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.
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