Sunday: Binding Satan
Read Revelation 20:1-3. What is being described here, and what hope does it offer us?
Binding or being bound is used in a number of ways in the Bible. On the simplest level it applies to a prisoner.
Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com
Jesus loosed many who had been bound by Satan. Furthermore, the act of binding is used to describe the power that God gives the church over evil, making it a symbol of judgment.
When a dangerous criminal is captured, it is necessary to bind him. However, many times in the Bible when people are bound, they are hardly criminals. John the Baptist was put in chains because he denounced the moral evils of the king (Matt. 14:3-4). Jesus was bound in the Garden (John 18:12), at His trial (John 18:24), and in death (John 19:40). Paul (Acts 21:33) and Peter (Acts 12:6) were both bound.
Jesus also spent a lot of face-to-face time with people whom Satan had bound. There was a demoniac bound with broken chains on his wrists and ankles (Mark 5:3-4). Before Jesus released him from demons, nobody could restrain the evil. He met a woman whose back had been bent over, and He released her (Luke 13:11-12, Luke 13:16). He also released Lazarus from the tomb and from his grave clothes(John 11:43-44). Then there was Barabbas, who, although chained, was released so that Jesus, not him, would be crucified (Mark 15:7-15). In all of these instances, we see Satan either trying to keep people imprisoned with affliction or binding the innocent in order to allow evil to flourish. But we also see Jesus breaking the bonds of death in order to bring release and freedom to a world hopelessly imprisoned by Satan. In the end, Satan is bound and cast into outer darkness (Rev. 20:1-3).
Also, part of Jesus’ mission to free those whom Satan bound was to empower His followers. He assured them that Satan (“the strong man”) could be bound and his house plundered (Matt. 12:26-29, NKJV). In other words, Satan has no power against Christ and Christ’s followers because Christ has released His people from the bonds of Satan.
As Paul observed, “the word of God is not chained” (2 Tim. 2:9, NKJV). It is the means whereby Jesus silenced Satan (Matt. 4:4, Matt. 4:7, Matt. 4:10), and we can use the same power to resist him, as well.
| What promises can you claim that will free you from whatever chains the evil one seeks to bind you with? |
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The angel described in Rev 20:1 has “a great chain in his hand.”
But I find it interesting that the fallen angels (including Satan) have "CHAINS" upon them already. They were "reserved in everlasting chains" from the day they were cast out of heaven. (Jude 6.) And Peter speaks about the same thing, when he says of the angels that sinned, that they were "delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment". (2Pet 2:4)
The power of the fallen angels is currently limited and restricted -- they have had restraints (“chains”) upon them for many years. But the angel of Revelation 20 brings a GREAT chain in his hand. I suggest that this great chain represents a much greater restriction, a much heavier restraint, than is currently upon the Devil and his angels.
His work will effectively be stopped by this additional chain.
So what is that great chain? It will be a chain of circumstances. This world, without human inhabitant, will become a house of bondage him. And "it is in this sense that he is bound -- there are none remaining upon whom he can exercise his power." (Great Controversy p.659) All of God's people will be in heaven, and every other human being will have perished.
As we still say in figurative speech today, "his hands will be completely tied" - there will be nothing he can do about his terrible situation.
It's not coincidental that the holy spirit gave me the exact same response as yours when I was just recently presented with the same question "Is satan currently bound?" TGBATG
I think the great chain in the angel's hand by which the devil will be bound also symbolizes a definite prohibition to enter heaven during the one thousand year when God's people whom he has been so used to come near to and attack will be in heaven. I read in Job 1:6 that Satan went to heaven from planet earth but not anymore after he has been bound by this chain.
Actually elder, his restriction from the access he had as described in Job 1:6 was already put in place when Christ died on the cross. See the below quote from Desire of Ages:
Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken. {DA 761.2}
Blessings!
This is a great hope we are all yearning for .
I think the quote in Job was prior to Christ coming to the earth and dying for our sins. After the cross, Satan no longer was permitted in heaven. That is why the Bible refers to him as a "roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." So at the millennium, when Jesus has taken His believers to heaven and the sinners perished at His coming, Satan and his evil angels are left in a destroyed world with no one to tempt. That is the chain that will bind them.
For those bound by the chains of sin who are under the spell of the evil one, there's nothing more liberating than Jesus' presence and power. Though He is no longer physically here with us in the flesh, He sent us His Spirit, another Comforter in His stead. Just as then, with the word, Jesus commanded demons to flee, sickness and disease to leave the bodies of their captives, men and women delivered from a life of sin, and the serpent himself to "Get behind Me", we can, through His power bind the powers of darkness, that seek to bind us today.
Jesus did promise through His disciples, that we would be empowered to do greater things if we but apply ourselves to the principles that govern God's kingdom. In God's kingdom of light, no darkness or evil can abide;the evil one and his hosts have to flee when they come in contact with the all-encompassing presence and power of the Mighty One.
We need to practice Jesus' strategies and rebuke evil out of our lives with the word of God. Jesus said "it is written" for every temptation that was thrown at Him. Needless to say, He overcame in powerful fashion and secured the culmination of the final victory at the cross, the crushing of the head of the serpent.
Through this victory, the final defeat and bounding of the devil who will be cast into the lake of hell fire, prepared for him and his angels, will be accomplished. Before that, though, Satan will be bound (with the chain of circumstance), for a thousand years during which he will have no one to tempt. The redeemed will be in heaven while the wicked dead await the second resurrection. I can't wait for that time!
I am so glad that God so loved the world that He sent His son to deliver us Jhon 3:16,is one of my favorite scriptures. There is hope for Gods people everywhere, the chains will be broken because we have hope on this planet earth but there is work to be done daily seeking Jesus, studying His words, listing to the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah, Satan will loose, done away with. Thank you Jesus!
Who do you say Jesus is to you? Peter confessed with his mouth that Jesus is the Christ, son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). The above shows that Peter had a revelation from God the Father that Jesus is the Messiah, is our Redeemer, our Saviour, the son of a LIVING God. Read (Romans 10:9), when we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe with our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. After Peter confessed with his mouth he was told that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18).Surely , ‘Jesus loosed many who had been bound by Satan.’ The question is who do you say Jesus is to you as an individual. The way you answer that question will determine your destiny. I am no longer bound by sin because of what Jesus Christ did for us.
Jesus says,“No one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house”.(Mk 3:27) Jesus’ purpose for binding Satan is to deliver His people. Is the Revelation of Jesus declaring another binding? I think it is dramatizing the same event. Christ rules among His enemies for the same 1000 years.(Ps 110:2; Ps 2)
As the lesson author indicates, "binding' can refer to many different situations in this life. The same is true in the Bible.
Jesus was simply enunciating a general principle in His analogy - one that is true in the physical as well as the spiritual realm.
I see no indication He was speaking prophetically of the millennium.
Frankly, I think the lesson author confused the issue by writing of all sorts of "bindings" other than the "binding" of Satan in the millennium.
When a person is "bound," that person is powerless. So the "binding" in the millennium would appear to be symbolic of Satan being made powerless. (Please consider that almost every action in Revelation is symbolic.) And that is very fitting for the situation of Satan being confined to this world in the millennium. He has no one left to deceive. He and his demons are powerless to carry out their war against the government of God.
Inge, you are correct in saying "when a person is "bound", that person is powerless". You applied that binding to Satan in the millennium rendering him *powerless*. We place this millennium at Christ's second coming. Heb 2:14,15 however, applies this binding to the time of the cross - "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render *powerless* him who had the power of death, that is *the devil*, and might *free* those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
So Christ proclaims, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit ... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."Matt 28:18,19
Christ is plundering the strong man's domain having first bound him. This is the millennium, before his second coming.
Please check the rendering of Heb 2:14-15 NLT. (Just hover over the reference.) I believe that this is an excellent translation. Christ broke the power of Satan who had the power of death over his subjects. Through the death of Christ, this power was broken, and through Christ, all who accept Him as Savior can live eternally - and Satan has no power of death over them. (This paragraph was edited.)
However, I know of no "millennium" (1000 years) *before* the Second Coming.
The binding of Satan in the Millennium - rendering him powerless - is of a different nature than that mentioned in Heb 2:14-15. The effect of that "binding" is accomplished before the biblical Millennium. Satan is powerless during those 1000 years because he has no one to tempt, no one to incite against the government of God, because he is "bound" to this desolate empty planet. (I suspect his demons will be here with him, but they will be in the same state he will be.)
When does Christ reign - for a 1000 years? Dan 7 and Rev 20 describe the inauguration of Christ as King as promised of God. When judgment is given to the saints, it is rulership, government, and authority that is given to them. God created Adam and gave him, as steward, dominion over the earth. Adam willfully ceded dominion to Satan. God chose Israel and gave them authority, as steward, over His vineyard, His seed kingdom. They killed Christ, the actual heir, in an attempt at seizure of His inheritance.
Christ said, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.”Matt 21:43 This is the *little horn* of Dan 7:25-27 - “... they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court will sit, and his dominion will be taken away, to annihilate and destroy to the end; and the kingdom, and the dominion, even the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heavens, is given to the people - the saints of the Most high, His kingdom a kingdom age-lasting, and all dominions will serve and obey Him.”(The papacy was never given authority of God over anything).
We know that Christ has been reigning as High Priest and King since His inauguration and is making his enemies His footstool. See Ps 110; 2; 8; 9:7-9. Israel had joined with the nations, Satan’s kingdom, in killing the Messiah.(Acts 4:24-29) Now Christ is exalted to rule over them. He rules with His brethren seated with Him.(Eph 2:4-10) Consider the nations how befuddled they are. Whatever they think up or produce creates problems that they have no clue solving. Meanwhile Christ is delivering His people out of the nations, out of the world.
1 Cor 15 details Christ’s reign. About the resurrection from the graves: “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at his coming, then *the end*, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has rendered powerless all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be done away is death. For He has put all things in subjection under his feet...” v 23- 28.
When is the last enemy, death, rendered powerless, and thus the marked end of Christ’s reign? v 51-57 “... But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
From the Scripture it seems all of Christ’s reign and judgment is done up to His Coming. We say Christ’s kingdom is now that of Grace and later a 2nd kingdom of Glory. But His kingdom is a glorious gracious one. He asked the Father to glorify Him with the glory He had before in eternity. He could send the Spirit only after having been glorified.
Kenny I'm confused. You seem to present a scenario that's nothing like anything I've met before.
Are you saying we are currently in the biblical millennium and Christ's reign will *end* when the last enemy, death, is destroyed?
Even when Jesus was on earth,the set free those who were bound by Satan..like the demoniac..
we may also be bound in our lives right now by
chords of several different addictions..but since it was his mission.." to set the prisoners free" Luke 4:17 he also give us hope now..that whatever case it may be he is able to break the chords of Satan..
One thing I have seen, why we are not given power Jesus used to use during his time one earth, is because we don't ask for the purpose of his work, we want to be boasting for what does not belong to us, let us be sincere, be prayful, Satan can only fight those who are against what he wants.
Inge, during Christ's reign, as the scripture says, everything in the universe is subjected to him, except the Father. When He renders powerless the last enemy, death, He becomes subject to the Father who had subjected all things under him, so that God may be all in all. I didn't say these things.
Kenny, I asked you plainly whether you believe that the millennium of Rev. 20:2, as referenced in today's lesson, occurs before the Second Coming. Please answer plainly.
If you do believe this, when did these 1000 years begin?
You also appear to be saying that Christ will *not* reign after the Second Coming. Do I understand you correctly?
Do you see no possibility of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit reigning as One Sovereign God over the universe?
Inge, I plainly stated that Christ's 1000 years' reign is His reign till He comes! God being all in all means the Godhead - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reign. That doesn't need clarification, does it?
Again Inge, the Tenple that the little horn, Israel's leaders (Ezk 34:21), defiles is Christ's body. Mark Christ's word to them! "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days." Christ made sure that all prophecy concerning Himself would be fulfilled. He even chose Judas to fulfill prophecy. He cried out I thirst to fulfill prophecy!
But this is off subject. Happy Sabbath brethren!