Question:
If the Lord is going to give Satan the power he wants in order for Satan to destroy himself and then Lucifer is to be burned from within and destroyed, turned to ash; if this is the case, how is it that he will be cast into the pit for the 1000 year reign of Christ and then let alone let out to make war with God again and where does Satan get his army from?
Response
e description that you refer to regarding God’s destruction of Satan comes from what God sets forth in Ezekiel :–. e specific descriptive terminology that God uses in verse about ‘bringing forth a fire from the midst of him, and it devouring him,’ and God ‘bringing him to ashes upon the earth,’ is terminology that describes complete self-destruction, plus the complete destruction and ruin of all that one has worked so hard to produce and/or accomplish. We can and do still use similar terminology today when we want to describe someone’s self-destruction, (not one’s suicide or loss of life, but one’s destruction and ruining of all that one stands for, works for, and lives for), especially when it is produced by something like jealousy, or envy, or rage, or some other strong and powerful emotion or impetus. We can speak of someone being ‘consumed with jealousy, or anger, or rage,’ or of it ‘eating them up on the inside,’ and of it ‘driving them to destruction,’ or causing them to ‘ruin themselves.’ Likewise we can speak of some overwhelming passion or desire or pursuit being ‘a fire that bums within’ someone, which consumes him and causes him do things that put him on a path of self-destruction or complete waste, as he madly pursues his passion at all cost. And just as when a destroying fire physically reduces something to ashes, or leaves it ‘laying in ashes,’ so also when someone (a person) and his endeavors are ‘brought to ashes’ this means that he and all that he has worked to produce and achieve are completely or utterly destroyed. He is ruined, having been ‘brought to ashes.’ This is what will happen to Satan during the time of the final installment in God’s program with Israel, which will come to pass after the conclusion of this present dispensation of God’s grace.
To describe it very simply, by what God provides for, and also allows to occur, during the first part of that time a ‘fire will be brought forth from the midst of Satan that will have him be filled both with an overwhelming passionate zeal and drive for achieving his objectives, and also with raging anger, wrath, and jealousy. is burning fire within him will consume him and devour him within as he goes about pursuing his objectives, and as he goes about endeavoring to deal with the Lord’s own avenging and purging wrath during that time. In connection with the ‘fire of madness’ within him Satan will pursue a course that actually brings about his own destruction and the destruction of all that he has worked for, implemented, and accomplished on the earth. As a result he and all that his plan of evil has worked to accomplish on the earth will be ‘brought to ashes’ upon the conclusion of the Lord’s day of wrath. And then God will execute upon him the culminating judgments that are pronounced against him, which involve his incarceration in “the sides of the pit” for the duration of the time when the Lord fulfills the remaining mandates of the Davidic covenant in His kingdom on this earth both for and with Israel, and for and with the earth; and then after that he will be released for the receiving of his final judgment, which will see him consigned to “the everlasting fire” of “the lake of fire,” wherein he will ‘never be any more.’
So then what God describes in Ezekiel : is not Satan’s ultimate destruction, so to speak. In other words it is not his final/ultimate destruction in the lake of fire. But rather it his destruction in connection with the implementation of his plan of evil on this earth, and in connection with all that he has worked to accomplish, (and even ends up accomplishing), by his plan of evil on the earth. He and his plan of evil on this earth are destroyed as described, and this by means of what the Lord does in His day of wrath in the final installment of His program with Israel.
Satan’s ultimate destruction involves what is spoken about earlier on, for example, in Isaiah where God describes him being ‘brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit,’ where he will remain for the duration of the time that the Lord fulfills the remaining mandates of the Davidic Covenant concerning the establishment of God’s kingdom on the earth. And then once the fulness of all of the mandates of the Davidic Covenant have been fulfilled, and the last enemy is set to be destroyed, then Satan and his cohorts will be released from their temporary place of incarceration in the earth to receive the final and everlasting aspect of their ultimate judgment, which is the issue of being cast into the “lake of fire.” And this is what it was created for in the first place, just as the Lord said to His disciples in Matthew .
Wherefore Satan will be released from his incarceration in the pit upon the conclusion of the Lord reigning for years, just as Revelation describes. But as Revelation also describes he is not only released to face the final aspect of his ultimate judgment, but to also be ‘taken in his own craftiness’, so to speak, one last time. For during the time of the Lord’s reign of fulfilling the final mandates of the Davidic covenant there will be ones who do not respond positively to God, even with Him residing and reigning on the earth. These ones will be allowed to remain until the time of the end of the Lord’s reign, when the Lord will then deal with them by gathering them out of all of the regions of the earth in order for them to receive their appropriate judgment. But instead of gathering them out by some other means, in a manner of speaking God will ‘let Satan do it for Him.’ For upon his release God will allow Satan to amass these ones together in a ‘doomed to fail’ attempt to overthrow His kingdom on the earth. Whereupon God will judge them as Revelation describes, and then in connection with the destruction of the last enemy to complete the fulfilling of all of the mandates of the Davidic Covenant God will execute upon Satan the final and permanent aspect of his ultimate judgment by having him too cast into the “lake of fire.”
So ‘in a nutshell’ this is a synopsis of what Satan faces, beginning with what Ezekiel speaks of and ending with the final and permanent aspect of his ultimate judgment in the “lake of fire.” And the armies he amasses following his year imprisonment primarily come from those who do not respond positively to God during Christ’s reign.
There are more details to all of this, but this is the gist of the issue.
Keith Blades
Enjoy e Bible Ministries
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