Revelation 16:12

The Euphrates marked the edge of the land God promised to Abraham’s seed, “unto the great river, the river Euphrates”. In John’s day it was the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire. Great powers came from beyond it, Assyria and Babylon in Israel’s history and the Parthians in Rome’s, and for Israel the river stood for the threat of invasion and foreign rule. Revelation has already named it once. At the sixth trumpet four angels are bound in the great river Euphrates, waiting to be loosed to lead a vast army (Revelation 9:14).

A river drying up at God’s command recalls his great acts for his people. He drove back the Red Sea and made it dry land (Exodus 14:21), and he stopped the Jordan so that Israel crossed on dry ground (Joshua 3:15–17). Isaiah foretells that the LORD will shake his hand over “the river” and smite it in the seven streams, so that men go over dryshod and the remnant of his people has a way home (Isaiah 11:15). In those places God dried the waters to bring his people through. In this verse he dries a river to bring his enemies to the place of judgment, and it is the same hand at work.

The Greek reads literally “the kings from the rising of the sun”. The word anatolḗ means a rising of light, the dawn, and so the east, where the sun comes up. John leaves these kings unnamed. His first readers would have thought of strong powers from beyond the Roman world, from the direction Persia and Parthia had come, and perhaps of the great nations of Asia. The surest thing to say is what the verse says: a formidable coalition of rulers from the east joins the last conflict, and God has ordered its coming for his own purpose.

Frogs recall the second plague on Egypt, when Aaron stretched out his hand “and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt” (Exodus 8:6). That plague (Exodus 8) was a judgment of God that reached into every house, and these spirits spread just as widely. Frogs also belonged among the unclean creatures under Israel’s law, which made every creature of the waters without fins and scales an abomination (Leviticus 11:10–11), so the comparison marks the spirits as defiling. And frogs are loud and keep on croaking, a fitting picture of the insistent, noisy propaganda that goes out to persuade the rulers of the world.

stóma is the mouth, and figuratively speech and what is spoken. Spirits that come out of the mouth are the breath of lies: false words, false teaching and persuasive deception. In this scene the enemy’s chief weapon is deception, and he works on minds and wills. Paul warns of the coming of the lawless one “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10), and of a time when “some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1). Jesus warned that false Christs and false prophets would show great signs and wonders, “insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24).

The contrast with Christ is plain. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, with which he smites the nations (Revelation 19:15). Three foul spirits come out of the mouths of his enemies, and the true and holy word comes out of his.

These spirits “go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world”. The word for world here is oikouménē, the inhabited earth. In John’s day it often meant the Roman Empire, and in this vision it reaches every nation, so the rebellion is universal and takes in the highest seats of human power. Scripture foresaw this: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed” (Psalm 2:2). Joel hears the call to prepare war among the nations and sees “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:9–14).

“Battle” is pólemos, war, from a word meaning to bustle, and it can mean a single battle or a whole campaign. The demons gather the kings, and the battle they gather them to belongs to “that great day of God Almighty”. The day is his. The spirits do their work and the kings come, and all of it serves the day God has appointed for judgment. The beast, the false prophet and the kings meet their end when Christ comes (Revelation 19:11–21).

He is describing the timing of his coming, which will be sudden, unannounced and unexpected. kléptēs is a thief, one who comes by stealth, and the point of the comparison is the surprise of his arrival. A thief catches the household that is asleep, and Christ’s coming will catch those who are unprepared or complacent. For those who watch, his coming is a known and longed-for reality.

Jesus taught the same in the Gospels: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come”, and if the goodman of the house had known when the thief would come, he would have watched (Matthew 24:42–44). Paul wrote that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2), and then, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:2–4). His counsel follows: “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:1–6). Peter says it too: “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10).

This is one of the seven beatitudes in Revelation, and it stands out sharply against the judgments around it. “Blessed” is makários, the favour and happiness God gives. “Watcheth” is grēgoreúō, from a root meaning to keep awake. The picture is the night watchman who stays awake to guard a city or a house. To watch is to stay alert and ready, living each day faithfully in the light of his coming.

The garments stand for the righteousness that clothes the one who belongs to Christ. himátion is clothing, an outer garment such as a cloak, and “keepeth” is tēréō, to guard or hold on to. In the world of the Bible, to be stripped and found gymnós, naked, in public was a deep disgrace, the shame of the defeated and the judged. The verse calls it aschēmosýnē, shame, and adds that others see it.

Revelation has used this picture before. To the faithful few in Sardis Christ promised, “they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy” (Revelation 3:4–5). He counselled Laodicea to buy of him “white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear” (Revelation 3:18). The bride of the Lamb is “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8). So the garments are the righteousness “which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9), together with the good works “which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). To keep them is to guard our faith and conduct, to repent when we fall, and to stay clothed in what Christ has given. He is the one who warns and also the one who supplies the white raiment, so the blessing rests on his grace, received by faith.

Megiddo was an ancient city in the Jezreel Valley, also called the Valley of Esdraelon, in northern Israel. The valley is a wide, fertile plain where trade routes crossed and armies marched, and Megiddo saw battle after battle. Deborah and Barak defeated the Canaanite kings there: “The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo” (Judges 5:19). King Josiah of Judah was killed there by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt (2 Kings 23:29). So the name carried memories of triumph and of grief, and of battles that decided the course of nations.

Scripture had foretold other gatherings of the nations. Zechariah sees all nations gathered against Jerusalem, and then “shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations” (Zechariah 14:2–3). Joel sees the nations brought into the valley of Jehoshaphat, a name meaning “the LORD judges”, and hears the LORD roar out of Zion (Joel 3:9–16). Armageddon belongs with these as the place where God settles his account with the nations.

The gatherers are the unclean spirits from the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. They deceive the kings of the whole world and lure them into a war they cannot win. Above them stands God, who permits the gathering and uses it, for the battle is “of that great day of God Almighty”.

Believers differ on how literally to read these verses. One reading takes the drying of the Euphrates as a real, miraculous event like the parting of the sea in Exodus 14. It points out that the verse gives a practical purpose, a road for armies, and that a physical barrier needs a physical removal. The other reading sees the names chosen for what they meant to Israel. On this view the drying river pictures God clearing every obstacle out of the way of his judgment, and Armageddon, drawn from Megiddo’s history, pictures the last and decisive battle between God and the forces of evil, a real and worldwide conflict reaching well beyond one hill. Both readings hold that the battle is real, that God has appointed it, and that he wins it.