20:3 no more. With Satan bound in the bottomless pit, the beast and the false prophet in the lake of fire, and all the ungodly men and women purged from the earth either at Armageddon or at the judgment of the nations (see notes on Matthew 25:31-46), there will be only a “few men left” (Isaiah 24:6) still in their natural flesh, to enter Christ’s millennial kingdom (Matthew 25:34). Redeemed Israel, having been saved both individually and nationally when she sees and accepts her Messiah (Zechariah 12:9–13:1; Romans 11:25-26) will become the world’s chief nation. All the ancient prophecies and promises concerning Israel will finally be fulfilled (e.g., Isaiah 2:2-4; Ezekiel 37:21-28; Zechariah 9:10; 14:9).

20:4 given unto them. Peace and righteousness will finally reign on the earth, under the iron rule of Christ and His resurrected saints (Revelation 2:26-27; 19:15; I Corinthians 6:2-3), and it will endure a thousand years. Furthermore, the catastrophic changes on the earth’s surface during the tribulation judgments will have restored the gentle topography and protecting vapor canopy over the earth (Isaiah 40:4; Psalm 148:4-6; etc.), so that the primeval “very good” condition of the whole world (Genesis 1:31) will be restored in large measure. Harmony also will be restored between men and animals, and people will again have only one language and will live to great ages (Isaiah 11:6-9; Zephaniah 3:9; Isaiah 65:20).

20:4 beheaded. Evidently, those who refuse the beast’s mark will be executed by the guillotine.

20:4 lived. The “souls” of the martyrs of the tribulation will have been resting “under” the heavenly altar (Revelation 6:9-11) until the seven years of tribulation are done, but then will apparently be resurrected to join all the other raptured and resurrected saints of all the ages.

20:4 reigned. The saints will all be “kings and priests” (note Revelation 20:6) under their Lord, Jesus Christ, with various degrees of authority as based on faithfulness of service while in this present life (note Revelation 1:6; 5:10; Matthew 19:28; Luke 19:17, 19).

20:5 lived not again. This phrase clearly indicates bodily resurrection after bodily death. The unsaved dead obviously will not live again spiritually, for they are in hades and will ultimately be in the lake of fire. In fact, the term “resurrection” itself occurs over forty times in the New Testament, and always refers to the resurrection of the body.

20:5 finished. Jesus had referred to “the resurrection of life” and “the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29), and so had Daniel (Daniel 12:2) but here it is revealed for the first time that the first resurrection will be completed a thousand years before the second. The word “is” does not appear in the Greek. The sense probably is that “this completes the first resurrection (note I Corinthians 15:22,23; Matthew 27:52-53; Revelation 11:11).

20:6 second death. The second death must be a bodily death, imposed after the second resurrection on all those who still are spiritually dead in their sins and trespasses (note Ephesians 2:1; Revelation 20:13-14).

20:6 priests of God. The resurrected saints will be both kings and priests (Revelation 1:6), exercising both judicial rule (I Corinthians 6:2) and religious ministries in relation to the growing human populations on earth. They may be ministering to those who had died or been raptured while still “babes in Christ,” either infants physically or spiritually. These somehow must be brought to full maturity in Christ, both physically and spiritually, and the already-matured saints could conceivably be participants in their further growth.

20:7 Satan shall be loosed. The events described in Revelation 20:7-9 take place only after there have been a thousand years of enforced peace and righteousness. In Revelation 20:3, it was said that Satan must be loosed a little season, evidently to give men an opportunity to reveal the basic rebellion still simmering in their human natures, and in order to see openly whether they will choose Satan over God, as their ancestors had done a thousand years before. Those entering the millennial period, of course, will be genuine believers, but their descendants will evidently drift away from the faith of their fathers as the generations accumulate and the population grows. Open rebellion, as well as crime and warfare, will be impossible. Satan and his hosts will all be bound in Hades, but men and women will still be born with sinful natures and will need to receive Christ as personal Savior by faith, just as was always true. If they do not, they will still be vulnerable to Satanic deception when Satan is released to tempt them.

20:8 Gog and Magog. Despite the duplication of names, this Gog-and-Magog incursion after the thousand years does not seem to be the same as the invasion of Israel by Gog and Magog before the thousand years, as described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. The combatants in the two battles are quite different from each other and the outcomes are drastically different, as is obvious from even a casual reading of the two accounts. It may be that the names are the same because the new leaders of the rebellion (human leaders, that is) come from the same northern regions of Eurasia as the leaders of that earlier invasion of Israel. They may even have deliberately appropriated these Biblical names as a statement of their intent to avenge the defeat and death of their ancestors when they invaded Israel.

20:8 sand of the sea. The world population, with the benefit of increased longevity, as well as an almost perfect environment and societal conditions, will grow so much as actually to fulfill God’s ancient command to “fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1,7). But it is a sad commentary on the perverse depravity of human nature that, even after a thousand years of peace and prosperity, and even while experiencing the personal reign of Christ on the earth, men will still follow Satan when they have a chance, and do so in great multitudes! Truly, the human heart in its natural state is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).

20:9 camp of the saints. “The saints” here are probably not just the Israelites in Jerusalem but also the resurrected and raptured saints of the previous ages, all coming to rally around “the beloved city” as the hosts of darkness and their multitudes of human followers surround them for one last desperate attempt to defeat and dethrone the Lord Jesus Christ. This will be impossible, of course, for God (not Satan!) is the Creator of all things, and this time His patience and longsuffering will finally reach an end. In a foretaste of the lake of fire which the rebels will all soon inhabit, God will send from heaven a vast ring of fire around the holy city which will quickly “devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27), “for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).