THE WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN
As the light of truth slowly ebbed
in the first century and apostate doctrines dominated the Church established by
Jesus and His Apostles, John, the last living Apostle of the Old World, was
exiled to the isle of Patmos. There, he received the great vision now written
in the book of Revelation. That vision dealt largely with the fate of the
Church, the Messiah’s Bride. John saw the roll that persecution and apostasy
were taking in his time. But John was also given hope, as the vision revealed
that the Church was not entirely extinguished and that God had prepared a place
for it in the wilderness until the time He would call it forth to fulfill its
destiny.
In the vision, John sees the
Church as a “woman clothed with the sun.” She “travails in birth” and brings “forth
a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod if iron; and her child was
caught up unto God and his throne.” A “great red dragon” stood before the woman
which was delivered, ready to devour her child after it was born.” But “the
woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God,” and
escaped the plan of the dragon (Revelation 12:1-17).
The Christian world has found it challenging
to understand the symbolism of this particular part of John’s vision. Who was
the woman, and who was the child she gave birth to? Many have believed that
this was Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Messiah. Others assert that the woman
is Israel. As Amy Wellborn notes: “So the woman of Revelation 12 is really all
of these; she is Israel, Eve, the Church and Mary. Catholic interpretation of
this passage has reflected this depth for hundreds of years, as theologians and
spiritual writers have interpreted it in light of the understanding, so clear
in Jesus’ words to Mary and the beloved disciple at the cross, that Mary and
the Church are intimately identified with each other” (Welborn, Mary and the
Christian Life).
The Reverend Matthew R. Muriello
states. “Mary is the woman clothed with the sun, the first and fullest member
of the Church, who already shares in its triumph” (Mauriello, Woman Clothed
with the Sun). But, if the woman is Mary, why is she sent to the
wilderness, and when is she to come forth again?
When translating the Bible, Joseph
Smith asserted that “the woman . . . was the church of God, who had been
delivered of her pains, and brought forth the kingdom of our God and his Christ”
(Revelation 12:7, Joseph Smith Translation).
The New Testament Student
Manual explains: “The Church of God is at this time an ecclesiastical
organization only, but when the Savior comes again and makes ‘a full end of all
nations’ (D&C 87:6), the kingdom of God will also have political
jurisdiction over all people on the earth. ‘The purpose of the Church is to
prepare its members to live forever in the celestial kingdom or kingdom of
heaven. . . . During the Millennium, the kingdom of God will be both political
and ecclesiastical’ (Guide to the Scriptures, ‘Kingdom of God or Kingdom of
Heaven’) (New Testament Student Manual, “Revelation 12-16”).
In John’s vision, the woman or the
Church, flees to the wilderness where God has prepared a place for her and
where she is nourished “for a time, and times, and half a time.” The “dragon is
wroth with the woman” and she sends forth a “flood” of wickedness in an attempt
to vanquish the woman, and he “make[s] war with the remnant of her seed, which
keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation
12:6-17).
This has certainly been the experience
of Israel, the Church, or Jehovah’s Bride: she has been driven into the
wilderness many times when it seemed as if she had been banished and that all
was lost. Each time, it seemed as if the balance of evil had won, as conquering
empires and their ideologies seemed to erase the remembrance of Jehovah and a
covenant people. Yet John saw those wilderness days as a protective shield in
which the Bride was nourished until she gained the strength and vision to come
forth again.
That day has arrived! The Lord has
declared: “And verily, verily, I say unto you, that this church have I
established and called forth out of the wilderness” (Doctrine and Covenants
33:5).
In the Revelation, the woman is
given the “wings of a great eagle” to make her escape (Revelation 12:14). The
Lord once said to Israel after she had escaped slavery in Egypt: “Ye have seen
. . . how I bare you on eagle’s wins, and brought you unto myself” (Exodus
19:4).
The context is that the Lord
brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness of Sinai in
order to teach them to know Him, and to enter into covenant with Him. Each of
us also has the opportunity to come to know the Lord in our wilderness times.
This theme is repeated frequently in scripture, and finds its archetype in the
story of the woman clothed with the sun.
“He giveth power to the faint; and
to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faitn
and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings as eagles; They
shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).
This language and promise applies
to those individuals who become one with the Church (and through the Church,
covenant Israel) and her mission to bring forth the kingdom of God. In the
process of coming out of their own “wilderness,” receiving the nourishment of God,
and walking in holiness before the Lord, they are justified and sanctified—and
therefore enabled to take their place at the side of the Messiah.
In the Doctrine and Covenants we
read, “And we know that all men must repent and believe on the name of Jesus
Christ, and worship the Father in his name, and endure in faith on his name to
the end, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God. And we know that justification
through the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is just and true; And we
know also, that sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their
might minds, and strength” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:29-31).
The organization of the Church has
a great mission in preparing to establish the kingdom of God, but it also has
the mission of saving individual souls through bringing them unto Christ,
strengthening that relationship, and providing the ordinances of salvation. (Lynda
Cherry, The Redemption of the Bride: God’s Redeeming Love for His Covenant
People [Springville, Utah: CFI, 2022], 184-87)