“When the 1,000 years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison…” ~ Revelation 20:7
“Some time afterwards the king [Sleeping Beauty’s husband] declared war on his neighbor…as soon as he was gone the queen mother [the ogress] sent her daughter-in-law and the two children to a country mansion in the forest. This she did that she might be able the more easily to gratify her horrible longings. A few days later she went there herself, and in the evening summoned the chief steward. ‘For my dinner tomorrow,’ she told him, ‘I will eat little Dawn…’”[1]
The triumphal entry has occurred…and so Sleeping Beauty lives happily ever after, right? Nope. There’s still the ogress mother-in-law to deal with. There’s still one more enemy left to fight.
This portion of Perrault’s tale mirrors Talia’s story: the chief steward goes to kill the child, but cannot do so and hides her away, tricking the ogress into believing she’s eaten the girl when really it was a young lamb. The same happens with the boy, Day, as well as Sleeping Beauty herself.[2]
I know it mirrors Talia’s story…but Talia’s story was full of unsavory characters. You could trace the trial of pain and see how the hearts had been hardened. But this? There’s no broken hearts involved…the ogress is evil in nature, not by choice. And how can the author justify a “triumphal entry” into the kingdom, and then have the ogress try to destroy the beloved? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
I was mystified after reading this second half; but then it struck me: isn’t this what happens in Revelation?
Now, I’m most certainly not an expert of the end times – I don’t believe anyone is, even though many claim to be. There are many interpretations of Revelation, and I’m not qualified to tell you which one is “best”.
What I can tell you is this: no matter which way you interpret Revelation 20, the general outline is triumph, war, triumph. Satan – who is by nature evil, a murderer and liar from the beginning (John 8:44) – is bound for 1,000 years and the people flourish (Rev. 20:1-6). They have had one triumphal entry. The Bridegroom has come and been united with His Beloved – but the fight is not over. There is a final, epic battle to go through. Satan is released after 1,000 years, and he is intent upon destroying God’s people – the Beloved (Rev. 20:7-9a).
This is so exquisitely reflected in Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty. We’ve seen the sleeping, the awakening, the waiting, and the victory. It mirrors the sleeping of our own hearts because of sin, the awakening brought by the Messiah, the waiting time we’re currently in, and it tells of the triumph we will have when we meet our Savior face to face. But after that, there is one more battle left to fight. After that, we have an Enemy we must face…
Sources
[1] Dore, Perrault’s Fairy Tales, p. 17
[2] Dore, Perrault’s Fairy Tales, p. 17-19
