The Captivity of Satan and His Angels

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for November 1
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The Captivity of Satan and His Angels

The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto
the judgment of the great day. Jude 6. 


     The earth looked like a desolate wilderness. Cities and villages,
shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains had been moved
out of their places, leaving large caverns. Ragged rocks, thrown out by
the sea, or torn out of the earth itself, were scattered all over its
surface. Large trees had been uprooted and were strewn over the land.
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.

     To God's people the captivity of Satan will bring gladness and
rejoicing. Says the prophet: "It shall come to pass in the day that
Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and
from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt
take up this parable against the king of Babylon [here representing
Satan], and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! . . . Jehovah hath
broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers; that smote
the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in
anger, with a persecution that none restrained." Verses 3-6, R.V