Revelation 12:10

Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ have come
An equivalent statement to that which accompanied the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Rev. Rev. 11:15+), but which recognizes the removal of Satan from God’s heaven as a key signal of the beginning of the end. See commentary on Revelation 11:15. The seventh trumpet is yet future to our day and so the kingdom awaits and we continue to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mtt. Mat. 6:10).

How utterly idle is the discoursing of modernists and religious educationalists and social reformers about “the kingdom.” Their talk is full of “the kingdom this” and “the kingdom that”; whereas our Lord Jesus has not yet taken His kingdom. It has not yet been given Him of the Father. We are not living in kingdom days, but in days when Satan is the prince of this world and the god of this age, also, when he is accusing the saints before God. Only those born again ever see the kingdom of God; and “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost”—wholly a separate thing from human arrangements and reforms! is the only form of the kingdom of God now.¹

See The Arrival of God’s Kingdom.

strength . . . and power
Δύναμις [Dynamis] . . . καὶ ἡ ἐξουσία [kai hē exousia] , better rendered power . . . and authority.² Ἐξουσία [Exousia] in this context carries the idea of “Authority, absolute power, warrant . . . authority and commission.”³

His Christ
An intentional allusion to the equivalent phrase from the OT: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed” [emphasis added] (Ps. Ps. 2:2). See commentary on Revelation 11:15.

have come
ἐγένετο [egeneto] , prophetic aorist. The kingdom does not arrive until the events of Revelation Rev. 19:1+. See The Arrival of God’s Kingdom. In the cutting off of Satan’s access to heaven, the kingdom is now so near (Rev. Rev. 12:12+) as to be considered an accomplished fact.

the accuser of the brethren
Ὁ κατήγωρ [Ho katēgōr] , present tense participle, the one presently accusing. Prior to his casting out, Satan was continuously active bringing charges against the elect. The term is used of bringing a legal charge before a judge, as in court.⁴ He goes to and fro between this world and heaven as the “accuser of our brethren” (Rev. Rev. 12:10+). Yet even in his missions of slander and accusation, he is strictly limited (Job Job 1:6-12; Zec. Zec. 3:1-5; Luke Luke 22:31).

Satan (along with the evil angels) has actively opposed both the holy angels and God’s people since his fall. In the Old Testament, demons sought to hinder the ministry of the holy angels to Israel (cf. Dan. Dan. 10:12-13). In the present age, Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1Pe. 1Pe. 5:8), opposes the spread of the gospel (Mtt. Mat. 13:19, Mat. 13:37-39; Acts Acts 13:10), oppresses individuals (Luke Luke 13:10-16; Acts Acts 10:38), and uses sin to disrupt and pollute the church (Acts Acts 5:1-11). Believers are to be wary of his schemes (2Cor. 2Cor. 2:11), give him no opportunity (Eph. Eph. 4:27), and resist him (Jas. Jas. 4:7).⁵

day and night
This phrase emphasizes the ongoing nature of his activity (Rev. Rev. 4:8+; Rev. 7:15+; Rev. 14:11+; Rev. 20:10+; Rev. 21:25+).

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Notes

¹ William R. Newell, Revelation: Chapter by Chapter (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1994,c1935), Rev. 12:10.

² NASB.

³ Frederick William Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 278.

⁴ Ibid., 423.

⁵ John MacArthur, Revelation 12-22 : The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 2000), Rev. 12:7.