Subscribe Daily Bible Study Mailing List Receive Daily Bible Studies directly into your email inbox.
You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
12 Therefore
[dia][touto] rejoice, [euphraino] ye heavens, [ouranos] and [kai] ye that dwell [skenoo] in [en] them. [autos] Woe [ouai] to the inhabiters [katoikeo]
of the earth [ge] and [kai] of the sea [thalassa]! for [hoti] the devil [diabolos] is
come down [katabaino] unto [pros] you, [humas] having [echo] great [megas] wrath, [thumos] because he knoweth [eido]
that [hoti] he hath [echo] but a short [oligos] time. [kairos] KJV-Interlinear
12
"For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the
earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath,
knowing that he has only a short time." NASB
Rejoice, ‘euphraino,’ means
to be glad, very glad, to celebrate, to make merry as in bubbly or bubbling
over with uncontrollable celebration.
Have you ever been to a
sporting event where your favorite team is playing?
The game has been hard
fought, with the score going back and forth, the end always in question. Then
in the last period, with but minutes to go, no time outs left for anyone, your
team scores and goes in to the lead, the clock is ticking and the crowd begins
to swarm down to the sidelines to rush onto the field when the game finally
ends.
The opponent is still
fighting hard in the last few minutes, but to no avail, and everyone in the
stadium now knows the outcome. The celebration begins on the sideline as the
crowd cannot wait of the final signal for the game to be over.
That is the excitement
in this verse. Rejoice, O heavens.
The home team is the
entire universe and all believers and elect angels everywhere and throughout history.
The excitement. The anticipation. All of the joy of being witness to the end of
Satan’s role in history. No other event in history could possibly match this as
Christ begins His final crush of evil and all that goes along with it.
But on the other hand,
there still remains seconds on the clock of history, and Satan knows it. His millennia,
his centuries, his decades, his years, his months, are all but gone, and Satan is
in a full panic.
To win he must kill off
humanity so that there is no one to rescue, no one to go into the Millennium.
Therefore, woe to those
who remain alive in the world, for that last half of the Tribulation will be
like no other time in all of human history.
To witness would bring
tears to your eyes, as God squeezes out the very last person who will believe
and be saved, and as the very last of humanity refuses to believe and brings
upon themselves judgment and total annihilation, at their own hands.
But knowing the end result,
knowing the final score, knowing that your team has now taken the lead and will
hold on to it until the final buzzer, brings an unbelievable anticipation of rejoicing
that you and everyone will be hard presses to control.
This verse portrays the teams
on the field locked in a ferocious battle during the final seconds, with the crowd
on the sidelines shouting, jumping up and down, with a deafening roar of
victory.
Go to bed tonight and
bring this picture, this scene, into your dreams. It is an event that is going
to occur, and you will be there, if you are a believer in Christ, and you will see
it all.