Revelation 20:7-9 “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison (8) 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. (9) 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.”
We saw at the outset of this teaching that our Lord’s millennial reign will begin with a battle i.e. the battle of Armageddon. And so in a similar manner we will see that the close of our Lord’s millennial reign will also end with a battle, i.e. the destruction of Gog and Magog. In the above quoted passage of scripture it is revealed to us that when the Lord’s millennial reign draws to a close, that Satan and his angels will be released from the bottomless pit once again. This passage teaches us that when Satan and his angels are released, they will be allowed to go into all the earth to deceive the unbelieving nations that will be on the earth. The deception that Satan and his angels will introduce into the earth will be to influence the unbelieving nations to rebel against the reign of the Lord Jesus and His saints. We can see from this passage that Satan will single out Gog and Magog as the ringleaders for his planned rebellion.
Ezekiel 38:1-12 “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, (2) "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, … (10) Thus says the Lord God: "On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: (11) You will say, 'I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates'-- (12) to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.”
The above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that thoughts will arise in the minds of men and they will begin to make evil plans. Satan is the one who will place those thoughts into the minds of the unbelieving nations. As we have already mentioned, the saints will rule the unbelieving nations with a rod of iron, and so, many of the unbelieving nations will view the Lord’s reign as being an oppressive regime. And so when Satan places thoughts of rebellion into their minds they will be eager to follow his deception. They will view the saints as being soft prey, for this passage tells us that the saints will be living peacefully in villages without walls. The unsaved nations will also be envious of the prosperity of the Lord’s saints, for this passage tells us that they will come against the saints, not only with the intention of ending their rule, but also to take the wealth of the Lord’s saints for themselves.
Ezekiel 38:13-14 “Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, 'Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?' “‘(14) “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, 'thus says the Lord God: "On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it?”
Although the rebelling army of Gog and Magog will be extremely vast, drawn from many nations around the world, not all the nations will actively join in their endeavour to overthrow the Lord’s reign in the earth. We know that because the above quoted passage of scripture describes some of the nations commenting to Gog and the nations with him about his intentions. And so we see that even though some nations will not actively participate in the rebellion, they will nevertheless still be complicit in it, because they will be aware of the intentions of Gog, Magog and their allies, and will do nothing to prevent them from their endeavours. As an aside, it is important to note that because the saints will have perfect knowledge in the millennium, they will know about the rebellion even before Satan is released into the earth. In other words the rebellion will not take the saints by surprise.
Revelation 20:7-9 “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison (8) 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. (9) 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 army that eventually comes against the Lord and His saints will be immense, for the passage of scripture quoted above refers to their number being as the sand of the sea. Another passage refers to them covering the land like a cloud (Ezekiel 38:9). So how large will Gog and Magog’s army be? We have already estimated that the population of the unbelieving nations will be 5.4 billion people. Of that number, 1.1 billion will form part of the fourth kingdom i.e. the servants of the saints; you will recall that all the men of fighting age in the fourth kingdom (300 million) would have been destroyed in the battle of Armageddon. And so that leaves approximately 4.3 billion people in the balance of the nations. Nevertheless we have also seen that not all nations will actively participate in the rebellion. And so if we conservatively assume that only half the nations will actively participate in the rebellion, then that still equates to an army of approximately 430 million men of fighting age. Clearly we can see that the army of Gog and Magog will be substantially larger than the army of the anti-Christ.
Michael E.B. Maher
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