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.”
– Revelation 12:9–11
Oh, what a picture of the judgment of this great dragon, the Devil, Satan, along with all of his angels, demons, thrown down. That’s the picture in verse 9 that’s repeated twice. This ancient serpent going all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 who is tempted and lead people to turn away from God. He will be, along with all alongside him, thrown down and Heaven shouting this salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come.
This Verse Tells Us Satan is the Accuser
So listen to this phrase, the accuser of our brothers. So in verse 9, he was called the deceiver of the whole world. This is who Satan is. It’s what Satan does. He deceives. He’s been doing so ever since Genesis chapter 3. Should you trust God’s word, should you trust God’s goodness, you know better than God what is best for your life. Deceiving the world and accusing. He’s the accuser of our brothers. He is constantly accusing followers of Jesus, day and night it says in Revelation 12:9–11, before our God.
But he is conquered how? By the blood of the lamb, by the blood of Jesus, shed for our sins. There’s no way you or I can conquer the devil, Satan, the deceiver of the whole world on our own. Only by the blood of Jesus, the picture of Jesus going to the cross and dying in our place as our substitute for our sins, for all of the ways we have given into temptation.
For all the ways we have bought into the devil’s lies, Jesus has paid the price. We have conquered by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. By our proclamation of the kingdom of God and the authority of Christ. Because we loved not our lives even unto death. What a picture. How do you conquer the adversary? You trust in Christ and you proclaim him as more valuable than life itself.
Revelation 12:9–11 Looks Forward to the Day
And so we pray. God we look forward to this day when that ancient serpent, the Devil, Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, will finally and fully be thrown down. We look forward to that day. We look forward to that day when sin will be no more and he will wreak havoc no more in the way he has in the world, in our lives. Lord, we praise you Jesus, the lamb who was slain for sin. The lamb who fought the ultimate battle against Satan and won. Who rose from the dead. We praise you Lord Jesus as our conqueror and we pray that you would help us to resist the adversary today. God I pray this in my life, I pray this in the lives of every single person listening right now that you help us to not be deceived.
Help us to trust and obey your word. Lord, help us to trust your goodness in our lives. Help us not to be deceived today, tomorrow. And as he throws accusations at us that we would find our shelter and out strength in the blood of the lamb. And that we would conquer by the word of our testimony today. God, help us to faithfully proclaim Jesus to point people to Jesus as our life. And we pray that it will be said of us that we loved not our lives even unto death. That we loved you, Lord Jesus, the lamb who was slain, the lamb who won the ultimate battle. Our Lord, our king, our savior, that we loved you as far more valuable than life itself.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for the Unreached
And God we pray that the word of our testimony would spread to the ends of the Earth, to the Manjak people of Guinea Bissau, and thousands of other people groups like them that the word of our testimony would spread to all the nations of the Earth in an anticipation of this day we see envisioned in Revelation 12:9–11. In Jesus’ name, in the name of our great conqueror. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
