Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then war broke out in Heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in Heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Revelation 12:7-9
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As the events of the third woe began to unfold after the sounding of the seventh trumpet and an ensuing period of worship, we saw where a pregnant woman about to give birth faced an evil red dragon who hoped to kill the baby immediately after birth. In yesterday’s message, we looked at how the pregnant woman represented Israel and the newborn baby was none other than Jesus who God quickly snatched up and kept in His care on His throne in Heaven while the woman was ushered away to the wilderness, also protected by God while there.
So what happened to the red dragon, Satan?
We find out in today’s passage and our continued study of Revelation, chapter 12. Here’s what we learn from God’s Word:
Then war broke out in Heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in Heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Vv. 7-9
As Jesus and Israel were ushered into safety, we read where a war ensued in Heaven between Satan, the “great dragon” and “ancient serpent also known as “the devil”, and “Michael and his angels”. We further read that Satan had his own angels, angels who had fallen just like him and had been enlisted to battle.
As we have seen elsewhere in the Book of Revelation, events and figures connect back to the Old Testament and the angel Michael can be added to this list. For in the Book of Daniel as well as the New Testament letter of Jude, we find him mentioned as an angel warrior who serves God by engaging in spiritual combat like we see here in Revelation 12.
It should be no surprise that we see Satan in a Heaven encounter. The scriptures indicate that he would make appearances there from time to time and perhaps the most well known comes in the Book of Job where Satan, which translates to accuser, lives up to his name and tries to convince God that Job wasn’t quite as right and righteous as believed. You’ll remember that God gave Satan permission to bring tragedy and affliction onto His servant but stopped short of giving permission to kill him.
So here, we find Satan back in Heaven and having failed in trying to kill the newborn Jesus, he enters into battle with Michael and it doesn’t go well for we read where he was soundly beaten, not powerful enough to exceed the strength God placed on His archangel and other fighting angels. The scriptures tell us that the devil and his angels “lost their place in Heaven” as they were “hurled down” onto “the earth”.
Unfortunately, we are going to see that Satan was far from done for he would continue to wreak havoc and seek to lead “the whole world astray” into Hell where they would eventually abide with him in darkness, torture, and torment forever. We’re going to see this happen as we continue to move through the happenings under the third woe and tribulation period as we move toward the second coming of Jesus and the final conquering of the devil before the earth and heavens as we know them are no more.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment