20:1 The first word, "And,"supports the idea of chronological sequence. It implies a continuation from what John just revealed (cf. 19:11, 17, 19; 20:4, 11, 12; 21:1, 2, 22). Amillennial interpreters disagree.
"John says nothing to place this chapter in the time sequence."673
It is logical that having judged the beast and the false prophet (19:20) Jesus Christ should next deal with Satan. God assigned an angel to bind Satan. Previously God cast Satan out of heaven (12:9), and now He cast him out of the earth. This is the end of Satan's "short time"in which God allowed him to spread havoc on the earth (12:12). This angel now has the key to the abyss (cf. 9:1-2, 11; 11:7; 17:8; Luke 8:31; Rom. 10:7). The binding of Satan is real, though the chain must be figurative since it is impossible to bind spirit beings with physical chains (cf. 9:14).674
20:2 Four titles make the identity of the bound creature certain. The dragon is his most frequent name in Revelation (12:3, 4, 7, 13, 16, 17; 13:2, 4, 11; 16:13). This title alludes to the serpent of old (cf. Gen. 3).675Devil (v. 10; 2:10; 12:9, 12) and Satan (2:9, 13, 24; 3:9; 12:9) are his more common biblical names.
There is no reason to take this thousand-year time period as symbolic. All the other numbers in Revelation make sense if we interpret them literally, and this one does too. Furthermore it is impossible to prove that any number in Revelation is symbolic.676The repetition of this number six times in this pericope stresses the length of Satan's confinement. God did not reveal the length of the Millennium (from the Latin mille, thousand, and annumyear) before now. Neither did He reveal many other details about the future before He gave John these visions (cf. 17:5).
Morris offered the following reason for taking the thousand years as symbolic.
"One thousand is the cube of ten, the number of completeness. We have seen it used over and over again in this book to denote completeness of some sort, and this is surely the way we should take it here. Satan is bound for the perfect period."677
Morris acknowledged that God will release Satan at the end of this period (v. 8).678To him the thousand-year reign is a reign of martyrs in heaven that has no relation to the second advent.679However, there is no reason in the text or context to assume that we should interpret 1,000 symbolically. In fact, in view of the other numbers in this book we would expect another literal number here.
"If 1,000 is a symbol, what about 7,000 (11:13), 12,000 (7:5), or 144,000 (7:4)? Are these symbols also? If 1, 000 years is a symbolic term, what about 5 months (9:60), 42 months (11:2), and 1,260 days (11:3)? To ask these questions is to show the absurdity of regarding the numbers as figurative, for on what ground could one consistently hold that one, 1,000, is figurative, and the others, including where multiples of 1,000 are used, are literal?"680
20:3 The angel will throw Satan into the abyss and then shut and seal the opening to it to guarantee that he will not escape (cf. Dan. 6:17; Matt. 27:66). This action assures his confinement, but it does not specify that he will suffer otherwise. Satan will not have access to the earth but abide in the abyss (bottomless pit, 9:1-2; 11:7; 13:4, 7; 17:8) throughout the Millennium. His confinement will preclude his deceiving the nations, which he had been doing (13:14; 16:13-14).
The nations in view will be the descendants of mortal believers who do not die during the Great Tribulation but live on in the Millennium (11:13; 12:13-17). All unbelievers will evidently perish when Christ returns to the earth (19:19-21). Life spans will be much longer in the Millennium (Isa. 65:20), so the earth's population will increase rapidly, as was the case before the Flood. The children who are born during the Millennium will need to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, and some of them will not do so. This group will constitute the unbelievers whom Satan leads in rebellion at the end of the Millennium (vv. 8-9). God will release Satan out of divine necessity (Gr. dei) to fulfill His plans after the thousand years.681
"The final answer as to why God sees this as a necessity with its fruition in another rebellion is hidden in the counsels of God (cf. 1:1; 4:1; Isa. 55:8; Mark 8:31; 13:7; Luke 24:26, 44) . . . Yet one purpose may be a partial answer. Through his release the whole universe will see that after the thousand years of his imprisonment and an ideal reign on earth, Satan is incurably wicked and men's hearts are still perverse enough to allow him to gather an army of such an immense size."682
