The first offspring of the woman that the dragon had pursued was the child he sought to devour at his birth (Revelation 12:4). This child was the seed of the woman mentioned in Genesis 3:15. Now that his efforts to destroy the child’s mother were also unsuccessful, he targets next “the rest of her offspring,” the other seed of the woman foreshadowed in Genesis 3:15, the children of God by covenant born over the generations to the woman. Instead, then, of the dragon pursuing the church as a whole, he would target the individual members.
17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.