Useful Bible Studies > Revelation Commentary > chapter 12
2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 teach that some of the angels (God’s special servants) did not remain loyal to God. Instead, they chose to oppose God and to fight against him. Their leader, of course, is the devil, who formerly seems to have been one of the most important angels. This happened in very ancient times - probably before God made the first people.
Revelation 12:4 seems also to refer to that event. Those angels were like stars; they had magnificent positions of great honour in heaven. However, the devil brought them down from there, so that now they carry out evil acts upon the earth.
The devil’s next great and terrible act was to oppose the woman whom John described in verse 1. The devil’s plan was to kill and to destroy her child, whom God had appointed to rule all nations (verse 5). The reason, of course, is that the devil wants to rule all nations himself.
As we saw in verse 1, the woman means the nation called Israel. Her son, of course, is Christ. Christ was born into that nation, and God has appointed him to rule all things.
During Christ’s life on earth, the devil frequently persuaded evil people to make plans to kill him. This began when he was just a baby (Matthew 2:13-18). After he started his public work for God, people were constantly trying to kill him. However, God was protecting his Son. Nobody could kill Christ until the time that God had chosen for his death. Then Christ died to take away the sins (evil deeds) of God’s people. The effect of his death was to defeat the devil (Hebrews 2:14). So it was impossible that Christ could remain dead (Acts 2:24). He rose to the place of highest honour in heaven (Hebrews 1:3). There, he waits for the final defeat of the devil and every evil power that supports the devil’s rule (1 Corinthians 15:24-25).
Next part: Christ receives his place at God’s right side (Revelation 12:5)
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© 2016, Keith Simons.