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AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)
Chapter 12
Section 9
"Another Sign in the Heaven"
"And there appeared another sign in the heaven, and behold a geat fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon is heads seven diadems. And his tail draws the third of the stars of the heaven, and he cast them into the earth" - Verses 3,4. John saw "another sign in the heaven." The first sign which he terms "a great sign," was the woman invested with the sun. The same heaven was the scene in which the two signs were exhibited to all who observed them. It was the heaven of the Roman Orb in which shone all the luminaries of the Graeco-Latin body politic. The Dragon had long occupied the heaven of Italy; but it was not until the judicial crisis of the sixth seal that he was exhibited as "a sign." He was significative of a power occupying a position of hostility to the Christian Eve, and to all who favored her. This third verse is the first place in the Apocalypse where this hostile power is mentioned by the name of Dragon, though it is not the first where the power itself is indicated. The power is referred to in ch. 2: 10, where it is styled "the Devil. " Here the Smyrnean section of the woman is exhorted to "fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the Devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried." The Devil was the power which owned and controlled the prisons into which then, as now, he casts all whom his prosecuting attorneys convict of violating his laws. All the sufferings of the woman in her gestation -of 280 years were inflicted upon her by "the Devil and his Angels," who reigned in the heaven of the Roman Orb. These were her opponents who sought her destruction. The Devil was her adversary, who, "as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;" but she resisted him being steadfast in the faith; nevertheless, though cast down by the afflictions he heaped upon her, she was not destroyed (1 Pet. 5:8); but overcame him in the epoch of this other sign in the heaven (Apoc. 12: 11).