[495] Mark x. 39.
[496] Rev. i. 9.
[497] John xvii. 4.
[498] Ver. 9.
[499] Chap. xx. 7.
[500] Comp.
[501] Comp. p. 250.
[502] Exod. xxxiv. 7.
[503] Comp. chap. iii. 20.
[504] Comp. Ps. xiv. 9-15; Isa. liv. 5; Hos. ii. 19; Matt. xxii. 2; Eph. v. 32, etc.
[505] John ii. 1-11.
[506] John iii. 28, 29.
[507] Col. i. 27.
[508] Eph. ii. 8.
[509] Rom. viii. 29.
[510] 1 Cor. vi. 11.
[511] Chap. xiv. 13.
[512] Matt. xxvi. 26, 27; 1 Cor. xi. 24, 25.
[513] Comp. chaps. i. 3, 9, vi. 9, xi. 7, xii. 17, xx. 4.
[514] Rom. ix. 5.
[515] Matt. xi. 27.
[516] Isa. lxiii. 3.
[517] Ezek. xxxix. 17-20.
[518] Ver. 9.
[519] John xviii. 28.
[520] The writer has endeavoured to unfold this view of Jesus on the Cross in two papers in _The Expositor_, first series, vol. vi., pp. 17, 129.
[521] Chap. xiii. 14.
[522] Burger _in loc._
[523] Comp. p. 297.
[524] Chaps. i. 16; xix. 15.
[525] Chap. xx. 15.
REV. xx.
In now approaching chap. xx., with its yet unsolved difficulties of interpretation, it is of essential importance to observe, in the first place, the relation of the chapter to what immediately precedes. The Seer is not entering upon an entirely new subject. He distinctly continues, on the contrary, the prosecution of a theme he had before begun. In the previous portion of his book three great enemies of the saints of God had been introduced to us,--the dragon or the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. These were the main opponents of the Lamb, in one way or another stirring up all the efforts that had been made against Him by the kings of the earth, their armies, and their followers. For a time they had appeared to succeed. They had persecuted the saints, had compelled them to flee, had overcome them, and killed them. This, however, could not continue; and it was to be shown that the final triumph remains with those who have suffered for the sake of righteousness. In chap. xix. we have the beginning, but not the close, of this triumph. Of the three great enemies only two--the beast and the false prophet--perish in that chapter. The destruction of the third is reserved for chap. xx., and is effected at the tenth verse of the chapter. The verses following then describe the judgment of those who had listened to these enemies, but who, though defeated, or even killed,[526] or devoured by fire out of heaven when in their service,[527] had not yet been consigned to their doom. Thereafter nothing remains, in order to complete the triumph of Christ and His saints, but that death and Hades shall also be removed from the scene and cast into the lake of fire.
These considerations are of themselves sufficient to show that _the overthrow of Satan_, and not the reign of a thousand years, is the main theme of the first ten verses of the chapter. So far is the latter from being the culminating point of the whole book, that it is not even introduced at the beginning of any new and important section. It starts no new series of visions. It comes in in the midst of a section devoted to an entirely different matter:--
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no authority, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (xx. 1-10).