Revelation 12:5

5. Rule… iron A prediction taken from Psalms 2:9, and vividly quoted as fulfilled in Revelation 19:15.

Caught up… throne The resurrection, as well as the birth, is given not as literal history, but as the basis of symbol. The infant Jesus is exalted to the divine throne to symbolize that infant Christianity is to triumph, not only over paganism, but over all other opposing powers. In his note on Acts 1:1-2, Alford has beautifully shown (see our note there) that Christ’s ascension was an exaltation to rule as Head of the Church and Lord of the world. And the representative character herein of the man child is verified by Revelation 2:26-27: “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.” While it is extreme for Elliott or Newton to identify the man child as being Constantine, it is not too much to say that according to this promise the man child on the divine throne does represent the triumph of Christianity over Roman paganism, in which Constantine was a principal figure. And thus the symbolic exaltation of the man child, of the two witnesses, and of the emparadised “souls” of Revelation 20:4, all signify the same thing namely, the victory of the cause by them represented.