THE DRAGON OF REVELATION - A COSMIC BEING?

*[[Rev 12:9]] ISV* The huge dragon was hurled down. That ancient serpent, called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was hurled down to the earth, along with its angels.

Many have taught that this passage refers to a cosmic being who rebelled against God and recruited a third of the angels in heaven. I believed and preached it until I began to look at Revelation in context.

First of all, the voice that spoke to John said he was going to show him "things that were yet to come."(Rev 4:1) This definitely, means that the account of the dragon was in the future of John, not in his past. Hence it refutes the idea that  an angel in Heaven called Satan rebelled against God and was thrown to the earth with his cohorts before Jesus came to earth.

Also, John used a lot of imageries, metaphors and figurative expressions which were easily understood by his audience (namely the Jews of his time). For example, the Jews referred to tyrants as beasts or dragons, and cunning and deceptive people were referred to as serpents. Those who opposed the things of God were also refered to as devils or Satan (Matt 16:23, 1 Cor 15:32)

To help us understand this, let us look at how the term 'dragon' was used in a dream that Mordecai had. In the book of Esther, the 6th chapter tells of how Mordecai was honored for showing patriotism by exposing two of the king's chamberlains who had plotted to kill king Ahasuerus. However, we do not see the details of how Mordecai found out about the plot because it was not recorded in the canonical books but in the deutero - canonical book of Esther. (Deutero-canonical books also known as apocryphals are the books that were rejected by the Nicene Counsel during the compilation of the Bible in 325AD. They are however found in the Catholic Bible) Let's see...

1:4} And this was his dream: voices appeared, and confusion, and thunders, and earthquakes, and a disturbance upon the earth. {1:5} And behold, there were two great dragons making preparations against one another for battle. {1:6} And at their cry all peoples rushed forth to fight against the nation of the just. {1:7} And that was a day of darkness and division, of tribulation and anguish, and there was an unnatural dread over the earth.

From this dream, we can see the use of 'thunders', 'earthquake', 'darkness', 'earth', etc. These are all terms that Jesus used to describe the tribulation in Matthew 24. John also used these in the book of Revelation.

In the next chapter, we get the understanding of the imageries Mordecai saw in his dream...

{2:1} Now he was staying at that time in the king’s court with Bagatha and Thara the king’s eunuchs, who were porters of the palace. {2:2} And when he realized their thoughts, and had diligently paid close attention, he learned that they were attempting to cast their hand against king Artaxerxes, and he reported this to the king. {2:3} Then the king had both of them questioned, and when they confessed, he ordered a sentence of death. {2:4} But the king had what had happened written in the commentaries. And even Mordecai handed over the memory of these things into writing.

So you see, the term 'dragon' was used to connote an evil person not a cosmic being. Hence the dragon of Revelation was a metaphor for a man (John Levi) who took over the temple (the Heaven of the Jews),  opposed the things of God, cunningly recruited followers and caused an uprising during John's time. The terms, 'darkness', 'earthquakes', 'thunders', 'tribulation', etc; that we see in Revelation were always used to denote war or any uprising. Shalom!!!

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