Revelation 12:9

Revelation 12 opens with a woman clothed with the sun, who stands for God’s people, and a great red dragon waiting to devour her child the moment he is born. The child is “caught up unto God, and to his throne” (Revelation 12:5), which is Christ’s ascension and enthronement, and the woman flees into the wilderness, where God keeps her. Then John writes, “And there was war in heaven.” Our eyes are lifted from the persecution on earth to the place where the conflict began. The dragon’s hatred of God’s people comes from his rebellion against God, and everything he does on earth after this follows from his defeat in heaven.

The word for war, pólemos, means warfare of any size, from a single encounter to a long series of battles. “There was” renders gínomai, the ordinary word for something coming about or happening, so the sentence simply tells us that war broke out. Michael and his angels fight katá the dragon, “against” him, and the dragon fights back with angels of his own. Two armies meet, and they are unequal from the start: on one side is a created being in rebellion against his Creator, and on the other are the servants of God.

The struggles of God’s people on earth have this unseen war behind them. Paul says the same: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

The battle ends in defeat for the dragon. The verb behind “prevailed” is ischýō, to be strong, to have strength, to be able, so the dragon and his angels lacked the strength to win. The result is lasting: “neither was their place found any more in heaven.” heurískō is the common verb “to find”, and tópos means a place or spot, and by extension a position. The place they had held in heaven, with the standing and access that went with it, was gone.

Scripture shows us what that access had been. In Job, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, “Satan came also among them” and spoke against Job (Job 1:6–12). In Zechariah, Satan stands at the right hand of Joshua the high priest to resist him, and the LORD rebukes him (Zechariah 3:1–5). That place before God, where he could stand and accuse, is what he has now lost. His power was real, and it was always limited and subject to God.

John names the one who was cast out in four ways, so that we know exactly who he is.

The “great dragon” speaks of his power and his terror. Scripture uses the same picture for proud powers on earth, as when Pharaoh king of Egypt is called “the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers”, and Isaiah’s prophecy speaks of a dragon too. For believers suffering under Rome, the picture showed the power at work behind the empire that persecuted them.

“That old serpent” takes us back to Eden (Genesis 3). The dragon of Revelation is the same deceiver who tempted Eve, and the war of this chapter belongs to the long working out of the promise God made there, that the woman’s seed would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). His character and his methods have stayed the same from the first pages of Scripture to the last.

“The Devil” translates diábolos, which means a slanderer or false accuser and, as a title, the Devil. It comes from a verb meaning to traduce or accuse. “Satan” is a Hebrew word meaning adversary, the one who opposes God and his people. Together the names describe an accuser and an enemy.

He “deceiveth the whole world.” The verb planáō means to cause to roam, to lead astray, to make to wander. He draws people away from the truth, and his reach is the whole world. Deception has been his chief weapon since the garden, and Paul warns that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Revelation ends his story with “the devil that deceived them” cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).

The verse says three times that he was cast out, and the repetition drives home how final it is. The passive “was cast out” points to God as the one who does it. He is thrown “into the earth”, so from here on the conflict is fought on the earth, and “his angels were cast out with him.” He has a host of rebel spirits under his command, and they share his judgment.

Believers differ on the timing of this war.

• His first fall. Some believers hold that it describes Satan’s original fall from heaven, before he tempted mankind. Jesus said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18), and some connect this with Isaiah’s words, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (Isaiah 14:12).
• At the cross. Others hold that the war shows in heavenly terms what Christ won by his death and resurrection, when Satan’s authority was broken and his access to accuse believers was cut off. Before the cross Jesus said, “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). In this chapter the war follows the child’s being caught up to God’s throne, and the song of verses 10 and 11 gives the victory to the blood of the Lamb.
• In the last days. Others hold that it is still to come, in the time of tribulation before Christ returns, when Satan will be thrown out of the heavenly realm and will rage on the earth for a short time.

Some join the second and third readings, holding that the victory was secured at the cross and will be shown in full at the end. On every reading Satan’s standing in heaven is gone for good, and his final defeat is certain.

John hears a loud voice, phōnḗ mégas, speaking en ouranós, “in heaven”. mégas means great, whether in size, rank or loudness, and here it is a voice loud enough to carry a proclamation of great weight. The speakers call believers “our brethren”, using adelphós, brother, and God “our God”, hēmōn theós, so whoever speaks counts the people of God on earth as family.

“Now is come” joins árti, “now”, with gínomai, “has come about”. Four things have come together. sōtēría is salvation, rescue and deliverance. dýnamis is strength, power or might. The basileía is the kingdom or royal rule of our God, a word that comes from basileús, king. And the exousía of his Christ (autós Christós) is his authority and his power, for the word covers both. Daniel saw one like the Son of man receive “an everlasting dominion” (Daniel 7:13–14), and in the chapter before this, voices in heaven said, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” (Revelation 11:15). God’s rule and Christ’s power are breaking through now, even while his people suffer on the earth.

The reason follows with hóti, “for” or “because”: “the accuser of our brethren is cast down.”

nikáō means to conquer, to prevail, to get the victory, and Revelation uses it again and again for Christ’s triumph and for the victory he gives his people. In verse 11 the brethren who were accused conquer their accuser, and the verse names three things that carried them.

“Therefore” ties the call to rejoice to the victory just announced. euphraínō means to be glad or merry, and Strong’s builds it from words for “well” and “mind”. The heavens and all who dwell in them, the angels and perhaps the redeemed who are with God, are called to celebrate, because the accuser is gone from God’s court and God’s righteous rule stands vindicated.

Then comes the woe, ouaí, the prophet’s cry of grief that announces distress and judgment. It falls on “the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea”, the gē and the thálassa, which together take in the whole world below heaven. In Revelation those who dwell on the earth are often the people who side with the beast against God, and the sea is sometimes a picture of the nations. The woe comes because the diábolos has come down to them.

He comes “having great wrath.” thymós means passion, hot anger or wrath, and Revelation uses the same word for the wrath of God. The devil’s anger burns because “he knoweth that he hath but a short time”, olígos kairós, a brief season whose end is already set. His fury is the fury of an enemy who has lost and knows it, and God has fixed the limit of his time. In the verses that follow he turns on the woman and her children (Revelation 12:13–17), and his end comes when he is cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation was most likely written under the emperor Domitian, near the end of the first century, when believers were pressed to worship the emperor and faced loss, prison and death for refusing. This verse told them that their suffering came from a beaten enemy whose time was running out, and that heaven was already rejoicing over his defeat.

Michael fights in heaven, and the song in heaven gives the victory to the Lamb. Michael’s victory rests on Christ’s and points to it. On the cross Christ fulfilled the promise of Genesis 3:15, and of that triumph Paul writes that “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:13–15). Christ took flesh and blood “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14–15). John writes, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), and Paul promises, “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).

The devil’s short time is measured out by the one who said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). Beyond it lies the kingdom where “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4) and his servants “shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

The troubles and temptations of daily life have this unseen war behind them, and the enemy in it is a real person with real malice. He is also beaten, cast down and short of time, so we can face him with sober watchfulness and with confidence in God. Paul tells us to “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). Peter writes, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). James promises, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), and John reminds us, “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

When old sins rise up in your conscience and condemnation whispers that God must be done with you, verse 11 gives the answer. The accuser has been thrown out of court, the blood of the Lamb has paid for every charge, and Christ intercedes for you at God’s right hand, so you can come to God’s throne with confidence. Because the deceiver works by lies, we hold to the truth of God’s word and keep speaking it, and the word of our testimony is one of the ways God’s people overcome. And when the world’s hardships press hard, remember that the devil’s wrath is great because his time is short, and that heaven is already rejoicing over a victory that will soon be seen on the earth.