At the end of the thousand years, Satan—who was bound at the beginning of that reign—will be loosed from his prison. And at once he will do what he has always done: he will go out to deceive the nations, gathering them together for one last battle against the King of kings, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His saints. As we saw all the way back in chapter five, Satan has never abandoned his original ambition—to overthrow God and become god himself:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!… For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God… I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit (Isaiah 14:12–15).
This is the same being Jesus exposed as “a murderer from the beginning” and “the father of lies”:
Ye are of your father the devil… He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it (John 8:44).
And one of the central purposes of the Son of God’s coming was to undo this ancient rebel’s work and, at the last, to see his judgment carried out: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Now that purpose reaches its final act.
The Second Rebellion—On Earth This Time
Notice how fitting, and how futile, this last uprising is. Satan’s first rebellion was staged in heaven, and he was cast down. Now he tries a second time—but the battlefield is no longer heaven; it is the earth. This is the final clash between good and evil, and its outcome is never in doubt. All the nations he has deceived will march up against the Lord at Jerusalem, and they will simply be devoured by fire from heaven:
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 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 (Revelation 20:7–9).
There is no real war here—no contest of armies, no uncertain struggle. The rebels merely gather, and fire falls. The One they came to fight does not so much as lift a hand; He speaks, and it is over. This is the utter difference between the Creator and the creature who imagined he could be like the Most High.363
Ezekiel’s Prophecy of Gog
The prophet Ezekiel, centuries earlier, was given a detailed picture of how this Gog would gather for battle, and how he would be destroyed. Note that it comes upon Israel while she is dwelling safely—which fits the peace of the millennial reign—and “in the latter days”:
Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog… In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts… a great company, and a mighty army: and thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days (Ezekiel 38:14–16).
God’s response is overwhelming. His fury rises; the whole created order shakes at His presence; and He turns the invaders’ own swords against one another:
Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel… and the mountains shall be thrown down… and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother (Ezekiel 38:19–21).
Men will turn on one another in the confusion of that day. And then fire and brimstone will fall from heaven to consume them:
And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him… an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone (Ezekiel 38:22).
And the reason God does all this is stated plainly, and it is the theme of this whole book: “Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 38:23). Even in judgment, God is revealing who He is.
The Cleansing of the Land
So vast will be the slaughter that the burial alone will take seven months. Ezekiel gives the sobering detail:
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel… and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land (Ezekiel 39:11–12).
Teams will be appointed to pass through the land, and wherever anyone finds even a single human bone, he is to set up a marker beside it until the buriers can come and bury it in the valley of Hamongog, “that they may cleanse the land” (Ezekiel 39:14–16). The very earth must be cleansed of the defilement of this last rebellion.
The earth itself will be devastated by the war of Gog and Magog—ruined and drenched in blood. And then the Lord God will summon all creation to judgment. The same Lord Jesus who came once as a Lamb will now be seated as the righteous Judge upon His throne, judging all the living creatures He Himself created. What a day that will be!
Notes
- 363. The final rebellion of “Gog and Magog” (Rev. 20:7–10) draws its imagery from Ezekiel 38–39. Interpreters differ on how the Ezekiel prophecy relates to Revelation 20 (some read Ezekiel as describing a battle at the end of the millennium, as this book does; others relate it to events surrounding Christ’s return or read it more symbolically). What is clear in Revelation 20 is that this last satanic assault is crushed instantly and effortlessly by God, leading directly to Satan’s final judgment. See G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 1021–1029. ↩