SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
10/11/2015 9:32 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Removal
of Satan PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
20:1-3
Message
of the verses: “1 Then I saw an
angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain
in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the
devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into
the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the
nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things
he must be released for a short time.”
I wrote yesterday about how I
wondered what this key that the angel had looked like, and now we will look
further into the key mentioned in verse one.
This key that the angel has represents the delegated authority of God as
we saw earlier in Revelation 9:1 “Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a
star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless
pit was given to him.” The angel has the
power to open up the abyss and then after he puts Satan, the Antichrist, and
the false prophet into it he has the power to shut it up again. John MacArthur writes “The metaphor of
binding demons with a chain also appears in Jude 6. This chain is a great one, because of Satan’s
greatness and power as the highest created being (cf. Ezek. 2814). The angel laid hold of Satan, who is
unmistakably identified by the same four titles given him in Revelation
12:9. First he is called the dragon, a
title given him twelve times in Revelation (cf. 12:3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17;
13:1, 2, 4; 16:13). It emphasizes his
bestial nature, ferociousness, an oppressive cruelty. The title ‘serpent of old’ hearkens back to
the Garden of Eden and Satan’s temptation of Eve (Gen. 3:1-6; 2 Cor. 11:3). Diabolos
(devil) means ‘slanderer,’ or ‘malicious gossip’ (1 Tim. 3:11; 2 Tim. 3:3;
Titus 2:3)—an appropriate title for the ‘accuser of our brethren’ (12:10). Satan is a malignant liar; in fact, he is
‘the father of lies’ (John 8:44). Satanas (Satan) and its Hebrew rood satan are used fifty-three times in
Scripture. Both words mean ‘adversary,’
since Satan opposes God, Christ, and all believers.”
Next we look at “a thousand years”
something we have mentioned is used six times in this chapter and it tells us
how long the Kingdom of Christ on earth will reign after the Tribulation Period
is over.
We then read about how Satan is
bound for those thousand years mentioned and so he will not be able to deceive
the nations anymore while he is bound for those thousand years, but then we
read that he must be released for a short time after the thousand years are
complete, and we will get to the specifics of that later on. I would like to mention that the world will be
much different in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ, as I believe it will
be close to what it was after the creation of the earth. However when the Lord created man he was
perfect in that he did not have a sin nature, something he got after the fall,
and even though Satan will be bound and the earth will look similar to what it
did after God created it mankind will still be born with the sin nature and in
need of salvation, so in that aspect for sure it will be different that after
God created the world.
I want to add to this Spiritual
Diary what I wrote on November 14, 2005 on these three verses: “In verse one John writes about a powerful
angel that comes down from heaven and is holding a special key and a very
strong chain in his hand. The abyss is
not hell and John has mentioned this before in 9:1-2, 11; 11:7; and 17:8. This the place that Satan will be bound for
1000 years as John writes in verse two.
In verse three it can be seen that this strong angel with the strong
chain throws Satan into the abyss and puts a seal over it so that Satan cannot
get out until he is let out in 1000 years.
The verse goes on to say why Satan is put into this abyss, and that is
so that he will not be able to deceive the nations any longer, but he will be
able to do so after the 1000 years is up for a short time and after that he
will go to hell for eternity, along with all of his evil angels for that is why
hell was created in the first place.
“Just a bit of commentary on the
1000 years that is mentioned in this section, as there are some who have
different ideas of what this actually means.
I have heard a saying about Scripture which goes like this: when the plain sense of Scripture makes
sense, seek no other sense, and in this case there is no reason to read
anything into it for God’s word speaks of a 1000 year kingdom in which the
Messiah will rule over, and the one thing that has been added in the NT, (the
book of Revelation) is the amount of years it would last, for the Jews in the
OT had been promised this kingdom and this will be the fulfillment of it. There are some who have said that this is
just figurative language and it will not happen, but I believe they are very
wrong about their thinking.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
happy to have learned that Satan will one day be bound in the abyss for those
thousand years when Christ reigns from Jerusalem.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the
Lord that He will give us the grace to get through what looks like a rather
full week ahead, that by the grace of God we will bring glory to Him in all
that lies ahead.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “God’s.”
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said “"In my
dream, behold, I was standing on the bank of the Nile; and behold, seven cows,
fat and sleek came up out of the Nile, and they grazed in the marsh grass.’”
Answer
in our next SD.
10/11/2015
9:59 PM
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