Millennial Dream: Daily Thoughts from Revelation (Revelation 20:1–10)

People have sought a perfect kingdom forever, with humans at the head of that kingdom. No utopian dream as ever come true, yet it remains a dream. We were made for the garden of Eden, made for God’s utopia, God’s kingdom. We cannot escape that internal hope. Christ will make it a reality. But will we be satisfied with his utopia?

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the 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 their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:1–10, ESV)

Ever since our creation mankind has been the subject of Satan’s efforts to deceive us into following him in his rebellion against God.  Though he hates us and uses us only for his own purposes, he promises us freedom only to enslave us all the more.

Now, at last, as the tribulation, the period of God’s outpouring of His judgment, is ended, a new era is beginning of God’s kingdom on earth that is to last 1,000 years.  There is no place in it for Satan. So he will be bound in the bottomless pit, the Abyss, for those thousand years so he can deceive the nations no longer.  But he will be released for a little while after that.

At the setting up of the kingdom Jesus appoints judges from among the believers. Just exactly who and how they will judge is not described.  Though all believers who have died in the Lord are given rewards based on how they lived for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:10),  those who were martyred because they refused to take the mark of the beast are given great rewards.  They, as all believers, are raised to life and reign with Christ for 1,000 years, the first resurrection (there will be a second of those who die during this millennium, this thousand years).  The second death has no power over them, the second death being what unbelievers experience at the great white throne judgment (coming up in this chapter). But there will also be believers who have not died during the Tribulation who will enter Christ’s kingdom unresurrected.

Jesus’ will reign on earth from Jerusalem for 1,000 years (the millennium) and then Satan will be released. Even after all those years of seeing Jesus’ perfect rule and the prosperity of the earth under his dominion and the absolute glory of righteous living, Satan will be able to deceive those who have yet not believed in Jesus and lead them in battle against the Lord Jesus in Jerusalem.

During the millennium, which was begun with only believers, there will be children born to those who are not yet possessors of resurrection bodies.  These are the ones who did not die during the tribulation and entered the kingdom without resurrection.  Some of those children born to them will not become true followers of Jesus. They are the ones Satan will deceive into a hopeless battle against Jesus.

What this shows is that no matter how perfect our environment may be, the unconverted soul will not submit itself to God and that person’s true heart is still to be his or her own god and hate the One who made them.  The human heart is “deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9).

After this failed attempt to overthrow Jesus, the army of unbelievers is killed with fire from heaven and Satan joins the beast and false prophet in the Lake of Fire.  They are still there, indicating that they do not become extinguished and with their master, Satan, they suffer torment forever.

Through every era of the world God has shown the wisdom and fairness of His justice. No one will be able to argue that human kind was not deserving of God’s just wrath.