And I saw an angel descending from the heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand.
The beast and the false prophet have met their judgment, but the spirit who drove them is still at large. Revelation 20 opens with an angel coming down from heaven, and it answers one question: what will God do with the source of the world's evil?
The chapter break is not a change of subject. The vision now turns to the power behind those leaders.
We have seen Satan's two chief ministers — the leaders of the armies on earth that opposed the Lamb and His saints — thrown alive into the lake of fire in disgrace, with their armies destroyed after them. So we ask: what about the unseen spiritual being who goaded his agents and their followers and lured them on to destruction? Does he escape? No! Summary judgment overtakes him as it did them. Christ deals with them on earth; God judges the devil from on high.
The angel carries two things, and each has its own job in what follows.
This angel, in the prophetic vision, has the key of the abyss and a great chain hanging on his hand (verse 1). He takes hold of "the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan," the well-known enemy of God and man. Then comes the use of the key and the chain: the key to shut him up, the chain to bind him fast. These are figures, of course, but they are familiar to the simplest mind. However little a person may know about other things, no one need misunderstand what they mean.
That the picture is symbolic does not make it vague.
No doubt the key of the bottomless pit, and the great chain in the angel's hand, and the binding of Satan, and the setting of a seal upon him, are all figures. But what are they figures of? Does being figurative make them meaningless, or their sense vague? They teach one plain thing: God will hold Satan down by force, in his own abyss, for a thousand years.
Where does the angel put Satan, and is it his final punishment?
The "great chain" needed to bind him is in the angel's hand. This is symbolic language again, for no literal chain could bind a spirit being. The "bottomless pit" is not the lake of fire. It is the dungeon that holds him while the millennial age runs its course.
The key also says something about who rules that region.
The figures of the key and chain show that God is supreme even over the satanic region of the abyss. So, working through an angel, He locks Satan up (the key) and binds him fast (the chain) in the abyss for a thousand years. His liberty is cut short and his sphere of operation narrowed.
The One who appeared in glory at the end of the previous chapter does not do this Himself.
Note that the One who sat on the horse does not bind Satan; an angel comes down from heaven instead. This is not Christ's own direct judgment on Satan. It is the divine power, providence and intervention of God that sets Satan aside and stops him from deceiving the Gentiles any further, until he is let loose.
How this angel is described matters, and so does what happens when the thousand years end.
Compare Revelation 20:1, and I think you will see the complete difference in this angel. He comes down from heaven — he has not "fallen." He comes to bind the devil in the prison of the bottomless pit. A thousand years later, after a brief interval of terrible activity, the devil meets his judgment in the lake of fire.
With Satan bound, a new age begins.
Now we have the binding of Satan. Victory is complete! The hidden source of all the evil is bound in the abyss for a thousand years. The blessed Lord takes the kingdom. "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." (Rev. 11:15.) This is the millennium — Christ openly, visibly governing, and Satan bound. These are the two grand features of that blessed period.
Yet removing the tempter does not change the human heart.
While the Lord is there, evil will be held down; no leader will rise to head up man's evil. But the moment Satan is allowed out of his place and uses his power again, we have plain proof that man's heart has not changed.
- Source. Christ judged the beast and false prophet on earth; God judges from heaven the unseen being who drove them. No one escapes.
- Seized. The key shuts him in and the chain binds him fast. Both are figures of one definite thing: restraint by force.
- Shut. The abyss is a dungeon, not the lake of fire. God holds the key to Satan's own region, which proves He is supreme over it.
- Sent. An angel does the work, not the Rider on the white horse — God acting by providence, not by Christ's own hand.
- Shown. Restraint is not conversion. A thousand years without the tempter still ends by exposing the unchanged human heart.
And he laid hold of the dragon, the ancient serpent who is [the] devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Revelation 20 opens with the arrest of the enemy who has troubled the world since Eden, and one angel does it with a key and a chain. The verse piles four names on him and fixes his term, which raises the questions readers still ask: what do the names mean, is the chain real, and has this binding already happened?
Each title in the verse points to a different part of his work, and together they cover his whole record.
He is called the Dragon, because of his terrible power. He is called Satan, because he is man's enemy. He is called Devil, because he is the great accuser. He is called old Serpent, because he had been the seducer from the beginning. His power is very great. So he is called the prince of this world, and Scripture says he goes about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
The names also settle a question: is this a force, or a person?
He is called here the dragon, but also the old serpent. He was the source of all the evil and sorrow at the beginning of man's life on earth (Genesis 3). Every name that Scripture gives him elsewhere is brought together here, so that no one could mistake that he is a real person.
The chain, the key and the seal are pictures. Commentators grant that, then press the next question.
People say that this is figurative language, and we grant at once that it is. No doubt the key of the bottomless pit, the great chain in the angel's hand, the binding of Satan and the seal set on him are all figures. But what are they figures of? Are they words without meaning, just because they are figures? Or must their meaning stay uncertain and vague? They teach us this much: Satan will be restrained by force, in his own abyss, for a thousand years.
Two details need care: the chain, and the place he is sent.
The "great chain" necessary to bind him is in the angel's hand — symbolic language again, for no literal chain could bind a spirit being. The "bottomless pit" is not the lake of fire. It is the dungeon that holds him while the thousand-year age runs its course.
Some read this binding as already in force. The New Testament letters settle it.
It is certain from God's word that Satan is not yet shut up. On the contrary, he goes about now seeking to deceive and to destroy souls... I am not going to discuss whether the thousand years are to be taken literally or symbolically. But beyond a doubt the period has a beginning and an end, and it cannot have begun yet, because Satan is not bound. The New Testament letters assume that Satan still carries on his schemes. He hinders the work of God. He has to be resisted. He goes about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So there must be a vast change when the time comes for his restraint.
Why bind him at this moment? The answer is a matter of rights.
Until now God has left him at large; and such is the power he has gained by his lies over the hearts of men that he is called the prince and the god of this world. But now that the true Prince is come, and God claims His rights as the Creator and Governor of mankind, Satan must be bound. If the true wife is to be acknowledged, the harlot must be judged; if the true Prince is to be acknowledged, the usurper must be put aside.
The key and the chain show who really controls the abyss. This binding is also one stage in a longer story.
The figures of the key and chain surely show that God is supreme even over the satanic region of the abyss... Until the fall (Genesis 3) Satan's place was on high. When sin entered the world, the heavens and earth became the wider field of his work. After his expulsion from the heavenly places, the earth and the abyss are in a way given over to him. Now he is shut up in the abyss, held there during the thousand-year reign. Then for a short time he is once more allowed to work his will on the earth... at last he is cast into the lake of fire for ever and ever.
- Named — dragon for his power, Satan for his enmity to man, Devil for his accusing, old serpent for his seducing from the start. The verse gathers every title Scripture gives him, so no reader can mistake who he is.
- Seized — the key and chain are figures, but figures of something definite. One angel restrains him by force, in his own abyss, for a thousand years.
- Shut — the bottomless pit is a dungeon, not the lake of fire. This is his prison, not yet his final sentence.
- Still loose — the New Testament letters assume an enemy at large today. So this binding is still future, and the thousand years have not begun.
- Set aside — when the true Prince takes His rights, the usurper must go. His ground shrinks from heaven, to earth, to the pit, and at last to the lake of fire.
and cast him into the abyss, and shut [it] and sealed [it] over him, that he should not any more deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be loosed for a little time.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And I saw thrones; and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them; and the souls of those beheaded on account of the testimony of Jesus, and on account of the word of God; and those who had not done homage to the beast nor to his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and hand; and they lived and reigned with the Christ a thousand years
Revelation 20 opens with Satan bound, and John's eye then moves up to a row of thrones with people seated on them. Who sits there, what does it mean that judgment was given to them, and how do the beheaded souls come to life?
An earlier vision, given to the prophet Daniel, left something unfinished. John's sight of the thrones fills it in.
Next John sees thrones. "Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed." Daniel also saw thrones tied to the judgment of the beast, but his vision says nothing about who sat on them. Here we have the full revelation, and it states several times that Christ and His saints will reign for a thousand years. The new age begins: the personal reign of Christ, when all things are put under His feet and all His redeemed people share in it. Six times this chapter speaks of the thousand years. Because this coming age lasts a thousand years, it has been called by the Latin word "millennium."
The text never names the ones on the thrones. Commentators say the pronoun points to a group already familiar from earlier chapters, and that a narrow reading leaves a huge company of the redeemed with no place in the reign.
The "they" clearly refers to a well-known class. More than once we have already seen the redeemed in Heaven, pictured by the twenty-four elders, taking part in the scenes of chapters 4 to 19. They are all the Old Testament and New Testament believers, raised or changed when the Lord comes into the air (1 Thess. 4:15-17). This is a far larger group than the martyrs, so there is nowhere to place them in the reign except inside the two plural pronouns they and them. It would be very strange for the martyrs to reign while those same saints in Heaven, "made kings and priests to God," were left out.
Judgment changes form at this point in the book. The thrones show what it becomes.
The thrones can now be filled for judgment. Before, judgment came in the way of war; now it is the seat of right... But now there are people sitting on the thrones. Among them are two classes who might have seemed to have no place there — the witnesses killed for their testimony, and those who would neither worship the beast nor acknowledge him. All reigned with Christ a thousand years.
John also sees souls. They form two groups, and their place in the reign answers a cry raised earlier in the book.
Then come the souls of those beheaded because of the witness of Jesus and the word of God. These are the martyrs of Rev. 6:9-11, seen long before under the altar... They had cried to the Sovereign ruler to avenge their blood on their enemies. He told them to wait a little, until others, their fellow-servants and their brothers, were killed as they were. So here we have them all. Another company of faithful men is added: those who suffered when the Beast made his worst and final claims... We can see why these two groups of saints are singled out. They suffered after the rapture to heaven. They did not live for the power and glory of the kingdom. But if they died for Christ, God makes sure they do not lose the first resurrection but share in it.
The term is broader than the English suggests.
In Rev. 20:4, those "beheaded" for the witness of Jesus may be killed in other ways, because the Greek word pelekizo means "to cut with an axe," and has no particular reference to the head.
A single verb decides what happens to the two later groups.
These were not yet raised from the dead. They were still in the condition of separate spirits. And there was a third class — people who had not worshipped the beast, nor accepted his claims in any form or degree... "They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." That is, they were reunited to their bodies. That is what coming to life means here.
Not everyone has taken this resurrection literally.
It is remarkable that some have thought the "first resurrection" is only a resurrection of principles. But we read of "souls" that death had separated from their bodies, and then we read of them living again and reigning with Christ a thousand years. There can be no doubt left in the mind that they are persons.
- Thrones filled. Daniel saw thrones set in place but no one seated. John sees them filled, and the thousand-year reign of Christ with His redeemed begins.
- Judgment given. War gives way to settled rule, and those seated on the thrones receive the authority to judge.
- Three companies. The saints already in heaven, the martyrs of Revelation 6, and those who refused the beast's mark all share the same reign.
- Nothing lost. Those killed after the earlier saints were taken up seemed to have missed the kingdom. God raises them so they lose nothing.
- Really raised. Coming to life means souls reunited with their bodies. Commentators call this a resurrection of persons, not of principles.
the rest of the dead did not live till the thousand years had been completed. This [is] the first resurrection.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Blessed and holy he who has part in the first resurrection over these the second death has no power; but they shall be priests of God and of the Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
The vision pauses to bless everyone who shares in the first resurrection. Three things follow: no second death, priesthood, and a thousand-year reign with Christ — but who is included, and does this raise real bodies?
The two words are not repetition. One describes the state such people are in, the other describes what they are like.
Everyone who has part in the first resurrection is pronounced "blessed and holy." It is a matter of individual blessedness. The first term describes his happy condition; the second his character. Happiness and holiness are inseparably linked, and must never be separated.
Some read this chapter as a picture of ideas or influences coming back to life rather than people. The verse itself answers that.
Here we have the display of the first resurrection — the main subject. Blessed and holy are they! They shall be priests of God and of Christ; that is their highest place, as seen in this book. And they shall reign with Him a thousand years, for He is a priest on His throne. It would be hard to make priests of principles, though, by a figure, we might say principles reign.
The company is far wider than the martyrs just described in the vision.
The "first resurrection" is a literal resurrection of all the dead in Christ from the foundation of the world. One group, which might seem not to belong to it, is named on its own, because it alone needs this. The first resurrection is "first" only in contrast with the resurrection of the wicked. It has different stages indeed, but only one character.
The stages are spread across time.
The first resurrection does not mean that all who have part in it are raised at the same moment. Christ's resurrection was the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:23). Then follows the resurrection of Old Testament saints, and of those who have fallen asleep during the present period, at the time of the rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Finally, at the appearing of Christ, comes the resurrection of the saints who have died or suffered martyrdom during the period between the rapture and the appearing.
The second death is the exact opposite of the first resurrection. What one group escapes, the other must face.
"Over such the second death has no power." Notice again the force of the Lord's words in the gospel: "they cannot die anymore." Those left to be raised after the thousand years are over must die another and most dreadful death — the second death. By it all those who had no part in the first resurrection are to die. Theirs will be the second death. It means the end of all hope of blessing, while everything else in heaven and earth is blessed. They remain forever under the wrath of God. They are cast into the lake of fire. As for those who have part in the first resurrection, "they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years." And afterwards they will reign in life by Him forever and ever.
Priesthood here has two sides. It means nearness to God, and it carries a royal dignity.
Both the holy and the royal character of priesthood will then be in fullest exercise, without ceasing and without hindrance. As His priests we shall have continual access into God's presence. And with Christ we shall display, in its blessed fullness, the royal excellence of Him whom our souls delight to honour.
That title is not held back until the resurrection. It belongs to believers now.
No doubt their title will be fully owned there. They are to be priests of God and of Christ in the resurrection (Revelation 20:6). But do we not have the very same title now from God? (Revelation 1:6). Why then not believe it?
The thousand years are a reward, and a reward must belong to a person.
The reign of a thousand years is a reward. People sometimes say that it is principles that shall reign, that it is a question of a resurrection of principles. But it is written "they shall reign" (Revelation 5:10; 20:6); and I cannot confuse principles with persons. If we suffer, we shall reign. We are not principles.
- Blessed — the first word describes their happy condition. The second, "holy," describes their character. The two are never separated.
- Persons — those raised are people, not principles or influences. You cannot make principles priests, and principles do not suffer.
- Safe — the second death, the lake of fire, has no claim over them. They cannot die anymore. Those raised later must face it.
- Priests — nearness to God and royal dignity come into full exercise then. But the title belongs to every believer now.
- Reigning — the thousand years reward those who suffered. Afterwards the same people reign in life forever.
And when the thousand years have been completed, Satan shall be loosed from his prison,
Revelation 20 has just shown a thousand years of peace under the reign of Christ, with the great enemy sealed in the abyss — the pit this verse calls his prison. Verse 7 opens it — so why would God release the one He had locked away?
This is not a stray event. One writer, using the older wording of verse 3, lists what must happen first.
"After these things he must be loosed for a little time." A group of connected events comes before the loosing of Satan. "After these things" refers to more than the imprisonment in the abyss. He is "loosed for a little time" only after a long list of events: the destruction of Babylon, the marriage of the Lamb, the war on earth, and the complete rout and destruction of the Beast, the False Prophet and their armies. His release also follows the binding of the dragon, the sealing of the abyss, and Satan's long captivity of a thousand years. There are two brief periods in the coming crisis connected with the career of Satan, in both of which he shows unusual activity. First, from his expulsion from Heaven until he is chained in the abyss; second, from his release out of the abyss until he is cast into the lake of fire.
Many assume that once a golden age arrives, history is settled for good. This verse says otherwise.
The thought in the minds of many is that if the millennium came in, then of course everything would be fixed and settled for ever. But it is not so. There is a fixed and limited period during which the blessed Son of Man will have His mediatorial reign over the earth. But it comes to a close. When it ends, the first thing we find is this: Satan is loosed out of his prison.
The release serves a purpose. It puts the human heart to one last test.
When the thousand years are finished, Satan is let loose again. He comes up on the earth, but he never gets up to heaven again. But the nations are tested by his temptation. No mere means can make the heart of man dependable — not even seeing Christ and enjoying the fruits of His glory. Men fall into Satan's hands as soon as they are tempted, in number as the sand of the sea. They enjoyed blessing while unfaithfulness would have cost them at once, and nothing tempted them. They prove unfaithful as soon as they are tempted, as soon as the heart is tried. It was the last and needed trial of man; needed because they could not have finally enjoyed God with natural hearts.
Perfect government is not the same thing as a changed heart.
Even the age of visible glory cannot change the heart of man. With the enemy gone and the great King present and in control, people obeyed for a long while — but the obedience was pretended. The kingdom can govern and bless but not convert man. Even the preaching of the grace of God is powerless unless the life-giving power of His own Spirit brings it home. In short, nothing is enough — no testimony, no work, power, or glory — without the word of God applied by the Spirit of God. But this shows something important: the true nature of the kingdom, or millennial reign. "That day" does not mean a time when everybody will be converted, but when the Lord Jesus will govern righteously.
If the reign was so good, who is left for Satan to deceive? Two groups obeyed without ever being born of God.
There will be great numbers at the end of the millennial reign who are not born of God. Some will have entered the Millennium unconverted. Psalm 18:43-45 speaks of strangers cringing before Messiah, obeying Him out of fear, not faith. Great numbers born during that time will also refuse to bow the heart to the Lord Jesus. They will submit outwardly, because circumstances of every kind will be pleasant and favourable. The loosing of Satan at the end will serve to make clear what is really in their hearts.
The names for this enemy change as his story moves. Verse 7 calls him Satan.
The dragon was first cast out of Heaven, then shut up in the abyss, and now cast into the lake of fire. As the dragon he is shut up, as Satan he is loosed, and as the devil he is cast into the lake of fire.
- Bound — the thousand years were a real imprisonment in a sealed abyss. The verse marks the end of the term, not an escape.
- Loosed — the release is God's doing, and it is short. It is the second and last burst of this enemy's freedom.
- Tested — one last trial of hearts that had every advantage: a visible King, pleasant circumstances, and no tempter.
- Revealed — good government can hide an unchanged heart. The kingdom can govern and bless, but it cannot convert.
- Judged — the dragon was shut in the abyss; the devil ends in the lake of fire. Only new birth, not perfect conditions, secures anyone for God.
and shall go out to deceive the nations which [are] in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war, whose number [is] as the sand of the sea.
A thousand years of Christ's rule over the earth have just ended, and God lets the imprisoned enemy out again. His first move is not war but deception, and the crowd that answers him is beyond counting.
Many readers tie this scene to the invasion Ezekiel describes. Commentators warn against that. They point to differences in timing, in the nations involved, and in how it ends.
In Revelation 20:8 we also read of Gog and Magog attacking "the camp of the saints and the beloved city," Jerusalem. But do not confuse this with the prophecy in Ezekiel. Here they come out of "the four corners of the earth," and the two battles happen at different times. In Ezekiel the attack comes before Israel is settled in the land for good, as the context shows. In Revelation it comes after the thousand years... The names in Ezekiel are surely in view here. "Gog and Magog" are symbolic names, used for all the proud and powerful armies of the time after the thousand years. Satan will gather them from every quarter to attack the kingdom of the Lord Jesus as set up on earth, but fire from heaven will devour them. When Satan is loosed, he still cannot raise up an empire against the Lord.
"The four corners of the earth" shows how wide this last gathering spreads. It also shows how little effort it costs the deceiver.
Those armies before the thousand years came only from Russia and nearby Eastern countries. But here they come from "the four corners of the earth." From east, west, north, and south, Satan brings against Palestine everyone who is set against the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again he manages with ease to "deceive the nations." It is his old trade. He was a deceiver from the beginning, and he carries his character right on to the close.
If Christ has reigned for a thousand years, where do such armies come from? One writer points to two causes: obedience that was only pretended, and a population that kept growing.
God's judgments will greatly thin out the peoples of the earth. Large numbers will be saved. But many will give only pretended obedience to the King who reigns over the earth. It is not the obedience of faith. It is forced submission under the iron rod, obedience squeezed out of them by fear... One more thing fully explains the countless crowds Satan gathers from all parts of the earth. Death, even among the unsaved, will be the exception and not the rule. Besides this, the earth will go on being filled with people as before.
The verse pairs a freed tempter with a willing audience. One writer weighs what the thousand years changed in each.
Such is man, and such is Satan. A thousand years shut up in the bottomless pit have not changed the character of the deceiver. A thousand years of blessing under Christ's rule have not changed the nature that greedily listens to the deceiver's voice.
Why does God let Satan out at all? One commentator calls it a test that had never yet been run: a test of hearts that had only ever known blessing for staying loyal.
His temptation puts the nations to the test. They had seen Christ and enjoyed the fruits of His glory, and even that was not enough. No outward means can make the heart of man safe, if that heart is to be trusted. Men fall into Satan's hands as soon as they are tempted, and their number is like the sand of the sea... This was the last trial of man, and it was needed. It was needed because they could never have enjoyed God at last with natural hearts. And the natural heart had never been tested in a place where owning a present, visible, glorious Christ brought blessing right away.
The collapse at the end says something about the reign that came before it.
Even an age of visible glory cannot change the heart of man. With the enemy shut away and the great King holding everything in check, people gave a pretended obedience for a long time. The kingdom can govern and bless but not convert man. Even the preaching of the grace of God has no power unless His own Spirit brings it home with life-giving force... "That day" does not mean a time when everyone will be converted. It means a time when the Lord Jesus will rule in righteousness.
- Loosed — God lets Satan out after the thousand years. He comes out as he went in. Prison reformed nothing in him.
- Deceived — deception is his old trade, carried "right on to the close." Nations from every corner of the earth fall for it at once.
- Gathered — the huge numbers come from pretended obedience and from generations born during the reign, not from any failure in it.
- Exposed — commentators call this a needed trial. Hearts that had never been tempted are tested at last, and man's true nature shows.
- Named — "Gog and Magog" is a symbolic name borrowed from Ezekiel's earlier invasion. It is not the same battle. The two differ in time, in the nations, and in how they end: here fire from heaven devours the attackers.
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city and fire came down [from God] out of the heaven and devoured them.
A thousand years of Christ's righteous reign do not end with the whole world loving Him. They end in revolt. An army marches on Jerusalem from every corner of the earth. So after such blessing, why do men still hate God? And who are the "saints" whose camp they surround?
The attackers carry names from an older prophecy. But the two events are not one event told twice.
In Revelation 20:8 we also read of Gog and Magog attacking "the camp of the saints and the beloved city," Jerusalem; but do not confuse this with the prophecy in Ezekiel. Here they come out of "the four corners of the earth," and the two battles do not happen at the same time. In Ezekiel the attack comes before Israel is settled in the land for good, as the context shows. In Revelation it comes after the thousand years of the millennium, and the final overthrow of God's enemies, led on by Satan, follows it. "Gog and Magog" are symbolic names for all the proud and powerful hordes of the time after the millennium. Their number is "as the sand of the sea." Satan will collect them from all quarters to attack the kingdom of the Lord Jesus as set up on earth.
The rebels come from everywhere, and they all move toward one place.
They crowd and cover the earth in its entirety. They come from north, south, east, and west. They gather under one leader, swayed by one deadly impulse of hatred, and to one centre. The nations have lived for one thousand years under Christ's good rule. Satan has been restrained for one thousand years, his freedom cut short. Yet the nations make the mad attempt to crush the camp of the saints and to destroy the beloved city, Jerusalem. The nations converge upon Jerusalem. Christ does not intervene. It is a matter for God to take up… All is silent in the camp and city. The apostate nations march into the jaws of death.
One commentator names both groups, and points to how sharply the two sides now stand apart.
The beloved city is Jerusalem; the camp of the saints is a larger circle and includes all of Israel and those Gentiles who, being converted, refuse Satan's deceit. They flocked to that centre. This is a clear contrast with the state pictured in the field of wheat and weeds in Christendom at the end of this age. Wheat and weeds grow together until judgment separates them. At the end of the millennium the righteous and the wicked form two clearly separate groups. … But the good and bad were not mixed together as they are now.
Commentators differ on who the camp is.
While Satan was restrained, the evil was there, but held down and hidden. He gives it energy and daring. The beloved city is of course the earthly Jerusalem. The "camp of the saints" seems to be the camp of the heavenly saints, who are the Lord's host around it. The city of course cannot be taken. The rebels are caught in open hostility to God and His people, and judgment is swift and complete: "fire came down from heaven and consumed them." The wicked are wiped off the earth.
The answer looks back over every earlier test of man.
Here we are taken to the end of the reign of Christ to learn that the flesh never alters. Before the flood men filled the earth with violence and corruption. Under law, man broke God's commands and fell into idolatry. Under grace, men reject God's offer of salvation completely, and Christendom falls away from the faith. It has been well said, "Such is man, and such is Satan. A thousand years' confinement in the bottomless pit has not changed the character of the deceiver. A thousand years' blessedness under Christ's rule has not changed the nature which greedily listens to the deceiver's voice."
This lands on a common assumption about human improvement.
All human theories about better surroundings changing man will be proved false. In Eden, in the best possible circumstances and conditions, man failed: so it will be under the favoured conditions of the millennium.
No battle is fought. God ends the siege Himself.
They surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but not a sword is drawn nor a gun fired. God acts in His own sovereign rights as God, and fire comes down from heaven and devours them. This is Satan's third battle with God — first at Calvary's cross, then in the second heaven, and finally at the beloved city Jerusalem; but all in vain. In this last scene we see his power utterly crushed and broken.
- Restrained — Satan is bound and Christ reigns for a thousand years. The evil does not die. It only hides.
- Released — set free, Satan finds a nature that still listens to him. Gog and Magog are symbolic names, not Ezekiel's invasion repeated.
- Revolt — the rebels come from all four quarters to one target: the earthly Jerusalem and the saints camped around it.
- Refuted — better surroundings do not improve man. He failed in Eden, and he fails again under Christ's own reign.
- Ruin — no battle is fought. Fire from heaven ends the revolt, Satan's power is broken, and the earth is cleared of the wicked.
And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where [are] both the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for the ages of ages.
Satan's doom was fixed on the first pages of the Bible. It falls here, after the thousand years. The verse settles what happens to the devil, what the lake of fire is, and how long "for ever and ever" lasts.
Satan's turn comes last, when no sinner is left on earth. His sentence, though, is very old.
For the first time in the history of the race (from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20) we have an earth without a single sinner on its surface. Satan now has to be dealt with. He is allowed to see the end of all his heartless scheming. He is foiled and defeated. His doom was fixed seven thousand years before it was carried out (Genesis 3:15). His head is bruised by the woman's seed.
He does not fall in one stroke. Scripture traces a descent, and his name changes at each stage.
The dragon was first cast out of heaven, then shut up in the abyss, and now cast into the lake of fire. As the dragon he is shut up; as Satan he is loosed; and as the devil he is cast into the lake of fire. Satan, which means adversary, is the open and declared enemy of God, of Christ, of the saints, of Israel… But as the devil, the deceiver and tempter of men, he is cast into everlasting torment.
Why did Satan's final judgment wait a thousand years after the beast and the false prophet went in? One writer answers.
It was the shining out of His coming that destroyed the beast and the false prophet. They were taken and both cast alive into the lake of fire… But it was not yet the time for the last and most terrible judgment of Satan. God's testing of the world was not quite over.
The beast and the false prophet went in a thousand years earlier. One writer weighs the wording used of them now.
Into it the beast and the false prophet were cast as the millennial age began, and now at the end of that age we read that there they still "are," and not that they were. The fire had not destroyed them.
Translations differ here: some read "are," while the ESV reads "were." One writer presses what the passage proves either way.
Two human beings were cast alive into the lake of fire a thousand years before. At the close of this long period they are found there, still in existence! How clear it is that this fire is not like material fire, but something completely different! What can remain a thousand years in the lake of fire unconsumed may remain, as far as one can see, forever. Some object that no verb stands here: the sentence reads simply, "where the beast and the false prophet." Fill the gap with "were cast," they say, and it tells us nothing about how long they stay. But what of the closing words? "They" — the word is plural — "will be tormented day and night forever and ever."
Some say the phrase only means "as long as this world lasts." One writer answers from where the verse stands in the story.
Here that meaning is impossible. At this very time the world comes to an end… These words stand at the door of a boundless eternity. No measuring line of dates and periods reaches across it. In that eternity Scripture declares that God, who exists of Himself, lives "for ever and ever." In that eternity Scripture says the torment of the lost lasts "for ever and ever." Those saved by grace should not argue back against God. We should bow our heads in silence before this mystery we cannot fathom, and adore the goodness that has delivered us by such a ransom from so fearful a doom.
Commentators differ on how literally to read the fire. One describes a real place with fixed limits.
Somewhere in the universe of God there will be a restricted area ("a lake"). Evil will be confined and punished there for ever. No sinning can go on there, though hatred of heart towards God and His Son must remain. Neither new birth nor repentance is possible in hell.
Another writer asks what fire could do to a being with no body:
We know fire well and what it does to material objects; but as far as we know, it has no effect on spiritual beings. So we judge the phrase to be symbolic, like so much else in this book. Yet it stands as the symbol of God's burning displeasure, His scorching judgment.
- Sentenced — his doom, fixed in Genesis 3:15, falls here; the serpent's head is bruised at last.
- Staged — cast out of heaven, then shut in the abyss, then cast into the lake of fire: three descending steps, not one.
- Still there — the beast and false prophet went in a thousand years earlier and are there yet. The fire consumed nothing.
- Settled — "for ever and ever" falls as the world ends. No age is left to limit it. Scripture uses the same phrase of God's own life.
- Adore — do not argue back against God. Bow, and worship the goodness that ransomed us from that doom.