As I discussed in the previous post, covering Revelation 12 verses 1 through 7, Satan was thrown to earth and dragged one-third of the angels with him. Somewhere in that scene, Satan sets himself in front of the woman about to give birth with the full intent of killing the male child that was to be born. We learned that the male child was the nation Israel.
For no extra charge, I will throw this in. In Genesis 3 we see this.
Genesis 3:15 NLT And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Many translations use the word seed instead of offspring. We tend to make the assumption that the offspring or seed are the relatives/extended family, but what if it is the mystery of God being played out in what would eventually the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ?
Although, Christ was born long before Israel became a nation, every descendant of Adam and Eve became targets; this is evidenced almost immediately by Satan taking out both Cain and righteous Abel. So, when we read Revelation 12, we are having history played out before us through word pictures, even though much of this history is only minutes away as we read this.
One of the biggest struggles we “Christians” have is not understanding that Satan, though stripped of everything except his ability to deceive, IS STILL free to roam, not only that but one-third of an uncountable number of angels, seems to allow him the illusion of being omnipresent, just as God is. We will soon see that Satan's days are numbered.
This next section is entitled:
Satan Thrown Down to Earth
Revelation 12:7-9 NASB 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.
I used to be involved in the faith movement and I listened intently, for a time, to Kenneth Copeland. One day, Kenneth, in describing Jesus' comment about Satan falling like lightning, talked as if God threw him like a dart to earth. We actually have scripture that defends that possibility.
Revelation 9:1 TLV Then the fifth angel trumpeted, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key to the bottomless pit was given to him.
Some, in an attempt to take the bible literally, will say this was a physical star that struck the earth. The probability of that taking place, merely because of the global devastation that would have taken place, eliminates an actual star strike.
Now, what if God actually threw Satan to earth like a dart? Could the impact of a fallen angel create an impact crater, much like we see in the Yucatan Peninsula?
Maybe.
When did the events of Revelation 12:7-9 take place?
While the Word of God does not give us an explicit answer, there is evidence that demands a verdict. Isaiah tells us this.
Isaiah 45:18 NLT For the LORD is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. “I am the LORD,” he says, “and there is no other.
Page one.
While the NLT is very readable the depth of what happened here gets lost in its choice of words. The NASB gives me words with their Strong's numbers. Let me show you.
wasteH8414 placeH8414, but formedH3335 it to be R4inhabitedH3427
The phrase “to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos” is lacking. “To be lived in” leaves the door open to varying forms of creation, one of which speaks of a perpetual creation that could eventually be lived in. While that is possible, it is not the focus of the study, and that is a restoration of power to Jesus Christ.
A different translation can demonstrate what I am saying.
Isaiah 45:18 NASB For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), "I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Created is the Hebrew word bara. It means to shape and create.
Formed is the Hebrew word yâtsar and conveys the idea of squeezing into shape.
Established is the Hebrew word kûn and indicates the action of setting in place, to prepare.
Waste place is the Hebrew word tôhû used twice. Using a word twice is used for emphasis. The word tôhû means a desolation (of surface), figuratively a worthless thing, emptiness, chaos, confusion and formless. (The idea of waste comes across more like college students trashing an Air B&B rental. To say the earth was a desolation gives the impression that it was utterly destroyed, and became a worthless thing.)
Inhabited is the Hebrew word yâshab and means to sit down specifically as a judge; by implication to dwell, and to remain quietly. (This speaks to the position that Adam held and the environment in which he was to live.)
If, as you can see above, that the earth suffered some form of violence that changed it, what happened?
Obviously, something other than God's intent happened because, as you see in verses 10-12, the earth was originally good.
Genesis 1:10-12 NASB God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. (11) Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so. (12) The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
I contend that there is a gap between verses one and two and that this is where Satan was thrown to the earth; and that God, then had to make it good once again.
Genesis 1:1-2 NASB In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
The words formless and void is tôhû and bôhû.
tôhû means to lie waste; a desolation (of the surface), that is, desert; figuratively a worthless thing; adverbially in vain
bôhû meaning to be empty); a vacuity, that is, (superficially) an undistinguishable ruin.
Page two.
Moving on with the study.
Revelation 12:10 NASB 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.
If this distribution of power and authority happened before Adam's entrance into the earth, then why have we been dealing with Satan's accusations unnecessarily?
I ask the question above, because if Adam had this same authority and power (Jesus, in 1 Cor 15:45 is referred to as the last Adam, and in Romans 5:14 Adam is called a type of him who was to come,) why would he stand silent and allow Satan to grab control of the earth?
I have on several occasions talked about how and why Satan had a course of action to deceive Eve. To understand this you have to establish it in your mind who was the first human placed here on earth. The answer is Adam. The instructions about “the tree” were only spoken to Adam, NOT Eve merely because she was not physically created as yet. So, how did Eve come to understand the only restriction (law) that the two of them were subject to? Adam had to tell her. Do you think Adam merely cut some instructional corners, and said, because I said so! No, he told her word for word what God said. Now, fast forward to Satan saying, “did God really say that?” In this conversation Satan challenged not only Adam's but God's character, authority, wisdom, judgment, and governance. If you can understand this, then you can understand that Adam had been placed as the magistrate of this earth and that it was his responsibility to deal with what was happening, there before his eyes. We are told, that Eve was deceived but Adam was not; he merely stood there motionless.
So there are two things going on here, much of which is not so obvious; power and authority over the earth had somehow been stripped away, and, because of the actions of Jesus (this would include the fact that He was sinless, His willingness to obey the Father's will, and all that death on the cross entailed,) all would be restored.
If I take the placement of Revelation 12:10's statement in a chronological order, then it becomes clear that God has poured out His wrath and it is time to end this lawlessness on earth.
What exactly does Revelation 12:10 say?
“ Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come,”
“Now the salvation,”
Now is the Greek word arti and means just now, this hour or day. (So there is a relative immediacy, but it's associated with a context .) Italics mine.
Salvation is the Greek word sōtēria and means rescue or safety (physically or morally): - deliver, health, salvation, save, saving, and preservation.
One of the first instances of Jesus saying something like this comes from Matthew 28; here Mary Magdalene and the other Mary had come to the tomb. Finding it open and Jesus gone, an angel appeared and explained that Jesus was not here, and that they should go quickly and tell the disciples. In Matthew 28 we are NOT told where Jesus met them, but He did, and this is when He said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."
When most read the Revelation we see a point at which the death and fire bombing – all of which falls under the category of God's wrath comes to a dramatic end; peace finally comes, and, whether you like it or not, Christ reigns supreme.
Page three.
“and the power”
Power is the Greek word dunamis. Dunamis is a word connected to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The word carries the meanings of force (literally or figuratively); specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself): - ability, abundance, meaning, might.
“and the kingdom of our God”
Kingdom is the Greek word basileia, it means royalty, that is, (abstractly) rule, or (concretely) a realm (literally or figuratively): - kingdom, + reign.
“and the authority of His Christ have come”
Authority here is ginomai and means to come into existence; to be created, exist by creation, to be born, produced, grow.
That word sōtēria, from which we get rescue and preservation, although comparable to salvation can mean a multitude of things depending upon your circumstances - one of which is health.
Is rescue and preservation what Jesus had in mind when He spoke these words in Mat 28:18b, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”?
In Matthew 28, Jesus speaks about authority. The Greek word for authority is exousia. a word that means power, ability, privilege, capacity, freedom, mastery. Those defining words convey the idea of salvation, which we saw when we looked at sōtēria. Jesus had, not only the power, but the power was NOW in them who followed Him through their union with Him.
Does this apply to us? Without a doubt.
What changed that Christ would suddenly have power?
The ability to understand what changed lies in the context, but that can take us back to Genesis 3 and the garden. If I start my context search at Revelation 12:1 I see a synopsis of Satan's fall to earth. This fall does not mean a full lockup but an expulsion. The final judgment, where Satan comes to an end, only comes at the time that encompasses the great white throne; all the while, the previous thousand years, Satan had been locked up and unable to deceive the population. It should be obvious that Jesus has reigned in unquestioned power during the thousand years, and it certainly does not end there.
At this point the earth has experienced the trumpet judgments, but not the bowl judgments.
Revelation 11:15 NASB Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever."
And yet, only two verses later we have this assertion.
Revelation 11:17 NASB saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign."
Chronologically, it makes no sense that there would be such a huge transition from "He will" to "You have" taken unless there has been a monumental change; that change came through the cross.
Colossians 2:13-14 NASB (13) When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, (14) having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Page four.
Colossians 2:13-14 tells us that
He made us alive with Him.
He has forgiven all our transgressions.
He canceled the debts again us.
And He took those debts out of the way, by nailing them to the cross with Him.
The Father, once again, called Him Son.
Romans 1:4 NASB (Jesus) who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Romans 1:4 originates in the Psalms.
Psalms 2:6-8 NASB "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain." (7) "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. (8) 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
Psalm 89 tells us that God shall make Him My firstborn and the highest of the kings of the earth.
Psalms 89:27 NASB "I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.
If God had already made Him His firstborn, then why this?
Jesus, for the joy set before him, stripped Himself of equality with the Father; all that was restored because of His death and resurrection.Philippians 2:6-9 NASB "who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (8) Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (9) For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,"
Hebrews 5:5 NASB So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, "YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU";
So, once again, Christ has become the begotten son.
When Jesus spoke those words that we saw in Matthew 28, He was already risen from the dead, having accomplished every aspect of our salvation, including pouring out His blood on the tabernacle in heaven.
Hebrews 9:21 NASB And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood (His blood.) Italics mine.
By understanding the Revelation we see those enemies become His footstool. The power has been His for a long time, He just needed the right set of circumstances to bring closure, put away the deceivers, and reward those who follow Him. He could not force our salvation, even though He paid for it, as that is entirely upon our shoulders to accept our salvation. We have to voluntarily give our lives to Jesus, the one who bore our sins.
Ask yourself a question.
Beyond the thousand years, when there are NO more people merely living for themselves, why would Jesus have to reign over the followers of Christ?
He wouldn't, and the reason is that all those on the earth, from the great white throne forward, would be dedicated to God and living by a moral standard - God's, by choice - not the choices an enslaved person is limited to, but one where we are invested in Him through that same blood.
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