Satan Loses
by Hugh DeLong
Chapter 12 of Revelation is like one of the old ‘Up Close and Personal’ segments on the sports show. We are given a historical overview of Satan as the adversary of God’s people. Again, remember that this is written in symbolic language, so it is hard to tell whether these events have any literal basis. As an example, Revelation 12:4 speaks of the ‘great red dragon’ having a tail large enough to sweep down a third of the stars of heaven upon the earth. Even a little understanding of the size and number of stars would have the story of Earth ending at that point, as it could not literally survive even one star colliding with it, let alone one-third of the stars of heaven!
So, my take is that this section gives us a brief history of the conflicts God’s people have faced. Satan’s adversarial work began in rebellion against God. He lost. He attempted to derail the plan of God throughout the history of mankind, leading up to the birth of Jesus, as seen in his persecution of ‘the woman who was about to give birth.' Israel was chosen to bring the Messiah and Savior—the ‘dragon’ with all of his power attempts to stop this from happening. Satan loses.
Recalling how God took Israel out of Egypt and into the desert, where He protected and provided for them, the woman flees into the wilderness and is protected from Satan’s onslaught.
John then writes of Satan’s ‘war in heaven’. Satan loses.
If you follow the ‘timing’ in this chapter, such a ‘war in heaven’ is not at the beginning of time, but instead appears to refer to the battle that he faced with Jesus. Whatever the take on this, again, he loses. Those with Christ conquer him not by might or power but by the word of their testimony (Revelation 12:11).
Satan then continues his ‘battle’ against the ‘woman’. This appears to be the early church and all of the resistance against it. He loses yet again. The woman is protected and given victory by the power of God, not by her own power.
Satan continues the battle against ‘the offspring’ - identified as ’those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.' Guess what - He loses. God’s people overcome their enemy by their faithfulness to Jesus.
I hope you can back up, grasp the storyline without becoming entrapped with literalism, and see that Satan loses. Each and every time, he loses. No matter what he does, he loses. In the end, he loses and will be cast into hell, which was prepared for him and his angels (cp. Matthew 25:41).
We should not be surprised to experience pushback for our faith in Jesus. We are not to be intimidated by Satan and his war against us. We are to be faithful to Jesus. We are either on the side of Jesus, the victor, or Satan, the loser. Which will it be? Where are you standing? What side are you helping?
