Our study this week focuses on the great controversy between good and evil down through centuries. Revelation 12 presents four great episodes in this conflict. They are Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven, his attempt to destroy the infant Jesus, his attack on God’s people during the Middle Ages, and his final attack on God’s remnant people in the last days. In each of these conflicts, Christ is revealed as our victorious Lord, our triumphant Redeemer, and our mighty Conqueror.

The key thought in our lesson this week is that, despite Satan’s vicious attacks on God’s people and his attempts to destroy them, Jesus wins, and Satan loses. This thought is vital in preparing us to understand Revelation’s end-time message, found in Revelation 14:6–12. Although God’s people will face oppression, persecution, and imprisonment, as well as an economic boycott and a death decree, they have the absolute assurance that, on the cross, Jesus triumphed over the principalities and powers of hell. Satan is a defeated foe. The same Jesus who never lost a battle with Satan will not lose the final battle either. Jesus will see His people through to victory in earth’s final conflict.

There are challenging times ahead. God’s people will face their greatest test in the final days of earth’s history, but we can face our future trials with the supreme confidence that in Jesus, through Jesus, and because of Jesus, we too can be victorious.

Part II: Commentary

Revelation 12 could rightly be called the hinge upon which the entire book of Revelation pivots. Chapter 12 is at the heart of the Bible’s last book and transitions from all that has gone before to all that will come. Chapter 12 links the previous chapters in Revelation with the future chapters. Revelation 1 begins with the glorious picture of Christ as our Creator, Redeemer, High Priest, and coming King. Then the book of Revelation proceeds to introduce three sequences of sevens—the seven churches, the seven seals, and the seven trumpets. Each of these sequences ends in victory for Christ and His church.

The purpose of these early chapters is to clearly reveal how Christ finally aborts Satan’s successive attempts to destroy God’s people and to show the ultimate triumph of Christ Jesus in the cosmic conflict between good and evil. The revelation of Jesus Christ in each of these chapters paves the way in Revelation 12:17 for the revelation of Jesus in His people. Leading up to this revelation, in each successive sequence of seven, we see that there are those faithful believers who “overcome,” those who do not yield to the oppressive forces of evil, those who are loyal to Christ, and those who worship with the faithful of all ages before His throne (Rev. 7:9–12).

In the last of these sequences of seven, the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, saying with a loud voice, “ ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’ ” (Rev. 11:15, NKJV). The first 11 chapters of Revelation give us the assurance that the Christ who triumphed over the powers of hell down through the ages will triumph in earth’s final conflict. Although truth has been trampled on, God’s people persecuted, and tens of thousands martyred, Satan has never been able to stamp out God’s truth or to destroy His people completely.

The candle of truth may have flickered, but it has never been snuffed out. There has always been a light in the darkness. Eventually, the entire earth will be lightened with the glory of God (Rev. 18:1). The American writer James Russell Lowell states it well in the poem “The Present Crisis”:

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne—

Yet that scaffold sways the future,

And, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow,

Keeping watch above His own.

Key Verse (Part 1): Revelation 12:11

Although Revelation 12 is packed with significance, two verses are extremely meaningful and worthy of our special attention. The first verse is Revelation 12:11: “ ‘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’ ” (NKJV). The word “overcome” implies victory, triumph, and conquest. It is used 17 times in the book of Revelation. God’s people overcome. They are not overcome.

The question is—how do we overcome? How is it possible to triumph over the temptations of the evil one? Revelation 12:11 answers this question by declaring, “ ‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.’ ” The expression “ ‘by the blood’ ” can also be translated as “because of the blood” or “on the basis of the blood.” In the words of one old hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

We do not overcome by our willpower. The devil is a cunning foe. He knows our weak points of character. He knows where we have fallen before. He knows our most vulnerable points. Our hope is anchored in Christ and His righteousness. There are two very powerful statements commenting on Revelation 12:11 by Ellen G. White in The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 974:

“All who will can be overcomers. Let us strive earnestly to reach the standard set before us. Christ knows our weakness, and to Him we can go daily for help. It is not necessary for us to gain strength a month ahead. We are to conquer from day to day (MS 28, 1886).”

It is only as we trust Jesus completely and go to Him daily for help that we can be overcomers. Not only does Satan know our weaknesses, but so does Jesus. By His grace and through His power, Jesus delivers us from the guilt and grip of sin. Through His blood we are released from sin’s condemnation and freed from its domination. Ellen G. White’s second comment clarifies this point: “We become overcomers by helping others to overcome, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The keeping of the commandments of God will yield in us an obedient spirit, and the service that is the offspring of such a spirit, God can accept (Letter 236, 1908).”

The essence of sin is selfishness. When we come to the cross, Christ’s grace transforms us. His love motivates us to serve and bless others. The “word of our testimony” refers to our witness. Not only does our witness bless others, but we ourselves are blessed when we serve. Christ’s power to overcome flows from heaven’s sanctuary to those who trust Jesus completely, who are redeemed by His grace, and who give their lives to His service.

Key Verse (Part 2): Revelation 12:17

The last verse of Revelation 12 is one of the key verses in the entire Bible. The dragon (Satan) is angry with the faithful remnant people of God and makes war with this last-day movement, “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17, NKJV). In Revelation 13, the devil calls on his two allies to assist him in earth’s final war. The allies are represented as the beast from the sea (Rev. 13:1–10) and the beast from the land, also known as the false prophet (Rev. 13:11–18; compare Rev. 16:13, Rev. 19:20, Rev. 20:10).

Seventh-day Adventists understand that these two beasts represent the Papacy (the Roman Catholic Church state power) and the United States, respectively. Furthermore, so closely aligned is spiritualism with Satan that the dragon is a symbol for both. Under the auspices of this threefold union—the dragon (spiritualism), the beast from the sea (the Papacy), and the beast from the land, also known as the false prophet (apostate Protestantism under the auspices of the United States of America)—Satan will make war on the remnant people of God.

The term “remnant” is used throughout the Bible to describe God’s faithful people. The Old Testament uses the word “remnant,” or its derivative, in at least three ways. First, there is the concept of preservation. Members of Jacob’s family were preserved from the devastating famine through Joseph’s intervention. Genesis 45:7 speaks of these family members as Jacob’s posterity or, literally, as “the remnant.” The emphasis here is on the fact that Jacob’s descendants were preserved. Likewise, God’s end-time remnant are preserved from the attacks of the dragon and his allies, the beast and the false prophet. In the same way that God sent Joseph to Egypt to “ ‘preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance’ ” (Gen. 45:7, NKJV), God sends His last-day remnant people ahead of His second coming to warn the world and to save many people from impending destruction by the seven last plagues.

Second, in 1 Kings 19:14, 18, the word “remnant” is used to signify “that which is left over.” Elijah cries to the Lord, “ ‘I alone am left’ ” (1 Kings 19:14, NKJV).

And God responds, “ ‘I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal’ ” (1 Kings 19:18, NKJV). Here the word “remnant” conveys the idea of those who remain faithful and have not surrendered to the surrounding corruption of false worship.

Third, in some instances in the Old Testament, the word “remnant” is used to signify those who escape the captivity of Babylon (Jer. 23:3, Jer. 31:7). Putting these verses together helps us to form a more comprehensive picture of God’s end-time remnant movement in Revelation 12. In summary, this remnant people can be identified by their loyalty to all of God’s commandments. They also are endowed with the “testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 12:17), which, according to Revelation 19:10, “ ‘is the spirit of prophecy.’ ” In addition to the manifestation of the prophetic gift in their midst, the remnant is identified as those who are preserved by God as faithful to Him, who escape the corruption of this world, and who, through their commitment to Christ and their obedience to His Word, are delivered from the false teachings of spiritual Babylon.

Part III: Life Application

For Personal Reflection: Revelation 12 provides multiple practical lessons for twenty-first-century Christian living. First, Revelation 12 assures us that, amid the trials of life, Christ is always there. This chapter reminds us that Satan is a defeated foe. It gives us the confidence that in our fiercest battles with Satan, Christ has already won the victory. Reading Revelation 12 gives us the assurance that we serve a mighty God who is greater than our adversary.

An example of God’s provision in times of trouble is found in two specific verses—Revelation 12:6 and Revelation 12:14. Both verses speak about the same period but have a slightly different emphasis. The context of these verses is the persecution of God’s people during the Middle Ages, from a.d. 538 to a.d. 1798. Revelation 12:6 reads, “Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days” (NKJV). Revelation 12:14 says that the woman, or the church, was “nourished” in the wilderness. The encouraging eternal truth of these verses is that in our times of trial, tribulation, and testing, God always has a place prepared for us. He nourishes us in trial. In the trials of life, He is there to strengthen, sustain, and support us. In life’s greatest trials, His Spirit nurtures us and draws us closer to God’s side.

The two great lessons for your students to take away from this week’s study are:

1. Christ has never lost a battle with Satan, and at the end time, His people will be victorious.

2. Whatever trials we face, God is there to carry His people through triumphantly.

Discuss: