Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

2271
(...continued)
Isaiah 24:21-23 states, “It will come about in that day: YHWH will call to account the
army of the height in the height, and the kings of the earth on the earth. They will be gathered
all together as prisoners in a cistern, they will be imprisoned in a prison, and after many days
they will be called to account. Then the pale one [the moon] will be confounded, and the hot
one [the sun] ashamed; for YHWH of Armies will have become King on Mount Zion and in
Jerusalem, and [shine] with splendor before His officials.” (Adapted from Otto Kaiser's translation
in Isaiah 13-29, p. 192)
It is obvious from this passage that John's symbolic vision in Revelation 20 can be understood
as the fulfillment of this passage, with its prediction of the "day of YHWH," which
John now sees as the "day of the Little Lamb," that "eternal day" during which the powers of
evil are broken and imprisoned.
It is a mistake to take Jesus’ “comparative” or "parabolic language" and turn it into a
detailed, exact, chronological description of the nature of the adversary and the kingdom of
evil, as many have attempted to do. But while the language should not be taken literally and
exactly, it should be taken seriously. Jesus obviously envisioned His mission in the world as
that of engaging in a struggle to the finish with all that is opposed to God and His kingdom. He
has come into this world to "bind the strong man," and to "free the captives," to enable those
who have been taken captive by evil forces, and by all the "non-Gods" that hold humanity's
allegiance, to be freed from all evil dominion, and to enter into the kingdom of God!
Nothing less than this is His mission! It is a thrilling thought to all those who have been
enslaved to unclean passions and whose lives have missed the divine "mark," that through
Jesus genuine freedom has been made possible! There is no demonic power that has not
been "bound" by Him, or that can escape from His victorious might! This is exactly the meaning
of the story in Mark 5:1-20, in which Jesus is pictured as casting out a "legion" of demonic
beings into a herd of pigs that then rushes down the cliff into the sea and is drowned.
Hendricksen interprets Revelation 20 from this standpoint: “Jesus is born. He begins
His ministry. The Pharisees accuse Him of casting out demons by the power of satan himself.
He answers, ‘How can one enter into the house of the strong one (namely satan) and plunder
his goods, unless he first binds the strong one? Then he shall plunder his goods’...The same
word ‘binding’ is used here in Matthew as in Revelation 20. This work of binding the devil
was begun when our Lord triumphed over him in the temptations in the wilderness (Matthew
4:1-11). As a result, Christ begins to ‘cast out’ demons. The power and influence of satan
over the deluded masses was beginning to be curtailed.
“Again, when the seventy missionaries returned, they said: ‘Lord, even the demons are
subject to us in Your name.’ Observe what follows: ‘And He said to them, I beheld satan falling
as lightning from heaven’ (Luke 10:17, 18). Here the devil's ‘falling from heaven’ is associated
with the missionary activity of the seventy. This is a very significant passage which does
much to explain Revelation 20.
993
(continued...)