day Star” should arise within?  Again, this should be those people that have repented to turn into the “Light” of Jesus Christ.  I claim to be guilty of receiving this light of life and I pray you are also one in this group.

But, wait, We are not done yet.  For those who still may be skeptical we will continue to go through more spiritual witnesses to the truth to see the TRUE identity of the symbolic Sun.  This time our witness will be the LORD Jesus himself talking:

Rev 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Here we have the same implemented method that is used by God, of calling the Sun by still another new name.  This time Jesus claims that He is the Sun  being called the “Bright Morning Star“.  This is another reference to the “dawn” when the Sun rises.  We understand this through God’s usage of the term “morning”.  We can easily understand that Jesus is claiming to be the spiritual “Sun” that rises in the hearts of Christians to bring us light into our previously very darkened spirits.  If this is not understandable this might be a great time to ask Him to come into your heart and save you.  After you do this He will rise up on the inside of you to help you to see things like this to be true.  Just stop and pray ask saying “LORD Jesus I repent and turn to you, please be my LORD and bring me light to see you and your truth, Amen”.

Have you ever looked into the physical sun accidently and noticed how bright it is?  The woman in Revelation 12 who is clothed with the sun would also be called to be this bright.  This verse in Revelation 12:1 is referring to this bright star (Sun) that rises in the morning of human hearts that have turned.  These are radical new and different terms and ways of thinking.  But these should be helping us to understand who this woman in Revelation 12 could only represent.

The reason some people have not seen this reference before, is because they think this morning star is a reference to a planet like Venus.  But, that interpretation ignores the fact that God says this is a “star” and not a planet.  Venus is clearly not a star.  These are also the words of Jesus telling us personally who He is, Jesus is not a dead planet, but rather He is the life giving star of our planet (hearts).   Let us continue to go to another new title for the same Sun.  This time it is in the prophecy of John the Baptist’s father when speaking of Jesus:

Luk 1:78  Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

So Jesus is prophesied to be the “Dayspring”.  If you look up the definition of this Greek word G395 in the Strong’s it means “a rising light”.   Isn’t this what the sun does every day?   You can also see that this is the same synonymous meaning of “dawn” when the sun rises in the east.  What we can see is another clear reference to the coming of Jesus into the world  as being liken to the rising of Sun to bring light to those that were in darkness.  When Jesus was born into the world He brought the light from heaven with Him.  Remember what or who light is in the Bible?  Read 1 John 1:5 where we are clearly informed “God is Light and in Him is NO darkness”.  Uh oh, that sounds very important to me.  Remember what Jesus said in John 9:5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”.  Jesus was claiming to be a spiritual sun and not a natural light.  Jesus did not walk around glowing in the dark. Let us go to another reference for the identity of the Sun from the mouth of Jesus.  We will stay in the book of John and read from chapter 8 and verse 12:

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

WOW! You do understand the source of the light and life for our planet, yes?  The natural sun produces the light on our planet and is the primary source of life also.  In this verse in John, Jesus reveals himself to be the spiritual light of the world and the source of spiritual life.  This is a direct parallel to the physical nature of the sun light of our world.  We can clearly see that Jesus informs us if we continue to follow Him, that we would NOT walk in darkness.  Wow, can we see the message?  If we were walking IN darkness that is a very similar concept to being clothed in this substance of darkness.  But, if we choose to walk IN the light this appears to say we could be be clothed with His “light” (the Sun).  Wow, we are getting ahead in the next section of the lesson.  But that should have just produced some new light in our hearts.

Jesus is referring to the heart of man in this verse and tells us that He will light us internally, or spiritually by us believing in Him.  Since the physical sun is one key for the source of natural life on this planet, we can understand that the spiritual Sun of Righteousness is the spiritual source for our spiritual eternal life. What we have is a natural pattern being given to us for a far greater and much more significant spiritual reality.  We can see the same physical qualities being described of the natural sun to be found in Jesus.  Jesus is calling himself the “Light of Life”, these are clearly types of the symbolic sun.  Jesus is calling himself the light of the world, that again is by nature the sun.  Jesus says we will not walk in darkness or the night, because again we have or choose to be IN Him the source of our life as our personal Sun.

There are many verses in the Bible that we could include in this lesson to illustrate the truth of the identity of the symbolic “Sun” clothing being Jesus Christ.  We will only go with one more that repeats some of the basics that we have already learned from other verses.  Here is a verse written directly to the church about the church and our Savior:

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This verse is very informative.  It first confirms that the Genesis 1 account contains hidden spiritual prophetic statements within it.  God who on day 1 of creation, commanded the light to be, declares that this was a prophesied future spiritual event that would occur when Jesus came to manifest on te earth.  The location of this shining or enlightenment is clearly given to be the hearts of mankind.  This is the inward spiritual location of our eternal spirit being.  Then the verse ends with how this occurs.  It is through knowing Christ.  Finally, there is a reference given to the “face” of Jesus Christ.  I found that this is fascinating and informative also.  We can see this concept in the book of Revelation describing the “face” of Jesus:

Rev 1:16  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

You see in this verse of Revelation, God is describing some spiritual qualities of Jesus Christ.  I’ll skip the first two and go directly to the last part of that verse that says “his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength”.  Isn’t that an interesting way to describe Jesus?  The word “countenance” can be translated as “face”.  So the “face” of Jesus is said to be symbolically shining like the sun at noonday.   This I believe is highly significant and just further confirms that Jesus Christ is the symbolic Sun found in Revelation 12.  Here is a list of scriptures that all refer to Jesus Christ in terms describing Him to be the Sun.  Some of these I have given you already and some are new:

1. The Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2)
2. The Greater Light that Rules the Day (Gen 1:16)
3. The Day Star (2 Peter 1:19)
4. The Bright and Morning Star (Rev 22:16)
5. The Morning Star (Rev 2:28)
6. The Dayspring (Luke 1:78)
7. The True Light (John 1:9, 1 John 2:8)
8. The Light of the World (John 8:12, John 9:5)
9. The Light of Life (John 8:12)
10. The Sun (Rev 1:16, Rev 12:1)

This should be overwhelming evidence that Jesus Christ is the Sun.  Therefore, I have concluded from all of these verses that the Bible informs us this symbolic sun in Revelation 12 must be the LORD Jesus Christ and not Jacob.  Now we must confirm who is instructed or commanded to wear this symbol in the Bible?   We have already seen some great clues in this section that should have raised our expectation level. This is where we will go next.  Afer you expecting to receive anything else new?  I hope so.

WHO IN THE BIBLE IS TO WEAR THE SUN?

Let us now approach this subject from a different angle to give us some additional perspectives on this topic for determining the identity of the Sun in relation to the identity of the woman.  I want to specifically focus on any commandment in the Bible given by God for anyone to be clothed with Jesus.  Is the church ever told to wear this symbolic sun?  As you recall, the woman in Revelation 12 is said to be clothed with the Sun.  Of course the church must be commanded to wear the Sun in order to be qualified to be the woman in Revelation 12.  But realize that this command may not just be in so many direct obvious words as we have already learned.  This again is one way that God hides the truth for a given time to reveal it.  We have to look for it, study it and allow the Holy Spirit to show us.  We started this discovery by allowing the Holy Spirit to bring us through a process for understanding who the spiritual Sun represents.  By now I believe that you can see that the spiritual Sun is Jesus Christ.  Now let us direct our focus upon verses applying the new knowledge of who the Bible says is the symbolic Sun looking for verses that instructs someone to wear Jesus Christ directly (Jesus, Lord, Christ, etc.) or indirectly (light, sun, etc.).  Here is one verse that found that is amazing:

Rom 13:14  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

The Greek word G1746 that was translated as “put on” here means to “invest with clothing” or to “be clothed” with.  Interesting, is it not?   Isn’t this what God was talking about, to be clothed with the Sun in Revelation 12?  If Jesus Christ is the Sun, and we have clearly seen that He is, then the church is instructed to wear this Sun like clothing in this verse.  This verse in Romans tells us to wear Jesus Christ like a physical garment, robe or a coat.  If Jesus is the Light and the Sun, then we would be wearing the correct symbol describing the woman in Revelation 12, right?  Please relate only this news with being a Christian.

What does it mean to “put on ” Christ?  We know that God is Light.  Therefore, if we are required as Christians to put on Christ’s Light this should cause Him to become visible outwardly as we live our our lives on the earth before those that are still walking in darkness.  I believe people need to be able to see Christ’s light in our actions, our morals, in our choices and life styles long before they hear our words about Jesus. Remember what we learned about when Jesus spoke to us in John?  He said “as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world”.  He is not physically here on the earth now, but we are.  Therefore, Jesus said this in Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hid”.  Wow what an amazing choice of words.  If we lived as if were clothed with His righteousness and feared His name would this cause us to live Holy in the world so that they could not do anything but notice how different we were from them?

This is God’s major participating power that is being used in developing the identity of the woman that appears in heaven in Revelation 12.  Can you as a Christian see yourself clothed in His light?  Can others in the world see this light?  Here is another witness to this revelation:

Gal 3:27  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Again we clearly see a new synonymous reference of the church being clothed when we were baptized into Christ.  To be naturally baptized represents a complete immersion and the covering of the body by water.  This is clearly a symbolic type of reference for a person wearing something like a robe. The parallels of jumping into water completely is very analogous to jumping into a piece of clothing.

In this verse we are wearing symbolic water and in Revelation 12 we are wearing the Light of the World (the Sun).  We must understand that water and light are both key elements of the source of natural life on our planet.  Without either of these life would not exist.  But we must also understand that Water is a symbol of the Word of God (Eph 5:26).  Then  can further confirm this connection because Jesus is called by the title of the “Word of God” in Revelation 19:13.  Therefore, we can logically conclude that if we are told that we were baptized into Christ this means were clothed with His Word.  I know this is all different than what we may have been taught and very new deep revelations.  But, this is what God is teaching us from the Bible.

Now if that is true then according to this verse we also have “put on” Christ.  Put on again means to “be clothed” with Christ.  The church should be going around wearing the garment of Jesus Christ, right here, right now.  Let’s look at a new verse:

1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

In this verse it compares two opposing states of human existence.  One is in the physical with the other one being in the spiritual.   The words “borne” and “bear” are the same Greek word that means to “wear”.  God is telling us that we (our spirits) previously wore only our flesh bodies, but now we have been circumcised to remove this flesh nature (Rom 2:29, Col 2:11) and to be re-clothed with a heavenly new nature of the Spirit.  This is what is means to put on Christ and we are required to turn from our previous state of behavior in the darkness.

This will become very obvious to what God is talking about as we continue to learn and grow in knowing Him.  I hope and pray that everyone is beginning to see this.  When the Light comes in, the darkness will no longer have the ability to blind us from seeing the truth.   Let us briefly go over an Old Testament prophecy that goes into a bit of relevant information on this topic of wearing the “Sun”.

Dan 12:3  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

So as we read this prophecy in Daniel it should be self evident that it is talking about the church.  The church is the only group that is attempting to turn anyone from their darkness into the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  But, notice the terms that are used.  It declares that we will “shine” with a “brightness”.  The firmament is another word for the sky.  This is the earth’s atmosphere when it is lit by the sun and it can be very intensely bright.  This is a clear reference to the “day”. This could describe someone that is wearing the sun?   This chapter in Daniel is an end time prophetic message.  It describes many things that are occurring right now.  In context with that we see the righteous being hailed as light bearers.  Jesus made several statements in regard to this also.  In calling Himself the light of the world in John, He also said “ye are the light of the world” in Matthew as we looked at earlier.  How can the church and Jesus both be the same light object?  It is only possible and makes sense if we have put Christ on and wear Him around for others to see.  This is the same revelation of letting Jesus be seen on the outside in the visible world that we have on the inside of us.  Too many Christians want to keep Jesus on the inside and never let Him be seen outside of a physical church building.  This is not what the Bible says to do.  We are to wear Jesus Christ like a garment so that everyone can clearly see Him.  Here is another very relevant scripture on the subject of wearing the Sun.

Isa 61:10  I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

God has clothed the church with the garment of Salvation first and then the robe of Righteousness second.  After we believe in Jesus we are saved an then we were reborn in the Spirit to be made His righteousness.  Remember who the Sun of Righteousness was.  It is Jesus Christ.  So we have very clear evidence that the church is to be clothed with the Spiritual Sun of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.  So the primary clothing in Bible days were not jeans and t-shirts, but were then robes.  So we can understand that to be clothed with the Robe of Righteousness means everyday clothing and not just a special one time wedding garment.

The Hebrew word translated as righteousness is the exact same word found in Malachi 4:2 describing Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness.  So Isaiah 61:10 describing the church clothed in the Robe of Righteousness is definitely related to the verse in Malachi 4:2 describing our Savior the Sun of Righteousness.  This is not an accident nor was it placed in the Bible by chance.  This is God’s designed plan to reveal this information at the right time of the end of the church age.  I’ll end this Bible lesson with just one more reference since this has become a long Part 1 lesson.

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

So we can see another very similar word association being made by God the author.  This time the church is told to put on the “armor of light” by first taking off the works of darkness.  Since it does not take a rocket scientist or a doctorate degree to figure out where we get our daylight from we can see the connections being made very easily, I think it is clear that we are being told to put on the Sun as our protection against our enemy Satan.  This clothing that we are commanded to put on, is now described in a military design as the “armor of light”.  Armor is what a soldier would wear for protection against an enemy in battle.  Modern body armor is common place for Police, law enforcement and military personnel.  These are all people that have enemies of evil trying to kill them.  We will soon learn from the meaning of other symbols given in Revelation 12 that this is true for Christians and this symbolic woman.  This “light” armor should have the same protecting affect for us as Christians.  By a Christian wearing light we are walking in the light and we should never be found in the darkness again.  The clear reference in this verse is to the spiritual day versus the spiritual night condition of our hearts.

Notice that in putting on this armor we are commanded to remove the works of darkness.  That is amazing confirmation that us wearing the sun means for us to act as though Jesus was walking on the earth in the flesh in front us, on the side of us and behind us watching over everything we do.  By doing this we will present His thoughts, His Words and His actions to everyone living in the night where we use to be.

So there are many verses that instruct the church to shine and put on Christ removing the influence of past darkness.  I’ll end with the words of Jesus himself that also speak prophetically about the church at the end of the world:

Mat 13:43  Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The Words of God, from the mouth of the True and Faithful One declares the righteous will be the ones that will shine forth as the sun at the end of the world.  Doesn’t that testify and witness to your heart that the righteous church will be the woman wearing the “Sun of God”?    It sure does to my heart.

CONCLUSION

We have been going over numerous topics concerning the woman in Revelation 12.  We analyzed the symbols in verse 1 and made a list to study.  We then went though the three items associated with the crown.  These were the number 12, the stars and the crown itself and the meanings of each.  It would appear that this evidence pointed us to the identity of the woman in Revelation 12 pointed us to the suspect of the Church or Israel with more evidence leaning towards the Church.

We then moved to the most significant symbol called the “sun”.  This symbol was and is the easiest to identify because He is the central figure and theme of the entire Bible.  We were  provided numerous key scriptures that pointed us to the identity of the symbolic Sun as being Jesus Christ.  This was us, allowing God to interpret His own symbols.

We were then able to allow God to reveal several other verses that either instruct, prophesy or declare the church to be clothed with this Sun Light.  We can learn and confirm this truth further in many other verses in the Bible that were not covered yet, but we will end now with this question:

What woman in the Bible must be clothed with Jesus Christ (the SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS) in order to enter into the Kingdom of God?

We can certainly eliminate a lot of the 4 potential suspect candidates for this woman in Revelation 12.  I do not know of any other woman in the Bible that can be clothed with His Righteousness.  She cannot be natural Israel also known as the Earthly Jerusalem because God says the righteous that is of the law will not or cannot be saved (Rom 9:31).

This woman cannot be the heavenly Jerusalem because this woman is called a widow not being in covenant with God anymore in Isaiah 54:4.  We know this woman in this verse represents the barren allegorical Sarah by reading back up in Isaiah 54:1 to know and understand that this verse about the rejoicing barren woman is quoted in Galatians 4:27.  And in Galatians 4:26 we discover this woman is the Jerusalem that is Above in the heavenly realm and she is the mother of all that will be born again unto salvation.  Wow, we did not cover any of this in today’s lesson because that would take a lot of revelation and explanation.  But, that is a taste of things that should be coming to eliminate this woman as being the one mentioned in Revelation 12.  I would recommend that you do some reading and digging on your own and ask the Holy Spirit to show you why this city in heaven is called as “widow” and what that means in the subject of covenants.  Never forget Hebrews 12:22 where God defines the Jerusalem Above to be called the “Heavenly Jerusalem” that is comprised of an enumerable company of spiritual beings called angels.  This had to consist of Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel and the rest of the heavenly host.  We learn from our chapter study of Revelation 12 that 1/3 of these beings were swept down to earth having fallen by the tail of the dragon (Satan).  Wow, that is enough of a taste of what should be talked about in subsequent lessons.

This woman in Revelation 12 cannot even be natural woman Mary because she needed salvation to enter into the Kingdom of God the same as everyone else that will believe.  Just figuring out the identity of the single dependent symbolic “Sun” and how and who can be clothed with Him, changes the meaning of the woman in chapter 12 of Revelation dramatically.

This lesson number 1 has only introduced us to the subject and yet we still have a lot more to learn.  In the next lesson the Lord willing we will talk more about the other key symbols, especially the moon, who it represents and what it means to stand on this object.  This should help us better understand this woman’s true identity.  I believe the second most important symbol in this dependent truth relationship is the “moon” under her feet.  God Bless you and I pray that you have the spiritual eyes and vision to see and to understand GOD’S HOLY WORD WHOLY.

If you want to continue to Part 2 of this series, click HERE!