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.