12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2 and she was pregnant and she *cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.
The Red Dragon, Satan
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven crowns. 4 And his tail *swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child.
The Male Child, Christ
5 And she gave birth to a Son, a male, who is going to [a]rule all the [b]nations with a rod of iron; and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she *had a place prepared by God, so that there [c]she would be nourished for 1,260 days. Revelation 12:1-6, NASV
In the class that I am taking through biblicaltraining.org web site, Dr. Mulholland mentions that in his commentary on this passage he believe the woman is symbolic of God. He gives several reasons for this, but I have noticed that many commentaries disagree and say that the woman is symbolic of either Israel and the church or we could think of it as symbolic of the universal church. There are some clues that this may be the case.
The woman is pictured in Revelation 12 as having the moon at her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. The number 12 could represent either the tribe of Israel or the 12 apostles or be symbolic of both. Remember that the church in this period of time was largely Jewish and was only then beginning to move out of Jerusalem to the rest of the world. The fact that the moon is there may be symbolic of the important place the cycles of the moon played in the life of people back then. Their whole calendar was a lunar calendar. The woman was clothed with the sun, which might indicate a glory and brilliance of the bride of Christ. There is a purity to the church that is redeemed in God's eyes. The woman is also bearing a child, who is symbolic of Jesus.
The fact that the dragon is standing in front of the woman to try and devour the child may be symbolic of Herod. In Matthew Henry's commentary on this passage, he says that the 10 horns are the 10 provinces that Rome was divided into by Augustus Caesar. The 7 heads of the dragon could remember the 7 hills that Rome was founded on. Herod attempted to kill Jesus by getting the wise men to find out about where Jesus was born and then he planned to kill him. According to Matthew 2:12 the wise men were warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, so they went home another way. Joseph was also warned that Herod would try to kill Jesus and to flee to Egypt, which is what he did according to Matthew 2:13-15. When Herod realized he had been tricked, he had all babies 2 years and younger killed in the region of Bethlehem, a horrific bloodbath Matthew 2:16-18.
Revelation pictures often a battle that occurs such as in Revelations 12:7. It is a battle of forces between good and evil. A lot of people are very hesitant to read Revelation due to all the symbols in the book. And there are an awful lot of different interpretations of Revelation. One of the most common today is based on dispensationalism. Made popular by the left behind series. It is one that I was taught as a teenager. It has been the popular viewpoint only over the last 100 years though of church history. Most of church history people did not have a pre tribulation rapture view of end times. We can agree though that ultimately the story of Revelation is one where God triumphs over evil and judges the world. He restores creation and creates a new heaven and new earth and begin the reign in New Jerusalem. There will no longer be a curse and we will see his face and the throne of God will be among mankind Revelation 22:3-4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism
Four Views of the end times
https://www.olivetree.com/store/product.php?productid=21131
picture above from
https://www.equip.org/article/woman-revelation-12-mary/
