Daily Devotional • November 17
A Reading from Revelation 20:7-15
7 When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea. 9 They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and consumed them. 10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire, 15 and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Meditation
The Book of the Revelation to John can be offputting for many of us. We don’t want to get caught up in the end-times frenzy; we don’t know the difference between pre-trib and post-trib; we may not care what that even means. But all of Scripture has something to teach us.
The Revelation to John is also known as the Apocalypse, which means unveiling or revealing. We aren’t even sure who “John” is. The son of Zebedee and brother of James? The “beloved disciple”? Or someone else? Whoever he was, it seems John was well known to his audience and had a good understanding of historical Judaism — and the current condition. Christians were being persecuted, oppressed, and slaughtered, and John writes to bring hope to his brothers and sisters in Christ in and around the seven churches in Asia (western Turkey in present day nomenclature).
There’s no way we can adequately review the previous chapters, so we must dive right in:
Today’s reading begins with “When the thousand years are ended ….” A thousand years is a millennium, about which there is much talk in end-times circles, but this is the only verse in the Bible that speaks of it. Whenever that time is or was, Satan is released, battles occur (whether literally or figuratively), and the devil and other evil entities are thrown into the lake of fire. Ultimately, this tells us that evil and evil forces are eliminated! And that is very good news!
Then we move to the white throne of judgment, and all the dead from various regions are judged “according to what they had done.” Then even Death itself and Hades — the place for the dead — were destroyed in the lake of fire. Did you hear that? There is no more death, there is no place for the dead — they have been destroyed. This is all about God’s victory — God wins!
The Very Rev. Sherry Black is a second-career Episcopal priest, and has been a full-time hospital chaplain for over ten years. She also serves a small mission church as priest-in-charge, and is dean of her deanery.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island
The Diocese of Recife – Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil
