God and mankind, represented by Adam and Eve, enjoyed an agreeable relationship in the Garden of Eden until Satan, an uninvited intruder, disturbed the peace and ruined paradise. As a deceiver, accuser, and destroyer, he has caused unbelief, fear, distrust, hatred, and division ever since. God, our Host, has prophesied in His Word that He will one day, for a time, throw the intruder out and restore peace to His fellowship with humanity. Satan is a major cause of the present separation between God and man, and his binding after Christ's return will be a vital step toward the restitution of all things, restoring conditions to the earth that will facilitate harmony between God and man during the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth. This restored relationship will open the way for astounding blessings, achievements, and advancements in the Millennium. Two significant steps in God's plan will occur in quick succession: the return of Jesus Christ, prompting the first resurrection, and the binding of Satan. The devil will be imprisoned for most of the thousand-year reign of Christ with His saints, and until he is released for a little while, the earth and its inhabitants will enjoy times of refreshing. During this period, God will work with humanity through His resurrected firstfruits, and a proper relationship between man and God will be restored. What an advantage those people will have then, able to live, overcome, and grow without Satan's constant pressure to ignore or defy God! When Christ returns, the confinement of Satan for a millennium will be among the many wonderful events to come to pass, providing an excellent reason to pray for the coming of God's Kingdom.

The great hope of Christians is that Jesus Christ will return to establish His Kingdom on earth, deposing Satan from his current rulership of this world and silencing the malignant influence that has ensnared humanity since the time of Eve. Revelation 20:1-3 describes Satan's future binding, during which he will not be permitted to deceive the nations for the duration of the Millennium. This binding is not his punishment but serves primarily to protect the nations from deception, with his punishment to follow later. The prophets depict him as being gazed upon by men during his imprisonment, already under God's verdict, not on trial but on display. Similarly, Satan will be arrested for provoking mankind to rebel, and God will intervene to silence him. Bound for a thousand years, he will be released in anticipation of God's final judgment. Upon release, he immediately resumes deceiving humanity, condemning himself with his lying words. God's pattern is to allow such circumstances to persist as a testimony that His way is the only one that works, using Satan's post-Millennium rebellion as a powerful lesson against high-mindedness. Though not integral to God's plan, Satan's reservation for the judgment of the great day illustrates God's perfect sovereignty. The prophesied release of Satan after the Millennium teaches significant lessons. What he does after being freed is history written in advance, showcasing his unchanging nature despite knowing the disastrous end awaiting him. Even after a millennium of stasis, he emerges, discounts the peace and prosperity under Christ's rule, and continues to act in ways that destroy others, convinced he deserves more than God gave him. His release also serves to remind humanity that human nature, like Satan's, is always ready to choose spiritual blindness, easily manipulated by his deceptions toward self-centeredness. As a test for the nations, God releases Satan to separate those inclined to listen to him from those who listen to God. The Almighty will finally judge the Adversary for his never-ending opposition, as well as the nations who follow him, for choosing to heed his poisonous message. While Satan's influence amplifies human perversity, the root problem remains human nature's unchanging proclivity to align with his self-centeredness.

Satan, Binding of The binding of Satan, as described in Scripture, does not fulfill the role of the azazel goat in Leviticus 16. A strong angel binds Satan and casts him into a pit, constraining him fully for a millennium, after which he is released to deceive the nations again. God's purpose for this binding is to prevent Satan from deceiving the nations until the thousand years are finished, a purpose entirely dissimilar to that of the azazel goat, which bears iniquities to an uninhabited land. Satan's binding effectively stops his work as the prince of the power of the air and his role as ruler of this world, providing temporary protection from his influence, but it offers no atonement. Revelation 20 makes no mention of atonement, justification, reconciliation, cleansing, propitiation, or human sin in connection with his binding, providing no legal foundation for it to pay the debt for sin, whether his own or mankind's. The confinement of Satan neither pays the wages of sin nor facilitates the gift of eternal life, which is solely through Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the notion that mankind cannot be one with God until Satan is bound diminishes God's power while elevating the status of the wicked one. God is sovereign, neither limited by Satan's presence nor dependent on his absence. Jesus Christ teaches that a close personal relationship with God is entirely possible even while Satan remains the ruler of this world. He promises to love and manifest Himself to those who keep His commandments, assures peace in Him despite the world's opposition under Satan's influence, and declares that eternal life is His to give without any proviso regarding Satan's presence. Scripture shows that God's converted people are walking proof of oneness with Him in the face of the Devil's influence, demonstrating that humanity can be one with God without Satan being bound. While Satan's binding will be a tremendous gift during the Millennium, removing significant spiritual pressure, it is not a prerequisite for the Father and the Son to work out Their plan.

The releasing of the azazel goat into the wilderness is commonly but incongruously linked with the binding of Satan described in Revelation 20:1-3. This linkage is problematic because the account in Revelation makes no mention of sins, whether mankind's or Satan's, being placed on Satan's head. Instead, the express purpose for his binding is so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. He is bound to cut off his influence, not to provide any sort of expiation. The wages of sin is death, and those wages have already been paid in full by Christ. Therefore those under His blood are alive in Him now and not waiting for an imagined final payment on the debt when Satan is bound. There is no hint that God's people are awaiting Satan's binding so their sins can finally be expiated. If they were still awaiting Satan's binding after having been resurrected to glory before their sins were completely removed from view, the apostle could not have written that they were already complete in Christ. If the final resolution for sin still awaited the binding of Satan, which occurs after Christ returns and is not completed until after the Millennium, then the record of sins would remain until that future time. Yet Christ has already lifted up, taken away, and expiated the record that was against His people, matching exactly what is said about the goat of departure. His sacrifice was offered once to bear the sins of many, and He sat down at the right hand of God, showing that the entire work regarding sacrifice, atonement, bearing the sins, and removing transgression is already complete. It does not depend on a future act involving Satan.