Revelation 12:10-12

Revelation 12:10-12. The victory thus gained is followed by a song of praise and thanksgiving, which proceeds from a great voice in heaven. Whose voice this is we are not told, and it may be well to leave it in its indefiniteness.

The song is one of adoring praise that the s alvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ, have been perfectly established. ‘Now is there judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out;' ‘He will convict the world concerning judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged' (John 12:31; John 16:8; John 16:11).

This victory of the ‘brethren' has been gained because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony. By the former can only be understood the blood of Jesus shed and presented before God on behalf of His people, by the latter that testimony of Jesus, that witness concerning Him, which they had been enabled to deliver.

When the victory has thus been spoken of as pained the ‘great voice' further cries, Rejoice ye heavens, and ye that tabernacle in them. They who thus tabernacled in the heavens can hardly be angels; nor are they the spirits of the just made perfect contrasted with the righteous still struggling upon earth. The victory of all the righteous is by this time supposed to be complete. They can be no other than the whole redeemed family of God. These form the Divine Tabernacle, the place in which God rests, as He rested of old in the tabernacle in the wilderness (comp. chap. Revelation 7:15; Revelation 13:6; Revelation 21:3). Thus constituting a tabernacle for God, they may by an easy transition be said themselves ‘to tabernacle,' for the true idea of the Tabernacle consisted in this, that it was the meeting-place of God and man. There is no thought of the transitoriness of a tent, or of tent life. While all the good rejoice, there is woe for the earth and for the sea, that is, not the neutral earth or the ocean, but all who are unconnected with God's kingdom ‘the heavens.'

Because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time. The consciousness that it is so fills him with the rage of despair.

The second scene of the chapter is a distinct advance upon the first. We pass from the dragon the ideal representative of evil to the devil or Satan, known to us as the source of all the sin and misery from which earth suffers. Further, we learn why the Church on earth has to contend with this great adversary. He has been cast, with his angels, out of heaven; and it is God's decree that the main and last struggle between good and evil shall be fought out on earth. Among men, not angels, the plan of redemption shall be conducted to its glorious issue. To impress these thoughts upon us is the reason why the second scene of this chapter has its place assigned to it.