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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Revelation 20:1 - 20:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Of the Dragon Bound and Loosed, of Gog and Magog, and of the Last Judgment.
Satan's binding for one thousand years:
v. 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
v. 2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
v. 3. and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon 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.
The Book of Revelation is not a history of events given in chronological order, but a series of visions dealing with the chief dangers and the principal blessings which would come upon the Church of Christ. The visions thus supplement one another and dovetail into one another in a composite picture. Only by keeping this fact in mind are we able to understand the present vision. The seer writes: And I saw an angel descending out of heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. The angel here spoken of was either one of God's spirits specially delegated for this work, or it was the great Angel of Jehovah, the Son of God Himself; for it is He that has the keys of death and of hell, chap. 1:18; it is He that has the power to bind all enemies, whether material or spiritual. It was the exalted power and majesty of Christ that here appeared with the implements necessary to put an enemy under restraint.
This the angel proceeds to do: And he overpowered the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut and sealed it above him, lest he seduce the heathen yet also, until thousand years should be fulfilled. After these he is bound to be loosed for a short time. So the devil, who is fitly called a dragon, a ferocious monster, the old serpent, who has been deceiving men since the time of Adam and Eve, was deprived of his power for a definite space of time; not that he and his hordes would be absent from the world entirely, but that they would not be able, during this time, to seduce also the heathen and make them their allies. It would thus be a season of comparative quiet for the Church of Christ; for Satan would be rendered harmless to the extent of being bound in the pit, which was sealed over him. While the heathen were in his power, were his servants, the spell of Satan's authority would no longer hold them with the chains of absolute tyranny. With the message of Satan's defeat, which went out in the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus, the devil's hold was broken. The length of time for which this condition should obtain was definitely determined with God, though probably not in terms of time as we use it. And when the last hour of these thousand years are at an end, then Satan will be loosed for a short while, then the Gospel's phenomenal and victorious march through the nations will be at an end. It is not that the Day of Judgment will then come, for God has determined that the time of the New Testament should include the thousand years of the Gospel's victorious spreading through the nations, plus the little season of Satan's being loose. "Satan shall be loosed, not for his own sake, neither for the sake of those who during the period of his binding have disregarded the sweet Gospel-call; Satan is loosed for the sake of the dear children of God. This loosing of Satan is for a fiery trial of God's children; and that it is at the same time a judgment upon the unbelievers is their own fault. In this fiery trial God intends to purify the faith of His children from all dross and make it strong... Thus vv. 1-3 tell us that John saw Jesus, the mighty Conqueror, bind Satan, so that, through the greater part of the New Testament time, he should not prevent the preaching of the Gospel and the winning of the nations for Christ, and that for a little season immediately preceding, and ushering in, the day of final Judgment Satan should be loosed."