Stephen
Terry, Director
Rules
of Engagement
Commentary
for the March 8, 2025, Sabbath School Lesson
"Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous
red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its
tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth."
Revelation 12:3-4a, NIV
As
mentioned in last week's commentary, there was war in heaven between the
Dragon, Satan, and his followers and the angels loyal to God, led by Michael.
When we consider Earth's history and all its conflicts, it seems strange that
heaven, a place we associate with peace and tranquility could have been filled
with warfare and strife. Nonetheless, Revelation,
chapter 12, tells the story of that great battle and how the Devil and his
followers were cast to the earth, losing their place in heaven as the price of
their rebellion against God. Michael is often referred to as the archangel,
which could mean leader of the angels or ruler of the angels. In Hebrew, his
name means "who is equal to God." Note that I wrote that as a statement rather
than as a question. Punctuation that often did not exist in the original texts
was later added by others based on the dogma they were trained to accept. This
means that definitions can be malleable based on what punctuation is added.
Seventh-day Adventists, who believe that the dead remain in the grave asleep
until Jesus returns, are familiar with this issue. The statement by Jesus to
the thief on the cross, "I say unto you today you shall be with me in paradise"
has long been deciphered by several denominations as
though a comma comes after the first "you." Adventists place the comma after
the word "today." This is an example where the understanding of the text comes
from whether the translator believes a person goes immediately to heaven or
hell when they die, or they rest in the grave until Jesus comes again. While
the former idea also conforms to the thinking of those who followed the pagan
religions of old, the idea does not seem to agree with Pauline theology. (1
Corinthians 15:51-54) Instead, Paul sees the dead sleeping in the grave
until the sounding of the last trumpet calls them to rise in the resurrection
of the dead at the Parousia.
Returning
to the subject of Michael, if the name is a question, it could mean that no
one, not even Michael is equal to God. But if instead, it is a statement that
he is one who is equal to God, this could be referring to Jesus leading the
heavenly host against Satan and would explain why Jesus said he personally
witnessed Satan's fall from heaven. (Luke
10:18) Further support leans toward this idea in parallel passages in
Zechariah in the Old Testament and The Epistle of Jude in the New Testament.
Jude says that Michael disputed with Satan about the body of Moses, while
Zechariah says it was the Lord who disputed with Satan about Joshua.
(Jude
1:9, Zechariah
3:1-2) In both instances, the same wording is used by both Michael and the
Lord. While not conclusive, it does offer support for the idea that Jesus and
Michael, who is equal to God, are the same. Also, if Jesus was personally
involved in casting Satan and all the evil that accompanied him to the earth it
could explain his intimate involvement with saving mankind through his
thirty-three-and-a half years of incarnation as part of the process of bringing
us back to God.
When
Satan was cast out of heaven, he was not cast out alone. All the angels who
followed him were cast out also. How many would that be? According to the passage
cited at the beginning of this commentary, the dragon swept a third of the
stars out of heaven. Earlier in the book of Revelation, we read that stars
represent angels. (Revelation
1:20) Revelation also gives us a look into heaven and the angels
surrounding God's throne with the statement there were thousands time thousands
and ten thousand time ten thousand. (Revelation
5:11) We may be comfortable in assuming this was not a literal counting of
a host that may have seemed innumerable and could have been Johns falling back
to Daniel's comment about their number. (Daniel
7:10) While not sure of its accuracy, nonetheless, it would indicate that
at a minimum the number of angels present was one hundred and four million. If
that was the two thirds of the angels who remained loyal to God, then the one third
cast out with Satan would be at least fifty-two million. That is lots of evil
to be poured out upon our planet.
When
I was a child, Disneyland broadcast "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." Walt Disney
did a prequel to the movie where he asserted that the Leprechauns were the
angels cast out of heaven complete with illustrations of the war in heaven. As
a child, I did not understand the significance of what he was saying, only that
it sounded scary. Later, as a theology student, one of my professors opined
that he believed that the fallen angels were the pagan deities and demigods of
old. Whether this is correct or not, it begs the question of what are all these
fallen angels doing? If they are engaged in subverting humanity ever having
peace or hope in this life, they are doing a remarkable job of it. Most seem to
be constantly driven by fear, a dread of what is coming. Jesus even warned us
of how terrible things would get in this war between good and evil. He prophesied,
"At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each
other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of
the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold." But he also went
on to say that those who endure, who keep on loving to the end will be saved. (Matthew
24:10-13)
How
do I know he was referring to continuing to love? The disciple who referred to
himself as the one Jesus loved, answered that question. He wrote, "Whoever does
not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8 When we look at
our leaders both political and religious, we see a desire to invoke fear and to
manipulate others through that fear. We see an evil desire to bring down fire
on their enemies in vengeance for slights both imagined and real. There is
little compassion or empathy but abundant amounts of betrayal and backstabbing.
Everything seems to devolve into how much wealth can be bled out of a
situation. These are not the sentiments of heaven. They come from a different
source. They arise from Satan and his multitude of fallen minions. Satan can be
an angel of light, and his followers can even appear as popular preachers of
righteousness. (2
Corinthians 11:13-15) Their ranks do not end there. Many of the over seven
billion people inhabiting the planet have gone over to their side, drawn by the
carrot of wealth offered to those who co-operate. It is no small truth that
love of money is the fertile ground for all sorts of evil. (1
Timothy 6:10) Far too many have worn for years the golden shackles of debt
forged from their vain pursuit of wealth at any cost.
The
political and economic instability feeds into the fear that leads people to
gamble their resources in an attempt to ride the wild current of the stock
market, the lotteries, bitcoins, or the next sure thing that promises a future
but only bleeds the coins from their pockets until there is little left and
hope dies. How we end up will depend on whose carriage we hitch ourselves to.
We can go after that golden carrot and become so financially committed to wispy
promises of future wealth that we can see no way other than to continue to follow
in the train of the wealthy where we will join them in their ultimate fate. Or
we can find true freedom in Christ. (John
8:36) Instead of pursuing those riches and the devil to take the hindmost,
we can love others and find freedom from that struggle. The only reason people
get on that racetrack for wealth is fear, fear of not having enough. Jesus recognized
this and spoke of it in his Sermon on the Mount. He told his followers, "So do
not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What
shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly
Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew
6:31-33
For
twenty-eight years, Still Waters Ministry has operated with the faith that God
will keep this ministry going and will care for us. We do not ask for donations,
and if they are offered, we do not accept them. God has proven the counsel from
Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount to be true. There are many false apostles who
go about begging offerings in return for being allowed to be called their
followers, members of their sect or denomination. There is only One we should
follow if we would have salvation from evil that seems prevalent everywhere. If
we do and we cherish his word, we will see where truth is, and it is not in the
mountains of riches accumulated by the powerful in this life. Their hearts are
only governed by how much more they can add to their golden tombstone, the
memorial they created in this life as surely as Jacob Marley formed the chains
he wore. May God guide us to a better end.