The Binding of Satan
With the saints in heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's wiles, and with the wicked dead, not to live again till the thousand years are finished, Satan is "bound"—confined by divine power to this earth, which becomes his prison house, there being neither saint nor sinner upon whom to ply his arts of deception. No prisoner was ever more effectually chained. The symbolical language of the prophet pictures the scene:
"I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 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." Rev. 20:1-3.
These are the events that mark the beginning of the thousand years: Christ's second coming, the resurrection of the just, the ascent of all the redeemed to the city of God, the death of the wicked, and, in consequence, the binding of Satan.
2. Events During the Thousand Years
In Heaven
Scene after scene of glory is spread before us in the visions the prophets were given of the redeemed in the city of God. The prophet John says:
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.... Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple." Rev. 7:9-15.
They "serve" in the temple of the Lord, the prophet says; while the poet sings:
"Whence came the armies of the sky,
John saw in vision bright?
Whence came their crowns, their robes, their palms,
Too pure for mortal sight?
"From desert waste, and cities full,
From dungeons dark, they've come,
And now they claim their mansion fair,
They've found their long-sought home."
One service in which the saved have part during the thousand years is the work of judgment that still remains, preparatory to the final visitation of sin and the destruction of Satan and all his works. The prophet saw this work going forward in the heavenly courts, the redeemed associated with Christ in the service:
"I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Rev. 20:4.
It was to this work of judging the wicked and the evil angels, that the apostle Paul referred in the counsel to the Corinthians: "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?... Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1 Cor. 6:2, 3.