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Article		November 18, 2015
The Battle of Armageddon

The Battle of Armageddon Is Not What Most Expect.

Revelation 16:12 says something we should see as odd.

And the sixth Angel poured his vessel over the great river Euphrates, and its waters dried up that the way of the Kings from the East may be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

So, the Euphrates dries up. That doesn't seem like much of a plague. That's because it isn't a plague - it makes a plague possible. But that isn't what's odd.

The Euphrates must be dried up so the Kings from the East can cross it. For a military, crossing a river the size of the Euphrates is World War I technology. That's odd.

Could the world's post-apocalyptic armies be such a rag-tag force that they can't cross the Euphrates? That seems doubtful. Remember that the other side of the Euphrates is undefended, which makes the crossing easy.

Also, who are all these kings whose kingdoms can't muster some row boats. Instead the river must be dry so they don't get their shoes wet.

We see the idea that any person can cross the Euphrates echoed in Isaiah 11:15.

With a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that anyone can cross over in sandals (Isaiah 11:15).

The Battle of Armageddon has often been pictured as a great military battle held at Armageddon (Har Megiddo), the site of many great battles in history. Although the valley of Har Megiddo was once ideal for great military battles, it is now far too small to be used that way.

Also, these kings know they are going to fight against God. The preceding verses, 10 and 11, show us that people know why the previous plagues are coming on them.

And the fifth Angel poured his vessel over the throne of the Beast, […] 11 and they blasphemed the name of the God of Heaven due to their pains and due to their sores (Revelation 16:10)

They know the cause and they are prepared to fight. We can also confirm that they know this is a battle against God from verses 13 and 14 of Revelation 16.

And I saw from the mouth of the Dragon and from the mouth of the Beast and from the mouth of the False Prophet, three foul spirits like frogs, ¹⁴ For they are the spirits of Demons who perform signs, which go into the Kings of the habitable Earth, to gather them to the war of that great day of God Almighty. (Revelation 16:13-14)

So they know they are going to fight against God but exactly what kind of weapon do you use to shoot at God.

The answer to all these riddles is that this isn't a battle of military might; it's more of a war of words and ideas. Particularly at issue is who will be king. It's a public, direct rejection of God by a large number of people. This matches well with Jesus' words from Luke 19:14 "But the citizens of the city hated him and they sent envoys after him and they were saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.'" It also has a similar ending to Luke 19:27 "But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them - bring them here and kill them in front of me."

The Euphrates needs to be dry so that it can be traversed by common people and the vehicles of common people. Each of these common people however thinks himself a king and not a servant.