They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb

Revelation 12 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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 pregnant and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.

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 crowns. ⁴ And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled 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.

⁵ And she gave birth to a Son, a male, who is going 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 1,260 days.

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 did not prevail, 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 brothers and sisters has been thrown down, the one 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, you heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with 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, times, and half a time, away from the presence of the serpent. ¹⁵ And the serpent hurled 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 had hurled 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.

Remember what the Lord said in Revelation 1:8:  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Consider also what it says in 2 Peter 3:8:  But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. In today’s text it says: 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; and she was pregnant and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven crowns. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled 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. And she gave birth to a Son, a male, who is going to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days.  What John is seeing and describing is not necessarily an account of what will happen in our finite time, It is not necessarily in the chronological order of our time. Rather John may be seeing sort of a highlight reel of what is what was and what is to come. He describes things as they are in God’s time, where one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. We see the description of the fall of Lucifer from heaven. We see the description of the birth of Christ and the devil’s efforts to destroy Him. We see the description of Jesus ascension to God the Father, and to His throne.

The text continues:  And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they did not prevail, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 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. 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 brothers and sisters has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night. 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. For this reason, rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 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, times, and half a time, away from the presence of the serpent. And the serpent hurled water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon had hurled out of his mouth. 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.  Again we see the fall of Satan and his angels. We hear that he is both a deceiver and an accuser. We hear also that he knows his time is short. We know that the dragon, Satan, the devil, is enraged and is making war with us, the children of God, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.   We are there. We are in the time when the devil, knowing that he only has a short time, is waging war against us. He is deceiving and accusing. We tend at times to misunderstand our battle and our enemy. We are angry and frustrated with people who oppose us. We sometimes get drawn into battles in the natural realm. Romans 12:21 says: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Ephesians 6:12-18 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. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all perseverance…  We do struggle with situations, circumstances and even people in our present time. We need to remember though that in truth, it is a spiritual battle that we are engaged in. The good news for us is that not only does the devil only have a short time, he is also already defeated. Two thousand years ago, on the cross, the devil’s final attempt to defeat Jesus, Jesus said: “It is finished!” (John 19:30) When Jesus rose from the grave, Jesus defeated once and for all time, the devil, sin and death. We need to fight our present battle in the eternal spiritual realm, in the power of He who is, and was and is to come.

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.  Amen. Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. Amen.