Triumph is Ours-Lent 18, 2022

Remember Woe, woe, woe? Three of them. So far, we’ve seen woe number two ending with resurrection of the two witnesses who preached with fire and power who had been killed by the beast. Resurrection, terror among the inhabitants of the earth, and the second woe passed. But it doesn’t end there. Now we’re on to trumpet number 7 and the bowls of judgment and things get even more intense.

Revelation 11:15 “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Do you find it interesting that there’s worship just before Judgment?

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small– and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” 19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.”

God’s temple is open, and He sends an earthquake and a hailstorm upon the earth, but our adversary, Satan, isn’t going to go down without a fight. Satan doesn’t care how many people die in the process, or how many he takes to hell with him—in fact the more the merrier. As far as the devil is concerned, robbing God of any of His Image-bearers is considered a satanic win. Even though he knows he’s defeated, it’s still war.

If Satan and the unbelieving world weren’t angry enough at the first 6 six trumpet plagues, or at the resurrection of two of God’s best and brightest who had pronounced the plagues, Revelation 12:13-17 tells us,

“When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth…[he] was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring– those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.”

Satan’s rage compels him and his followers to bring war against God’s people. Looking for a peaceful ending and the world becoming a beautiful place? Give up those thoughts. It’s not going to be pretty.

But God always gives us hope.
All because of the resurrection.
It was a game changer, the tipping point in the spiritual war,
and the final blow in God’s holy arsenal
ensuring His total victory.

Thoughts for today:

Read Revelation 12. If you’d like to read the devotional that I wrote on that in 2019 and speaks still today (and including today’s supplemental graphic), you can find it at The Dragon, the Woman, and Rage.

What is it about resurrection that enrages Satan so much? How did human death make Satan feel like his victory was complete? How did the Cross give him the delusion that he’d defeated God? How did the resurrection change all that?

Revelation 12:4 The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.” Who is that Child?

How do we overcome? 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 Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over 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.’”

Things will not improve, ascending to a glorious perfection by man’s efforts at negotiation. Satan is mad. And he’s not going down alone.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2022 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.