Revelation 20:7 And When the Thousand Years Are Expired

Revelation 20:7 (KJV)  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 

In Revelation, we have come to the final revolt of the nations and to their destruction. Some people ask why the Lord would release Satan from the bottomless pit after Christ’s prosperous thousand-year reign. Why set Satan free, even for a little while, to head up a massive revolt? They only answer is that the Lord wants to prove the utter depravity of man.

One would think that, after a thousand years of Christ’s blessed and beneficial reign, no one on earth would want to revolt. But, even as Adam sinned in the most perfect environment of the garden of Eden, so large numbers of these millennial dwellers will rebel against Christ, in spite of the peace and provision accompanying His reign. Of course, He rules them with a rod of iron, and they must bow before Him. But their instant response to Satan’s call reveals that their obedience to Christ is only feigned; they recognise His power only because they have to.

Revelation 20:8-9 (KJV)  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters 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. 

Judgment, however, is swift as the rebellion of the nations of the four corners of the earth; fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours the multitudes. Fire, as we know, is related to all of God’s judgments – even the judgment of the saints at the judgment seat of Christ, where our works are to be tried by fire (1 Corinthians 3:13).

1 Corinthians 3:13 (KJV)  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 

In this final conflict, there is no battle, no fighting. The almighty God, who is Himself “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), immediately destroys all the deceived and brutalised nations. Man’s last attack against God, and against “the camp pf the saints, and the beloved city,” ends in complete failure, as hell enlarges its mouth to receive the hordes of earth whom the devil had deceived and led in rebellion. No wonder we go on to read of a new earth – one forever without a devil!

[Herbert Lockyer, Revelation – Drama of the Ages, Whitaker House, 2012, 299]