REVELATION
12: 7-12
Satan
Thrown Out of Heaven
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels
fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,
8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for
them in heaven any longer.
9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of
old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to
the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,
"Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of
His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before
our God day and night, has been cast down.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in
them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come
down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short
time."
Daniel 12:1
"At that time Michael
shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your
people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was
a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be
delivered, Every one who is found written in the book.
Where
were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have
understanding, who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the
line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the
morning stars [the lower celestial ranks] sang together and all the sons of God
[the higher celestial ranks] shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7, NASB)
Before God created this physical universe, He
created celestial beings. God didn’t just create a handful of them. He created
countless numbers of them, perhaps even more than the number of humans
currently present on this Earth. The lower ranks are often figuratively
referred to as stars, while the highest ranking celestial beings are referred
to as sons, who on occasion present themselves before God’s throne.
Now
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the
Lord, and Satan also came among them. (Job 1:6, NASB)
It seems also that Satan still has access before
the presence of God. This is also noted in the book of Zechariah
Then
he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and
Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. (Zechariah 3:1, NASB)
This may confuse
some Christians who think that Satan is in hell or that he was thrown out of
heaven. On the contrary, Satan is still in heaven and does
stand before God, where he persistently accuses God’s human children both day
and night (Revelation 12:10). It would be difficult to say that Satan has no
authority in heaven when the scriptures say that he's up there on occasion,
even both day and night.
Before Satan chose to turn against God, He was
known as the supreme guardian of God.
You
were the anointed cherub who covers [i.e. guards], and I placed you there. You
were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of
fire. (Ezekiel 28:14)
Although God had decided to bless His celestial
creations with the gift to make free choices, it seems that some of these
creations will choose to envy Him or fight against Him. It would seem that
Satan was made to guard God’s works and protect His loyal celestial ranks from
any of those who had, by their own exercise of choice, determined to oppose
God.
Eventually, Satan took more notice of his own
beauty and envied the power His creator possessed.
Your
heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason
of your splendor. (Ezekiel 28:17)
But
you said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above
the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of
the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself
like the Most High. (Isaiah 14: 13-14)
Having once fought to guard God, Satan grew envious
of Him and stood defiantly against God.
By
the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you
sinned. (Ezekiel 28:16)
And
his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
(Revelation 12:4)
One-third of the angelic ranks were persuaded by
the powerful archangel Satan to secede and rebel against their creator. This is
evident in scripture when they are seen descending to the earth alongside Satan
in order to persecute God's children midway into the tribulation in Revelation
12. It can be understood then that at least one-third of the angelic ranks
remained voraciously loyal to God. As for the remaining third, we can only
postulate that they may have not yet decided where to place their loyalty.
Being the wisest and strongest of all of God’s
celestial creations, Satan became the leader of the one-third of rebelling
angels. Although their base camp is in heaven, Satan assigns to them various
missions or positions of authority on the earth. In the end, however, Jesus has
a plan to subdue and defeat Satan and his celestial armies.
In
12:9, John also gives four descriptive phrases to identify the Dragon. (1) The
Dragon is “the serpent of
old.”30 This title stresses his crafty and
venomous character (cf. Gen 3:1-5; 2 Cor 11:3). The word “old” (ophis) brings to remembrance
the first accusation of Satan as the Serpent in the garden of Eden in his
temptation of Eve. (2) The Dragon is “the
devil.” The word “devil”
comes from a Greek verb (diabolos) meaning “to slander” or “to falsely
accuse.” Satan acts as somewhat of a prosecutor in God’s court of law. His
tasks are to arraign men before the bar of the divine justice.31 (3) The Dragon is “Satan.” The word“Satan” (Satanas) is a transliteration
of a Hebrew word that means “Adversary.”32 This proper name depicts Satan as the
enemy or opponent of God and His people. (4) The Dragon is “the one who deceives the whole
world.” The word translated
“deceives” (planon) means “to mislead, delude, or lead astray.
12:10
As John beholds Satan and
his angels being cast from heaven, he hears a loud voice in heaven say, “Now
the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His
Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who
accuses them before our God day and night” (12:10). The loud voice is not
identified and probably cannot be with certainty. It does, however, seem best
to identify it as the voice of the martyred tribulation saints, for they also
cried out with a loud voice. This is further supported by the mention of Satan
as “the accuser of our brethren.”
12:11
We learn in 12:11 that
these tribulation martyrs (“they”)34 “overcame him because of the blood of
the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love
their life even when faced with death.” This verse imparts three weapons that
these martyrs will use to overcome Satan. The first weapon is “the blood of
Lamb.” The blood shed on the cross ensures that God will forgive us (Rom
8:31-34).
12:12
The victory of these believers leads to the
bittersweet words of 12:12: “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who
dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to
you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” Heaven-dwellers
can rejoice in view of Satan’s punishment (cf. Ps 96:11; Isa 49:13). He is no
longer among them. However, everyone living on the earth, especially believers,
must beware because he now moves among them more antagonistically than ever.
Furthermore he knows that his time is short. He will have only 1,260 days before
Jesus Christ returns to the earth and binds him (20:1-2).