THE MILLENNIUM | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 23, 1900

THE MILLENNIUM.

We have found, by many infallible proofs, that at the beginning of the Millennium, the earth is made utterly desolate, with “not a man” left to “dwell therein;” and so it remains during the Millennium, “until the thousand years are finished.” And this is for a purpose: it is for a purpose even beyond that to which reference was made last week,—that it should lay desolate during the thousand years, to make up for the sabbaths, of which, through the six thousand years, the earth has been robbed by the curse.

This further purpose is shown also in one of the ceremonies of the Levitical priesthood. There, in the great day of atonement, two goats were presented before the Lord, upon which lots were cast; “one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.” Then the goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell was offered in sacrifice, and his blood was used in the cleansing of the sanctuary and the making of the atonement for all Israel. And when the high priest had “made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar,” then the live goat was brought, and the high priest laid “both his hands upon the head of the live goat,” and confessed “over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat.” And then the scapegoat was sent away alive “by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat” bore “upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited.” See Lev. 16:5–22.

Now the word here translated “scapegoat” is a proper name—“Azazel.” And so the Revised Version runs: “Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before the Lord, . . . to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness.”

Who, then, is Azazel?—Since one lot was for the Lord, and the other was for Azazel, it is plain that Azazel is a personality as really as is the Lord. And since only one lot was for the Lord,—the other being for Azazel,—it is also plain that Azazel is the opposite of the Lord. And as God is Spirit, and all this represents spiritual things, it follows that Azazel, being the opposite of the Lord, is a spirit personality, who is the opposite of the Lord. And, plainly, that is Satan.

In a note to the passage, the Polychrome Version describes Azazel as “an evil spirit, supposed to dwell in the wilderness.” McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopedia says: “Ewald agrees with Gesenius, and speaks of Azazel as a demon belonging to the premosaic religion. Others have regarded him as an evil spirit, or the devil himself. In the Apocryphal book of Enoch, Azazel is among the chief spirits by whose doctrine and influence the earth was corrupted. The same title among the Gnostics signified either Satan or some other demon, on which account Origen did not hesitate, in the passage of Leviticus in question, to understand the devil as meant.”

“Among moderns this view has been copiously illustrated. The following are the arguments used in its support: (a) The contrast of terms (‘to the Lord,’ ‘to Azazel’) in the text naturally presumes a person to be intended, in opposition to, and contradiction from, Jehovah; (b) the desert, whither the consecrated goat of Azazel was sent away, was accounted the peculiar abode of demons (Isa. 13:21; 34:13, 14; Matt. 12:43; Rev. 18:2); (c) this interpretation may be confirmed by the early derivation of the word, signifying either strength of God, if referred to a once good, but now fallen, angel, or powerful against God, as applied to a malignant demon. Hengstenberg affirms, with great confidence, that Azazel can not possibly be anything but another name for Satan.”

That service of the high priest in the earthly sanctuary was representative of the service of Christ our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Hebrews 9. When our great High Priest shall have blotted out all the sins of his people in all ages, and shall have cleansed the heavenly sanctuary from all their transgressions in all their sins, then shall be

brought Azazel indeed, Satan, the originator of all sin, and by our High Priest there shall be laid upon him all the iniquities of all the people in all their sins, putting them upon the head of Azazel. Then shall come the great and mighty angel of Rev. 20:1, having “a great chain in his hand,” and shall lay hold on Azazel, “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan,” and shall bind him, and shall cast him into the wasted and desolate earth, and shall shut him up, and set a seal upon him, for a thousand years. And thus Azazel “shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.” Read Lev. 16:15–22; Rev. 20:1–3; Isa. 14:22–27; Jer. 4:23–27.

And this is the great purpose of the desolation of this earth at the coming of the Lord and through the thousand years. This earth at that time will be the only “land not inhabited” that Satan has had anything to do with. And that this desolated earth is certainly the very “land not inhabited” into which Azazel, the real scapegoat, is led, is made plain by the fact that the word translated “bottomless pit” in Rev. 20:1–3 is the identical word which, in the Septuagint, in Gen. 1:1, is translated “the deep,” and which refers to this earth in its waste, void, dark, and desolate condition, as it first existed.

The Revised Version translates the word in Rev. 20:1–3 by the term “abyss.” Jeremiah’s description of the earth in this time makes the connection between Rev. 20:1–3 and Gen. 1:1; for, in describing the earth in the thousand years, Jeremiah uses almost the very words of Gen. 1:1. Read: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” The word in Genesis is “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” And Revelation 20, using, with reference to the earth in that time, the very word that is used by the Septuagint in Gen. 1:1, not only settles the fact that this earth during the thousand years is in a condition of darkness, wasteness, and desolation comparable to that “in the beginning,” but also settles the fact that it is in this waste and desolated earth that Satan is confined during the thousand years, and that this is “a land not inhabited,” and this is the real Azazel led into it, which were typified in the ceremonies of the earthly sanctuary and priesthood.

And this is the Millennium upon the earth.