Chapter 39—The Earth Desolated
I then beheld the earth. The wicked were dead, and their bodies
were lying upon the face of the earth. The inhabitants of earth had
suffered the wrath of God in the seven last plagues. They had gnawed
their tongues for pain and had cursed God. The false shepherds were
signal objects of Jehovah’s wrath. Their eyes had consumed away in
their holes, and their tongues in their mouths, while they stood upon
their feet. After the saints were delivered by the voice of God, the rage
of the wicked multitude was turned upon each other. The earth seemed
to be deluged with blood, and dead bodies were from one end of the
earth to the other.
The earth was in a most desolate condition. Cities and villages,
shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains were moved
out of their places, leaving large caverns. The sea had thrown out
ragged rocks upon the earth, and rocks had been torn out of the earth,
and were scattered all over its surface. The earth looked like a desolate
wilderness. Large trees were rooted up, and were strewn over the
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land. Here is Satan’s home, with his evil angels, through the 1000
years. Here they will be confined, and wander up and down over the
broken surface of the earth, and see the effects of his rebellion against
God’s law. The effects of the curse which he has caused, he can enjoy
through the 1000 years. Limited alone to the earth, he will have no
privilege of ranging around to other planets, to tempt and annoy those
who have not fallen. Satan suffers in this time extremely. Since his fall
his evil traits have been in constant exercise. He is then deprived of
his power, and left to reflect upon the part 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 he has done, and be punished for
all the sins he has caused to be committed.
Then 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 the Devil,
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