Summary of passage: After the 1000 years, Satan will be released and will go out to deceive the nations and gather Gog and Magog for battle. There will be a huge number of them. God however threw fire down from heaven to destroy them and threw the devil into the lake of burning sulfur to be tormented for eternity.
Questions:
9a) Part personal Question. My answer: He goes out to deceive the nations. He’s evil, pure and simple. Man is evil, pure and simple.
b) God wins. God destroys all of Satan’s followers and throws Satan into the lake of burning sulfur for eternity.
10a) Personal Question. My answer: It doesn’t astonish me. It doesn’t.
b) They prefer to sin.
c) Personal Question. My answer: Pray. Know God’s word. Count on God to get me through the day and all the temptations of the world for he doesn’t give me more than I can handle and He always provides a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Conclusions: Flabbergasted to tell you the truth. Nothing here worthy of mentioning. No substance. Nothing on God and Magog. Stunned. My kids are bored with this study and I have started to let them skip classes. And I am counting down the lessons. Sad for me. Truly sad.
Suffering and death is what we deserve. Hence, Satan’s actions upon the world don’t “astonish” me or anything else. I follow God. I tell others. I don’t worry (Phillippians 4:6). The rest is up to God.
End Notes: Why would anyone after 1000 years with Jesus and peace rebel again? God allows it to show just how corrupt man is. During Jesus’ reign, people will go through the motions and never have a heart for Jesus. This will show when Satan returns and gathers too many to count. Sad. Very, very sad.
This is the last rebellion before the final judgment.
There will be no one to blame but our own sinful, depraved nature. In a perfect world, man is not perfect. Can’t blame your parents, your school, your socioeconomic condition, where you were born, etc. All will be your responsibility. And God wants to make that abundantly clear.
The angel is NOT Jesus. It would say “Jesus” here if it were. The key represents authority so we can assume Jesus has given the key to the angel to administer his justice.
The rebels will be the children of those who survived the Great Tribulation and live during the Millennium. Even though Jesus rules because of Free Will all these children will need to accept Christ. Man must overcome his sinful nature as always. This could potentially number in the billions once again (“the sand on the seashore”). If you think of how many survive the Tribulation and they all procreate for 1000 years, that’s a lot.
Who/What are Gog and Magog? They appear in Ezekiel 38-39 and represent an evil empire that attacks Israel from the north. Gog is the prince and Magog is the land of Gog, probably in Asia Minor. Many have tried to identify them as a specific country such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. THIS GOG AND MAGOG HERE IS NOT THE SAME AS THE GOG AND MAGOG IN EZEKIEL. Here, the Bible tells us they are the nations in the four corners of the earth. In this passage Gog and Magog represent all enemy nations against God and His people. They are evil personified. Here are used as symbols for the participants in the final battle with evil.
Best concise explanation of God and Magog with the comparison to Ezekiel HERE
We’ve seen the gathering of kings and beasts against God’s people before (Revelation 19:19: 16:14-16). And just as before they will be defeated.
God’s people here could be the saints ruling with Jesus from the Tribulation or earth’s inhabitants who have a true heart from Jesus that are alive during the 1000 years.
“The city he loves” is Jerusalem.
Again, we see no battle like in the battle of Armageddon in Revelation 16. God just wipes out all with heavenly fire. They will await final judgment at the Great White Throne room in Revelation 20:11-15.
We have Satan, the beast (Antichrist), and the false prophet in the lake of burning sulfur forever (Revelation 19:20). Jesus speaks of this as well in Matthew 25:41. God is good!
What is hell like? Here we have some answers in this passage:
- It’s eternal, “forever and ever”. We see this used to describe the throne of Christ (Hebrews 1:8). So hell is unending as Christ is unending.
- It’s a place of eternal torment. There is no hope, forgiveness, or clemency.
- Unbelievers will be cast into the eternal lake of burning sulfur along with Satan and the unrepentant angels. We see two humans (Antichrist and the false prophet) cast into the lake of fire before Satan (Revelation 19:19-20).
