The Day of the Lord: Armageddon: Seventh Bowl. Revelation 16:12
Revelation 16:12-13 NASB "The sixth {angel} poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. [14] 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." The comparison to frogs is significant in that frogs in the Mosaic Law were unclean animals, and it is also a reminder of the frog plague during the exodus from Egypt. These are like frogs in that sense so it is emphasizing that they are unclean, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beats and of the false prophet. The term "unclean spirit" is often used in the Gospels as a synonym for demons.
Revelation 16:14 NASB "for they are spirits of demons, performing signs…" This should be seen as a parenthetical explanation giving a little more information about these three frog-like spirits. They are sign-performing demons and we have seen that it is these deceptive signs that are performed by the Antichrist and the false prophet that deceive so many on the earth who followed them. Their function, though, is to go out to the kings of the earth. The verb for going out is an infinitive of purpose and so that is their function. Their mission is to go to all the kings of the earth to bring them to battle in Israel. "… which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty." The word there for "world" is not the word kosmos [kosmoj] or aionos [a)iwnoj], it is the word oikoumene [o)ikoumenh] which has the idea of the inhabited earth. It is emphasizing the totality of the involvement of the nations of the earth in this battle. This is a particularly important passage to pay attention to because it is foreshadowing what transpires in chapters 17 & 18 and the culmination of the day of the Lord in chapter 19 which is the final battle in this Armageddon campaign. So here they begin to gather together at this battle called "the great day of God, the Almighty."
The "day of the Lord" is a general term that is used of a time of divine judgment. It doesn't always refer to the end of the Tribulation period. The context is going to determine which judgment is being addressed. This day of the Lord is not the same as the sixth seal judgment when the stars are falling to the earth and there is a great earthquake and the leaders are seeking to crawl into caves and calling upon the earth to fall in upon them to protect them from the wrath of God. That happens in the first half; this is in the end of the second half of the Tribulation period. Here the nations gather together to do war, not against themselves but against God who has allowed them to come together. There are various passages which relate to this campaign: Psalm 2:1-3; Daniel 11:43, 44; Joel 2:10-3:2; Zechariah 14:2, 3; Revelation 19:11-21. This day in the Tribulation is accompanied by various astro-geophysical disturbances—earthquakes, thunder, lightnings, the sun darkened, the moon turned to blood. This is mentioned in Joel 2:10; Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 16:16. Revelation 16:16 NASB "And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon."
Joel was written to Israel at a time of judgment in the Old Testament but the passages being referred to in Joel 2 take the events of historic judgment and then extrapolates them into a future judgment. It never happens historically s it is a future time event. Joel 2:10 NASB "Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness." All of this indicates some sort of phenomenon that takes place upon the earth and also in the heavens. [11] "The LORD utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it?"
The next section from verse 12 to 27 really talks about the need for Israel to turn back to God, and so there is a call for them to repent. We have to understand this in the context of the Old Testament. This word that is used here translated "turning," e.g. in v. 12, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning." The same word is used again in verse 13: "And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil." This is the invitation of God to Israel towards the end of the Tribulation period to turn to Him. It is a Hebrew word shub. This terminology comes from Deuteronomy 30:1-3. In the context Deuteronomy is one of the most significant books in the Old Testament because it is a rehearsal of the Mosaic Law and a summary of Moses' prophecy about what will happen in the future and its summary of the cursings and blessings that God promises Israel. In chapter 28 they are warned that they will be disciplined, they will be taken out of the land, they will be scattered throughout the world, they will be living amongst the pagan nations for many generations; but then God will bring them back from all of the earth to the land that He promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They will be returned, though, as a regenerate people, a people who were trusting ion the Messiah, and God would bring them all of the blessings he had promised at that time.
The turning point is in Deuteronomy 30:1-3 NASB "So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call {them} to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you." While Israel is scattered among the nations, at that point, they remember these things and they return or turn back to the Lord, and that is the word shub. This is where this word picks up its heavy theological meaning. There are only about ten other words in the Hebrew that are used more than this word. It can be used for just to turn around, for repetition, and with a lot of different senses. But in some contexts it becomes a word that is sometimes translated "repent" but repent isn't quite the right word. It is really a turning to God because they are not saved and are turning to God and becoming saved. This is the background for understanding what is being said in Joel chapter two.
Joel 2:18 NASB "Then the LORD will be zealous for His land And will have pity on His people. [19] The LORD will answer and say to His people, 'Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied {in full} with them; And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.'" This is the blessing that comes to them when they are restored to the land; it happens at the end of the Tribulation period.
Joel 2:27 NASB "Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the LORD your God, And there is no other; And My people will never be put to shame." This will never happen again, so this can't be talking about the historical return after Babylon because they disobeyed God again and were taken out of the land. It must refer to that end-time return. Then we have the section that Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost.
Joel 2:28 NASB "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions." This is terminology that is used in the New Covenant passages in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. This applies to Israel and it is not something that relates to the gentile nations. It has to do with the fulfillment of the new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Jacob. This is what comes after the nation turns back to God. [29] "Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.[30] I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke.[31] I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke." So at this time there are these astro-geophysical phenomena. The sun will apparently be darkened and because of that the moon will not reflect as much sunlight and it will look as if it is red. [32] "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls." Paul quotes this is Romans 10:13. So many take that Romans passage as being justified, from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive; but that is not what this is talking about. What we see here is that first of all there has already been the turning back to God by the people—their individual justification. Then after ward there is the blessing, the pouring out of the Spirit, the sons and daughters will prophesy, and at the time of the end-time judgment there is accompanying all of these things that are happening in the heavens and the earth that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be delivered. The surviving remnant of Jewish believers have followed the warning of the Lord Jesus Christ about the sign of the abomination of desolation to head for the hills around the area of Petra, which is referred to in the Scripture as Bazra. That is where they will turn as a nation.
This pulls together several things we have covered at different times. The nation rejects Jesus as Messiah, and that culminates in Matthew 13 when the Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons in the power of Beelzebub. They are rejecting His Messianic claims. The Pharisees are a corporate group that represents the nation as a whole and there is a national rejection of Israel. But there are still thousands at that point before the cross who had trusted Him as Messiah. And we know that on the day of Pentecost and afterwards that there were another ten or twenty thousand more in Jerusalem during the feast days who were saved, among them t many Pharisees individually. When Jesus said spoke of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and that they would not be forgiven for this, it wasn't individual forgiveness for justification. He was speaking about the nation which had now reached the point of no return. Nationally they had rejected, rejected, rejected and God is not going to extend grace to that generation anymore, and that generation is never again going to be able to respond in such a way that it would forestall the judgment in 70 AD. That is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. All these things connect. When Peter is speaking on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 he is quoting this particular passage to connect the kinds of things the Holy Spirit can do. What is interesting is that none of the things that are mentioned in Joel chapter two happened in Acts chapter two. The sons and daughters don't prophesy, nobody is dreaming dreams, nobody is seeing visions; but they are speaking in languages they have never learned, and that is not mentioned here. What did happen in Acts 2 isn't mentioned here. So Peter isn't saying this is the fulfillment of Joel chapter two, he is saying this is like what happened in Joel chapter two because if Israel had originally responded by accepting Jesus as Messiah then the day of Pentecost fulfillment would have been this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Because they rejected Jesus there is still the outpouring of the Holy Spirit but it is now going to have a different function because now it is giving birth to the church.
The Joel two passage is not fulfilled until the end of the Tribulation period. Then when we get to Joel 3:1, 2 we read NASB "For behold, in those days and at that time, When I restore the fortunes [bring back the captives] of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land." What was it that Deuteronomy 30:3 said? "then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you." That is what is depicted in Joel 3:1,2.
There are various views on the valley of Jehoshaphat. One is that it is the Kidron valley at Jerusalem. Another view is that it is to the south of Jerusalem towards Bethlehem and it is the valley where Jehoshaphat defeated the Edomites, the valley of Beracah (blessing). When we get to the day of the Lord passage and we look at the characteristics of it we see that in the midst of this there is going to be this tremendous return, genuine spiritual revival in Israel, and the Jews who have escaped are going to turn and as a nation accept Jesus as their Messiah. At that time it will be right in the midst of all these final judgments in the bowl judgments.
Another passage that mentions this is Zechariah 14:2, 3 NASB "For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle." They will battle against Jerusalem itself, not just up at Armageddon. This is one phase of the Armageddon campaign. This shows that half of the city will be destroyed but there will be a rescue of a remnant of those who are saved in Jerusalem.
Revelation 16:15 NASB ("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.") This verse is injected in the middle of this passage and is not in the flow of the action related to the bowl judgments, so we need to ask several questions. First we need to define who is speaking here and to whom is he speaking. This verse is very close to Revelation 3:3 and 3:18 where the Lord Jesus Christ is addressing the churches at Sardis and Laodicea. So this must be the Lord Jesus Christ who is speaking here. What does it mean when he says He is coming as a thief? This is an interesting metaphor with different aspects to it. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 NASB "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. . . [4] But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief." The way this is normally read is that the day of the Lord is interpreted to refer to the entire Tribulation period from the beginning on. It refers to that day of the Lord as a thief in the night. It is usually interpreted to mean it is going to take by surprise, but you as believers aren't going to be taken by surprise when the day of the Lord comes.
All of the passages that use this "thief in the night" metaphor are all related to the day of the Lord. If we don't take the day of the Lord to be that broad term that covers the whole Tribulation, but that it is a more narrow focus on the final judgments at the end, then we wouldn't be reading 1 Thessalonians chapter five to mean that the day of the Lord, i.e. the Rapture, comes as a thief in the night. But perhaps what Paul is saying is that believers are not going to be there but the day of the Lord isn't going to come like a thief in the night because [5:4] "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief." Other passages, such as 2 Peter 3:10 also use this thief in the night metaphor in referring to the day of the Lord. But this isn't the same day of the Lord that we have at the end of the Tribulation period, this is the day of the Lord in terms of the destruction of the present havens and earth before He creates the new heavens and earth. NASB "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." If this is talking about something that is unexpected or sudden, it is difficult to see that it is going to be all that unexpected and sudden because the believers who are left alive after that Gog revolution are not going to be surprised that the heavens and the earth are going to be burned up. So maybe this imagery has another sense.
The word "thief" is the New Testament it may well be describing somebody who acted like a thief and stole money. But there is one interesting passage in John 10 where Jesus says the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. John 10:10 NASB "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have {it} abundantly." So part of the imagery there isn't the suddenness, it is destruction. In each of these instances of the day of the Lord something is being destroyed—not that there is this emphasis 0n something that is sudden or unexpected bu that the day of the Lord was coming to destroy something. For example, Revelation 3:3 and 3:18.
Revelation 3:3 NASB "So remember what you have received and heard; and keep {it,} and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you." The Lord is addressing the church at Sardis. That imagery could be suddenness and it could be unexpected, because they are living in carnality, but it could also bring some judgment and something destructive with it. They are sitting there in their own little fantasy world and rebellion against God, and Jesus is saying that if they don't turn and change and watch then a judgment is coming. The terminology there is similar to what we see in 16:15: "("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes…" He can't be addressing the end of the Tribulation people. This is right at the end of the Tribulation, there isn't much time. But it does make sense that the Lord is stepping out of the action describing the flow of the bowl judgments and addressing church age believers, basically saying to them that Jesus is coming back and we need to be ready for His return.
Revelation 3:18 NASB "I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and {that} the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see." Both of these passages are warning church age believers not to be failures in the spiritual life and be exposed in terms of having no spiritual fruit, production, spiritual maturity, and thus be left standing empty and naked at the judgment seat of Christ.
In light of these passages it is suggested that the imagery of the thief may have more to do with the thief coming to destroy. Jesus is coming to destroy the human good works of the believer, they are burned up at the judgment seat of Christ. He is going to come at the day of the Lord to destroy the world empire of the Antichrist, destroy Satan and all his works; He is going to destroy the present heavens and earth like a thief in the night at the end of the Millennial kingdom. So that imagery of destruction fits all of those particular uses.
As we look at the question of who Jesus is addressing here in this passage, if He is addressing those who are near the end of the Tribulation, the few surviving Tribulation believers, then His coming as a thief would then relate to the second coming. That could very well make sense. However in this instance the blessing that He pronounces here would be on those who are keeping their garments clean, and that would be addressing these believers right at the end of the Tribulation when they are really not concerned about obedience and living the Christian life. They are concerned about escaping and surviving. The other option which does seem to fit the scenario better is that this is a parenthetical challenge to those in the church age who are reading Revelation, that they need to recognize the seriousness of what will happen when the Lord comes back and they need to be careful and watchful in their spiritual life lest they suffer loss when Christ appears at the Rapture to initiate the judgments of the Tribulation period. That fits with the context of the warnings to both the church at Sardis and the church at Laodicea, and it drives it home to us as a direct application. We need as we read through all of this in Revelation to realize that there is a horrendous period accountability coming. Jesus is coming as a judge. There is going to be a judgment on the church (Rev. 2 & 3), judgment on the earth and those who have rebelled against Him in the Tribulation period, a judgment on unbelieving Israel, a judgment on Satan and the Antichrist and the false prophet. There will be the Millennial kingdom concluding with the great white throne judgment. The focal point of Revelation is all on these judgments.
Revelation 16:16 NASB "And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon." If we take this in context, in v. 13 the three unclean spirits like frogs, in v. 14 they go out to the kings of the earth and they gathered them together. So that "they" here is a reference back to the function of these three frog-like spirits who are gathering together the kings of the earth to do battle.
The valley of Armageddon is the valley that is below the hill of Megiddo. It is called the valley of Jezreel, also the valley of Esdraelon. It lies just to the north east of the Mount Carmel ridge and extends from Haifa. There is the gathering of the armies of the Antichrist there. Next is the destruction of the city of Babylon which takes place while the Antichrist is there, and this brings tremendous concern to him. The first thing is the gathering at Megiddo, and while they are gathering there God will destroy the city of Babylon.
Revelation 16:17 NASB "Then the seventh {angel} poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, 'It is done.'" He pours out his bowl into the air. The other have affected the sea, certain specific areas of the land or certain people. The pouring out of the bowl into the air is going to impact the entire earth. This is an atmospheric judgment. The voice that came out of the temple is that of God the Father. "It is done" is not the same phrase that Jesus uttered when He had completed His work on the cross—tetelestai [tetelestai], "It is finished"—this is the Greek word gegonen [gegonen] which is the perfect active indicative [completed action] of ginomai [ginomai]. This views this as completed, the judgments are over with; this is bringing it all to a conclusion.
Revelation 16:18 NASB "And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake {was it, and} so mighty." This can't be the earthquake mentioned in the sixth seal judgment, it can't be the earthquake mentioned after the death and ascension of the two witnesses in Revelation11; this is the final earthquake, and it is the same astro-geophysical dynamics as in Joel 2, Zechariah 14 and Mathew 24.
Revelation 16:19 NASB "The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath." So this earthquake impacts the whole world. The great city here is Babylon. Wine is red, it pictures blood, judgment, destruction, and that is the imagery here of the wine of judgment.
Revelation 16:20 NASB "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." So this sees massive tsunamis that wipe out the islands. There earthquake is so profound it levels mountains, incredible disasters occur upon the earth.
Revelation 16:21 NASB "And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe." This section from verse 17 to 21 is a summary of the final destruction of the earth and the armies of the Antichrist. Still mankind does not change its mind. Earth dwellers are set in their disobedience to God; nothing will change their mind. But notice, that doesn't stop God from constantly reaching out in grace, constantly giving them options and opportunities to turn. They never will but He never stops reaching out.
Illustrations