The Bottomless Pit

Veryovkina Cave, located east of the Black Sea, is 7,257 feet deep and is the deepest-known cave on Earth. It was first discovered in 1968, but it took 50 years and 30 expeditions to reach the lowest point. In August 2019, the bottom was reached by members of the spelunking group from Moscow. Some think, however, there is more to be discovered.

Is the Veryovkina Cave, or some other unknown giant cavern on Earth, the bottomless pit spoken of in today’s text? First, we know that an angel is “coming down from heaven.” He has a “key” to this bottomless pit and a “great chain in his hand.” This symbolizes the power that God exercises over the devil following the events of Christ’s coming at the end of the previous chapter.

The word for “bottomless pit” in the original Greek is abussos, meaning abyss. That same word is used in Genesis 1:2 in the Greek Old Testament in connection with the creation of the earth, but there it is translated as deep: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” The words “deep,” “bottomless pit,” and “abyss” here refer to the same thing—the earth in its dark, disorganized form before God made order of it.

Jeremiah, in describing the earth during the millennium, used virtually the same terms as those in Genesis 1:2: “without form, and void,” “no light,” “no man,” and “black” (Jeremiah 4:23, 25, 28). So the battered, dark earth with no people alive on it is called the bottomless pit, or abyss, during the thousand years, just as it was at the beginning of Creation. Also, Isaiah 24:22 speaks of Satan and his angels during the 1,000 years as “gathered in the pit” and “shut up in the prison.”

The “great chain” symbolizes the restraint God puts on Satan during this time. It is not a literal chain but shows the devil’s limitation; he would “deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:3). What a day of peace that will be!

Dear Lord, thank You that You will someday soon put a stop to the deceiver leading people astray.

For Further Study: Isaiah 8:11; Zephaniah 1:2, 3; Revelation 9:1

Key Bible Texts

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. (Revelation 20:1 KJV)