(This is a description of the end of the millennium of the millennium.)
“He was thrown into the abyss and locked and sealed over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any more until the thousand years were over. After that, he must be released for a short time. (Revelation 20:3)
“When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. They spread out over the face of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:7-10).”
Christ is the King of the millennium. The resurrected saints will reign with the Lord. And the people of the millennial kingdom are those who survived the seventh bowl disaster of the seven bowl disasters and entered the millennial kingdom in the flesh. There are probably 4 billion of them. They will live in the millennial kingdom by race, people, and country. The environment is the most pleasant, the population is not large compared to the size of the land, and there are no demons, Satan or his minions. They entered in the flesh and have sinful nature in their bodies, but there is no one to entice, deceive, or tempt them, so they will live well without fighting or stealing.
It is an environment where water flows in the desert, the desert becomes a flower garden, and poisonous snakes and carnivorous animals become herbivores. And religion is the faith of worshiping God. According to Zechariah 14:16-19, when the Feast of Tabernacles comes in the millennial kingdom, people must go up to Jerusalem to worship God and keep the Feast of Tabernacles, but there are people and tribes who do not go up for the Feast of Tabernacles, and as a punishment, no rain will fall on them. When we look at these facts, it shows that among those who have entered the millennial kingdom in the flesh, there will be those who obey the words of the ruler Christ and those who disobey. This is because there is sin in them.
Therefore, when we look at the reality of the millennial kingdom, we see that there are people who obey and worship the King of the millennial kingdom, Jehovah of hosts, and there are those who go against the laws of the kingdom and act accordingly. At this time, when the thousand years are over, God releases Satan, who was imprisoned in the abyss. The Bible says that Satan was originally a deceiver. Satan comes out of prison and incites those who complain and disobey among the people of the millennial kingdom. In this way, the forces that follow Satan become powerful. Then, the Gog and Magog war of Revelation 20:7-10 breaks out. God brought Satan back after a thousand years to separate the chaff from the wheat.
The Gog and Magog war is God’s intention to release Satan to separate the chaff from the wheat. In Matthew 13:24-30, ’24 Jesus put forth another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 While people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 But when the grass sprouted and produced fruit, the weeds also appeared. 27 The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 He said, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 He said, ‘Leave me alone, or you may root up the wheat with the weeds. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and at the time of the harvest I will tell the harvesters, ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’
“When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle; their number is as the sand of the sea. They spread out over the face of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:7-10).
In Revelation 20:7-10, the Gog and Magog war is compressed into 4 verses, but we can see that these 4 verses contain an enormous war and event. This Gog and Magog war-like war also appears in Ezekiel 38 and 39. However, the background of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is that Gog formed an allied force to attack Israel, but there has never been a war like this in the history of Israel. And it should be viewed as a prophecy that will be fulfilled in the future, which has not yet been realized. The Grand Comprehensive Commentary says that the answer can be found when we look at the Book of Revelation, which contains prophecies corresponding to Ezekiel 38 and 39. In other words, the war of Gog in Ezekiel 38-39 refers to the war of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20:7-10. Here, let’s analyze Ezekiel 38 and 39 in contrast with Revelation 20:7-10.
“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and I will put hooks in your mouths. I will bring out your horses and your horsemen, your whole army, a great company in full armor, carrying shield and buckler, and swords, and with them, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, and all their bands, and the house of Togarmah from the far north, with all their bands, a multitude of many peoples.” (Ezekiel 38:1-6)
You may wonder why God did not throw Satan into the lake of fire with the Antichrist and the false prophet during the war of Armageddon, but instead locked him up in the abyss for a thousand years. When you see that God did not throw Satan into the lake of fire but locked him up in the abyss, you can see that God intended to use him once more, but you must have wondered where He would use him. The reason God locked Satan up in the abyss is to deal with the enormous number of people who would enter the millennium kingdom in the flesh. He gave them a chance for a thousand years to test whether they would serve God well in such a good environment. As I said before, during the millennium kingdom, He tested whether they would keep God’s laws, ordinances, and commands, and gave them another chance. And when the thousand years were over, He released Satan to deal with all those who followed Satan. There are many who are not like that, but when we look at the judgment of the Seven Bowls, we see that they did not repent while receiving such extreme disasters, but instead continued to curse God and blaspheme His name (Revelation 16:9, 21).
Therefore, these people are the scum of the earth, and even though they are still alive and have entered the millennial kingdom, they cannot abandon their evil nature. Just as the Israelites who resented God during the Exodus and lived in the wilderness for 40 years, and who resented God and complained to Moses whenever they had the chance, all perished in the wilderness, there will be many who complain among those who have entered the millennial kingdom. People think that if the environment is good, they will become good, but that is absolutely not the case. No matter how good the environment of the millennial kingdom without Satan and demons is, sin and evil will continue to be active until the sinful nature is washed away.
When Satan is released from the abyss, these people are the ones who are Satan’s prey. These people become Satan’s minions. In Ezekiel 38:1, God tells Gog to lead an allied force and invade Israel, but in reality, He has Satan do the work of piercing Gog’s mouth. Here, the allied nations formed under Gog’s leadership are listed as Rosh, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, and Togarmah in the extreme north. Among these, Persia is a country located east of Israel, Cush and Put are located south, Gomer is located west, and Togarmah is located north of Israel as mentioned in this verse. In addition, Gomer and Togarmah are descendants of Japheth (Gen. 10:2, 3), Cush and Put are descendants of Ham (Gen. 10:6), and Persia is descendant of Shem (Gen. 10:22). In the end, from Israel’s perspective, they were invaded by an army that was like an alliance of all mankind, transcending racial and ethnic distinctions from all directions, east, west, south, and north. The leader of this allied army was Gog. Just as he set up the Antichrist and the false prophet during the seven-year tribulation and persecuted the church, we see the reality of Satan using the same method even after a thousand years.
“Be prepared, you and all the people who are gathered around you; be their leader. After many days, in the last days, you will be commanded to go to the land, to the mountains of Israel, which have long been desolate. The people of the land have escaped the sword and are gathered from the nations and are coming from the foreign countries, and they are all at peace. You will go up, you and all your bands and the many peoples with you, like a storm, covering the earth like a cloud” (Ezekiel 38:7-9).
‘After many days, in the last days’ means that when Satan, who was imprisoned in the abyss, is released and deceives all the nations of the world, he will be ‘commanded’ by Satan to go to the mountains of Israel, which have long been desolate, at the end of the millennial kingdom.
And please do not think of the ‘saints’ or ‘beloved saints’ as resurrected saints. In the millennial kingdom, the resurrected saints are spiritual beings more powerful than angels. They are not beings that the devil or Satan can dare to deal with. Here, the saints in Ezekiel and Revelation 20:7-10 refer to those who have entered the millennial kingdom in the flesh and obey the law of the ruler, Christ. Please keep this in mind.
And the reason Satan targets Israel and Jerusalem is because it was the capital of the millennial kingdom and also because Christ, the king of the millennial kingdom, is in the palace of Jerusalem.
The words ‘the people of the land have escaped the sword and are gathered from the nations and come from the foreign lands, and they are all at peace’ mean that by the time the millennial kingdom has passed, society will have become very corrupt. It will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, and like the time of Noah in Genesis 6.
Because they are fleshly people and they have sin. Since there is no Satan, their sinfulness is not greatly revealed, but because of their sinfulness, there will be evil in the society at the end of the millennium, and these sins will gather together to create great evil. Even in such a society, special groups that fear God will have been formed. They are people from various countries. The city where they live is called the ‘camp of the saints’, that is, the beloved city in Revelation 20:7-10.
When we think about Revelation 20:7-10 and Ezekiel 38 in connection, we realize that this ‘camp of the saints’ and the ‘beloved city’ are not the city where divine beings with resurrected bodies live, but those who fear God in the millennium. The population of the millennium will be roughly 10 billion, and among them, there will be many who fear God and keep the law of Christ, the King of hosts.
Here, I strongly emphasize to those of you who are reading this article that the Old and New Testament descriptions of the millennium are descriptions of those who will live in the flesh in the millennium, and you should read this article with that in mind. The life span of man at that time will be a thousand years, and the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fattened beast together; and a little child will lead them, and the cow and the bear will feed together, and their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and the nursing child will play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
This description refers to those who will have the flesh of sin during the millennium. The children and nursing infants in these verses are the children born to those who will live in the millennium. They are those who will have the flesh. In that sense, the millennium is a completely different world from the present world in which we live. In Ezekiel 38:8, they are described as “the people of the land who escaped the sword, gathered from the nations, and came from the foreign lands, and all are living in peace,” and in Ezekiel 38:12, they are called “the people who live in the center of the earth.” The commentary explains that “the center” here means “to build up” and “high ground.” This “high ground” does not mean a geographical “high ground,” but rather “an important place” or “center.” Therefore, “the people who live in the center of the earth” refers to “the place where the people who fear God, who are located at the center, live” in the millennial kingdom.
When these people come out of the nations and live in peace in the beloved city, Ezekiel 38:9 says, “You will come up, you and all your troops and the many peoples with you, like a storm, covering the land like a cloud.” In Revelation 20:8, “He will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle; their number is as the sand of the sea.” This shows that the number of the allied forces led by Gog will be this large. Those who they face will not be able to stand against God, nor will they be able to stand against the resurrected beings. They will stand against those who serve God in the millennial kingdom on behalf of God and these resurrected saints.
“Thus says the Lord God: I will call for a sword against him on all my mountains, every man’s sword against his brother. I will punish him with pestilence and bloodshed, and I will rain down a torrential downpour, great hailstones, fire and brimstone on him and all his hordes and the many peoples with him” (Ezekiel 38:21-22).
The method by which God destroys Gog’s army is the same as in Revelation 20:9. “They spread out over the face of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and consumed them” (Revelation 20:9).
In Revelation 20:9, it is simply said that fire would come down from heaven and consume them, but Ezekiel 38 is more specific, saying that it would rain down a torrential downpour, hailstones, fire, and brimstone on them and all their places, and that it would be destroyed.
“The inhabitants of the cities of Israel will go out and set their weapons on fire and burn them, taking the shields and bucklers, the bows, the clubs, and the spears, and they will set fire to them for seven years. They will not take wood from the field or cut down trees from the forests, because they will set their weapons on fire. They will plunder those who plundered them, and they will plunder those who plundered them. ’ “‘In that day,’ declares the Lord God, ‘I will give Gog the land of Israel, the valley of the sea east of the sea, where the people traveled, and the passages will be stopped. There they will bury Gog and all his multitude, and they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog” (Ezekiel 39:9-12).
“The house of Israel will bury them for seven months and cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them and make a name for themselves, for it is the day of my glory,” declares the Lord God. “They will select men to go through the land regularly, along with the burial men, to bury the dead bodies that remain on the face of the earth, and cleanse the land. At the end of seven months they will search, and if the men who go through the land see human bones, they will set up a sign beside them and the burial men will come and bury them in the Valley of Hamon Gog. And the name of the city will be called Hamonah. They will cleanse the land in this way” (Ezekiel 39:13-16).
Ezekiel 39 provides a more detailed and in-depth account of the Battle of Gog and describes the results of the battle. God prophesied that it would take seven years for the people who follow the Lord to burn the weapons of their enemies and seven months to bury the bodies of fallen enemy soldiers.
Here we see that there will be no wars between nations in the millennium. The millennium will be formed by nations or nation-states, but Christ will be the overall ruler. And since there will be no Satan in that era, there will be no World War I or World War II like in this century. There will be no local wars. Christ will control, mediate, and punish those who fight and quarrel. The reason we are talking about this is that without war, weapons of war cannot be invented or developed. The reason our country suffered the Imjin War was because there had been no war in Joseon for 200-300 years until then. This is because the great nation of the Qing Dynasty was holding out, and the surrounding countries were in its shadow, so there could not be war. Therefore, it is said that there was no imagination of war preparations, and there was no preparation or development of weapons for war.
However, weapons of war were invented and developed in Europe, but since Europe was a country with many small countries facing each other on the border, wars never ended. As wars continued, weapons of war were developed, invented, and developed. The reason I say this is because there was no war for a thousand years, so weapons of war were not developed. After the third world war and the war of Armageddon during the seven-year tribulation, weapons were destroyed, and since there was no war for a thousand years, weapons of war were not developed at all. At that time, I imagine that the primitive weapons mentioned in Ezekiel 38 and 39, such as swords, spears, shields, and cavalry, will be used. Isaiah 2:4 says, “He will judge among the nations and reprove many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore.” This verse describes life in the Millennial Kingdom. The result of the war of Gog and Magog is that in Revelation 20:10, Satan is captured and thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Antichrist and the false prophet who were thrown a thousand years ago are. And in Revelation 20:11-15, the Great White Throne judgment unfolds.
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