Final Millennial Reign Battle
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
3 Destruction of Gog and Magog
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
(Revelation 20:7-10)
The Lord’s millennial reign begins with the battle of Armageddon, and, as the passage above declares, it will conclude with another great conflict in which the armies of Gog and Magog are destroyed.
Shortly before the thousand years expire, Satan and his angels will be released once more from the bottomless pit. They will go out across the earth to deceive the nations, stirring them to rebel against the Lord Jesus and His saints. Scripture reveals that in those days evil thoughts will arise in the hearts of men, leading them to devise wicked plans (Ezekiel 38:10). Satan will implant these thoughts, and because the Lord and His saints will be ruling the nations with a rod of iron (Revelation 19:15), many will be eager to embrace any suggestion of rebellion.
During the millennium, the saints will dwell securely in unwalled villages (Ezekiel 38:11). This peaceful and unfortified way of life will cause the rebelling nations to regard the saints as easy prey. They will also covet the prosperity of the saints, for Scripture makes clear that their intent is not only to overthrow the rule of the Lord’s people, but also to seize their wealth (Ezekiel 38:13).
The armies gathered against the Lord and His saints will be immense, for the passage describes their number as being “as the sand of the sea.” To convey the vast scale of this force, Scripture states that the saints will use the weapons of the defeated armies—shields, bows, arrows, javelins, and spears—as firewood for seven years (Ezekiel 39:9).
This detail helps us estimate the size of the armies of Gog and Magog. We have previously estimated the camp of the saints to number approximately five million people, including both saints and servants. If each person uses roughly 100 kilograms of firewood per year, this would require approximately 3.5 million tons of fuel over seven years. Assuming that each soldier in Gog and Magog’s army contributed about 600 kilograms of weaponry and equipment, this would indicate an army numbering approximately 5.8 million men—significantly larger than the army of the Antichrist.
As at Armageddon, where the Lord Jesus destroyed the Antichrist’s army while the saints merely observed, so it will be again. The difference on this occasion is that God the Father Himself will destroy the armies of Gog and Magog by fire from heaven.
This event also provides insight into the agricultural character of life during the millennium. Scripture states that the saints will use the weapons of the defeated armies as fuel for seven years. The nature of these weapons confirms that society during this period will be agricultural and entirely unlike the technological world of the present age.
Furthermore, the fact that these weapons will still be used for fuel seven years after the battle implies that the second resurrection does not occur immediately following this event.
Finally, the passage reveals that at this time Satan himself will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Thus, like the Antichrist and the False Prophet, he will not be present at the great white throne judgment, for all three will already have been consigned to the lake of fire—the second death.
Michael E.B. Maher
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