Revelation 12:1-17

And she gave birth to a son, a male [she brought forth a man child, Authorized Version], who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was caught away to God and to his throne.

The woman’s child, “a male,” must likewise be symbolic, and it symbolizes God’s kingdom, inasmuch as the male child was caught away to God’s throne. So as to make the kingdom more than a mere abstract, theoretical thing, there has to be a live person to serve as the royal ruler. That real person must be the one with whom Jehovah God made a covenant for the kingdom.

17. So how did the only-begotten Son of God become the rightful one to occupy the throne at his Father’s side?

¹⁷ Yes, that one was his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who, by reason of his miraculous human birth in Bethlehem and in the family line of King David of Israel, was the natural heir to the kingdom. (Isaiah 9:6, 7; Luke 22:29, 30; Matthew 1:17-25) Rightly, then, in connection with the heavenly “woman” it was emphasized that her child was a “male,” forasmuch as the kingly office was reserved for a male offspring in the royal line of David.

18. So how do the circumstances surrounding the producing of that symbolic man-child line up with those set out in Isaiah 66:7, 8, as shown by the American Standard Version?

¹⁸ All those circumstances surrounding the birth of a “son, a male,” of the heavenly “woman” differ from those set out in Isaiah’s prophecy, particularly with regard to the matter of pregnancy and the labor pains and birth pangs. Thus there are important reasons for concluding that the “male child” of Isaiah 66:7 relates to a different situation prophetically than does the “son, a male,” at Revelation 12:5.