Rev. 20:1 “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.”

What Does The Word ‘’One Thousand” Mean?

Ans. Before we state the obvious don’t forget that the Book of Revelation is written in SYMBOLS.

Rev. 1:1, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and SIGNIFIED it by his angel unto his servant John.”

The word “signified” means SYMBOLIZED. So bear this in mind that you are not looking at literal horses or Jesus floating from the sky riding on a white horse with a sharp sword in his mouth and a tattoo on his thighs, “Lord of Lords and King of Kings,” etc. That can’t be the saviour of the world that you are expecting, right?

Now one thousand in Apocalyptic Literature represents ideas and not arithmetical values. One thousand is therefore symbolic of the idea of fullness and completeness; e.g.,

Ps. 90:4, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.”

Again;

Ps. 50:10, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.”

Now is it that every cattle on a thousand hills belongs to God and the ones on the ninety-nine hills don’t belong to Him?

The Lord is only saying everything in heaven and earth is mine and so I have no need of anything even from you.

Observe that certain numbers are frequently used in the Language of God such as the “one thousand” which actually is a multiplier of 10, 10 being a number of completeness which is Alpha and Omega, 1 to 0.

How Does The Scriptures apply the use of the word “DAY?”

In 2 Pet. 3:8, you have,

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

In other words, all time is as nothing before him, since all eternity is found in the presence of God. Therefore, nothing is long or short before him; no lapse of ages disrupts his purposes, neither must He wait to find a convenient time to execute His purposes.

Therefore a thousand or ten thousand years are but a certain indefinite point, or rather the smallest part of a point to Him.

In Heb. 4:8 we read, “Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” Heb. 8:9, “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”

Meaning that the whole of the 40 years they were in the wilderness was a Day. It therefore can be seen that “a day” is a period of God’s program in ages past or present like the case of the 40 years with Israel.

In the same light, the 7th day of God is an “eternal day” of God’s rest that can be entered into in Christ.

Hence we are the “Children of the Day,” 1 Thess. 5:5; John 8:l2. “And this is the Eternal 7th day of God’s rest for man that one finds in Christ,” Gen. 2:2.

So when you read of John saying in Rev. 1:10,

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,” (KJV)

“The Lord’s Day” is not the same thing as “the Day of the Lord.” While “the Day of the Lord” is God’s visitation in Judgment, “The Lord’s Day” is the day the Lord was enthroned as “the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.”

Just like you have kings having an anniversary of their date of enthronement as a king.

So the Day of the Lord is a period of the activities of the Lord. That is what John entered into; he was seeing the activities of the Lord right from the time of the resurrection as being the king sitting on the throne of His Father David onward and His victory over all realms of power and authorities.

Acts 2:29, “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.”

So friends, the binding of Satan for a thousand years is simply when you entered into the eternal REST of God in Christ.

The dragon is bound for anyone who is in Christ through divine knowledge and the revelation of truth.

So when Jesus declared,

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls,”(Matt. 11:28-29).

The word “REST” there is the Sabbath 7th Day of God found in Gen 2:2. There you see that it has no Morning and Evening unlike the 6 days of the creation found in Gen. Chapter 1.

And once in this rest the devil is bound for you a thousand years.

It’s not one day to come in the future or in the human calendar.

Next will be WHAT THEN IS THE BOTTOMLESS PIT?

To be continued…