Revelation 20:8; And Shall Go Out To Deceive the Nations
Revelation 20:8 (KJV) And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Satan’s incurable bent toward evil evidences itself in an immediate effort to his efforts to deceive the nations – And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Deception is the Devil’s special purpose, especially so after his having been cast from heaven Revelation 12:9 (cf. Revelation 13:4; 19:20; 20:3).
Revelation 12:9 (KJV) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Revelation 13:4 (KJV) And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Revelation 19:20 (KJV) And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Revelation 20:3 (KJV) 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.
“The nations” are not the same ones deceived into joining the battle of the great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:14). By now, the population of the millennial kingdom will have spread far and wide as the descriptive – in the four quarters of the earth.
This is an expression for coverage of the whole earth as it is in Revelation 7:1 (cf. Isaiah 11:2).
Revelation 7:1 (KJV) And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Isaiah 11:2 (KJV) And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
Sad to say, unbelievers will exist in very large numbers among the generations subsequent to the one populating the earth initially in the Millennium. The will be “fair game” for the devil’s deceptive campaign.
The names “God and Magog” furnish a further definition for these nations. Magog first occurs in the Bible at Genesis 10:2, but the allusion here is to Ezekiel 38:2 where both names appear.
Genesis 10:2 (KJV) The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
Ezekiel 38:2 (KJV) Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
The most that one can discern of these names is that they are emblems for the enemies of the Messiah during the end times. That the prophet equates God and Magog with “the four corners of the earth” is ample reason to refrain from limiting it to one geographical region (Walvoord, Beasley-Murray). It has been obvious throughout Revelation that John does not always cite the OT with a strictly literal interpretation of proper names and events. These two proper names are his way of referring to the nations that in the latter days will come to attack Jerusalem (Alford, Lee).
To some degree, history repeats itself. “To gather them together to battle” repeats verbatim an expression in Revelation 16:14 regarding preparation for Armageddon that occurred before the millennium.
Revelation 16:14 (KJV) For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
The mustering effort is once again quite successful, judging from the number gathered for the rebellion. The troops are innumerable – the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
The same hyperbole describes the number of descendants promised to Abraham (Genesis 22:17), the grain stored by Joseph in preparation for the famine (Genesis 41:49), the Canaanites conquered by Joshua (Joshua 11:4), the Midianites defeated by Gideon (Judges 7:12), the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel (1 Samuel 13:5), the counsel given to Absalom by Hushai regarding his army (1 Samuel 17:11), and the wisdom given to Solomon (1 Kings 4:29). The vastness of the number of invaders is perhaps an allusion to the figure of a cloud that cover the land in Ezekiel 38:16).
Ezekiel 38:16 (KJV) And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 423-424]