Luke
10:17-18 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord,
even the demons are subject to us in your name!” [18] And he said to them,
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
Jesus
had sent 72 disciples to go ahead of him into all the towns he planned to
preach in. He said, “Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God
has come near to you’” (Luke 10:9). He described this victory as Satan falling
from heaven. In a figurative sense, every time the kingdom of God comes near,
Satan falls. But, in a literal sense, he had not yet been cast out of heaven.
When was
Satan thrown out? Jesus told when it would happen. A day or two before He went
to the cross He said, “Now
is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out”
(John 12:31).
The Book of Revelation
describes it thus: “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’” (Revelation
12:9-10 ESV).
Jesus
described it as “the judgment of this world” and as casting out “the ruler of
this world.” When did this “judgment” take place? Daniel foresaw it in a vision hundreds of
years previously. He described it as a court session in which the Ancient of
Days took his seat and “a judgment was made” in favor of God’s people (Dan 7:22
NKJV). This judgment was made when he saw One like a Son of Man coming to the
Ancient of Days with the clouds of heaven “And to him was given dominion and
glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Dan 7:13).
Notice
that the Son of Man is pictured as not coming down, but rather as ascending in
the clouds to the Ancient of Days. This scene does not describe His second
coming. It describes His ascension to the Father. As His disciples “were
looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts
1:9). But the heavenly host above the clouds saw Him “coming to the Ancient of
Days with the clouds of heaven.” And the Father said to Him, “Sit at my right
hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Psalm 110:1).
Matthew
Henry agrees that “coming to the Ancient of Days” was the ascension when he
says, “Our Savior seems plainly to refer to
this vision when he says (Jn. 5:27) that the Father has therefore given
him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man, and
because he is the person whom Daniel saw in vision, to whom a kingdom and
dominion were to be given… here we are told, abundantly to our satisfaction,
that he came to the Ancient of days; for he ascended to his Father
and our Father, to his God and our God (Jn. 20:17); from him he came
forth, and to him he returns, to be glorified with him, and to sit down at his
right hand.” The Geneva and the Jamieson Faussett Brown commentaries agree.
That is
when “the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom”
(Dan 7:22). As soon as the judgment was made and the ruler of this world was
cast out, John heard a voice 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” (Revelation 12:10 ESV).
Does this mean our troubles are over
because Satan is cast out? No. It means, “the devil has come down to [earth
dwellers] in great wrath.” He now pursues the church that gave birth to the Son
of God and makes war with her offspring (Rev 12:12-13). But the earth helps the
church with such things as “Edicts of Toleration.”
Every time the New Testament mentions the
Son of Man coming with the clouds it is not talking about His second coming. It
is referencing His coming to the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:13. Three Gospels
quote Jesus as saying, “Then
they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”
(Luke 21:29, Mat 24:30, and Mark 13:26). Jesus referenced it again when He told
the high priest, “I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting
at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Mat 26:64).
The high
priest died ten years later. When did he see this? Evidently he saw it when he
died since after that is the judgment. Thus, every eye shall see Him coming on
the clouds when they die. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see
Him, even they who pierced Him” (Rev 1:7).
