Revelation 12

Revelation 12:7-8:
 "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels," "And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven."

Matthew Henrys

The attempts of the dragon proved unsuccessful against the church, and fatal to his own interests. The seat of this war was in heaven; in the church of Christ, the kingdom of heaven on earth. The parties were Christ, the great Angel of the covenant, and his faithful followers; and Satan and his instruments. The strength of the church is in having the Lord Jesus for the Captain of their salvation. Pagan idolatry, which was the worship of devils, was cast out of the empire by the spreading of Christianity. The salvation and strength of the church, are only to be ascribed to the King and Head of the church. The conquered enemy hates the presence of God, yet he is willing to appear there, to accuse the people of God. Let us take heed that we give him no cause to accuse us; and that, when we have sinned, we go before the Lord, condemn ourselves, and commit our cause to Christ as our Advocate. The servants of God overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb, as the cause. By the word of their testimony: the powerful preaching of the gospel is mighty, through God, to pull down strong holds. By their courage and patience in sufferings: they loved not their lives so well but they could lay them down in Christ's cause. These were the warriors and the weapons by which Christianity overthrew the power of pagan idolatry; and if Christians had continued to fight with these weapons, and such as these, their victories would have been more numerous and glorious, and the effects more lasting. The redeemed overcame by a simple reliance on the blood of Christ, as the only ground of their hopes. In this we must be like them. We must not blend any thing else with this.

Michael ("who is like God?", Hebrew: מִיכָאֵל‎ (pronounced [mixaˈʔel]), Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; Greek: Μιχαήλ, Mikhaḗl; Latin: Michael (in the Vulgate Michahel); Arabic: ميخائيل‎‎, Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as "Saint Michael the Archangel" and also as "Saint Michael". Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Christians refer to him as the "Taxiarch Archangel Michael" or simply "Archangel Michael"

“Now war arose in heaven” (Rev. 12:7). What? Can it really be said that heaven is a battlefield? Is heaven not the place where God “makes wars to cease” (Ps. 46:9)? Is it not the place where the soldier’s weapons are laid down and the victor’s crown is finally awarded? Is our hope of heaven not the fact that battles and wars will be a thing of the past, and we will have our dwelling in God’s house, in perfect peace and rest? Absolutely, and any suggestion that the final destination of the people of God will be troubled by war or unrest of any kind is banished by the eschatology of the Bible. Actually, when John sees a war in heaven, it is not the eschaton — the final, ultimate age — that is being described. This is a highly symbolic picture of what is happening now as the church is being persecuted in the world — what Paul elsewhere describes as a wrestling with “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). In Revelation 12, John is given “a great sign” — a kind of historical theology in a snapshot. He sees a woman give birth to a son, whose birth is anticipated by a dragon. The dragon, in turn, attempts to annihilate the child, who is caught up into heaven, while the woman spends a pre-ordained period in the wilderness. The woman in the image is the church; the son is the king. From the moment he appears, Satan, the enemy of God, tries to extinguish his life, but God protects him and exalts him. So Satan turns his attack on the woman who gave birth to the child. It is at this point that John sees in his vision a war in heaven in which the archangel Michael, with his good angels, fights against the dragon and his bad angels. To readers familiar with the Old Testament, as John’s first readers would have been, this is familiar stuff. In Daniel 10, for example, the archangel Michael is involved in the conflicts between Israel and other nations. The defeat of Satan in Revelation 12 is a recurring theme in the book of Revelation. In the course of this particular narrative, Satan is depicted not only as the great rebel against God but the “deceiver of the whole world” and “the accuser of our brothers” (vv. 9–10). In other words, his attack is both on the world, which he attempts to deceive, and on the church, which he attempts to accuse. In both cases he shows his implacable hostility toward the truth — one cannot deceive someone without knowing the truth; nor can one accuse someone falsely without knowing the truth. But it is the truth that sustains the people of God in this conflict. Knowing that his days are numbered (v. 12) and that God will soon judge him, Satan steps up the attack, pursuing the church from whose womb the king had come (v. 13). This is the only way in which Satan can continue to attack Christ — by attacking His church in the world. He uses every fiendish and hellish tactic imaginable — John sees Satan spewing out a river of water to try to drown the woman. She, however, is helped by the earth. On the dragon goes, singling out for attack all those who have been faithful to the testimony of their Lord, while the church, in turn, holds on to her profession, “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24). This snapshot of the ongoing battle between Satan and Christ, actualized in the experiences of a persecuted church, was, of course, particularly relevant for John. He had been banished to the island of Patmos because of that very persecution. The explanation for this conflict is not to be found only in the personal malice of the persecutors — there is a sinister, spiritual war going on. The picture John saw was of a war in heaven — a cosmic counterpart to, and explanation for, the spiritual battle being waged on earth. What are the important elements of this picture? First, that for all Satan’s attempts to overthrow and obliterate the church, the blood of the Lamb prevails for the people of God. Their accuser has no case because they are covered by the blood. The blood that saved them is the blood that justifies, protects, and enables the people of God to hold fast what they have. Victory is theirs, because the victory was Christ’s. Second, to be a follower of Christ is to identify with a suffering, persecuted people. The cross of Christ is not a path to fame and fortune. His way is the way of hostility, enmity, and estrangement. But by faith we can make the choice Moses made, “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Heb. 11:25), knowing that victory belongs with Jesus Christ. In spite of the dragon’s attempts to overthrow the Messiah, God’s purpose that He would rule all nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 12:5) will not be thwarted. Third, all of God’s resources are marshalled for the good of His people and of His cause. The earth helps the woman when the dragon attempts to destabilize her. No weapon formed against her will succeed (Isa. 54:17). This note of triumph runs like a refrain through the book of Revelation, and it is what God’s people need to hear time and again: if God is for us, who can be against us (Rom. 8:31) --Iain Campbell

Revelation 12:11:
​11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 

​​— Here is given the reason why the followers of Christ prevailed at this time against all their adversaries. It was because they fought against the dragon in the armour of God. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb-by proclaiming salvation to sinners through Christ crucified, and by their continual intercession at the throne of grace for the conversion of the heathen world.
And by the word of their testimony — By constantly testifying against the errors and follies of mankind.
And they loved not their lives unto the death. — They regarded not their present temporal estate, but even gladly delivered up their lives to the fury of their persecutors, and thus sealed the truth of what they spake with their blood. -Clarkes Commentary

Revelation 12:12:
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

​Satanic activity and influence will increase dramatically as the day of Christ's return draws nearer. This verses appears in context concerning believers and their war with the enemy who is called "the accuser of our brothers." Much of Satan's fury will be directed specifically toward Christians as the clock ticks closer toward Christ's return. Understand that Satan does know what is in the Bible.

​A short time by Bible standards is not necessarily what we may consider short. (See 2 Peter 3:8) Jesus said that He “saw Satan fall like lighting from heaven” (Luke 10:18, NKJV). Revelation 12: 7 describes a war in heaven in which Satan and his angels were cast to earth. So when was this? Probably before the creation of man, since that “serpent of old” was there in the garden to deceive Eve.
But the important part of Revelation 12:12 is that Satan has come down to the world with “great wrath.” Peter describes Satan as “a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NKJV). Again we see in Revelation 12, he is the deceiver of the whole world. Not just a few misguided people here and there, but the whole world. Jesus tells us that Satan is a murderer and a liar, even calling him the “father of lies and murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). -Wes Higgin

​​​Revelation 12:13-17:
13Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 
15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 
16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.