The Signs of the Times (51): Uprising

‘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 for battle.’
Revelation 20:7-8

A well-known New Testament expert once said: When, in a certain passage where two resurrections are mentioned, whereby certain ‘psychai edzesan’ (souls become alive), and the rest of the ‘nekroi edzesan’ (dead become alive) only at the end of a certain period after that first one – if then in such a passage that first resurrection is to be understood as a spiritual resurrection with Christ, while the second resurrection then signifies the literal resurrection from the grave – we have reached the end of all meaning of the language, and Scripture has been erased as a witness of anything at all! Two resurrections: one at the beginning of Christ’s rule and a second at the end thereof.

Something else will happen before that second resurrection takes place however: Satan will be released from the abyss! What will happen now? How will the people, the nations, react? Will they say to Satan’s new seductions: No thank-you, our heart chooses the Lord and His Anointed, whose kingship, with all its blessings, we have been privileged to experience these last thousand years? No, thank-you, six thousand years of world history have been sufficient to teach us that a human being is no ‘god’ in his deepest thoughts and neither should he wish to be? No, thank-you, Babylon and antichrist and everything that goes with them once is more than enough for us, history has made us wise and does not need to be repeated?

Absolutely not! L’histoire se répète – history does repeat itself. The people fall for Satan’s seductions once again. Perhaps he goes to the four corners of the earth because those ‘peripheral areas’ are furthest from Jerusalem. That was also where the four ‘winds of destruction’ had to be held back, Revelation 7:1. The ends of the earth are sometimes associated with doom and disaster. From the ends of the earth I call to You, I call as my heart grows faint, Psalm 61:2. ‘Eretz’ can be translated as ‘land’ and ‘earth’. The entrance to the realm of the dead is sought at the farthest sea, Psalm 139:7-12.

Does this refer to ‘peripheral nations’ that live geographically far away from the centre of Messianic government? They are probably the hypocrites who have indeed submitted outwardly, but not inwardly, to the rule of Christ and the believers, Israel and the resurrected church over the nations. Solomon writes: ‘May He rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. May the desert tribes bow before Him and His enemies lick the dust. May all kings bow down to Him and all nations serve Him.’ Psalm 72 – a truly royal psalm!

However, another Psalm says: ‘So great is Your power that Your enemies cringe before You.’ How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you, Psalm 66:3. And: ‘Those who hate the Lord would cringe before Him, and their punishment would last forever.’ Those who hate the LORD would cringe before Him, and their punishment would last forever, Psalm 81:15:  – the nations that are punished – now and then – because they refuse, under Christ’s rule, to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain: ‘If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.’  Zechariah 14:17.

The names ‘Gog’ and ‘Magog’ are pronounced immediately afterwards – nations from the ‘periphery’; from the far north: Gog, I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. I will send fire on the coastlands (far away from Israel), Ezekiel 39:1, 6. What Ezekiel is talking about is concerning nations from the far north and their allies, whereas these nations come from the four corners of the earth, from the ends of the earth. Both the disposition of their hearts and the disposition of the devil, who, after a thousand years in the abyss, has not learned anything either, must come to light however, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God, Romans 3:19, as far as the justice of God’s judgements is concerned. The rebellion will only last for a short time however. People who suppress the truth are without excuse, Romans 1:20.