Revelation 20:8

Revelation 20:8. And shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war. ‘Gog and Magog' are in apposition with ‘the nations,' so that the two names represent the same thing. There is thus a slight difference between the use of these terms here and in Ezekiel (chaps. 38-39), where Gog is the prince of Magog, and Magog is the nation ruled by him. In the prophecy of Ezekiel the names are applied to a prince and a people coming from a distance, apparently the North (chap. Ezekiel 39:2), fierce, rapacious, and cruel. It is not necessary to inquire what particular people this may be, although they are generally regarded as the nations north of the Caucasus. Enough that, wherever they dwell, they are the enemies of God, that they march against Israel after the latter has been established in its own land, and that they are overthrown with a swift and terrible and final destruction. They thus afford a suitable type for the last enemies of the Church, who have come up against her, and are destroyed. These enemies are described as being ‘in the four corners of the earth.' The expression meets us in chap. Revelation 7:1, where the four angels, who hold back the winds until the servants of God are sealed, stand upon the four corners of the earth: and, as this is the only other passage where the word occurs in the Apocalypse, we must take it along with us in our effort to ascertain the meaning. Two things may be noticed in connection with it: (1) That the corners of the earth presuppose a centre from which they are distinct; (2) That, though thus distinct from the centre, the powers emanating from them influence the whole earth, and are not confined to the corners, for it is said in chap. Revelation 7:1 that the angels held back not the winds of the corners but the winds ‘of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth nor on the sea nor on any tree.' In precise accordance with this, it is stated here that when the nations came up from these four corners they ‘went up over the breadth of the earth;' they covered it all. It is thus impossible to think of mere remote, barbarous, and unknown tribes in contrast with the civilised nations of the world. Nothing less can be in the writer's view than all the heathen, including nations the most cultured and the most civilised. Such too is the meaning of the words ‘the nations' not only in the New Testament generally, but in this particular book. In short, we have before us a fresh illustration of the idea which seems to underlie the whole Apocalypse, that the history of Christ is repeated in the history of the Church. After the pause in John 13-17 there is a fresh and final outbreak of opposition to Jesus, in which the Roman power is peculiarly active. Now, after the pause of the thousand years, there is a fresh outbreak of opposition against the saints, in which the heathen play the prominent part. These ‘nations' assemble under the leadership of Satan, of whom it is said that he comes forth out of his prison ‘to deceive the nations, to gather them together to the war.' The deception is not the general deception practised by Satan over the hearts of men, and continued during the whole period of human history. It is one act of deception committed at the last, and consisting of the particular influence referred to.

The number of whom is as the sand of the sea. The common biblical expression for innumerable hosts.