Revelation 16:12-21, Campaign of Armageddon

The Campaign of Armageddon

Rev 16:12-16 (ESV) The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 ("Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!") 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.



• In some ways this is different from the other judgments and in some ways it is the same, how?
• It is not direct (except possibly the three unclean spirits)
• It merely sets the stage for a series of battles
• NOTE: Armageddon is incorrectly referred to as a battle, but is a series of battles, and is better called a campaign
• It is also has some similarities to the Exodus plague
• The Red Sea was dried up to ultimately destroy the Egyptian Army (although different here because it was dried up for Israel to escape). The Jordan was dried up to let Israel pass into Canaan to conquer it
• Frogs are mentioned but are used differently
• What is unique about the "frogs?" Who or what are the frogs?
• They are demons (unclean spirits, demonic spirits)
• There true nature is described first, then what they look like (typically, you would describe what they look like and then interpret their nature)
• They come out of the unholy trinity (they are sent forth from Satan)
• Their purpose is to convince the kings of the East to join forces
• Review: There were ten kings
• There are now seven kings, vassals to the Antichrist
• It does not say how many join forces, only that the ones from the East (the Stans that are part of a strongly Islamic region, possible China, possibly the far East (also Muslim))
• Some interesting conclusions: US and Europe could be one of the three that are subdued. South America would not be able to travel. Also Africa, is either subdued or because of the conditions on the earth with regard to food is too weak to support
• There are dams on the Euphrates for power plants, along with irrigation usages that in part dry up the Euphrates now, but that would only be certain sections. Other parts, before the power plants would be un-fordable. A complete drying up could affect power and food production
• Why is the Antichrist so keen on going to war?
• They see the continued existence of Israel as the reason for their problems
• Initially, Satan wanted to destroy Israel to prevent the redeemer from coming. Jesus says something during his first visit which in many ways sets the stage for this attack
• Matt 23:37-39 (ESV) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!  38 See, your house is left to you desolate.  39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
• What is the purpose of Jesus' warning to believers?
• Earlier, we saw the sea of glass with all the saints who have gone through the tribulation. This is the near the end and there are very few believers left because of the policies of the Antichrist. A declaration of Jesus coming for the church would seem trivial when few have lived through to this point in history
• On the other hand, if the church has already been saved from the wrath to come (pre-trib rapture), and most of the tribulation saints have been martyred, this could be encouragement for the few who remain to continue to hold on, for the end is near
• Note: slightly supports the notion of a different type of believer (without the Holy Spirit) since you can give up your clothes by getting the mark
• The last three bowls all have political consequences
• Armageddon
• Phase 1: The nations gather on the plain near Meggido against Israel
• Joel 3:9-12 (ESV) Proclaim this among the nations:
   Consecrate for war;
  stir up the mighty men.
  Let all the men of war draw near;
  let them come up.
  10  Beat your plowshares into swords,
  and your pruning hooks into spears;
  let the weak say, "I am a warrior."
  11  Hasten and come,
  all you surrounding nations,
  and gather yourselves there.
  Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
  12 Let the nations stir themselves up
  and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
  for there I will sit to judge
  all the surrounding nations.
• The valley of Jehoshaphat is the final battle
• Joel seems to emphasize "surrounding nations"
• Phase 2: (Classic backstab), enemies of the enemy shall destroy Babylon.
• (Also in Isaiah 11:5), Jeremiah 50:9 tells of a gathering of many peoples against the city of Babylon:   
Jer 50:9 (ESV) For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a gathering of great nations, from the north country. And they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.

• Later, in Jeremiah 50:21-27, there is a more graphic description of the fall of Babylon. The reason this is not the first destruction of Babylon by the Mede-Persians, because it does not fulfil all the prophecies (completely desolate)   
Jer 50:21-27 (ESV) "Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill, and devote them to destruction, declares the Lord, and do all that I have commanded you. 22  The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction! 23  How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations! 24  I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and caught, because you opposed the Lord. 25 The Lord has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. 26 Come against her from every quarter; open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction; let nothing be left of her. 27 Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.

• The Antichrist is not there at the time of the attack
• Jer 50:43 (ESV) "The king of Babylon heard the report of them,
and his hands fell helpless;
anguish seized him,
pain as of a woman in labor.

• Jer 51:30-31 (ESV) The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting;
they remain in their strongholds;
their strength has failed;
they have become women;
her dwellings are on fire;
her bars are broken.
31 One runner runs to meet another,
and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
that his city is taken on every side;

• Furthermore, this destruction of Babylon is clearly associated with the final regeneration and restoration of Israel. Such events never did happen in connection with ancient Babylon. Pertinent to the regeneration of Israel
• Jer 50:4-5 (ESV) "In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the Lord their God. 5  They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, 'Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.'
• Third stage: The attack on Jerusalem
• Zech 12:1-3 (ESV) The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: 2 "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 3  On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.
• Zech 14:1-2 (ESV) Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
• Fourth stage: Attack on Bozrah
• Since the main purpose of the Campaign of Armageddon is the annihilation of the Jews, the armies of the world will move southward from Jerusalem to Bozrah,
• Jer 49:13-14 (ESV) For I have sworn by myself, declares the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a horror, a taunt, a waste, and a curse, and all her cities shall be perpetual wastes."

14  I have heard a message from the Lord,
and an envoy has been sent among the nations:
 "Gather yourselves together and come against her,
and rise up for battle!

• Fifth Stage: National regeneration of Israel
• Rom 11:25-27 (ESV) Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
  "The Deliverer will come from Zion,
  he will banish ungodliness from Jacob";
  27 "and this will be my covenant with them
  when I take away their sins."
• Zech 12:10-13:1 (ESV) "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11  On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
  
  13  "On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
• Sixth Stage: The second coming of the Messiah
• Isa 34:1-6 (ESV) Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host;
he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
 the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4  All the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,
upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
 For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

(Verse 8 ties the passage to the end times)
• Isa 63:1-6 (ESV) Who is this who comes from Edom,
in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
 marching in the greatness of his strength?
"It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save."

2 Why is your apparel red,
and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

3  "I have trodden the winepress alone,
 and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my apparel.
4  For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption had come.
5 I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation,
and my wrath upheld me.
6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
 I made them drunk in my wrath,
and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."

• Seventh Stage: The battle continues all the way back to valley of Jehoshaphat
• Joel 3:12-13 (ESV) Let the nations stir themselves up
and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit to judge
all the surrounding nations.

13  Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
for their evil is great.

• Rev 14:19-20 (ESV) So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.
• Eighth Stage: The Victory Ascent up the Mount of Olives
• Zech 14:3-5 (ESV) Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4  On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
• There will also be a number of cataclysmic events occurring as Jesus ascends to the top of the Mount of Olives
• Rev 16:17-21 (ESV) The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19  The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
• The great city may refer to Babylon in this context (Rev 18 gives details on the physical city; Rev 17 gives details on the idea of Babylon)
• In addition to the earthquake the fifth blackout, a worldwide blackout follows
• Matt 24:29 (ESV) "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
• Revelation 19 provides more detail on the second coming
• APPLICATION: