For thousands of years we have had an enemy whose only goal is “to kill steal and destroy” (John 10:10) so that he can lead people away from a relationship with Jesus. We only need to look at the world with its wars, famines, earthquakes, viruses, murders, family breakdowns and crime to see his ‘handiwork’.
But there is an end in sight! Satan has been given permission to torment the world one last time and this will lead to the nations being gathered to war against the saints of God (Rev. 20:7-10): a literal battle; a literal taking of the Beast and the False Prophet; a literal slaying of kings and their armies. As Satan is literal, so his binding must be equally literal.
This final battle has been written about frequently throughout the Bible. Psalm 83 talks about nations taking “crafty counsel against Your people” (v3) and forming a confederacy (v5). Ezekiel 38 talks about symbolic nations that advance against God’s people, His church. Revelation 20:9 relates that they advanced against spiritual Jerusalem (the church) across the breath of the earth so the names of the nations that are given can’t refer to specific lands or nations—they represent all the enemies of God’s people.
Other Bible prophecies talk about the total destruction of the northern invaders against God’s people who are living in the era of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (See Joel 2:20, 23, 28-32 cf Acts 2:17-21).
We are living at the time when all these things are about to happen. These nations are symbols of the overwhelming antichrist forces that will come from all over the earth with plans to destroy God’s church in the period before Jesus begins His reign.
The good news is that the apostle John in vision “saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God’s people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them” (Rev. 20:9 NLT). God’s plan of salvation will realise with the final judgment of all forces that oppose God, before any war has even taken place (just as has also been described in Rev. 16:16-21 and 19:19-21).
Our days are going to be short before Jesus returns to once and for all remove all evil from this earth. “So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!” (Luke 21:28 NLT). We live in exciting times!