February 6: THIS EARTH: FUTURE HOME OF THE HOLY CITY
They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and devoured them. Revelation 20:9
This dramatic verse contains only the beginning and the end of Satan’s final attempted attack upon the Lord and His people. In this vast and organized army, headed by our archenemy, will be many of the greatest military geniuses of all time. The imagery is of legion after legion, strategic rank after rank, and troop after troop of enlisted soldiers, from every direction on the breadth of the earth, moving steadily toward the beloved city and ultimately surrounding it. This readiness to attack is final proof of the determined rebellion of Satan’s followers. With this action, they are saying that what they refused to accept by humble obedience to the Lord’s counsel, they will take by force. Satan’s hatred for God has been fully adopted by his followers.
The New Jerusalem has descended from heaven to earth (John gives descriptive details in chapter 21 that dovetail with the events of the rest of chapter 20). It is here referred to as the camp of the saints, as the earth itself is still in a total state of disarray. At this point, the beautiful city of God is juxtaposed in the midst of total, desolate wilderness. God’s ultimate plan to situate the capital city of the Universe on planet earth is coming to light in this scene. A brief description of the preparation of that particular section of land is found in the writings of the prophet Zechariah. Remember that Paul told us in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 that when the Lord comes for His bride at the first resurrection, His feet never touch the earth. At the end of the millennium, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces [old] Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south (Zechariah 14:4). The broad valley prepared by the Lord will fit the city’s foundation perfectly.
Between the two sentences of today’s verse, John leaps to the closing scene—the bottom line—of the intended attack. What happens in between these two statements is explained in the verses to follow. But the Lord will not allow the attack to be carried out. Incredibly, none of Satan’s followers ever learn about the power of love to overcome evil. Their goals and energies were always centered upon gaining more temporal power, building bigger weapons, getting stronger, faster, quicker on the uptake. The small-heartedness of such thinking pushes away all faith in Him who is love, inadvertently causing the death of hope. Those who have rejected Christ end in hopelessness and misery. God’s act of destruction of sin and those who cling to it is an act of mercy. And fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
More verses on hellfire: Psalm 21:9; Ezekiel 38:22; Malachi 4:1; Matthew 5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9; 25:41; Mark 9:43, 45,47; James 3:6; 2 Peter 3:7; Jude 7; Revelation 14:10; 18:8; 19:20