The salvation, the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come

Revelation 12 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The Woman, Israel

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;² and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.

The Red Dragon, Satan

³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. ⁴ And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

The Male Child, Christ

⁵ And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. ⁶ Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

The Angel, Michael

⁷ And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, ⁸ and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. ⁹ And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,

“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.¹¹ And they 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. 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.”

¹³ And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. ¹⁴ But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. ¹⁵ And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. ¹⁷ So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

In Revelation 1:8, the Lord identified Himself saying:  "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."   In today’s text we see things described that pertain to the Lord past, present and future. It is not my desire to delve deeply into the prophetic meaning of some of these things. I left the headings in the text for at least a little clarity. My hope is that we can glean some things from the text which will be profitable and applicable for us today. The text says:  Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.   The third of the stars of heaven thrown down seem to be a reference to the fallen angels who were, along with the devil, cast out of heaven, away from the presence of God. These are the demons, the powers and principalities; the rulers of darkness which we as believers; as children of God are at war with. Ephesians 6:12 says:  Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.   We need to remember that these are our true enemy, not people who are influenced by them. There is much good news for us though even though one third of the angels fell with the devil. First, simple math tells us that there remains then two thirds or two good ones for every one that fell. Not only that, but as it says in 1 John 4:4: You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Or as Romans 8:31 says:  What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  As Jesus says in John 16:33:   “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”   No matter who or how many are against us, we have the advantage against them in both numbers and power.   I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)  Angels and demons aside, we are victorious through Christ.

The text says:  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.   This raises an interesting question. If the devil and all his followers were cast out of heaven; if they were removed because of sin from the presence of God, how can he or they accuse the brethren day and night? Is it possible that believers, those who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ so as to be acceptable in the sight and presence of God, are those who accuse the brethren? Do we, when we grumble and complain, when we criticize, judge and condemn other believers, become allied with the devil as those who bring accusation to the throne of God? May it never be. If we have something against a brother, rather than judgment we should forgive and take them to the throne of grace.  If we judge and accuse others, not only do we become allied with the devil, but we also will be judged by our own standard of measure. May we measure out the grace and forgiveness we ourselves have received.

The text says:  They 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. 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.      We live in the age of grace and under the covenant of grace. We also though live in a time when the devil has “come down with great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”  The text says:  the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.  The devil is at war with those who keep the commandments of God; with those who testify of Jesus. While we live under grace we also live in the time of the devil’s wrath. Here’s the thing, again Jesus says: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  Though we war with the devil, we have already overcome by the blood of the lamb. Those who reject the grace of God, given through the blood of Christ, may not suffer the wrath of the devil, because they are aligned with him in warring with those who keep the commandments of God, but make no mistake, they will know the wrath of God against sin.  None of us will be free from wrath. We each though must choose who we are for and who we are against. In effect, we choose the wrath we will know.  

 “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come.”  Amen. Thank You for the victory through the blood of Christ.  Amen.