Revelation 16:12

Battle of Armageddon

We are now ready to study the sixth bowl of wrath. In the verses that follow, we will need to understand the term “Armageddon.” There is much confusion and dissension about this matter.

The most common view of this battle is a literal one. It is commonly held that the forces of Satan and the returned forces of Christ will meet in a great literal battle fought in the valley of Megiddo. It is believed that Christ will win the battle, bind Satan, and establish an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem for a period of 1000 years.

In order to understand the term and its symbolic meaning we must trace some history of Israel.

1. Armageddon is from the Hebrew term “Mountain of Megiddo” (In Hebrew, Har Megiddo) and refers to a very important mountain and the narrow valley below.

2. The narrow valley below Mt. Megiddo is the only passageway into Israel from the north. Syria and any nation north of Israel must march through this pass. As long as Israel could control this narrow valley, they could stop any invasion from the north.

3. At this location Gideon and his 300 defeated the Midianites. It was here that the Philistines defeated King Saul. Barak and Deborah defeat the Canaanite king, Jabin. Ahaziah was killed by Jehu here. As this location Pharaoh-Necho defeated Josiah. Do you get the picture? This was the location of many decisive battles. Israel won some and lost some. This is not a place that represents defeat or victory. It does represent a place of great and decisive battles.

4. Ray Summers observes, “Thus Megiddo fitly symbolized the worldwide distress of righteousness and evil engaged in deadly combat. This is not an actual material sword and spear battle. Such a thing would be at cross purposes with all the teachings of the New Testament, the ideals which Jesus held, his death on the cross, and all God’s purposes of grace.” (2, 189)

12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.

A. The sixth angel pours out a bowl of wrath on the river Euphrates. The river is dried up. This opens the way for the kings of the east to prepare for battle.

B. IF we understand that this is symbolic, then it will be easy to see that the Euphrates was the boundary line. When there is a battle for territory someone draws a “line in the sand” and declares here is the line. We will not move. This is the boundary.

C. The Euphrates is symbolic of the boundary between the righteous and unrighteous. This is God’s “line in the sand.” The water that separates the saved from the lost is the water of the gospel in baptism.

D. In this passage the water is dried up. The gospel is not being heard. People are not obeying the gospel. The hearts of the masses are so hardened that they will not respond to the gospel. This is consistent with the previous plagues where the people were so hardened that they refused to repent. Here, if they would repent, they would be baptized. (Acts 2:38)

E. There is a similar description of sinful men in Romans 1:1-32. In this passage God “gave them up” to their immoral desires. God, in effect, turned them loose and let them suffer the natural consequences of their evil deeds.