Rev.20:1-3

Revelation

Excerpts from --

Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith

Revelation Chapter 20


The World's Millennial Night


Verse 1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.


The event with which this chapter opens seems to follow the events of the preceding chapter in chronological order. The inquires that here arise are, Who is the angel that comes down from heaven? What are the key and the chain which he has in his hand? What is the bottomless pit? What is meant by binding Satan a thousand years?


Is this angel Christ, as some suppose? Evidently not. A direct ray of light is thrown from the old typical service directly upon this passage.


Satan is the Scapegoat.--


Christ is the great High Priest of the gospel age. On the Day of Atonement anciently two goats were taken by the priest, and lots were cast upon them, one for the Lord, and the other for the scapegoat. The goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, was then slain, and his blood carried into the sanctuary to make an atonement for the children of Israel. After this the sins of the people were confessed upon the head of the other, or scapegoat, and he was sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, a place not inhabited. As Christ is the priest of the gospel age, a few arguments will show Satan to be the antitypical scapegoat.


The Hebrew word for scapegoat, as given in the margin of Leviticus 16: 8, is "Azazel." On this verse, William Jenks remarks: "Scapegoat. See diff. opin. in Bochar. Spencer, after the oldest opinions of the Hebrews and Christians, thinks Azazel is the name of the devil; and so Rosenm., whom see. The Syr. has Azzail, the 'angel (strong one) who revolted.' " [1] The devil is here evidently pointed out. Thus we have the definition of the Scripture term in two ancient languages, with the oldest opinion of the Christians, in favor of the view that the scapegoat is a type of Satan.


Charles Beecher says: "What goes to confirm this is that the most ancient paraphrases and translations treat Azazel as a proper name. The Chaldee paraphrase and the targums of Onkelos and Jonathan would certainly have translated it if it was not a proper name, but they do not. The Septuagint, or oldest Greek version, renders it by {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, apopompaios, a word applied by the Greeks to a malign deity sometimes appeased by sacrifices. Another confirmation is found in the book of Enoch, where the name Azalzel, evidently a corruption of Azazel, is given to one of the fallen angels, thus plainly showing that was the prevalent understanding of the Jews at that day. Still another evidence is found in the Arabic, where Azazel is employed as the name of the evil spirit." [2]


Here is the Jewish interpretation:


"Far from involving the recognition of Azazel as a deity, the sending of the goat was, as stated by Nahmanides, a symbolic expression of the idea that the people's sins and their evil consequences were to be sent back to the spirit of desolation and ruin, the source of all impurity." [3]


In a striking manner these views harmonize with the events to take place in connection with the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, as revealed to us in the Scriptures of truth.


In the type we see the sin of the transgressor transferred to the victim. We see that sin borne by the ministration of the priest and the blood of the offering into the sanctuary. On the tenth day of the seventh month we see the priest, with the blood of the sin offering for the people, remove all their sins from the sanctuary, and lay them upon the head of the scapegoat. And we see the goat bear them away into a land not inhabited. (Leviticus 1: 4; 4: 3-6; 16: 5-10, 15, 16, 20-22.)


Answering to these events in the type, we behold in the antitype, the great offering for the world made on Calvary. The sins of all those who avail themselves of the merits of Christ's shed blood by faith in Him, are borne by the ministration of Christ into the new-covenant sanctuary. After Christ, the minister of the true tabernacle (Hebrews 8: 2), has finished His ministration, He will remove the sins of His people from the sanctuary, and lay them upon the head of their author, the antitypical scapegoat, the devil. The devil will be sent away, bearing them into a land not inhabited.


"Let us contemplate that scene at Christ's return to earth. The Church has been judged; Israel has been judged; the Gentile nations have been also judged. . . . Now it is Satan's turn to be judged also; and our High Priest is seen 'putting' the moral blame to where it rightly belongs; judging the great corruptor and banishing him to a place of separation from the affairs of men." [4]


"Satan is not here, as some allege against this opinion, put on an equality with God; for the two goats were both brought 'to Jehovah,' and were His; while the very casting of lots, which was in itself a solemn appeal to God, shows that Jehovah claimed the power of disposal. Neither can it be objected that this was in any sense a sacrifice to Satan, for the animal was not slain to him; it was only sent to him in disgrace. Bearing upon it sins which God had already forgiven, it was sent to Azazel in the wilderness.


"The phrase 'scape,' by which the strange term Azazel is rendered in our version, came from the 'hircus emissarius' [goat emissary], of the Vulgate. The term Azazel may mean the 'apostate one'--a name which Satan merits, and which he seems to have borne among the Jews. It was Satan that brought sin into the world; and this seduction of man adds to his guilt, and consequently to his punishment. Sin is now pardoned in God's mercy. The one goat was sacrificed as a sin offering; its blood was carried into the holy place, and the mercyseat was sprinkled with it. Guilt was therefore canceled; by this shedding of blood there was remission. But sin, though pardoned, is yet hateful to God, and it cannot dwell in His sight: it is removed away to a 'land not inhabited'--severed from God's people, and sent away to man's first seducer. The sins of a believing world are taken off them, and rolled back on Satan, their prime author and instigator. Though the penalty is remitted to believers, it is not remitted to him who brought them into apostasy and ruin. The tempted are restored, but the whole punishment is seen to fall on the archtempter. Hell is 'prepared for the devil and his angels.' "


This we believe to be the very event described in the verses under notice. At the time here specified, the sanctuary service is closed. Christ lays upon the head of the devil the sins which have been transferred to the sanctuary, and which are imputed to the saints no more. The devil is sent away, not by the hand of the High Priest, but by the hand of another person, according to the type, into a place here called the bottomless pit.