The great escape

20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 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.

4 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. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 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.

7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 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. 9 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, 10 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.

(Rev 20:1-10).

It’s a pity that the Millennium has attracted disproportionate attention. I say “disproportionate,” because this is of penultimate importance rather than ultimate importance. What happens in Rev 21-22 is more important than what happens in Rev 20.

i) Why do we have the following sequence in Rev 20:1-10?

Satan bound>the Millennium>Satan unbound

The short answer is the John is roughly following the sequence of Ezk 37-48:

Resurrection of Israel>messianic reign>battle of Gog & Magog>new Jerusalem

So it’s a literary progression. A literary alternation.

ii) What does the Millennium represent?

a) At one level it represents the intermediate state. When Christians die, they pass into the afterlife. They come alive in heaven. That would be especially encouraging to Christians facing the threat of martyrdom. A prospect which members of John’s churches had to take into account.

b) In addition, it has a more specific resonance. Not only does this text have its background in Ezk 37, but Dan 7. It’s a scene of the heavenly courtroom, where the faithful are vindicated before the bar of God. That would give the scene (20:4-5) a heavenly rather than earthly setting.

iii) The duration of Satan’s incarceration is commensurate with the duration of the “first resurrection.” If the “first resurrection” represents the intermediate state, then the binding of Satan spans the church age.

iv) Why is Satan released? Since the text doesn’t say, scholars are left to speculate. As long as we’re speculating, I’ll venture my own conjecture.

One way of punishing a villain is to let him think he got away with it. To let him imagine he won. He succeeded. He beat the system.

Suppose God “let” Satan escape. In other words, God let Satan think he managed to escape captivity. Having a brief time on the lam, only to be rearrested, makes it harder to come back to prison than if you never had that bit of freedom, had a glimmer of hope.

What if Satan belatedly realizes that the lax security was a trick? He thought he had God fooled, but God had him fooled. He thought he planned his daring escape, but it was actually God who planned it. 

In addition, the effect of Satan’s jailbreak is to lead the “enemy” straight to Satan’s hideout, straight to Satan’s encampment. It smokes out the remnant opposition to God. Exposes the forces of evil, as they regroup for a final, futile assault.

v) Keep in mind that this is a story. Revelation tells an allegorical story–with a plot, setting, and characters. This is parabolic rather than historic.

So what does this reflect in real life? In Bible history and church history, there are times when Satan may think he’s winning. Satan scores many pyrrhic victories in the course of world history. Where the tide seems to be turning in his favor. But try as he might, he can never stamp out the faithful. Like tenacious weeds, the faithful keep growing back.