Prophecy is given in riddles and not clearly (Nu 12:8).
The riddle of Rev 20 is figurative of the church age, 1000 years being a figure of the fullness of time for the church age.
The NT presents the fulfillment of that new covenant (Jer 31:31-33) as now, Jesus being its High Priest and Mediator now (Heb 8:1-13).
We are in the everlasting "millennial" kingdom now (Mt 12:28, Da 2:44,** Eph 2:6, 1 Pe 2:5, 1 Pe 2:9, Rev 1:6, Rev 5:9-10).
Jesus' kingdom is spiritual (of heaven), here and now (Mt 13:24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 18:23, 20:1, Mk 4:26).
The future kingdom is the eternal kingdom, in the new heavens and new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Pe 3:13, Mt 5:5, 22:2, 25:1, Lk 21:25-28, 31, Ro 4:13, Isa 65:17ff, 66:22, Rev 21:1-4, no death).
But the temporal Messianic kingdom is now, for we are reigning with Christ now (Eph 2:6), in his spiritual kingdom now (Lk 22:69, Eph 1:19-22, Mk 14:62, 16:19, Ro 8:34, 1 Co 15:25, Col 3:1, Heb 1:3, 8:1, 10:12-13, 12:2, 1 Pe 3:22, Rev 1:6, Ps 2:6 w/ Heb 12:22).
** "in the time of those kings;" i.e., the Roman empire (Da 2:40-43), which conquered the Greek empire (Da 2:39, 8:21).
The everlasting Messianic (millennial) Kingdom was set up during the past Roman empire, at the first coming of Christ (Mt 12:28).
God has only one everlasting kingdom, it is now, there will be no other.
All God's promises (seed, Canaan) to Israel have been fulfilled, in the full possession of the land (Josh 21:43, 23:14) and in the full occupation of the land (1 Kgs 4:21, 24-25).
The only promise remaining to Israel is in the NT, of their grafting back into the church, the one olive tree of God's people going all the way back to Abraham (Ro 11:16-23), of both the OT and NT saints, IF (not "when") they do not persist in unbelief, in which they have been persisting for 2,000 years now, and counting.
According to Ezekiel and Zachariah, God will show the nations that His promises to Israel will be fulfilled, beginning with the rebirth of Israel, and at the Battle of Armageddon, into the Millennial Kingdom.
The Rebirth of Israel in fulfillment of prophecy.
In a single day, Isreal is re-born
May 14, 1948 Israel Restored in fulfillment of Prophecy
After being away from their homeland for almost 2,000 years, the Jews were given a national homeland in Palestine by the Balfour Declaration in November, 1917. In 1922, the League of Nations gave Great Britain the mandate over Palestine. On May 14, 1948, Great Britain withdrew her mandate, and immediately Israel was declared a sovereign state, and her growth and importance among nations became astonishing.”
Isaiah 66:7 “Before she travailed, she gave birth. Before her pain came, she delivered a son.
8 Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be born at once?
For as soon as Zion travailed, she gave birth to her children.
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says Yahweh.
“Shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God.
10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her.
Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her;
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts;
that you may drink deeply, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.”
12 For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you will nurse.
You will be carried on her side, and will be dandled on her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem.”
Israel’s status as a sovereign nation was established and reaffirmed during the course of a single day, and that it was born of a movement called Zionism
Isaiah 11:11-12 (WEB) 11 It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Amos 9:14-15
I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
Jeremiah 16:14-15
“However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when men will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.
Jeremiah 31:10
“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
Ezekiel 34:13
I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.
Ezekiel 37:21-22 (Restored as a single nation - Judah and Isreal together)
and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.
Although God gathers the Jews back to Israel from all the nations in which he scattered them, the Jews will not repent as one people until the Battle of Armageddon.
In this day that we now live in, and since its rebirth, God has made Israel to be an immovable rock among the nations, and will make all the nations reel, which is happening now. At the Battle of Armageddon, God will save Israel in the person of Lord Jesus to begin the Millennial Reign of Christ on earth to fulfill His promises that God made specifically to the Jewish people. The Gentile saints who are resurrected in glory will reign with Christ over the nations in that day.
Zechariah 12:1 The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
Mourning for the One They Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me (him), the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.
Compare with
Ezekiel 39.
See also:
Zechariah 13
Zechariah 14
Revelation 12:13-17
Revelation 7