The Woman & the Dragon

Revelation 12:7–9

War in Heaven

Michael and his angels fight the dragon, and the dragon loses. The war is real, it reaches each of us, and in heaven it is already won.

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“Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.”Revelation 12:7–9

Up to now in this chapter we have watched a woman, a child and a dragon. Now the curtain opens wider, and we see the battle behind all the others. St. John gives it three verses. The dragon fights, and the dragon loses.

Who is like God?

The leader of heaven's army is Michael. Scripture knows him already. In the Book of Daniel he is “the great prince, guardian of your people” (Daniel 12:1; see also Daniel 10:13, 21), and the Letter of Jude calls him the archangel (Jude 9). The NABRE note on 12:7 calls him the guardian and champion of Israel.

His name is itself a battle cry. In Hebrew, Michael means “Who can compare with God?” (the NABRE note on 12:7), or as it is often put, “Who is like God?” The note points to the contrast with the next chapter, where the world worships the beast and cries, “Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?” (Revelation 13:4). Michael's very name is the answer to every rival who wants the place that belongs to God alone.

Pope St. Gregory the Great saw this too. Preaching on the angels, he explained that “Michael signifieth: Who-is-like-unto-God?” and that whenever something of great power must be done, Michael is sent, so “that none is able to do as God doeth” (Homily 34 on the Gospels).

The rebel had a different cry. The prophet Isaiah mocks a proud king who said in his heart, “I will scale the heavens,” and, “I will be like the Most High!” Then he sings his fall: “How you have been cut down to the earth,” O “Morning Star, son of the dawn!” (Isaiah 14:12–14). The NABRE note explains that the passage speaks first of the king of Babylon, and that the Latin Bible renders “Morning Star” as “Lucifer,” a name the Fathers applied to Satan. Pride wants to be like God without God. Michael simply asks the question, and the question is enough.

A battle that began with us

When did this war begin? Scripture does not give us a date in heaven, but it gives us a clue. St. John calls the dragon “the ancient serpent” (Revelation 12:9). The NABRE note on 12:9 explains that this is the serpent who seduced Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:1–6). So the dragon of Revelation and the tempter of Genesis are one and the same. Clearly this battle began at the time God created man.

The Catechism teaches that behind the first sin “lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God” (CCC 391). That voice belongs to angels who fell by “the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign” (CCC 392). The Catechism even hears an echo of their rebellion in the tempter's promise to Adam and Eve: “You will be like God” (CCC 392; Genesis 3:5).

Why would an angel reject God? Here I offer only my own reflection, not the Church's teaching. Scripture says the angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). I have often wondered whether some of them could not bear that: to be pure spirits, so great, and asked to serve creatures made of dust. The Book of Wisdom does say that “by the envy of the devil, death entered the world” (Wisdom 2:24). Whatever the reason, the choice was their own, and it was final (CCC 393).

The war includes us

Verse 9 ends with the dragon thrown down “to earth.” That is where we live. The Catechism calls the devil “the deceiver of the whole world,” the one through whom “sin and death entered the world” (CCC 2852). He cannot reach God, so he goes after what God loves. Satan's greatest revenge is the fall of each and every human being.

That is why the battle of Revelation 12 is not only a story about long ago. It goes on in each life. It goes on in every temptation, every lie we are tempted to believe about God or about ourselves, every pull toward pride. When we pray “deliver us from evil,” the Catechism reminds us, evil “is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God” (CCC 2851).

But hear this clearly. None of God's creatures can be overpowered by Satan. He can entice; he cannot force. He can lie; he cannot make us believe. “The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite,” the Catechism says. “He is only a creature” (CCC 395). People are not captured against their will. They are invited, and some accept. The same freedom that lets us fall lets us refuse.

How we fight

Scripture gives us simple orders. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). “Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).

Notice what comes first in James: “So submit yourselves to God” (James 4:7). We do not beat the dragon by our own strength. We beat him the way Michael did, by standing on God's side. Prayer, confession, the Eucharist and a humble heart are the weapons. And we do not fight alone. Michael still fights for God's people. Pope Leo XIII gave the Church a short prayer to ask his help, and I commend it to you:

“Saint Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.”Prayer to St. Michael, Pope Leo XIII

Already won

Read verse 8 again: “they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.” The outcome is not in doubt. When the disciples came back rejoicing that even the demons obeyed them, Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky” (Luke 10:18). The Catechism says it plainly: Satan “cannot prevent the building up of God's reign” (CCC 395).

The dragon is loud on earth because he has lost in heaven. We still have to fight our part, but we fight on the winning side. As the Lord told us, “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).

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