01.20. CHAPTER 20.
CHAPTER 20.
Revelation 20:1-3. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit [abyss] and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil [false accuser], and Satan [adversary], and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon [over] him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” An angel had been sent to John in Patmos, to show unto him, by signs or symbols, things which were to come to pass hereafter; and the beloved disciple has written those visions and foreshadowings of future things for our instruction.
He sees an angel lay hold on the dragon, the old serpent, who has deceived the world for six thousand years, and put him under restraint for a period of one thousand years, having his place in the bottomless pit, shut up and sealed. Satan’s power for a time will be at an end, in all its varied branches and ramifications, —this is implied by the variety of titles given to him. “The Dragon” is a name that describes him as the fierce, persecuting enemy of God’s people. “That old Serpent;” by this title we are reminded of the scene of temptation in the Garden of Eden, as recorded in Genesis; it shows him as grown old and experienced in his deceptive wiles. “The Devil, “Diabolus, the accuser of God’s saints before Him, and “Satan, “the adversary of the people of God. Henceforth there will be no more persecution, no more temptation, no more accusation, and no more evil done by him to the saints for one thousand years. It is sometimes said that the wickedness we see in the world is occasioned by priestcraft, kingcraft, false teaching, &c.; but God will try man under the best of governments, that of Messiah, taking away all the adverse circumstances which would lead man into sin, leaving him entirely unfettered, in order to prove whether, under the most favourable auspices, he will turn to God; or whether, as Scripture asserts, “the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63), and that “every man at his best estate is altogether vanity” (Psalms 39:5), and that “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7).
We have no evidence of death during that period, excepting as we find it written in Isaiah 65:20 : “The child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.” That is, if sin is committed, judgment will be speedily executed, but the offender, though a hundred years of age, will be considered only as a child, because of the Millennial length of days. And when the thousand years is ended, after man has been tried with every advantage in his favour, Satan must be loosed for a season, to see if man is prepared to admit the authority of God.
Revelation 20:4-5. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which [those which] had not worshipped the beast [wild beast], neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in [and upon] their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”
“I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.” In Revelation 19:14 we have seen the saints of the heavenlies following the King of kings on His white horse; when He comes for the execution of righteous judgment they also are conformed to Him, sitting on white horses, and clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
So, when He sits on the throne of His glory, they also share the kingdom with Him, for it is a faithful saying, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:12; Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:27). These seen sitting on thrones are the dead in Christ who rise first, including all who have died in the faith of Christ, from Abel downward, and also those living and remaining ones who are changed and caught up to meet Him when He comes, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17.
“I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, “&c.
There are three classes who share in the first resurrection. First, “they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23). The second class are those who are slain for their positive resistance to the claims of Antichrist, and who are spoken of in Revelation 6:9-11 as the souls under the altar (and as the man child of Revelation 12:5), who are told to wait till their companions also had been slain. The third class are those who are subsequently slain for their passive resistance, who would not receive the mark of the beast or the number of his name: the companions mentioned in Revelation 6:11, and the remnant of the woman’s seed in Revelation 12:17, who together appear as the innumerable multitude of Revelation 7:9. These are first described as “souls, “but it is added they “lived;” this expression, according to Revelation 20:5, implies and signifies their resurrection. This is the first resurrection—the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14); the resurrection of life (John 5:29).
These three classes, though not all raised at the same time, all have part in the first resurrection; they live and reign with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead live not again—that is, they are not raised until after the thousand years are completed, when they rise to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29) and stand before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11-13). The secret of the first resurrection is referred to in Psalms 49:13-15.
Revelation 20:6. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such [over these] the second death hath no power [authority], but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” In Luke 20:35-36, the words of the Lord Jesus are: “They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world [orage] and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” They are both priests and kings, sharing in the Melchisedec reign and priesthood of the Lord Jesus. “Priests of God, “as ministering to Him in the priests’ office in the heavenly sanctuary; “and of Christ, “as under Him, the great High Priest; “and shall reign with Him, “sharing His kingdom. This is the privilege of all the risen saints, whether of the dead in Christ who rise first, of those who are raised or changed at the coming of the Lord Jesus for His Church, or of those who come out of the great tribulation.
Revelation 20:7-9. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters [corners] of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
What a wonderful light these few verses throw on the thirty- eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel! After Israel had been gathered from all nations and restored to their own land, dwelling safely and confidently for a thousand years, during which period the glory of God had been manifested to all, and the knowledge of Jehovah had covered the earth as the waters cover the sea, and nation had not lifted up sword against nation nor had been instructed in the arts of war, at the close of this Millennial period, Satan having been again let loose, deceives the nations that are in the utmost parts of the earth, and instigates them to come up against the land of Israel “to take a spoil ... to take a prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil” (see Ezekiel 38:8-13). He it is who puts it into their mind “to think an evil thought, “or “devise an evil device, “and to say, “I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely” (Ezekiel 38:10-11). The northern nations, characterised as Gog and Magog, together with other peoples from various parts, come up “against the mountains of Israel” (Revelation 20:8) “as a cloud to cover the land” (Revelation 20:9) and compass “the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city” (Revelation 20:9)—a multitude “the number of whom is as the sand of the sea” (Revelation 20:8). The weapons of their warfare will be apparently of the most primitive kind, extemporised for the occasion; hence we do not read of cannons and guns, but of shields, bucklers, bows, arrows, and handstaves, which are capable of being burnt, Ezekiel 39:9-10. But God fights against them “with pestilence, and with blood. . an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:22). “Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” (Revelation 20:9). The slaughter so great, and the overthrow so complete, that, after the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the field have been filled with their flesh, seven months will be occupied with their burial and seven years in the cleansing of the land (see Ezekiel 39:9-20). This is the last trial of man in the flesh, and the last manifestation of the righteous judgment of God on the wickedness of mankind on the earth.
Revelation 20:10. “And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast [wild beast] and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
See Revelation 19:20. Diabolus, the false accuser and deceiver, the god of this world; the beast, the false Christ or Antichrist; and the false prophet, who is the great counterfeit and opposer of the Spirit of God—three distinct personalities—these three, the trinity of hell, have their eternal abode in the lake of fire and brimstone. Their due and righteous portion.
Revelation 20:11. “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.” When the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven, and He comes to take His Millennial throne, then “the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every boudman, and every freeman, hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us’” (Revelation 6:15-16). But there are no mountains and rocks to fall on those who stand before the great white throne; they are left defenceless and exposed.
“Great white throne.” It is a “throne, “for here God sits in His absolute authority and almighty power; it is a “great” throne, for this is the “judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6); and it is “white, “the emblem of strict, impartial righteousness, and Divine, inflexible justice. He that sits upon it is God, not in His fatherly character of grace and love, but God in the person of the Son; “for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (John 5:22-23). This is not the bema or judgment seat of Christ, before which the risen saints will stand, at His appearing, to receive the estimate and reward of works done in His name (2 Corinthians 5:10); nor the throne of glory, before which the living nations of the earth will stand when the Son of Man comes to take His Millennial kingdom (Matthew 25:31-32); but the throne of strict, impartial judgment, set up when the responsibility of man on the earth will have ceased for ever and earth’s history is closed. The earth has been polluted by the iniquity of man (Isaiah 24:5), and the heavens have been contaminated by the defection of the fallen angels, and “are not clean in His sight” (Job 15:15[ In the presence, therefore, of Him who is of “purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13), they flee away.
While the earth remaineth, the blood of atonement had availed, and God had kept His covenant— “Seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22); but now the day of grace and longsuffering is over, and justice takes the throne.
Between Revelation 20:10, which speaks of Satan’s judgment, and Revelation 20:11, which speaks of the great white throne, 2 Peter 3:10-12 will receive its accomplishment: the day of God will come “in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with, fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Revelation 20:12-13. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [hades] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” This is not the judgment of the “quick” or living, but of the dead —of all who have no part in the first resurrection— “the dead, small and great;” not the dead in Christ who share in the first resurrection, on whom “the second death hath no power” (Revelation 20:6), but the rest of the dead who live “not again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5); for Jehovah hath sworn, “Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Romans 14:11). All therefore must give account of himself, either before the “bema” or judgment seat of Christ, or before the great white throne.
“The books were opened.” No sin or sinful thought can be forgotten; a record is kept of all, and the books will be opened; “for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.” (Matthew 10:26). This is the resurrection of judgment spoken of by our Lord Jesus in John 5:28-29, for all who are in the graves shall come forth, either to the resurrection of life—the first resurrection—or to the resurrection of judgment, to stand before the great white throne.
Revelation 20:14-15. “And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” From henceforth, throughout the illimitable universe of God and throughout the boundless ages of eternity, no more separation of soul and body, no more death except in the lake of fire; and whosoever was not found written in the book of life will have their eternal portion there. On the one hand, eternal death, without the prospect or the hope of life; on the other hand, eternal life, without the fear or possibility of death.