A Study of Revelation 20 and other related passages
There will come a time when in this world holiness shall be more general, and more eminent, than ever it hath been since Adam fell in paradise.
Thomas Brooks, 1608-1680
We lose down here.
John MacArthur, 2024
Not so do we expect, but we look for the day when the dwellers in all lands shall learn righteousness, shall trust in the Saviour, shall worship thee alone, O God, ‘and shall glorify thy name.’
C. H. Spurgeon, 1874
Let’s have a careful reading and biblical mediation on the first three verses of this famous chapter.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
Revelation 20:1-3 (NKJV)
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven“
Sometimes “an angel from heaven” is a spiritual being who serves God as messenger and/or an agent of power (Genesis 28:12; Matthew 26:53; 28:5). Sometimes an angel from heaven is a named angel like Gabriel or Michael (Daniel 8:16; 10:13; Luke 1:19; Jude 1:9). Sometimes “an angel from heaven” is Christ Himself (Genesis 18:1-33; Joshua 5:13-14; Judges 13:1-25; Revelation 10:1-7). It is helpful to know that “angel” means “messenger” and this is one of Christ’s titles (Malachi 3:1). It is best to see this angel as Christ Himself.
“Having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him“
This angel comes from above. He comes down. He has the tools he needs. He defeats a beast by use of a pit. We are thus reminded of typical mighty man stories from the ranks of king David (2 Samuel 23:20-23). When considering Who this angel is, we must ask ourselves, “Who defeats Satan according to the Bible?” Is it not Jesus? When accused of drawing on Satan’s power, Jesus countered, rather, that His approach was one of binding the strong man (Matthew 12:29). Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He was dead but is now alive forevermore. As the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the first from the dead, He holds the keys of death and hades (Revelation 1:18). The Seed of the Woman is the One Who crushes the head of the Serpent, though His heel be crushed (Genesis 3:15).
“That Serpent of old,” means that snake in the garden (Genesis 3:1). He is none other than the Devil, indeed Satan. The accuser of the brethren (Zechariah 3:1; Revelation 12:10), is that father of lies who is a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). Jesus does better than Benaiah who came down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. Jesus does better than Benaiah who came down to a mighty Egyptian with a staff but wrested the enemy’s weapon from his hand and defeated him. Jesus Christ through death undoes the one who had the power of death, that is the devil (Hebrews 2:14-15). Christ binds him while leading those in captivity into freedom (Ephesians 4:7-10; Colossians 2:11-15).
“and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.“
When? When and how did Jesus Christ lay hold of the dragon and bind him? This tells us when the thousand years begin. Where does the Bible tell us to see Satan’s defeat? Are we to think of Satan as a defeated foe in the present time, simply awaiting his final spasm of defiance and sentence of doom? Yes! The scripture references listed above from Hebrews, Ephesians and Colossians indicate that Christ’s victory over Satan came about through Christ’s death and resurrection, mightily affirmed in His ascension. John’s visions of Christ in Revelation 1:9-20; 5:1-14; 19:6-16 certainly affirm His victorious state. Jesus taught that by His death the “ruler of this world” would be cast out and also all the nations would be drawn to Him (John 12:31-33). So also we find here in Revelation 20:1-3, Christ’s defeat of Satan by His cross and resurrection binds Satan’s deceptive control of the world (the nations).
Note this in the text! The binding of Satan has a particular purpose and particular parameters. This is not an exiling of Satan down the memory hole of temporary non-existence. He once possessed and ruled the nations by deception, but no longer. What nations were those? All those nations organized under all those beastly empires. Satan, that old dragon, was the demonic power behind the horrific beasts. The lion, the bear, the leopard and the iron crusher of Daniel 7:1-28, they were all combined into one beast in Revelation 13:1-4. The last beast, Rome, was the great amalgamator and pieces of each previous beast were evident among its empire. Also remember that each of the four beasts had their moment to consume the people of God and they certainly tried. What compelled them? It was the dragon in history seeking to bereave the woman by consuming her child (Revelation 12:1-4). The power of these idolatrous empires was demonic (1 Corinthians 10:12). These idolatrous nations sought to steal Israel’s children from their mothers, kill Israel’s men, and destroy all their hopes of a future. Egypt, Amalek, Midian and Moab, Canaan, the Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans: Satan deceived and controlled them all.
Satan had his heyday. The nations were his dominion of darkness. They walked according to the course of that age, according to the prince of the power of the air. No longer. These nations once belonged to Satan but they have now been given to God’s Messiah enthroned in Zion (Psalm 2:1-12), being gathered by the power of the Holy Spirit (c.f. Acts 2:30-33). The nations are given to Christ Who is the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:1-3). Recall that Satan once tried to offer these nations to Christ if He would only worship Satan (Matthew 4:8-10). Christ chose obedience to God, even to the point of death of death on the cross and so the nations were given to Him righteously (Philippians 3:6-11). This is the basis for Christ’s instructions to His saints to disciple the nations to obey Him (Matthew 28:18-20).
“so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.“
The victorious and freeing death and resurrection of Christ, sealed by His ascension undoes Satan’s power. This thousand years of binding Satan corresponds to Christ’s thousand year reign. The key that locks up the serpent is on the keyring of the death-killer, Jesus Christ. The chain that binds Satan is in the hands of the mighty-man, Jesus Christ. The seal that keeps the lid on the pit is the royal signet of the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. Satan does not get released for that last conflagration of judgment until the summons of Heaven arranges and conspires a most God-glorifying end to all rebellion (Revelation 20:7-10)
