God Speaks
Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. 2 He seized the Dragon—that old Serpent, the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so that he could not fool the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterwards he would be released again for a little while.
4 Then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those who had been given the right to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, for proclaiming the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the Creature or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They had come to life again and now they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 This is the First Resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the First Resurrection. For them the Second Death holds no terrors, for they will be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7 When the thousand years end, Satan will be let out of his prison. 8 He will go out to deceive the nations of the world and gather them together, with Gog and Magog, for battle—a mighty host, numberless as sand along the shore. 9 They will go up across the broad plain of the earth and surround God’s people and the beloved city of Jerusalem[a] on every side. But fire from God in heaven will flash down on the attacking armies and consume them.
10 Then the devil who had betrayed them will again[b] be thrown into the Lake of Fire burning with sulphur where the Creature and False Prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne and the one who sat upon it, from whose face the earth and sky fled away, but they found no place to hide.[c] 12 I saw the dead, great and small, standing before God; and The Books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things written in The Books, each according to the deeds he had done. 13 The oceans surrendered the bodies buried in them; and the earth and the underworld gave up the dead in them. Each was judged according to his deeds. 14 And Death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the Second Death—the Lake of Fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found recorded in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.
Footnotes
- Revelation 20:9 of Jerusalem, implied.
- Revelation 20:10 will again, implied from v. 3.
- Revelation 20:11 they found no place to hide, literally, “there was no longer any place for them.”
Source: The Living Bible: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: Revelation chapter 20 reveals the final end of Satan. After the Beast and the False Prophet are thrown into the lake of fire (chapter 19), the Dragon, Satan, is bound with a heavy chain and locked in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. What a wonderful time that will be to live. During those 1,000 years, those who had been martyred (for their stand of faith in Jesus alone to save them) will serve as rulers, judges, and priests in His kingdom. They are raised in the First Resurrection at the beginning of Christ’s thousand year reign. Yet for all the seeming goodness, human hearts will still be rebellious against God. At the end of the 1,000 years under Jesus Christ’s righteous rule, Satan will be released from the bottomless pit; he will deceive many people, drawing them away from worshiping God. Satan will lead a final rebellion attempting to surround and capture Jerusalem, but they will be defeated by fire from heaven. Satan will then be thrown into the Lake of Fire (Hell), joining the Beast and the False Prophet to remain there forever. Then, all those who had died previously and whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are resurrected out of the seas or graves or wherever else (the second Resurrection). They are judged at the Great White Throne according to their deeds related in the books (the Bible and their own personal records of whether or not they had placed their faith in Jesus to save them and lived accordingly). Then all those people as well as Death and Hades (the temporary place of the dead) are thrown into the Lake of Fire: this is the Second and Final death.
Prayer: Dear Gracious and Sovereign Lord, thank You that Jesus, God the Son, came to earth as the God-man to save us so that no one needs to go to Hell and be eternally separated from You. Jesus knows what it’s like to be human and what it is to be perfectly godly. He is able to both empathize with us in our struggles and to empower us to live righteously and godly in this present world. Jesus, by faith, I declare that You died for all my sins. You paid my astronomical sin debt. Then You turned around and gave me Your infinite righteousness. I will be so eternally grateful that I want to stay so close to You that no sin can come between us. Even if anything does, I know I can come to You for cleansing, forgiveness, and moment-by-moment fellowship and empowerment by the Holy Spirit. Because of this faith in You and what You have done for me, my name is now written in the Book of Life, and I don’t have to fear the First or Second death. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, which one of these He wants you to work on or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will spend significant time praising and thanking the Triune God for all He has done for me.
- I will speak with a believing friend about the prayer above.
- I will graciously and lovingly speak with a not-yet believing friend about how they can avoid the Second death.
- I will extend grace and forgiveness to others just as Jesus did to me.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.