The Devil in Chains

Revelation 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

Introduction:

The battle of Armageddon was short lived. The last great world war led by the Devil, antichrist, and the false prophet was quickly ended by the Lord Jesus using the sword of His mouth, the Word of God. He took the antichrist and false prophet and cast them alive into a sea burning with fire and brimstone and destroyed the armies opposing Christ. But what about the Devil Himself? After all, it was the Devil who deceived mankind to opposing God back in the garden of Eden. Furthermore, he empowered the antichrist and false prophet. Let us trace his character and history from the beginning to the end.

The character of the devil:

Satan means adversary. He is the primary adversary of God. He is called the accuser of the brethren. He is the Devil, the deceiver, the prince of power of the air, and has a multitude of evil spirits under his control. He rebelled against God, declaring “I will,” culminating in his statement:?I will be like the most High. (see Isaiah 14:12-14).?His primary characteristic is thus pride. He deceived Eve to think that she too could be like God and independent of Him. Adam joined Eve, rejecting the command of God and actually joining Satan’s rebellion. We believe that Satan has a third of the created angels (referred to as Sons of God) under his control, later becoming evil spirits when they too rebelled against God. Paul writes:?Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

There is much more to be said but this is a brief summary. The Bible makes us aware of Satan’s devices (2 Cor. 2:11). His work can be said to (1) damn souls, attempting to dissuade them from accepting Jesus Christ as savior. (2) destroy lives. Those who are saved may still be uneffective and impotent lives even though they are believers because they still live by the principle of “I will” rather than yielding to the leading of the Lord (3) disrupting every work of God by any means possible.

The history of the devil:\

1.?????The Devil is a created being, the anointed cherub, apparently the top cherub, which is a very high angel, and perhaps the greatest of all created beings. In Ezekiel 28, we find the following: 12b Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God, every precious stone was thy covering….14. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so: thou was upon the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16 by the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore, I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason at thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground; I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee…19. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.?

Thus, we find that God had created Satan, also known as Lucifer, without fault as a glorious angel. However, his heart was lifted up in pride, and instead of protecting the glory of God, which was apparently a task of the cherubs (they were in the garden of Eden and on top of the ark of the covenant), he rebelled against God and led a rebellion of the angels. Those angels who followed him became evil spirits, who he organized into a world-wide army.

2.?????Satan was able to come on earth and deceive Eve, followed by Adam. He became the prince of the power of the air. God pronounced a curse upon him and announced the eventual coming of a savior. (See Genesis 3:15)

3.?????Satan and his angels apparently have had access not only to earth but at least for a time to heaven. He appeared before God in the presence of the angels (sons of God) accusing Job (see Job chapters 1 & 2), and later Joshua the high priest (see Zechariah 3:1-2). It seems that evil spirits could also go into heaven – see I Kings 22:19-23. A spirit suggested that he would go to deceive Ahab’s prophets as a lying spirit, and God sent him on this task. These three references were from the Old Testament.

4.?????At some point in time, there is war in heaven and Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven, and their activities restricted to earth (Revelation 12:7-10). Although the exact time is not stated, I suspect that it is in the middle of the time of great tribulation. At this point, Satan recognizes that his time is limited and focuses on his work on earth, especially against believers and the Jewish nation.

The devil in chains:

At the conclusion of the battle of Armageddon, Satan is seized by a great angel and bound in the abyss, the bottomless pit. In Revelation 9, we read the following:?1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth (perhaps this star is Satan himself): and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3. And there came out of the smoke locusts (a type of evil spirit described in the next verses) upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power…?It seems that there were evil spirits released to torture mankind from this pit.?

Now Satan himself is cast into the same bottomless pit.?Revelation 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. 3. 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.

Satan is not able to function for 1000 years. This time, the millennium, is a time of great joy and productivity, but it is not eternity. The earth will blossom, people will live to an old age, and peace will prevail until the conclusion of the thousand years. We will discuss this time in more detail in the following lesson. #Satan #Devil #millenium