John’s prophecy in the Book of Revelation of three antichrist persons—the Beast, the Dragon, and the False Prophet—identifies the Dragon as “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). A search of the scriptures, on the other hand, shows that Old Testament prophets traditionally identify the Dragon as pharaoh king of Egypt:
“Thus says the Lord God; Behold, I am against you, pharaoh king of Egypt—the great Dragon who lies in the midst of his rivers—who has said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself” (Ezekiel 29:3). We remember from the exodus account how Egypt’s pharaoh enslaved the people of Israel and made them serve in cruel bondage and with rigor (Exodus 1:8–14).
Isaiah likens Egypt’s pharaoh to the sea that dried up at Israel’s exodus out of Egypt under Moses—when the angel of God led Israel through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Isaiah, however, uses that ancient event to predict a new exodus of Israel out of bondage, and a new wilderness wandering to Zion led by God’s “arm”—his end-time servant, whom God empowers:
“Awake, arise; clothe yourself with power, O arm of Jehovah! Bestir yourself, as in ancient times, as in generations of old. Was it not you who carved up Rahab, you who slew the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the Sea, the waters of the mighty deep, and made of ocean depths a way by which the redeemed might pass? Let the ransomed of Jehovah return! Let them come singing to Zion, their heads crowned with everlasting joy; let them obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away” (Isaiah 51:9–11).
Next, let us also take into account that Isaiah uses the name of Egypt—the great superpower of his day—as a codename of end-time America, the great superpower of our day. And additionally that this modern “Egypt” will be taken over by an oppressive end-time pharaoh (or president) in a time of anarchy and civil war: “Then will I deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master; a harsh ruler will subject them, says the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts” (Isaiah 19:4; cf. v 2).
Going deeper into connecting these dots that deal with our day, Jacob warns of attempts to set up a king in the land: “This land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles. . . . For he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words” (2 Nephi 10:11, 14).
Book of Mormon types of attempts to set up a king in the land—today, the land of America—includes a combination of judges, lawyers, and high priests that secretly sought to “combine against the people of the Lord,” to “destroy the governor, and to establish a king over the land, that the land should no more be at liberty but should be subject unto kings” (3 Nephi 6:27–30).
Taken together, these scriptures tell a story of a possible future attempt to take out a duly elected “governor” (or president) and to replace him with a “king”—the same kind of “cruel master” as Egypt’s pharaoh of the exodus—but who, according to John’s end-time scenario—turns out to be none other than “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world.”
It is precisely under these circumstances (if one believes these scriptures and has eyes to see) that God’s end-time servant appears—the same one who leads the end-time exodus out of bondage to Zion. In other words, when that Dragon, who is both Satan and an end-time “pharaoh king of Egypt,” pursues the Woman Zion into the wilderness, that is when she delivers the “male child” who is “caught up to God and to his throne” (Revelation 12:5–6, 14)—God’s end-time servant.
Said the Lord to Joseph Smith, “I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel. For ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched-out arm. And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be” (D&C 103:15–18).
