Revelation 20

V1. The great henchmen of satan – the beast and the false prophet – are seized and thrown into hell. Their leader, satan, still roams freely, but he is laid hold on. This happens by an angel coming down from heaven. Because satan has been cast to the earth since Revelation 12 (Rev 12:9), it is necessary that an angel “comes down from heaven” to bind him. This angel holds “the key of the abyss” to shut the abyss. In Revelation 9 (Rev 9:1) the key is used to open abyss to release the demons from there. Then the beast also comes up out of the abyss (Rev 11:7; 17:8). The angel has also “a great chain in his hand”. What he will do with that chain is told in the next verse.

V2. This is an historic moment. There have been several historic moments, but this one is indeed a specially memorable event. The angel lays hold on him who is the cause of all misery of people because he has brought sin into the world. Then he binds him with the chain that he brought with him, so that satan will not be able to move for a thousand years. Every opportunity to deceive men with his craftiness and to drag them into destruction will be taken away from him. He will no longer be the prince of the world and the god of this age (Jn 12:31; 2Cor 4:4). His rule over man is over.

That he as a person with his fourfold expression – “the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan” – will be bound and shut up, indicates that he in all his variations of wickedness will be shut up and cannot manifest himself in any way. With the judgment on satan the judgments that introduced the kingdom of peace of Christ are finished. Now Christ can exercise His beneficial kingdom of peace and righteousness for man and creation. The number ‘thousand’, which appears six times in verses 2-7 and is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, indicates the duration of the Messianic empire. Otherwise we would not have known the duration of this empire. That’s why the expression ‘millennial’ kingdom is used.

Here, for the second time, the four names for the great deceiver and enemy of God are used (Rev 12:9). He is called “the dragon” because of his horribly violent and relentless performance. He is also called “the serpent of old”. That indicates the deadly cunning nature of this monster that winds itself around its prey to suffocate it and devour it. As the “devil” he is the tempter, the deceiver of men. As “Satan” he is the adversary of God. Both these characteristics – violence and lie – are the main characteristics of sin.

V3. Satan is mighty, but not almighty. Nor is he mightier than the angel that approaches him with the authority of God, seizes him and throws him into the abyss. There is no mention of a fight, as it was the case when he was thrown out of heaven (Rev 12:7).

The angel works in a thorough way. After he has thrown satan into the abyss, he shuts it over him. There is no connection for satan anymore with the world above him. As an extra security the angel seals the abyss over satan. Satan will in no way be able to exercise any destructive influence on people.

“The nations” here are the citizens, for the armies of these nations are killed in Har-Magedon. The sheep from these nations will enter the millennial kingdom of peace (Mt 25:32-34).

It will be a time of unprecedented peace and safety, although the heart of man will not be changed, as will become apparent when satan is released for a short time. Righteousness then reigns on earth, but does not yet dwell there. That will only be so in the eternal state (2Pet 3:13), when sin has been taken away of the world (Jn 1:29). Men can and will still sin in the kingdom of peace, but at that time it will immediately be judged (Psa 101:8; Isa 65:11,20; Zep 3:5).

Those who will be born in the kingdom of peace and will not be born again at the end of it, will rebel against God. The wickedness of their heart will be exposed at the release of satan. To that end, this release “must” happen. This ‘must’ shows a Divine necessity. This happens “after these things”, which is after the thousand years have come to an end and not one day earlier. It is also “for a short time”, which means that he is allowed to operate as long as God determines it.

It is incomprehensible that people can think that satan is now already bound and doesn’t deceive the nations any longer. There are indeed angels now already bound with chains (2Pet 2:4; Jude 1:6), but that is a totally different category.

Now read Revelation 20:1-3 again.

Reflection: Why will satan be bound for a thousand years?

V4. In verses 4-6 the actual kingdom of peace is described, the reigning with the Lord mentioned twice. That implies that Christ Himself is reigning. This is described here very briefly. From Revelation 21:9 it is described more extensively. The Old Testament is full of details about this kingdom. That it is about ruling is evident from the end of the verse and also from the thrones John sees. He also sees that “they”, i.e. the twenty-four elders, sit on those thrones. Daniel has also seen thrones, but he saw no one sitting on them (Dan 7:9). John sees how judgment is given to those who sit on the thrones, which means that authority is given to them to reign.

The thrones John sees are on earth, for Christ reigns on earth, where His throne also is. Earlier you have already seen thrones on which twenty-four elders are sitting, but there they are standing in heaven (Rev 4:4). Here they stand on earth and are sitting on their thrones to reign with Christ for a thousand years. He has promised this to His disciples in connection with the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt 19:28; Lk 22:30). And Paul says to the believers of the church that they will judge the world (1Cor 6:2). The twenty-four elders represent the believers of the Old Testament and of the New Testament.

Then John sees two other groups of believers. These second and third group are believers that came to faith after the rapture of the church and died the martyr’s death for the sake of their faith. The second group consists of believers that were killed before the great tribulation, ‘the souls under the altar’ (Rev 6:9). Because of the testimony they gave of the Lord Jesus and their faithfulness to the Word of God, they were beheaded.

When they cry for revenge, they hear that they must wait until the other group, which is mentioned here, will also be killed (Rev 6:10-11). This third group is killed during the great tribulation. This group suffered from the beast, but they did not bow to him or to his image. It cost them their life, but now they get the reward.

Both groups have been killed by their enemies who thought that by killing these witnesses they got rid of that hated Jesus. In the same way the enemies of the Lord Jesus thought to have got rid of Him when He hung dead on the cross. But just as the Lord Jesus came to life, so too these martyrs come to life.

To come to live means to rise bodily. It is becoming alive from the dead. Only after this becoming alive there is mention of a reigning with Christ. This is all the more a proof that now in our days, there cannot be mention of a millennial kingdom of peace where Christ reigns and in which all share who are connected with Him.

“They came to life and reigned.” Man now finally gets his actual destination. In Genesis 1 he was already called to reign over creation (Gen 1:26) and in Genesis 2 he received life from God (Gen 2:7). But man has forfeited both through his sin. Through Christ he gets back what he has lost and that in an even more glorious way. He actually reigns with Christ and indeed as a resurrected saint and not as a subject. Faithfulness to God will never cause loss of any blessing, but in fact only a richer enjoyment of it, richer than we have ever been able to enjoy on earth (Rom 8:18; 2Cor 4:17).

Here all who were once humbled are exalted at the proper time, His time (1Pet 5:6). They all once stepped down from their own throne and have bowed before God and may now sit on their throne, a throne given to them.

V5. “The rest of the dead” are the unbelievers, for all believing dead have been raised. They do not rise at the beginning of the millennial kingdom of peace, but they will remain in the grave, in Hades, the place of torment (Lk 16:23). From the moment that the Lord Jesus reigns, no believer will ever die anymore (cf. Isa 65:22). With the coming to life of the believers of the previous verse “the first resurrection” has been fulfilled.

The first resurrection will happen in phases:
1. First, Christ rises (He has already risen);
2. then all who are of Christ will rise at His coming (1Cor 15:23).

Also the coming of Christ will happen in phases:
1. He will come first to take up the church and all Old Testament believers in the air to be with Him (1Thes 4:15-18). On this occasion the believers who are dead will be raised and the believers who are alive will be changed.
2. Then the marriage of the Lamb will take place, as you have seen in chapter 19 (Rev 19:7).
3. Then the Lord Jesus will come from heaven for the second time, this time together with the church and the other believers to defeat His enemies and to establish His kingdom. That is the moment that the martyrs of verse 4 will rise to participate also in the government of Christ.
Then the first resurrection is complete.

The unbelievers will become alive only after the kingdom of peace and will be judged before the great white throne where only unbelievers will stand. The body of the unbelievers will be made alive, but the spirit will remain spiritually dead. With this body they will be in hell forever and also be dead. They will stand as the dead before the great white throne.

So there are two resurrections:
1. a resurrection of the righteous, or the first resurrection, and
2. a resurrection of the wicked (Lk 14:14; Acts 24:15).

Between both resurrections is a period of a thousand years. The two resurrections are mentioned by John in his Gospel (Jn 5:29):
1. the resurrection of life and
2. the resurrection of judgment.

V6. It is an extraordinary privilege to partake of the first resurrection. He who partakes of that is fully unreachable for the power of the second death, which is hell. The first death is bodily and temporary; the second death is bodily and eternal. By the way, death and life are concepts that must be read in their context to understand their meaning. You may encounter, for instance, that it is said of the bodily dead that they live (Mt 22:32) and of the bodily living it is said that they are dead (Eph 2:1).

All who partakes of the first resurrection are priests “of God and of Christ” and not ‘for’ God and ‘for’ Christ. They distribute the priestly blessing on behalf of God and on behalf of Christ to the creation over which they will reign with Christ. ‘Reign’ literally means ‘reign as kings’. They come from heaven to be priests on earth. They are not priests who represent people before God, but priests who represent God before men. In this, they resemble again the Lord Jesus as the King-Priest (Zec 6:13; Gen 14:18).

V7. The word “completed” doesn’t only mean that the thousand years have passed and are ‘over’, but it also implies that they have been ‘fulfilled’, in the sense that an established goal has been achieved. The earth has had its sabbath’s rest.

Now before the peace of the kingdom of peace culminates in the peace of eternity, it is necessary that humanity be subjected to a final test. For this purpose what was already announced at the end of verse 3 will happen, namely that satan must be “released” for a short time “from his prison”.

V8. The nature of satan has not changed by his stay in the abyss, nor has the nature of man. Satan is unchangeably wicked. When he is released he immediately acts just as he always did. He will go out over the whole earth, to all its four corners (cf. Isa 11:12; Eze 7:2) with the purpose to deceive the nations. The corners of the earth literally means that these people find themselves far from the center of blessing, Jerusalem.

From the deception by satan it also appears that sinful flesh of man has not changed under the greatest blessing. Many have pretended to be obedient to the Lord Jesus (Psa 18:44; 66:3; Mic 7:17). They pretended to acknowledge Him as Lord, but they only did so because they (justly) feared judgment. But the flesh always remains hostile toward God (Rom 8:7), even if it pretends submission. In this way, man loses the argument of always blaming satan to justify himself (cf. Gen 3:13). There can be no question of that now. Also without the devil the heart of man will not change for the better.

The Gog and Magog that John mentions should not be confused with Gog in the land of Magog that Ezekiel mentions (Eze 38:1-6; 39:1-2). The army that Ezekiel refers to comes from a certain area, the far north. When the Lord Jesus has already taken his seat on the throne in Jerusalem, Gog will march against Israel and be defeated on the mountains of Israel. The Gog that John mentions comes from everywhere. John uses this name because of the great demonical similarities between both attacks.

Satan has great success in the recruitment of men for his army. A huge, uncountable army is emerging.

V9. Under the influence of satan, this vast army comes up on the broad plain of the earth. The destiny is the camp of the saints and Jerusalem, which is here called “the beloved city” (Psa 78:68; 87:2), the center of the earth. The beloved city is also the place where the saints camp, where they have rest. They are separated from the pagans that find themselves at the corners of the earth.

This enormous army is as blind for the power of the Lord Jesus as the armies were, that went to Jerusalem before the kingdom of peace (Rev 19:19-20). God sends His consuming fire from heaven and there is no enemy left. The description of this war is even shorter than the one in the previous chapter.

Now read Revelation 20:4-9 again.

Reflection: What groups of people may reign with the Lord Jesus?

V10. The devil gets a special treatment. He is the instigator of the mass rebellion, but this is the last time he is able to do his diabolic work. His eternal destiny is “the lake of fire and brimstone” into which he is “thrown”. In that way he receives the absolute, unchangeable lowest point of his fall which has been executed in four phases.

1. First he has fallen into sin by his pride (1Tim 3:6). As the liar and the father of lies (Jn 8:44) he has spread deceptions and committed his murderer’s work from the beginning of creation. This is how he has been occupied for thousands of years.

2. But you have noticed that at a certain moment he is thrown down to the earth (Rev 12:9), where he with the greatest wrath causes death and destruction because he knows that he has got only a little while.

3. After a course of three and a half years God makes an end to his rage and has him thrown into the abyss to be shut up there for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-3). From there he will be released

4. to make his definite fall to end up in hell, that has been prepared for him and his angels (Mt 25:41).

There he meets his two vassals who were thrown down there before him (Rev 19:20). They will not be able to help one another, but will have enough of their own pains and torments they will suffer endlessly.

V11. The defeated rebels will be in Hades for only a short time because immediately after them being consumed by God’s fire, the judgment follows before the “great white throne”. That they have been consumed by God’s fire does not mean that they have stopped to exist.

John sees a great white throne. It is a ‘great’ throne because He Who sits on it is great in majesty and great in authority. It is a ‘white’ throne because He Who sits on it is perfectly pure. His throne as a symbol of His kingdom and His Person are perfectly in agreement with one another. The Judge is perfectly pure in His judgment. He judges perfectly righteous. In His judgment there is not a single impure element. He is incorruptible. Every investigation of His trustworthiness on earth has ended in a testimony of His perfect honesty.

No one can oppose the judgment that He sentences and executes. He will convince everyone who appears before His throne of the righteousness of His judgment and everyone will agree. Every mouth that is still braggingly opened to heaven will then be stopped. The pure whiteness of the throne is the reflection of the glory of God Who is light and in Whom is no darkness at all (1Jn 1:5).

In the Scripture there is mention of three court sessions held by the Lord Jesus:

1. The first one takes place in heaven, right after the rapture of the believers. When the believers are in heaven, they will first appear before “the judgment seat of Christ” or “the judgment seat of God” (2Cor 5:10; Rom 14:10). Every believer will get to see there what he has done in the body during his life on earth and see whether he has done that for the Lord’s sake or for his own sake. He will be rewarded for the good.

2. The second court session will take place when the Lord Jesus returns to earth with the believers to judge the evil and establish the kingdom of peace on earth (Mt 25:31). Before that judgment seat, the “throne of His glory”, the nations that will be living on earth will appear. They will be judged according to the attitude they adopted toward the messengers of the Lord Jesus during the great tribulation.

3. The third court session will take place at the border between time and eternity. Only unbelievers will appear before the “great white throne”. They will be judged by what is written of them in the books.

When the moment of this third court session has come, “earth and heaven” flee away. That concerns the old earth and heaven. With the court session and the judgment attached to it, the entire old state of affairs has come to an end. The old heaven and the old earth flee away to give way to the new heaven and the new earth. They flee away, not so much from the throne, but from the face of Him Who sits on it. The Lord Jesus, Who as the Son of Man has received all the judgment from the Father, sits on the throne (Jn 5:22,27; cf. 2Tim 4:1).

V12. John sees the dead. It is the ‘the rest of the dead’ from verse 5. They do not stand on the earth, for it has gone. But even though the earth has gone, man remains to answer to God for all his rebellious deeds and to receive the deserved wages. Through the power of the Almighty they stand before the throne.

John sees great and small dead people. That is not so much about the size of the body, but more the extent of the crimes they have committed. There are the mass murderers, but also the petty criminals. There are the bragging politicians that have spoken great words, but also the unremarkable family father who took good care of his family. They have one thing in common: they have never judged themselves as sinners in the light of God and have all died in their sins. To whatever extent they have been sinners, the judgment will be justified.

The proofs that form the basis for the judgment come from the books. All of their deeds are presented to them again. The gravity of their judgment is determined according to the severity of their crimes and the extent of their responsibility (Lk 12:47). No one will have a rebuttal. Everyone will be convinced that God is righteous in His judgments. Another compelling proof of their judgment is the absence of their names in the book of life. This means it is absolutely right that they will be thrown into hell.

V13. The dead will be called to come out of the places where they have ended up after their death. In the first place the sea is mentioned. The sea will have to return all the dead that it has swallowed like a great monster. The sea is put in the same line like “death and Hades” of which is also said that they “gave up the dead which were in them”.

A person who has died is bodily dead. For that state of bodily death it doesn’t matter whether the dead body is on earth or in the sea. That the sea is mentioned as an abode of the dead, will have to do with the untraceable state of a body that has had a seaman’s grave. It can also be said of people who have been torn to pieces by, for example, wild beasts, that their bodies are untraceable. But the point is the general thought.

The dead come from death and Hades. You may say that death is the condition in which man is and Hades is the place where man is. The body that was in death is united with the soul, which was in Hades, which is the realm of the dead, and with the spirit. God knows how to make every dead person alive and to bring him to justice. Every call to appear before Him will be answered by His mighty arm.

Although it is said that they come to life (Rev 20:5), they are still called “the dead”. They have no life of God; there is no connection at all with the living God. When they were born they received their life from God. However, they chose to live their own life, without considering God Who gave it to them. That caused them to be already dead when they were still living on earth, because they lived in trespasses and sins, without connection with the living God (Eph 2:1; Col 2:13; Jn 5:25). Now they have come to life again, nothing has changed in their spiritual condition. They stand as dead persons before the great white throne to be judged, “every one [of them] according to their deeds”.

That each dead is judged according to his deeds implies that babies that die and children that die in the womb or are murdered, will not appear before the great white throne as dead persons. They have after all, not been able to do deeds according to which they should be judged. All who die in the womb or as a baby will be forever with Him in heaven by virtue of the work of the Lord Jesus.

V14. Then you see the final result of the work of Christ and His resurrection, through which He has conquered the death. Now the last enemy is destroyed (1Cor 15:26; Rev 21:4). Death finds its end here; this is the end of death, as it was foretold in the Old Testament (Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14). After this very last judgment, there will be no more bodily death and the abode of the souls of the dead will no longer exist.

Death and Hades are presented here as persons who are thrown into hell. All evil and all who have served evil will be shut up forever in hell. This is “the second death”. The first death is the bodily death and the abode in the realm of the dead. The second death is the bodily existence of man without life of God in the place where the judgment of God prevails forever.

V15. Now it becomes apparent why in verse 12 the book of life had to be opened. Their evil deeds have been written down in the other book (verse 12b). They were judged according to that. Those deeds have never been removed from it, because they have refused the sacrifice of Christ. This is why their names are not “in the book of life”. The compelling evidence has been provided. The fate which is their part is terrible and horrifying. It should stimulate us, because we know the fear of the Lord, to persuade people to accept the gospel (2Cor 5:11)!

Now read Revelation 20:10-15 again.

Reflection: Where does the great white throne stand? Who sits on it as Judge? Who are standing before the throne? What is their judgment?