His Time is Short

“Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.” Revelation 12:12

I have to confess, I don’t spend a lot of time studying the book of Revelation. It’s not that I don’t find it interesting. Revelation is a fascinating book. It’s just a little over my head sometimes with all its figurative language. What I do know about Revelation is that in Revelation 1:2 it says God blesses the one who reads it, so I’m good with that.

With that said, I am not going to try to interpret this verse. I just want to point out that it refers to the devil as being angry because he knows that his time is short. Now I don’t know if that means he has a few years, a few hundred years or even a few thousand years, but it appears that he has “little time” left to trouble mankind. And that seems to have put him in a foul disposition.

Peter warns us to be sober and vigilant because our adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Although Satan may be a formidable adversary, let’s not forget that he is also defeated. Satan may accuse, but Jesus canceled the record of the charges against us and nailed it to the cross (Col.2:14). That’s good news.

The devil may be angry because he knows his time is short, but as children of God, we can rejoice in the fact that he is eternally defeated. And because of the cross of Jesus Christ, we will spend eternity with God.