Revelation you can Understand
A Layman's Interpretation, Understanding
Bible Revelation  Chapter 12

We are now moving into chapter 12 and clearly it deals with Mary and the birth of Jesus Christ and the steps Satan did to try to destroy the child Jesus. A women was  having pangs in a birth and a red dragon appeared with seven heads, ten horns and seven diadems upon their heads.
I agree with many commentators who believe the seven heads are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon , Medo-Persia, Greece , Rome and the seventh I believe deals with this Church era where no one is a complete kingdom of the earth, like we know that from Rome to now there is no nation can be called a universal. The United States of America is the most powerful on the earth as I pen these words 2009 yet it shares other nations which are also powerful .
 The seven diadems as crowns deals with authority when the seven heads, nations had and will have.  There is a possibility that the ten horns that are those listed in Revelation 17: 12 who give their power and authority to the beast. is the same as chapter 12 we are discussing . These 10 horns with their power to the beast could be in our Church era so somewhere in our time or in the future there can be ten nations that are dominate enough to be in a position to be given power to the beast. Then the red dragon with its tail sweeps down the third of the stars down to earth. ¹ If the footnote is correct then when Lucifer, Satan tried to say he was equal to God the effects was devastating as we are told in Jude 6 the angels who did not keep their own position are kept for until judgement and, I am going to leave Isaiah 14 12-15 as it is in the Bible N.I.V.

"12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!

13 You said in your heart,
"I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. [a]

14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High."

15 But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit."

[Isaiah 14:12-15 NIV]

That means here in Revelation chapter 12 :1-4 we have a mixture of events not in order of one after another as the text read. But, we do know that verse 4 Satan stood before Mary who was to bear a child, which we know is Jesus and Satan tried to destroy Mary before the birth was to happen. That happened didn't it,  because when Herod was tricked by the wise Men he had every male child two years under killed to try and destroy Jesus Christ who was in Bethlehem.² Satan did not succeed so Mary had a child named Jesus and we can without any doubt say, here in Revelation 12   we are talking about Jesus, the child is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. "Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve The Lord with fear, with trembling kiss His feet, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way; for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." (Psalms 2:8-12 RSV)

Satan did not succeed in the first attempt because Mary's child was  God caught up to God and went into the Wilderness for about three and half years. Mary and Joseph went to Egypt.³

Interesting we see in this chapter 12 verses 7-9 that Satan and his angels are tossed out of heaven. Jesus said, I saw Satan fall down from heaven⁴ That means it happened while Jesus was with his Disciples. So Satan had been tossed out of heaven twice. The first was when Satan tried to lift himself equal to God, but in this first time Satan must have had entry to God because we know in Job, Satan came before God trying to get God to injure Job.⁵ It is valid to say that Chapter 12 : 7- 9 talks about the second removal from heaven because war arose in heaven, angels were fighting against the dragon and his angels. They were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan,⁶ The deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels with him. This happened I imagined because Satan had lost the battle because Jesus went to the cross and he (Jesus) was brought back to life by God . The exact time Satan was tossed out of heaven can mean Jesus saw it and it happened before he was arrested and killed. I think it happened before Jesus arrest because to God the journey to the cross had happened because it was in God's plan and nothing could stop it, unless Jesus himself was going to refuse in the end, because we know on the night of the arrest he did approach God three times asking him to remove the cup from him.⁷ The cup of course was the journey to the cross. God knew Jesus would overcome because before the foundation of the world the history of mankind the beginning and end had been destined and nothing could change it. Proof of this can be seen in 1 Peter 1 : 20, “He was destined before the foundation of the world...” So Satan was removed from the presence of God and it could be that chapter 20 that we will discuss later, is the time Satan is bound for the thousand years. But chapter 20 is still to come.

In verses 10-11 of chapter 12 we are discussing the comments “Now the salvation and power and kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before God, and have conquered by the blood of the Lamb...” These words must be applicable because Jesus had been crucified, rose from the dead and had now been at the right hand of God.

Once again verses 13-17 are events that happened before the birth of Jesus Christ and then later after the journey to the cross. Jesus has conquered and was in heaven reigning, so Satan in response began to try to destroy Mary, Jesus and his followers particularly the disciples of Jesus and others who followed Jesus Christ. Acts gives a dramatic history journey as the Disciples and others spread the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So, what was Satan Thinking?

I believe Satan was completely disturbed. by his failure. He had been tossed out of heaven from the presence of God. He tried to kill Jesus and failed, and in response he was killing those who follow Jesus Christ and that is why Satan stood on the sand. He was not sure what to do ⁸ I can say this because the Son of man in chapter 10 had a foot on the sea and land when he called out, a sign he know what he was doing.. Satan had his feet on the sand, we know in history, he made desperate attempts to cut out the the Christian Testimony in the world. As an example, in Rome Nero Emperor 54-68 AD tried to wipe out the Christians. Then we had the huge invasion from Islam. ⁹ All through history there are attacks against the followers of Jesus followers, sometimes they appeared to be successful but always the Christian world would rebound where today as I sit here in Deepwater Australia the Christian world is at an apex and probably getting stronger and bigger. This fits in with the parable of Jesus saying, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed the smallest yet becomes a large tree where birds can find refuge. The true Christian world began with Jesus Christ and his Disciples a few people, to today, where millions upon millions are Christians. The mustard tree prophesy is happening.¹⁰

Let us look at chapter 13

Bible Revelation  Chapter 1   2 & 3  4  5 6  7   8  9  10  11 12  13  14 15&16  17&18  19  20  21 & 22

Bible Revelation that you can understand a Layman's understanding or interpretation. Chapter 12 is about Mary's Birth, Jesus Christ, Satan, Dragon tries to destroy, kill the child Jesus, but fails and then attacks the Disciples, people, who follow Jesus Christ. But Satan Dragon fails as we know in history. Jesus is alive today.