Whose end shall be according to their works.

REVELATION CHAPTER -- 20 --

p 732 -- 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.

(Excerpt taken from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith 1897-1911 Editions)

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

  1. The Angel. - Is this angel Christ, as some suppose? Evidently not. A bright ray of light is thrown from the old typical service directly upon this passage. Thus, Christ is the great High Priest of this dispensation. On the day of atonement, anciently, two goats were taken by the priest, upon which lots were cast, one for the Lord, and the other for the scapegoat. The one upon which the Lord's lot fell, was then slain, and his blood carried into the sanctuary to make an

p 733 -- atonement for the children of Israel, after which 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, or a place not inhabited. Now, as Christ is the priest of this dispensation, so by arguments, a few of which we here introduce, Satan is shown to be the antitypical scapegoat.

   (1)   The Hebrew word for scapegoat, as given in the margin of Lev. 16:8, is Azazel. On this verse, Jenks, in his Comprehensive Commentary, remarks:       "Scapegoat. (See diff. opin. in Bochart.) Spencer, after the oldest opinion of the Hebrews and Christians, thinks Azazel is the name of the devil; and so Rosenmuller, whom see. The Syriac has Azzail, the angel (strong one) who revolted."       The devil is here evidently pointed out. Thus we have the definition of the Scripture term in two ancient langnages, with the oldest opinion of the Christians, in favor of the view that the scapegoat is a type of Satan.

Charles Beecher, in Redeemer and Redeemed, pp. 67, 68, 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 apopompaioV (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 what 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.

 In addition to these, we have the evidence of the Jewish work Zohar, and of the Cabalistic and Rabbinical writers. They tell us that the following proverb was current among the Jews:   'On the day of atonement, a gift to Sammael.' Hence Moses Gerundinensis feels called to say that it is not a sacrifice, but only done because commanded by God. 

p 734 -- "Another step in the evidence is when we find this same opinion passing from the Jewish to the early Christian church. Origen was the most learned of the Fathers, and on such a point as this, the meaning of a Hebrew word, his testimony is reliable. Origen says, 'He who is called in the Septuagint apopompaioV, and in the Hebrew Azazel, is no other than the devil.'

"In view, then, of the difficulties attending any other meaning, and the accumulated evidence in favor of this, Hengstenberg affirms with great confidence that Azazel cannot be anything else than another name for Satan."

  (2)   In the common acceptation of the word, the term scapegoat is applied to anyone who has become obnoxious to the claims of justice; and while it is revolting to all our conceptions of the character and glory of Christ to apply this term to him, it must strike every one as a very appropriate designation of the devil, who is styled in Scripture the accuser, adversary, angel of the bottomless pit, Beelzebub, Belial, dragon, enemy, evil spirit, father of lies, murderer, prince of devils, serpent, tempter, etc., etc.

  (3)   The third reason for this position is the very striking manner in which it harmonizes with the events to transpire in connection with the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, as far as revealed to us in the Scriptures of truth.

We behold in the type,

(a) the sin of the transgressor transferred to the victim;

(b) we see that sin borne by the ministration of the priest and the blood of the offering into the sanctuary;

(c) 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 (d) the goat bears them away into a land not inhabited. Lev. 1:1-4; 4:3-6; 16:5-10, 15, 16, 20-22.

Answering to these events in the type, we behold in the antitype,

(a) the great offering for the world made on Calvary;

(b) the sins of all those who avail themselves of the merits of Christ's shed blood by faith in him, borne, by the ministration of Christ while pleading his own blood, into the new-covenant

p 735 -- sanctuary;

(c) after Christ, the minister of the true tabernacle (Heb. 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; and

(d) the devil will be sent away with them into a land not inhabited.

This we believe to be the very event described in the verses under notice. The sanctuary service is, at the time here specified, 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, and 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. Hence this angel is not Christ. For a full exposition of this subject, see the work Looking Unto Jesus; or Christ In Type and Antitype.

*******

Satan will be defeated.

All those who revel in serving Satan will be defeated as well.

Satan is NOT in control.  Satan does NOT have all the power. Contrary to so many movies and such that depict Satan as a powerful force able to defeat our God, that is all fiction perpetuated by Satan himself.

Yes, there are tv shows with people portraying themselves as the devil, as angels, and all sorts of creatures.  Fictionalizing satan in very deceptive ways,  as well as angels, in turn fictionalizes God and our Savior.  Revealing satan as one in need of sympathy is twisted. Calling upon compassion for the unrepentant author of evil is just another ploy of his to steer people down the wrong path. Appearing as a harmless creature, and even as a helpful being, in turn deceives even more. Remember this--

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Whose end shall be according to their works!  Their very deceptive works.

There is NO changing Satan or his evil angels, NONE.  They chose their path, knowing the path was one they could never turn back from. So for Satan to try and illicit sympathy, for Satan to portray himself as helpful- these are LIES meant to DECEIVE! And they WILL deceive, they will.  The multitudes will be deceived, choosing evil disguised as good when all they needed to do was seek the truth and yes, nothing but the truth. Confronted by truth -evil laughs it off, denies it, shuns it, and uses it to its advantage any way it can. Evil will take one of your cherished lies and make you love it all the more. Truth will take one of your cherished lies and confront you with its unreality, with its falsehood and you can either accept that something you cherish is a lie, or deny the truth so you don't have to painfully give up something you love.  Do you want the truth? Can you handle the truth? Most will not.  Most will believe the many, many lies satan has given them throughout the years.

The truth, Lord, we would know only Your truth! Help us, Lord, Save us from ourselves, from the deceptions we are prone to fall for, from the cherished lies we are loathed to give up. Please, Lord, please, all through our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Advocate, by the Holy Spirit, please… please.

In Your love!

Amen.