The Fall

There are 3 angels mentioned in the Bible. Do you know their names? Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel.

Revelation 12:7–17 (ESV)

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 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. 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. 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. 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!”

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

I am not sure why this war is going on. I suspect that either heaven grew tired of the tension the devil creates by constantly trying to start dissension between God and His children (which will not happen) or Satan hit another boiling point and tried to take some sort of control again. But whatever it may be, God was tired of him, so He sent Michael to wage a holy war and drive out the ultimate menace.

This is not the first encounter that Michael has had with the adversary post fall. Jude 1:9 “But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”” Michael was commanded to engage over matters with the devil and rather than jeering and reviling him, Michael profoundly rebukes Satan. He uses God’s authority to force the devil to bend to God’s will. {Side note* Michael used the power of God’s name to force the devil into doing God’s will, not his own. You cannot speak the name of Jesus over the devil and cause him to bend the knee to you, but you can speak in God’s name and God’s will will be carried out. But not our own.}

But Michael is sent to be less diplomatic and more outright forceful. He wages war with the devil and what armies he has amassed, and Michaels army defeats him. I highly doubt that is was an easy fight. Listen, this is Lucifer. The most beautiful creator that God created before the creation of man. He is thought to have been tasked with the job of leading the choirs of heaven, and ascribing praise to the Lord. He went astray and led a third of the angels of heaven along with him. How vile would you have to be in order to corrupt an angel? Lucifer became a bad dude. The worst of them all. As a matter of fact he is the epicenter of evil. Anywhere you find sin and destruction, the devil will be at it’s core.

Anyways, they fought and the devil was driven out of heaven. You may be thinking “W ell I thought this already happened” and it did. I am not fully clear on the limits to the area of the heaven that Satan was allowed to visit, but we do know that he was able to have access to God. Job 1:6-7 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”” Daniel 10:11-14 “And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.””

The devil and his armies had access to the heavens, and as you can see they can even engage with powerful angels for at least 21 days. Then Gabriel had to have help so that he may deliver a message rather than battle the enemies.

Michael defeats the devil and his armies, he is thrown to earth, and he is Extremely angry. He attacks the woman. Do you remember who the woman is? It’s Israel. If he cannot take God down, he is going to attack the closest thing to Him. His people and His children. He seeks to ruin all that is good. He is going to try to end God’s plan, but he cannot. When God established His covenant with the Hebrews the devil began to attack them physically and spiritually, knowing that the promised child would eventually make His appearance. When Jesus arrived, the devil sought to have Him killed by influencing Herod to kill Jesus by having the wise men lead him to the baby. When the wise men were tipped off by an angel and they slipped away, Herod was enraged and the devil used him to attempt to kill the child by killing all children 2 years of age and older, but under God’s providence Herod missed the child Jesus. When Jesus came of age the devil tried to thwart God’s plans by tempting Jesus into sinning, but the devil failed at that as well. Finally, the devil had his day. Satan got all of his ducks in a row, and he executed a plan that would ruin all of God’s plans. He had the Son of God killed. 3 days he lived in bliss, until the morning of the 3rd day when Jesus rose from the grave, exposing God’s plans all along. The devil was effectively beaten for good. Now all he can do is cause pain, bring bitterness, and lead people astray, but he will never ruin God’s plan for eternity.