Revelation 12
7 And a battle occurred
in heaven. Michael and his messengers battle with the dragon, and the dragon
battles, and its messengers.
8 And they are not
strong enough for him, neither was their place still found in heaven.
9 And the great
dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent called Adversary and Satan, who is
deceiving the whole inhabited earth. It was cast into the earth, and its
messengers were cast with it.
Evidently,
the dragon and its messengers are to be cast out of heaven at some point prior to the midpoint of the 70th
heptad. However, it’s unclear how much time there will be between the casting
out of Satan from heaven and the start of the second 3½ years of the 70th
heptad. Although it’s clear that the persecution of Israel through the
instrumentality of the wild beast is Satan’s “first move” after being cast out
of heaven, the beginning of this time of “great affliction” need not be
understood as occurring immediately
after Satan is cast out. There could be some unknown duration of time that will
transpire between Satan’s being cast out of heaven and the beginning of the
“great affliction” at the start of the midpoint of the 70th heptad.
What
we do know is that there will be a
“battle in heaven” (as opposed to, say, a near-battle,
with no actual conflict) before the
casting out of Satan takes place. We just don’t know how long the battle in
heaven will actually take place. And even though we know who ultimately wins the battle (i.e., Michael and his
messengers), there is clearly a sustained fight
or contest taking place that will
involve both sides of the conflict using whatever power and strategy they have
in order to win.
We
know that battles on earth can sometimes be lengthy, but we have no idea what a
battle in heaven between celestial beings involves, or how long such a battle
could take place. Because there is only a brief mention of this battle in one
verse of scripture, one might be tempted to think that this battle will begin
and end in a matter of hours, or even minutes (I’ve actually read one author boldly
state – and without providing any evidence to back up his assertion - that this
battle will last “for a couple of hours, at most!”). But for all we know, this
battle could last for several weeks, months or even years.
Daniel
10 provides us with some “behind the scenes” insight into the power struggles
that take place between celestial beings. Because of his being “withstood” by
the “chief of the kingdom of Persia,” it took Gabriel twenty-one days, or three weeks, to reach Daniel after his initial
prayer to God – and it was only after
being helped by Michael that he was able to complete his divine mission (Dan.
10:2, 10-14). We then read that he would have to return to fight against this
“chief” (and after that, the chief of Greece), and that Michael was the only celestial chief who contended by
his side against these other chiefs.
From
this account we find that celestial beings can be (and perhaps frequently are)
involved in lengthy power struggles. If Gabriel’s coming to Daniel took 21 days
because of his being withstood by the chief of Persia – and only Michael was
able to help him – it’s possible that an all-out battle involving all of the hosts of heaven could last
much longer than this. Perhaps the battle in heaven that results in Satan and
his messengers being cast out of heaven will be one of the biggest events that
the inhabitants of heaven have ever, and will ever, be involved in – a major
and climactic chapter in the epic story of these celestial beings (and of which
we mortal humans know next to nothing about!).
As has
been correctly noted by some, the reason why the dragon and its messengers
cease to have “a place found in heaven” is simply that they lose their battle
with Michael and his messengers, and are consequently “cast out.” But this
doesn’t explain why the battle itself should take place, or what the catalyst
for this battle will be. However, when we understand the male child of Rev. 12
to represent that company of saints who constitute the body of Christ, a
plausible explanation emerges as to why this battle in heaven will take place
around the time that it will: those who are destined to replace Satan and his
hierarchy of wicked celestial beings in the heavenly realm will, at this time,
be present in heaven. We’re not told whether it is Satan or Michael who
instigates the battle, but either scenario is consistent with the view that the
catalyst for the battle in the heaven will be the presence of the body of
Christ in heaven, and the regime change that this state of affairs will necessitate.
Something
else to consider is the timing of the event referred to as the “dais of
Christ,” which is to occur sometime after the snatching away of the body of
Christ. It’s evident from Rev. 12:10 that Satan's being cast out of heaven is
(in some way) an expression of God's kingdom having come in heaven, and the
result of Christ's authority being exercised: “And I
hear a loud voice in heaven saying, ‘Just now came the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of
our brethren was cast out, who was accusing them before our God day and
night.’” Whether or not the authority exercised was that of Christ alone
or Christ along with those saints
constituting his body is not here revealed. It seems clear that the reign of
the saints in the body of Christ will begin no later than the start of the next
eon (see, for example, Eph. 2:6-7). We’re simply not told whether it begins
prior to this time, or not. So it’s possible that the casting out of Satan will
be the authoritative decision of Christ alone.
However,
if Satan's being cast out of heaven is the ultimate outcome of a judgment that
will involve us, it can be reasonably inferred that our standing before the dais
of Christ will have to have taken place before
the battle occurs in heaven. Although we have no idea how long the dais event will take, this is obviously something
that is going to take some amount of time. Thus, according to this view, the
snatching away will not only take place sometime before the battle in heaven begins, but before whatever duration of
time it will take for the saints in the body of Christ to be awarded for what we
did on earth at the dais of Christ.
The “Loud Voice”
10 And I hear a
loud voice in heaven saying, "Just now came the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of
our brethren was cast out, who was accusing them before our God day and night.
11 And they conquer
him through the blood of the Lambkin, and through the word of their testimony,
and they love not their soul, until death.
12 Therefore, make
merry, ye heavens, and those tabernacling in them! Woe to the land and the sea,
for the Adversary descended to you having great fury, being aware that brief is
the season that he has."
To whom
does the above-referenced “loud voice in heaven” belong? Whomever it belongs
to, the speaker is referring to the saints on earth as “our brethren.” Thus, if
the “loud voice” belongs to a non-human celestial being, then the “our” must
include non-human celestial beings. But if that’s the case, then this would be
the only example I know of in which non-human celestial beings refer to mortal
human beings as their “brethren.” In fact, the word “brethren” is used a total
of four times in Revelation. In the first example (Rev. 6:11) it refers to
human saints who are about to be martyred after the opening of the fifth seal.
The next example is Rev. 12:10, which we’ve quoted above. In the last two
examples, the word is used by a non-human celestial messenger in reference to
human beings:
Rev. 19
10 And I fall in front of his feet to worship him.
And he is saying to me, "See! No! A
fellow slave of yours am I, and of your brethren who have the testimony of
Jesus. Worship God! for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy."
Rev. 22
9 And he is saying to me, "See! No! a fellow slave of yours am I, and of your
brethren, the prophets and those keeping the sayings of this scroll.
Worship God!"
No comments:
Post a Comment