Revelation 20: 1 – 3 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss, holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete. After that, he must be released for a brief period of time.
Barclay explains the chaining of Satan this way: The abyss was a vast subterranean cavern beneath the earth, sometimes the place where all the dead went, sometimes the place where special sinners were kept awaiting punishment. It was reached by a chasm reaching down into the earth and this the angel locks in order to keep the Devil in the abyss. It was the abyss which the devils feared most of all. In the story of the Gerasene demoniac the request of the devils was that Jesus would not command them to leave the man and to go out into the deep, that is, the abyss (Luke 8:31). The seal is set on the chasm to ensure the safe-keeping of the prisoner, just as the seal was set on the tomb of Jesus to make sure that he would not escape (Matthew 27:66).
The Devil is to be kept in the abyss for a period of a thousand years. Even the way in which the word thousand is used in Scripture warns us against taking this literally. Psalms 50:10 says that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to God; and Job 9:3 says that a man cannot answer God once in a thousand times. Thousand is simply used to describe a very large number.
At the end of the period the Devil is to be let loose for a little time. H. B. Swete suggests that the reason for the final loosing of the Devil is this. In a period of peace and righteousness, in a time when the opposition, so to speak, did not exist, it might easily happen that people came to take their faith unthinkingly. The loosing of the Devil meant a testing-time for Christians, and there are times when a testing-time is essential, if the reality of the faith is to be preserved.”
This passage raises lots of questions. When in the events is this to take place? Is this to take place after the events described in Chapter 19? Remember that originally, there were no such things as “chapters” and that the chapters were inserted by later Bible translators to make things easier for believers. Why 1,000 years? This part of Revelation was very controversial in the early church with some church leaders refusing to accept it. Personally, I feel that this is one of those mysteries that will eventually be revealed at the end of time.
v. 4-6 “Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.”
The martyrs and those who suffered by refusing the mark of the beast are singled out for a particular honor: they are to reign with Christ for a long time before the rest of the dead will come back to life. Barclay describes the privileges these people enjoy as follows:
(i) For them death has been utterly vanquished. The second death has no power over them. Physical death for them is not a thing to be feared, for it is the gateway to life everlasting.
(ii) They are to be the priests of God and of Christ. The Latin for priest is pontifex, which means a bridge-builder. The priest is the builder of a bridge between God and man; and he, as the Jews saw it, is the one man with the right of direct access into the presence of God. Those who have been loyal to Jesus Christ have the right of free entry into the presence of God; and they have the privilege of introducing others to Jesus Christ.
(iii) They are to reign with Christ. In Christ even the most ordinary man becomes a king.
Those who have suffered will receive eternal rewards. Now, nobody chooses to become a martyr! The only choice we have is this: will we serve the One True Living God, no matter what, or will we serve something lesser? The day we die, any rewards we have received by serving something or someone apart from God cease; however, that is the day that those who have served God will find their rewards forever.
PRAYER: Father God, let this scripture touch hearts and cause people to look to You, the One True Living God, as their only Hope. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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