The OT church has laboured for centuries to bring forth offspring. In various ways Satan has attempted to destroy her children. At Cain’s birth, Eve confessed that she had gotten a man with the help of the Lord,
but Satan ended up dominating him, for he murdered his brother Abel (Genesis 4:1, Genesis 4:8). Pharaoh issued an edict to drown Israel’s boys in the Nile (Exodus 1:22). Kings in Israel sacrificed their children to the idols (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 21:6). Over the years parents have been negligent in bringing up God’s covenant children in the fear of the Lord. Of course, all these efforts to destroy the seed of the woman came to a climax when the OT church, through the person of Mary, laboured to bring forth the promised Seed, Jesus Christ. The labouring mother received no help from Bethlehem’s citizens (Luke 2:7), and as soon as he knew some details, Herod sent his soldiers to kill every child found in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16).
4 His tail swept down a 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.