What does it mean that Satan is the accuser?

The prophet Zechariah was looking into heaven in his vision. There the angel of the Lord was, and there also Satan was, pointing in scorn to the little people that God had brought back from Babylon defiled by Gentile manners. And, beloved friends, there is in heaven an accuser of us also, who says things about us that are true. He knows our lives, and he recounts on high our imperfections and failures. Another is there too, One not seen in this vision. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). It is the One who came, the blessed Son of God, to destroy the works of the devil, to oppose and nullify his activities. Hence we need not fear what the accuser may say, true though the charges may be, because there is One there to plead His death and by His gracious power also to cleanse us from that defilement, and so overcome the great accuser.

In verse 1 the angel who talked with Zechariah showed him Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. We have seen that the Angel of the Lord is Christ. Joshua, being high priest, is a type of Christ, but seen here as representing Israel. Therefore he is clothed with filthy garments as taking the responsibility for Israel's sins. Satan, the accuser (as his name means, is no doubt resisting by means of the accusations he can bring because of Israel' s sins. How overwhelming this guilt would naturally be!

Look again at our chapter. Not only was Joshua in the divine presence; Satan was there also, "standing at his right hand to resist him." It was the great adversary objecting to the exercise of divine mercy. Short shrift should we all receive if left to the commissions of Satan. With energy he denounces men before God emphasising their sin and guilt, and protesting against favour being shown to any. There is no more effective minister of righteousness than Satan when it pleases him to play that part.

But what was Satan about? He was doing the work of an adversary to Joshua, who stood there in filthy garments, and of course, through Joshua, opposing Jerusalem and Israel. Now how came Joshua's garments to be filthy? The nation, which as high-priest he represented, had sinned, and he himself, of course, had personally sinned likewise. What answer could he then make to the accusations of Satan? The garments were a proof against him which he could not gainsay. There was no need for any false accusation on the part of the enemy to increase the chance of conviction. Most probably all that Satan said was true; there was no reason, either, for exaggerating one single offence. Neither falsehood nor exaggeration are generally resorted to where the charge is too clear to be refuted. Joshua's garments were enough, and, if all depended on his defence, conviction was certain.

The devil was there in the character of prosecutor. Was it to take God's side against evil, the advocate of offended majesty? Doubtless he had helped on, though he had not begun, the failure of the people. Man yields to him, and then becomes his tool. Satan's activity had surely contributed to the state of those garments. Did he minimise Joshua's guilt? Did he plead any excuse on his behalf? Did he sue for mercy for the sinner? Did he, like the penitent thief, acknowledge his part in what Joshua had done? We are sure he did not. Just as many poor creatures on earth have found, that the one whose tool they had been, and who had urged them on in the course of sin, did not befriend them in their trouble, but the opposite, so Satan was there, not to befriend, but to be the enemy; not to excuse, but to accuse; not to be the advocate for Joshua, but the busy advocate against the one whom, he well knew, could say nothing in vindication of, or even in extenuation of, his conduct.

The casting out of Satan is an event almost second to none in those coming days of stirring interest. The ceaseless activity of “the accuser of our brethren” in denouncing the saints to God, whose ways afford him abundant cause of complaint and ground of accusation, is a solemn feature of what goes on above unseen by mortal eye. Thank God, we have in Christ, the Righteous One, an Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1-2), whose all-powerful intercession, founded on His sacrifice, maintains us ever before God, and renders the charges of the enemy nugatory and powerless. “The accuser of our brethren has been cast out.” Satan is completely vanquished and overthrown in the scene and seat of his power. Never again shall his accusations, just or unjust, be listened to in the court of Heaven.

"And there came war in the heaven: Michael and his angels to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels, and prevailed not; nor was their place found any more in the heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent that is called Devil and Satan, that deceiveth the whole habitable world, was cast unto the earth; and his angels were cast with him. And I heard a great voice in the heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ; because the accuser of our brethren is cast down, that accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and loved not their life unto death. For this be glad, O heavens, and ye that tabernacle in them." It is evident that at this time persons are spoken of as being above who sympathise deeply with their suffering brethren on earth. Such is the incontestable fact. Who are they but those one with Christ, the Male of might? Compare Rev. 13:6. They anticipate from Satan's catastrophe the entire establishment of the kingdom, though three and a half times have yet to pass in fact. Satan has lost that access to the presence of God in the quality of accuser of the brethren which he had previously possessed; nor will he ever regain the highest seat of his power then lost, the pledge of ruin ever more and more irretrievable. He is no longer able to fill heaven with his bitter taunts and accusations of the saints of God. What a blessed change for them! What a relief to those on high!

The point in Satan's work which is referred to here is his being cast down from the heavenlies as "the accuser of our brethren." What are we to understand by this? Is it not true that "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," has access into God's presence to accuse us there? There can be no doubt of this. We see it in Job. "When the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth Thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord." (Job 1:6-12.) We find, also, when Joshua, the high-priest, is seen standing before the angel of the Lord, that Satan is also standing at his right hand. (Zech. 3:1.) In Ephesians we see Satan having access to the heavens, and our fight is described as against principalities and powers, against wicked spirits in heavenly places (see margin 6:12); that is, like as Joshua and the men of Israel fought against those who hindered their full possession and enjoyment of the land that God had given them and brought them into, so our character of conflict is not down here with flesh and blood, but with Satan and his host in the heavenlies, who seek to hinder our enjoyment of that communion with the Father in the holiest of all, which we are brought into, through the riches of Divine grace in Christ, and through His blood. As Satan cannot swallow us up, because our life is hid with Christ in God, he does all that he can to hinder our fellowship with the Father, and to cast us down from the enjoyment of our high calling and standing in Christ: "They only consult to cast him down from his excellency." (Ps. 62.) If we are abiding in Christ, we are impregnable to the devices of Satan. As to his being the accuser of the brethren, our consolation is, that Christ is in heaven as our Advocate, to meet every accusation; so that we need not fear. By the power of angelic agency, Satan and his hosts must yet be cast down; and let us remember, that angels, principalities, and powers are made subject unto Christ. We read that "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels;" but Satan, who is always opposed to the Lord Jesus, will resist, though it will be in vain: "The dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven." The result will be, that Satan's power then will be wholly concentrated on earth; and as I presume that this will occur in "the midst of the week" (see Dan. 9:27), the Man of Sin will be then developed as fully energized by Satanic power, the whole world will be under such a delusion as to wonder after "the beast;" and "the woman," representing those of the Jews who stand out for the true God, will pass through the severest persecution. Hence we read, "The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. … Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." These verses, from the seventh to the twelfth inclusive, are clearly parenthetic, and therefore the sixth verse is taken up again in the fourteenth. The parenthesis seems purposely introduced, to account for the persecution of the woman, and the full development of the abomination which maketh desolate, the third and most dreadful woe to the inhabiters of the earth. We must not overlook, however, in this parenthesis, a loud voice (mark, not voices) which John heard in heaven at this time. It was a voice, saying, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ;" for clearing the heavens of Satan and his angels seems the first act of Christ in power, in relation to the kingdom. We notice that this voice is heard in heaven, and is accompanied with triumph at the casting down of Satan.

In verses 7-12, we are granted a glance behind the scenes of this world. Satan, though a fallen creature, still is permitted access to the presence of God. His casting down to earth, mentioned in Revelation 12, is still future. He is spoken of in that chapter as, "the accuser of our brethren," and that is just what we see him doing here: he does not change. He accused Job of self-seeking in his apparent piety: in other words, that he was in large measure a hypocrite — just what presently we shall find the three friends insinuating. He virtually challenged God to test him by some catastrophe, when Job's skin-deep piety would be broken through, and he would curse the God whom he professed to regard.

In Luke 10:18, the Lord Jesus used the past tense, "I beheld," in announcing prophetically this great event, yet future; just as Daniel said, "I beheld till … the Ancient of days did sit," and other prophets spoke similarly, using the past tense in describing things to come. It is an event of far-reaching import as verse 10 indicates. Heaven sees in it the presage of the complete establishment of the kingdom and power of Christ, and the complete overthrow of the adversary. Moreover it will bring to an end an evil work in which he delights at the present moment; that of accusing the saints before God, as also is illustrated in the first chapter of Job. His work in this is incessant — day and night. Those whom he accused heaven acknowledge as "our brethren." There is no need for saints to accuse each other before God. This is done most efficiently and incessantly by Satan.

Satan, on the other hand, is the accuser of the brethren. He accuses them before God day and night. (Rev. 12:10.) He is the author of divisions between the children of God, by accusing them one to the other. (Rom. 16:17-20.) He would hire Balaam to curse the people of God, and, failing in that, he would use the same prophet to teach Balak to mix them up with the nations around, and partake of their sinful practices. He would excite Jehovah to try Job, speaking bad things of him before Jehovah's face. (Job 1; 2.) He would tempt David to sin in numbering the people of Israel (1 Chron. 21:1), and move Jehovah against Israel to destroy them. (2 Sam. 24:1.) He would resist Joshua the high priest, and seek to prevent his filthy rags being taken from him, and his being clothed in new raiment. (Zech. 3:1.) This is the accuser's wretched work. Those that follow him are called false accusers, slanderers [literally devils, because doing the devil's work]. He whispers in the ear of a minister's wife (1 Tim. 3:11) a false story about some brother or sister in Christ. She spreads it about, and so the evil spreads, which perhaps may end in an assembly being broken up. Some aged sister sits leisurely at home (Titus 2:3), and, not having much to do, is ready to hear stories perhaps from some worldly person about some child of God. She spreads them about to others who come to see her. It is a slander, a lie, and so the devil does his work; and perhaps some child of God gets a wound, or is hindered in the work of the Lord for years.