7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And 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 has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
These verses speak of the repercussions in heaven of the 'taking up' of the Christ of God in His victorious ascension. There is war in heaven and Satan is cast out. As Paul puts it in Ephesians 4, 'When He ascended, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men'. It is surely misleading to think of this casting out of Satan with anything other than the victory of Christ on the Cross and in the Resurrection (Christ's own reference to Satan falling as lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18) and the casting out of the prince of this world (John 12:31) are anticipatory and prophetic of His work on the Cross). The context of 1-6 requires this understanding of it, and indeed what follows seems to confirm it, for it is through the defeat of Satan (on the Cross) that salvation 'comes' to men (10) and the kingdom established. Moreover, it is on the ground of Christ's death that the accusations of Satan need no longer distress God's people. As Paul puts it in Romans 8:33, 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us'. Also, it is Christ's victory on the Cross that spells the final doom of Satan; the 'little while' between the Cross and the final consummation (which period the New Testament calls 'The last days') may be said to correspond to the interval between the formal condemnation of a prisoner to die and the actual moment of execution. Satan now knows that his time is short, that his days are 'numbered', and the nearer the final day comes, the more wrathful he will be. This is another explanation of the intensification of his pressures at the end. The wonderful verse 11 is worthy of more detailed treatment than we have given it in this general interpretation, and we shall return to it next time.