Ever since the fall, heaven had longed for this moment. It had lived in hope of this victory, Satan’s kingdom could not be allowed to continue forever. That would argue God’s inability to overcome the devil, and would indicate a stalemate between God and the devil. Evil cannot live side by side with good. And yet this moment of triumph has been long delayed. How many painful experiences the saints have had to pass through! How many times they have come close to despairing! ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ (Revelation 6:10). They were able to wait only because God told them there would be a delay. Yet throughout time God continued to be utterly opposed to the devil. There was no rapprochement, no accommodation by the Lord to the powers of darkness. Not for a moment did God lose his utter detestation of the devil and all his ways or depart from any of his perfect standards of holiness. The delay did not come because God was weak. It came because God chose to allow evil to come to a head and to show the full horror of what it is capable of. It came also because God has another programme in operation – the calling of his elect out of the world, those whom he has chosen from before the foundation of the world. Until the last of these is called out, he delays his destruction of the kingdom of darkness. But now there is no more delay.