Satan's Doom
7When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Dig Deeper
I had just graduated from college with a degree in secondary social studies education. Now I had an opportunity to substitute teach in a third grade class for a few days during summer school. In the first few hours, I found that teaching third graders was quite a bit different from teaching high-school-aged kids. Two of the boys in the class asked if they could move their chairs to another location. When I replied, "knock yourselves out," they paused, looked at each other, and then they both quickly took folders, hit themselves in the head and fell down on the floor as if knocked out. This was quite to the amusement of the rest of the class.
John employs the apocryphal form of writing throughout most of the book of Revelation. Apocryphal writing was not uncommon in the first century and it followed a certain set of parameters, which were quite familiar to most first-century Jewish readers. Thus, things like a thousand years would immediately have been understood in apocryphal writings as the symbolic element that it was. It is only in modern times when biblical interpreters insist on taking the words literally even though that is clearly not what the context intended, just like those third graders, that we come up rather fanciful interpretations of Revelation in the last one hundred years. Interpretations that just happen to sell a lot of books and make a lot of money. Yet, as responsible readers, it is far more important to read John's work as it would have been intended not by how we would like to interpret it.
20:7-8 - When the thousand years are over, we can assume that God's Kingdom has reached fully maturity and He is ready, according to his timetable, for Satan to be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations. This is certainly not to imply some universalist belief that all people will be saved, but in a similar manner as when God had the children of Israel wait to possess the promised land until the sin of the Amorites had reached "full measure," so must the final judgment wait until the Kingdom has reached full maturity. Satan will finally gather the nations together for battle, which has, as noted earlier, been his ultimate goal. Satan wishes to bring about the final judgment prematurely, which explains the sudden surge in demonic activity during the ministry of Christ. Satan thought he had brought the battle a head with the Cross, but of course, the plan backfired and the Cross became his ultimate downfall (1 Cor. 2:6-8).
In describing this great "war," John borrows the imagery from Ezekiel 38-39, which is most likely a description of the Maccabees' defeat of the Syrians in the 2nd century BC, not a prophecy of some great end time conflagration. He refers to these ungodly forces as Gog and Magog. Those who view the Revelation from a futurist perspective often speak of this battle as synonymous with Armageddon, yet there is one major problem with that: the so-called battle of Armageddon takes place before the thousand years, while this one takes place after it. In addition, a careful reading of Ezekiel will show that it is not talking about a futuristic battle (The futurists would claim that Ezekiel's description and this battle are both prophecies of the same futuristic battle.) as demonstrated by descriptions of soldiers on horseback, and all the soldiers are carrying swords and wooden shields, clubs, arrows, and spears. Although John borrows the imagery from Ezekiel, they cannot be describing the same event for numerous reasons, only one of which will be mentioned here: In Ezekiel, Gog's troops are defeated in Israel and the people burn their weapons for seven years; in Revelation, Gog and Magog are destroyed by fire from God out of heaven, which would destroy wooden weapons instantly. These forces are in number. . . like the sand on the seashore, yet the Church need not fear. God hasn't allowed these forces to come together to destroy her, rather it is to hand the Church victory in one fell swoop.
20:9-10 - They marched across the breadth of the earth, in language reminiscent of Isaiah's prophecy of the impending Syrian invasion (Isa. 8:8). Yet the land is God's says Isaiah, and He will annihilate the enemy if they trust in Him (Isa. 8:9-10). John now combines imagery of Moses' camp of God's people with David and Solomon's beloved city, as he says, the gathered forces surrounded the camp of God's people, the city He loves. This city is the New Jerusalem, which will be described in 21:9-22:5, which demonstrates an important detail. The "new heaven and new earth," the age to come, exists during the Millennium, which means it is a present and future reality. Christians can access and spread the age to come now, but it will come in its fullness and glory at the Second Coming of Christ. The new creation will exist in its consummate form after the final judgment, but it exists on an individual basis in the present age (2 Cor. 5:17-21) Just as it might appear that Satan has gained a final victory, fire came down from heaven and devoured his forces. The imagery for this comes from Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:25) and the life of Elijah (2 Ki. 1:10, 12). The point is that any and all opposition to the Kingdom of God will be done away with completely.
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the Beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. In trying to describe this horrible final scene, John has once again relied on images based on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:24-25, 28), the destruction of the rebels in Kadesh (Num. 16:31-33), and Isaiah's description of the ruin of Edom (Isa. 34:9-10). Finally, Satan will be thrown into Gehenna, the place that was prepared for him, where he will stay for eternity.
Devotional Thought
God has always loved his "city". Of course, now, that city is the Church. Yet, it is also true that God allows His city to be surrounded by her enemies. When things seem to be going badly for your church or ministry, do you view that as a bad thing, or do you see it as a time when God is allowing the forces to gather so that they might be defeated? The next time that things are seemingly going badly, don't act defeated, look for opportunities to turn that apparent defeat into a glorious victory for God and His Kingdom.
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