The Captivity of Satan

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. Revelation 20:1, 2.
At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth—consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants….
The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees, ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations.26The Great Controversy, 657.
Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Here he will be confined, to wander up and down over the broken surface of the earth and see the effects of his rebellion against God’s law. For a thousand years he can enjoy the fruit of the curse which he has caused. Limited alone to the earth, he will not have the privilege of ranging to other planets, to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen. During this time, Satan suffers extremely. Since his fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise. But he is then to be deprived of his power, and left to reflect upon the part which he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done and be punished for all the sins that he has caused to be committed.
I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the redeemed saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and because the inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his temptations.27Early Writings, 290.
The Faith I Live By p. 353
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for my supervisor who is having a hard time with a decision that a mother made that caused the death of her own newborn. Maggie
—-Please pray for my niece. She was diagnosed with a clogged artery. Sandra
—-Please pray for the people of Washington who are in the flooding. BL
—-Please pray for my family members, Please pray that God will work on their hearts and return to faith in God and truly know Him and Bible truths, Bob
—-Please pray for Carl and family as his aunt has passed and the funeral is Sabbath. Rose
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Dear Friends,
Occasionally, I see a picture of a spider monkey and it gives me a little sadness. because one of my first memories was of a little spider monkey in the local pet store when I was a child. The sadness comes from what my mother told me about it.
When I was about a year or so, my mother would often take me out for a long walk when my grandfather wanted to sleep. On one such outing, she wandered past a pet store that was about half a mile from our house. My mother loved animals so she couldn’t resist going into the store and looking around.
Once inside, my mother saw a spider monkey in a large cage. She thought I would enjoy watching the monkey, so she put my stroller near the cage to keep me occupied while she looked around the store. As she was looking, she began talking to the clerk. They had not talked long, when they heard the monkey making quite a commotion. Fearing for her baby, my mother rushed over to where she had left me. Once she realized that I was fine, she looked to see what problem the monkey was having. It was acting strangely, crying and reaching toward me through the cage, then folding her arms as though cradling a baby. My mother wondered why this little monkey was acting so strangely.
The clerk had come over by that time and explained that this little mother monkey had recently had a baby, but it had not lived more than a week or two. She had been very sad and just sat in her cage dejectedly, mourning for her baby. When she saw me, she realized in her little monkey brain that I was a baby. She was making all that commotion in her efforts to reach me. In her little mother-heart she longed to hold me and cuddle me to replace the baby she had lost.
How much sadness sin has caused! Paul reminds us, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Rom 8:22 This is so true. Our Great Creator made a perfect world with perfect creatures on it. He never intended for it to become filled with misery. He made not only man but the animals to live forever in perfect happiness and joy.
At the end of each day, He pronounced His creation very good. He entrusted His perfect world to Adam and Eve. They were to be its caretakers, to watch over the animals, to interact with them, to live together as companions. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Gen 1:28
Sadly, Adam and Eve did not continue to obey God’s commands. They listened to the enemy when he suggested that God was withholding some wonderful experience from them. (See Genesis 3:1-5) When they disobeyed, they brought a great downward change not only upon themselves, but also upon the plants and animals.
That one act brought a great change upon this world. The trees lost their leaves, weeds sprang up, animals became ferocious and devoured one another. Pain and misery prevailed upon both man and beast. As the millennia have gone by, the effect of sin has grown alarmingly. All has become weaker and more decayed. Disease is more and more rampant and medicine is helpless against many bacteria now. Sorrow and sadness are everywhere, upon every creature. Mankind has had its part in making it thus.
Yet, it will not always be this way. Our Dear Saviour is coming to “destroy them which destroy the earth.” Rev 11:18 With longing, we look forward to the time when sin and sorrow will be no more. We are waiting with great desire to see the day when “the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.” Isa 11:6-8
John exclaims, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Rev 21:1-5
May that day come soon.
Rose