Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
As we noted concerning the sixth bowl last week, this is the beginning of the end of the Antichrist’s power. The world will tire of watching him beat his chest as he is ensconced upon his throne. The world will tire of his parading around in his self-acclaimed holiness.
All of lost humanity will seek relief from the wrath of God, but still in their hardened hearts they will have time to make war with other nations, especially Israel.
Continuing with the sixth bowl judgment as we began last week, we noted the Euphrates River is dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. “The Euphrates is the dividing line between the Near East and the Far East. It is 1,800 miles long, 3,600 feet wide and averages 30 feet deep. On the eastern side are Asia, India, and Japan. Today the Euphrates flows past modern-day Iraq which is biblical Babylon.” Rogers p.188
This river will be unfit to cross because as we studied from the third bowl of v.4, it will be turned to blood, but the sixth bowl judgment will dry it up.
By drying up the Euphrates River the Lord is opening up the passageway to draw in the massive military forces from the Far East.
Dan.11:36-44 gives the prophecy of the rise of power of the Antichrist and it also gives the prophecy of those opposing powers from the north, south, and eastern nations who will come upon him.
Rev.16:13
Satan is the dragon who is the source of this mayhem and evil and it is said three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the Antichrist and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Verse fourteen tells us who these are.
v.14
They are the spirits of demons working miracles. The working of these evil miracles gains the attention and confidence of the kings of the earth. These demons are sent to indwell the unsaved evil rulers of the earth so as to motivate them to step up their aggression toward Israel. Satan’s demons are at work doing this today. They don’t have to know why they hate Israel so much just as any of Satan’s pawns don’t have to know why they think the way they think.
From Dan.10:13 Satan had a high ranking demon over the land of Persia. He is called the Prince of Persia. This demon was under orders by Satan just as the demon which Satan had over Greece as seen in Dan.10:20. Most likely these demons are still there.
It is understood Satan does not have the attributes of deity. He is not omnipresent, but he is organized and he places his fallen angels, [which we call demons] in places all over the earth. These demons report to Satan’s headquarters here on earth. Rev.13:9 says Satan’s throne is here on earth. He may move it from time to time, but it’s here. If we think we are smart since we can send e-mails across the globe in a matter of seconds, don’t think Satan hasn’t been doing this for thousands of years. All angels are superior to humans in knowledge and power and the fallen angels could do us great harm if God did not fight for us. During the last days of the tribulation period the whole world will be drawn toward the Middle East as these demons motivate the world rulers to gather to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
The battles leading to Armageddon involve four major players.
Each of these powers is being played by Satan. Satan could care less about what the nations want. He is playing nation against nation in hopes of annihilating all of human kind. We have said this in an earlier message that Satan in particular wants to annihilate all Jews thus rendering God incapable of fulfilling his promises to them.
Satan thinks if he can do this he will subsequently get off the hook with God.
From Gen.3:15; Isa.14:12-15; Ezek.28:12-14 Satan is prejudged for sinning. If God can’t keep his word with Abraham and the Jewish people then that would mean God is imperfect and is thus not qualified to judge anyone, including Satan.
The four major powers are oblivious as to how they are being played by Satan. They could care less about Satan’s plans. They want control of the world, and Satan already has control of their minds; they just don’t know it. Alliances will be made. Old foes will become bosom buddies. Differences will be put aside. Concessions will be made.
The first conflict will involve the king of the North Ezek.38:2; 39:1. The Bible describes this area of Gog; the land of Magog. This land would be Russia today, and Gog [prince] would be the dictator. Gen.10:2 speaks of Magog, a son of Japheth, the son of Noah.
The area where Magog is said to have settled is north of the Black Sea. The Greeks called the Magogites, Scythians, a very barbaric people. Josephus and Jerome both identify Magog as the land where the Scythians lived which was southern Russia.
[That land years ago was given its name from another translation of the word Magog which was Rosh. Linguistic evidence along with ethnic, geographic, and contextual points brings to the conclusion that Rosh is Russia. Japheth’s descendants migrated north after the Tower of Babel incident. Meshech and Tubal’s migrations are noted on Assyrian monuments of the ninth century B.C. and later from Asia Minor to the north beyond the Black Sea, the Taurus Mountains and the Caspian Sea. -- Unger O.T Commentary , p.1577]
Dan.11:40 speaks of the king of the north coming down to overtake the king of the south, the Pan-Arabic armies. He is said to lead his military both on land and on sea; the Mediterranean Sea.
He will take his navy through the Black Sea, through the Bosporus Strait west of Istanbul Turkey, then on through the Sea of Marmara through the Strait of Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea and into the Mediterranean Sea.
To go by land he must move his military through Palestine, i.e. Israeli territory.
From Ezek.38-39 we find God puts a hook in the jaw of the northern king, 38:4, and he draws him into the land of Palestine to destroy Israel.
It is also noted in Ezek.38:10 that an evil thought would enter into the mind of this leader just prior to invading Israel and this is seen prophesied as well in today’s text in Rev.16:13-14.
God pulls Israel’s enemies in upon her to demonstrate his protection; his love and his power as he destroys her enemies. The first to go will be Russia and her allies. Our Lord told Ezekiel in 38:16 that he would be sanctified before Gog; that demon possessed wicked leader of the land of Magog.
And as we see in our sixth bowl judgment God is drawing in another military power to defeat. God makes the passageway across the Euphrates River easy, and his intent is to array Israel’s enemies before her so he can demonstrate his awesome power once again.
v.15-16
Here we have a note of encouragement and admonition to the Tribulation saints still on the earth.
The soon return of the Lord calls to them the need to remain pure and faithful if the Lord would be glorified in their lives, just as the imminent rapture of the Church calls for our vigilance to remain pure and faithful till that moment. The Lord will be faithful to us, but his glorious blessings will be in proportion to our faithfulness to him, and the same applies to the tribulation saints. As I have said before “faithfulness is not an issue of the will as much as it is an issue of the want.” If we want to please the Lord we will choose to be faithful.