Revelation 20:3; He Must Be Loosed A Little Season

Revelation 20:3 (KJV)  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. 

It is a divine necessity, “it is necessary”, however, for the dragon to be released “after that”, i.e., the thousand years. The final answer as to hwy God sees this as a necessity with its fruition in another rebellion is hidden in the counsels of God (Alford, Swete, Lee, Moffatt, Beasley-Murray, Johnson).

Revelation 1:1 (KJV)  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 

Revelation 4:1 (KJV)  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. 

Isaiah 55:8 (KJV)  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 

Mark 8:31 (KJV)  And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 

Mark 13:17 (KJV)  But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

Luke 24:26 (KJV)  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

Luke 24:44 (KJV)  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Yet one purpose may be a partial answer. Through his release the whole universe will see that after a thousand years of his imprisonment and an ideal reign on earth, Satan is incurably wicked and men’s hearts are still perverse enough to allow him to gather an army of such an immense size.

The “little season” allowed the dragon after the Millennium is not the same as “the short time” (Revelation 12:12).

Revelation 12:12 (KJV)  Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. 

In the earlier case he deceives through the beast and false prophet, but in this one he will deceive through personal intervention.

[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 411]