The doom of Satan Revelation 20v10.
"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever."
This must be one of the saddest verses in the bible. We look at it from a number of points of view.
- Selfishness. "The devil that deceived them." The deception of the human race is the greatest act of selfishness ever perpetrated. Knowing his doom from the very beginning he set about bringing down with him as many human beings as possible. Using his God given powers he blinded and deceived vulnerable people into eternal loss. We can almost hear the hollow laughter of the devil as he descends into his eternal prison knowing that many will follow him there. He carried his act of deception to the very end.
- Uselessness. "Cast into the lake of fire and brimstone." The word means thrown or hurled by force; much like we would cast a piece of trash into a bin. Indeed this is the force behind the word, because Jesus used the word "Gehenna" which was a word used to describe the valley of the son of Hinnom; this was a rubbish dump on a downward slope outside the city of Jerusalem where all the trash was thrown and burned. Gehenna is a graphic picture of what will happen to everyone whether demon or human who are in rebellion against God. This one who was the highest order of God's creation, given greater powers and privileges than any other creature and created to orchestrate the glory of God universally, is now cast out as a piece of useless trash! This may not be pleasant language, but it is the language of the bible. In the same picture is contained the idea of the fire and brimstone; the fire never stopped burning. Brimstone(burning sulphur) is only ever spoken of in the bible in connection with the terminal judgment of God and appears in Genesis 19v24, Deuteronomy 29v23, Job 18v15, Psalm 11v6, Luke 17v29, Revelation 9v17-18, Revelation 14v10, Revelation 19v20.
- Hopelessness. "Where the beast and the false prophet are......" This is a solemn statement because these people have been in this place now for one thousand years by the time that Satan reaches there. They will be there for the unending ages of eternity. There will be no reprieve, no parole, no reversal of the judgment and therefore in that awful place no hope for the future of any kind. It will be a place of absolute despair and eternal regret. Another picture is given us in Jude 1v7 and speaks of Sodom & Gomorrah "set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." When Jude wrote these words the people of Sodom & Gomorrah have been in hell for approximately 4,000 years and they are still there, and will be there forever. The word "suffering" is "undergoing" and the present tense is used to described the permanence of their experience.
- Restlessness. "........and shall be tormented day and night....." The idea being conveyed here is that of no respite from their torment in this awful place. Day and night it will go on without a break for all eternity. It is hard for us human beings to conceive of such a thing, but the bible language is plain and is warning us to drop everything we are doing to get this matter settled once and for all. We shall see later that the torment of Satan and all his demons will also be the torment of his human followers.
- Endlessness. ".....forever and ever." The phrase "forever and ever" is used a number of times in the bible. It refers to a dimension outside of time altogether, where time is nothing and describes a state which will never be changed. Scriptures like Nehemiah 9v5, Matthew 18v8, Mark 3v29, 2nd Thessalonians 1v9, and Matthew 25v41&46, and many, many more, bring before us the timelessness and endlessness of eternity. God is eternal, therefore any sin against Him is an eternal sin deserving an eternal punishment. The New testament is full of the eternal blessing of the believer in Christ. It is equally clear on the fact that those who are banished will be so forever and ever. This is Satan's final home and there will be no reprieve.
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