Oh for a thousand years

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

OH FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

Rev 20:1-3

20:1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

NIV

It would appear John’s vision or rather the revelation revealed to him shows there are times when he moves around, as when the angel took him into a desert, and now it appears he is looking from earth. This is due to his saying he saw an angel coming down out of heaven. If John was in heaven he would not say it that way, plus the fact the angel is going to bind Satan who is on earth. But the truth we need to consider in this passage is the doctrine of the millennium. We see this angel having a key and he seizes the devil or Satan who is referred to as that ancient serpent. This certainly confirms that he appeared as a snake to our first parents, Adam and Eve. This angel has the power to seize him and to imprison him in a place call the Abyss. In the Greek this means a bottomless pit or immeasurable depth. The truth of that is in that, as we are told here, he will not be able to have any influence on any people for a period of time, which is said here to be one thousand years. First we have to conclude there are people who were not killed by the Word, by Jesus in this great battle. Although the world economy is in shambles and there was a great number of the world leaders and generals and those who had be so deluded by Satan they took an absolute stand against God, making it clear mankind is greater than God, if there really is one. In addition to having the ideology of wealth, power and the greatness of man, they also gave credence to the doctrine of many paths to God, or gods, whoever he or she is, however religion sees that God. All religions are equal, having the same god but in different forms and with different sets of rules, or behaviors toward that god. This is but another delusion from the pit of hell, from Satan to attempt to destroy that true church and the true and only God. So he is bound, not able to deceive any more people for this period as referred to here as one thousand years. There will be no evil influence upon mankind. Many believers use this as the thousand year reign of Christ with his believers. We are going to see this explained next, so we will leave this for the next day. But the truth is that people will not have the influence of Satan for this time. Mankind will be able to rebuild some of what was lost, but it will be done under the influence of Christ. He will restore that which was destroyed and all the chaos from the wrath of God during those years the seven angels and the seven bowls of his wrath. Jesus will being order to the chaos. He is the only one who can. His power will be a mighty one, able to do that which no man can do. Science has proven through a law of thermodynamics called entropy, that order cannot come from chaos, that chaos will always increase. But through the power of God, who invented all science in the first place, brings order from chaos. There will be peace upon the earth. Under the direction of Jesus mankind will increase in prosperity. Satan will be held in this bottomless pit for this period of time. Many scholars will argue about this thousand years. Some say it only is representative of a long period. Some say it means three hundred and sixty thousand years, as a year is as a day to the Lord. If we look throughout all of scripture when the word thousand is used, it is used to mean one thousand, not a number of, or an amount of, but the number of them is one, five, ten thousand of them. It would only reason to believe this thousand means exactly that, one thousand years, or a millennium. As to who will rule and reign with him, we will see next. But the fact is mankind will no longer be in the deceptive position of Satan. One other truth which is revealed to us here is the fact that this book is not historic as some scholars have been seeing it. If we look into the history of mankind, we have always seen the influence of Satan at work. We know he was at work in the temptation of Jesus just two thousand years ago. We can see his evil hand at work since then and up to and including this very day. So all the happenings of this revelation are yet to come, including this one thousand years of peace on earth, with Satan bound, having no ability to influence people. But we also have one other truth which is bore out in this passage. Satan will be set free for a short time. Now first this is not a defined period of time as the thousand years are. This is simply letting us know that all the people who are living during those years, and all the new people who have been born during that time, will have the ability to make a choice. God does not want anyone to believe in him as a mindless robot, with no ability to choose him over all else. So he will allow Satan to have his chance to once again influence people against him. With an amount of certainty, even though mankind has experienced a peace like no other, some will be deceived. What we can learn from all this is that we must make sure we are not or never will be deceived by Satan. We know the truth, we know God is who he says he is. We know all this is true and we wait for those thousand years. Oh for a thousand years.