Revelation 20:13 Commentary and Bible Study

The dead are gathered from the various places where they have fallen. There is considerable overlap between the sea, Death and Hades, but they are all included to show that this will be a comprehensive gathering. None who have ever lived will be missed. Those whose bodies have been swallowed up by the sea in great storms, whose remains have never been found, will be brought back. God will not forget a single person that walked the earth. From the most inaccessible reaches of the land and sea, they will be summoned before him. There will be no hiding place from the Lord. When we read of the sea, we mustn’t think only of those who have perished at sea. The sea always stands for internationalism in the Book of Revelation – all over the world the nations are pictured as giving up the dead.Hades is the temporary prison house of lost souls who await the day of judgment. Their eternal destiny is already decided even before the judgment takes place. They have already been separated from the righteous, but they have not yet reached their final destination. This verse proves that Hades is not the same place as hell, the lake of fire. Have the wicked made a covenant with death? Death will renege on that covenant and betray its prisoners into the hands of eternal justice. The occupants of Hades and death will grasp that there is an even more powerful authority which even death must obey. Do they fear death? They will fear God much more. They are now to be judged with the devil himself. This will happen after they have stood before the judgment seat of Christ and received a public condemnation. The outcome of this resurrection shows who are described here. The sea, Hades and Death yield up those within them, only in order for them to be cast into eternal hell fire. These are not the believing dead but the lost. Does this mean that the righteous dead rise at a different time? Nothing of the sort is said here or anywhere else in Scripture. In fact the exact opposite is said – all rise together on the same day. But for two reasons it is obvious that the dead referred to here are limited to the lost. Firstly, they come out of Hades and Death where only the lost go. We may assume that the sea is made to yield up the same category of people. Secondly, all without exception who are released from Death, Hades and the sea, are thrown into the lake of fire. Consistent with this is the fact that these are called ‘the dead’. Although believers also die in the body, it would be very unusual for them to be described as ‘the dead’. Always Scripture reminds us that when believers leave this world, they are beyond the reach of harm; they are with Christ which is far better; they never taste death; they are forever with the Lord. The focus here is on the resurrection of the wicked, because the case of the righteous has already been discussed earlier in verses 4-6. They are beyond the reach of harm from the moment that they repent and believe in Christ. Their souls are then raised to life and the second death cannot harm them. The physical resurrection of the righteous is passed over in this passage, just because it is so certain to follow their spiritual resurrection. Praise God that the saints can look forward to this with such certainty.