Revelation 12.7-17-Satan is Expelled from Heaven by Michael the Elect Angel in the Middle of Seventieth Week (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday April 10, 2024

Day of the Lord Series: Revelation 12:7-17-Satan is Expelled from Heaven by Michael and His Fellow Elect Angels in the Middle of the Seventieth Week

Lesson # 18

Now, in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week, the cold war will become a hot war and overflow to planet earth.

The event that will mark this is Michael the archangel and his legions of elect-angels expelling Satan and his legions from heaven (Rev. 12:7).

Satan and the fallen angels defeat in heaven and permanent expulsion from heaven commences the worst period in all of human history and the war to end all wars.

Satan will then move the Antichrist to sit down on the Mercy Seat between the cherubim and declare himself as God.

Revelation 12:1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman (representing the nation of Israel) clothed with the sun (representing Jacob), with the moon (representing Rachel and Leah) under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head (representing twelve sons of Jacob). 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon (representing Satan) with seven heads (Represents 7 great Gentile world empires: (1) Egypt (2) Assyria (3) Babylon (4) Medo-Persia (5) Graeco-Macedonia (6) Rome (7) Future Revived Roman Empire) and ten horns (10 Ten European Confederacy, i.e. Revived Roman Empire), and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars (Represents fallen angels) out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child (Jesus Christ), who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne (Ascension and Session of Jesus Christ). 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days (Last 3 ½ years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week). 7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. (NIV84)

Michael and the elect angels who number two-thirds of the angels that were created overwhelm Satan and his angels who number one-third of the angels created by the Lord because of a simple spiritual principle: Victory or defeat in angelic warfare is gained by the application of power and the withdrawal of the inferior force.

Now, there were originally nine divisions in the angelic order of battle and in eternity past, Satan possessed the highest rank among the angels as the guardian cherub.

He was adorned with nine jewels according to Ezekiel 28:13, which are comparable to the twelve jewels found on the breastplate of the high priest of Israel, where each jewel represented one of the twelve tribes liable for military service (Exodus 28:15-21).

Satan in eternity past before his rebellion was the high priest of God ruling over these nine divisions or tribes of angels just as the high priest in Israel presided over the twelve tribes of Israel (Is. 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:14).

Revelation 12:4 says that one-third of the angels fell, that means three angelic divisions in the Lord’s military rebelled.

These three angelic divisions are arranged in rank, thus mimicking God.

So like God, Satan has a military that is organized in ranks, which is suggested by the fact that Michael is called the Archangel or chief angel (Jude 9) and in Daniel 10:13 he is called one of the chief princes.

Ephesians 6:12 presents the Satanic “order of battle,” which is a military term generally used to denote the force structure of a particular combatant in any given military campaign.

So the Bible teaches that during the midway point of Daniel’s seventieth week that Michael and the elect angels of God defeat Satan and his armies and throw them out of heaven.

Thus, the fallen angels must have access to the third heaven in order to be thrown out of it (Job 1-2; Zech. 3).

Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. (NIV84)

The name “Michael” means “who is like God?” and poses a rhetorical and negative question, one demanding a negative answer meaning “who is like the Lord? No one!

This is significant for this angel’s very name and presence stands as a rebuke and refutation to Satan’s boast in Isaiah 14:14b, “I will make myself like the most High,” i.e., “I will be like God.”

In Daniel 12:1 he is called the great prince and in Jude 9 he is “the archangel,” i.e., first or chief of the angels.

Here, in Revelation 12, we read of “Michael and his angels,” those under his authority, thus, it appears that Michael became the chief commander and leader of the holy angels after Satan’s fall.

Michael, the archangel, is the guardian of the nation of Israel (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9).

Until this point in the seventieth week, Michael never lays a hand on Satan, however, at this point in the seventieth week, however, Michael gets to do what he undoubtedly has longed to do for millenniums; he gets to boot Satan out of heaven.

The Lord foresaw the defeat of Satan in heaven and this event was also prophesied by the prophet Daniel in Daniel 12:1.

Luke 10:18 And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” (NASB95)

Daniel 12:1 “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.” (NASB95)

Revelation 12:9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (NIV84)

The “great dragon” and “serpent of old” is identified as “Satan,” which is the noun Satanas, a legal term meaning “adversary” and “Devil,” which is the noun Diabolos, also a legal term meaning “slanderer, false accuser.”

“The great dragon” emphasizes Satan’s vicious and cruel character and emphasizes his end time activity and behavior.

“The serpent of old” draws our attention to Satan’s crafty character and reminds us of the Garden of Eden, the fall of man, his usurpation of man’s rule on earth, and his constant activity of temptation and deception.

Revelation 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. (NIV84)

The believer has three great enemies according to the Scriptures:

(1) Satan, our chief adversary, the devil: (1 Pet. 5:8-9; Eph. 6:12; John 16:11; Col. 2:15; but note 1 John 2:13-14).

(2) The world, a system and arrangement of the affairs of men and government under the control of the evil one and opposed to God and His purposes for man: (John 16:33; 1 John 5:4; Eph. 2:2).

(3) Indwelling Adamic sin nature or the flesh and all its corrupting power and life-dominating patterns: (Rom. 7:15; 8:4-8, 13; Gal. 5:16-26).

The intelligence apparatus of a nation plays a vital part in modern warfare.

Unless, we know who our enemy is, where he is, and what he can do, we will have a difficult time defeating him.

The leader of the church’s great invisible enemy is of course Satan whose name means, “adversary” because he is the enemy of God.

He is also called the “tempter” (Mt. 4:3), the murderer (Jn. 8:44).

He is compared to a “lion” in 1 Peter 5:8, a serpent (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 12:9), an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:13-15), the “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4).

The Christian is not to be ignorant of his schemes and devices (2 Cor. 2:11).