Query: 

Revelation 20:7-9

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are [now] in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 

Where did John get this idea from?

Answer:  

After saying that Satan will be bound in a “prison” for 1,000 years by the deaths of the last generation of human rebels, the Spirit informs us that he will be set free by the re-emergence (in the second resurrection) of all those humans who had followed his ways while alive on earth.  Then he is called “Gog” and the multitude “Magog”, and together with his host of angels they will attack the saints who are living in plain sight in the city of New Jerusalem which is on the earth at that time.

This was not a new idea, for the prophet Ezekiel had also been shown the same scene.  Using the picture of some wild tribes of the wilderness, God tried to show His people what the end of this world will be like.  By working from the geographical and literal we can see more what He is trying to show us.

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Ezekiel 38:

1 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, set your face against Gog, [of] the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, 3 Thus says the LORD GOD; Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 4 and I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws [like prisoners of war], and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords [all are fighting people]: 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them [i.e. from the ends of the earth]; all of them with shield and helmet: 6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with you. 

[There will be a great multitude from all over the earth.]

7 Be you prepared, and prepare for yourself, you, and all your company [of rebel angels] that are assembled to you, and be you a guard to them [on a desolate earth]. 

8 After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people [the saved in New Jerusalem], against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste [while you were in charge of the earth]: but it is [the redeemed who are] brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. 

9 You shall ascend and come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your bands, and many people with you.  10 “Thus says the LORD GOD;

It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into your mind, and you shall think an evil thought.

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That “evil thought” will be that if they attack the city and destroy it and its inhabitants they will gain control of the whole world.  The rebels come up from their graves with the same mind that they had when they died, and that is one of rebellion and death to their enemies, so they find this idea attractive.  They far outnumber the righteous and are sure they will succeed.

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Ezekiel 38:

11 And you shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, 12 to take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. 

[Some of the people of God at this time are obviously living in villages outside of the city walls and attending to the gardens which surround it.  The gates of the city are not shut for there is no day or night there (Isaiah 60:11; Revelation 21:24-25.) so it looks to be an easy target.]

13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions [warriors] thereof, shall say to you, ‘Are you come to take a spoil?  Have you gathered your company to take a prey?  To carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?’ [We want to join you. There will be one great harmony of purpose, to get rich at the expense of the apparently helpless.

14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus says the LORD GOD;

In that day when My people of Israel dwells safely, shall you not know [see] it?

15 And you shall come from your place out of the north parts [as the king of the north, in a great religious crusade], you, and many people with you, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: 16 and you shall come up against My people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring you against My land, that the heathen [the rejecters] may know Me, when I shall be sanctified [proved] in you, O Gog, before their eyes. 

17 Thus says the LORD GOD; Are you he of whom I have spoken in old time by My servants the prophets of Israel [Satan the destroyer], which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring you against them?

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It will take some considerable time (called in The Revelation, “a little season”, Revelation 20:3) to assemble, train, and equip the host of the rebels, but eventually the command will be given to advance.  Then with military precision the ranks of the rejecters will march to surround the city. 

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Ezekiel 38:

18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of [redeemed] Israel, says the LORD GOD, that My fury [My full power] shall come up in My face.  19 For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

[“Whose voice then shook the earth [at Mt. Sinai when He spoke the Ten Commandments the first time]: but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven’.  And this word, ‘Yet [only] once more’, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear [respect]: for [close up] our God is a consuming fire”.  Hebrews 12:26-29.]

20 so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.     

[Revelation 21:

23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.  24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth [the saints] do bring their glory and honour into it.  25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.  26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the [saved] nations into it. 

27 And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.]  

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By entering in to the area around the city, Satan and his host march right into the power grid which surrounds God and His companions.  With Him is His Son, a host of mighty angels, and all the redeemed.  This power network of life is potent! 

As God says, His “fury shall come up in His face”!  It is called, “The Lake of Fire”, for a vast area will be affected.  Revelation 20:14-15.  No one who has separated from God can last long in such a fiery furnace, and yet they will press on as all attacking armies do.  It is suicide to us who sit in our armchairs, but to an offensive army it is the key to success.

Then something amazing will happen:

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Ezekiel 38:

21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, says the LORD GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

[Zechariah 14:

12 “And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against [new] Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth”. 

(Their DNA strands will slowly unravel because they are still rejecting the protection and life of God, and the reaction to that in this situation is slow disintegration.  Added to that, each one will attack his neighbour with all the fury of their bottled-up anger.)

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.]   

22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood [I will reluctantly have to allow he and his army to destroy themselves]; and I will [involuntarily] rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.  [This is the “second death”.]

[In another place, the effect of this is described as “blood”.  “And the winepress [of God’s “wrath”] was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even to the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.  Revelation 14:20.]

23 Thus will I magnify [reveal] Myself, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD [of power].

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By this action it will be seen that what God has said all along is true;

sin destroys whatever it touches, for it is sin which is being consumed. 

All the rebels have chosen to retain their sinfulness and they must go with it.

God has not personally punished, hurt or destroyed!  It is the living power of God working through the assembled multitude of righteous ones which supplies the destructive force!

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Ezekiel 39:

1 Therefore, you son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the LORD GOD; Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

2 and I will turn you back, and leave but the sixth part of you [after the initial attack], and will cause you [them] to come up from the north parts, and will bring you upon the mountains of Israel: 3 and I will smite your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.

[In WW2 on D-day 9 out of 10 of the first wave ashore at Normandy perished. 

The same statistics apply when storming a castle’s walls,

but such losses are acceptable to the generals in charge of war.  

Despite the horrific casualties, the survivors carry on the charge.]

4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you, and all your bands, and the people that is with you: I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

5 You shall fall upon the open field [of those mountains]: for I have spoken it, says the LORD GOD.  6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly [those who reject My protection] in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD [of life]. 

[Speaking to Satan and his followers through the picture of the king of Tyre, God said, “Your heart was lifted up [in pride] because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness [and become a fool]: I will cast you to the ground,

I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you. You have defiled your sanctuaries [bodies] by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic; THEREFORE WILL I BRING FORTH A FIRE FROM THE MIDST OF YOU, it shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold you [the saints].  All they that know you among the [redeemed] people shall be astonished at you: you shall be a terror [a frightening sight], and never shall you be any more”.  Ezekiel 28:17-19.] 

7 So will I make My holy name [character] known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, says the LORD GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken [and dreaded, so often].

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The Spirit then finishes up Ezekiel’s vision in a very worldly way by explaining in graphic earthy terms just what the destruction would result in if it were an ordinary war.  Of course, in God’s way the Fire will accomplish all this, for out of it He will fashion the new world. 

“The LORD is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation [conduct] and godliness, looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness”.  2 Peter 3:9-13.

Conclusion:

Those who refuse to be saved will be resurrected at the third advent of Christ, and then, true to their natures, they will attempt to conquer the city of New Jerusalem which they will find on earth near them.  But their attempts to do so will only bring them into conflict the power that surrounds the living God and this (which looks like a Lake of Fire) will cause their second deaths.  As they have rejected God's presence in their lives, so they have rejected His life and have chosen death and their action proves this.

Afterwards there will be a NEW earth.

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Revelation 22:1-6.

1 And he [my angel guide] showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.  2 In the midst of the street [channel] of it, and on either side of the river was there the Tree of Life, [there is a trunk on either side meeting in the middle], which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing [life] of the nations [of the redeemed].

3 And there shall be no more curse [of sin and death]: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it [the city]; and His servants shall serve Him [there]: 4 and they shall see His face; and His name [character] shall be in their foreheads [minds].

5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the LORD God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever [throughout eternity]. 

6 And he said to me, “These sayings are faithful and true: and the LORD God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show to His servants the things which must shortly be done”.

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Who wants to add (or subtract!) from these thoughts? I won't argue as I have stated,

but I will publish your Scriptures so that we may review all the words of God on the subject.

Next query. To be discussed from September 1st 2012,

Revelation 20:2-3.

And he [an angel] laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 

What do the words “a little season” mean and how long is it?

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