The answer is another book written by the Apostle John—the Book of Revelation. This is not necessarily one of the traditional Christmas stories. But here it is. See what you think.
But before I read this story, let me ask you another question: what is modern art—or impressionistic painting? We are moving into something different from what we would ordinarily expect. If we are thinking of the Bible, the proper name for what we are going to look at is apocalyptic literature. But we will think of it here as simply something weird and unexpected.
Let me read part of Revelation 12 to you.
Revelation 12:1-2, “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.”
Then skipping down to verse 5a, “She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron…”
Who are we talking about here? What woman and male child are the most significant pair of mother and child anywhere in Scripture? Especially one who was “to rule all the nations with a rod of iron”? It is about Jesus.
Earlier I skipped over verses 3-4. Now I want to go back and read them: “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down aa third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it.”
Who are we talking about here? What kind of a picture do we find here on the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth?
Sometimes I think our view of Jesus’ birth is a sanitized picture of Jesus being born in a quaint barn that is all clean and whitewashed with no dirt of smells of animals. Almost everyone likes stories of newborn babies. When we were visiting our daughter years ago in Turkey, if you had a young child with you, even complete strangers would come up to you and want to see the baby or young child. For many of us, this is our picture of Christ’s birth.
Yet this story in Revelation 12 reminds us that Jesus’ birth was also a part of a cosmic warfare where Jesus was entering this world to redeem His people and declare war on Satan.
Revelation 12 describes the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
In all your Christmas celebrations, remember there is also another side to Christmas. God was entering this universe to defeat Satan and release His people from the penalties of sin and wrath.
If Paul can tell us in Galatians 5:17 how “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do,” how much more should we expect there to be spiritual warfare between the second person of the Trinity and Satan himself. There is more to the Christmas story than we often think. Christmas is a major milestone in God’s plan of redemption. So, rejoice, yes! But when you rejoice, also remember that the birth story of Jesus is another key part in God’s securing our redemption from the Evil one.