It Is Done

16:12A dry river and a way for the kings

The sixth angel pours his bowl on "the great river, the Euphrates," and its water "was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings that come from the sunrise" (WEB). The Euphrates was one of Eden's rivers (Genesis 2:14) and the northeastern edge of the land promised to Abraham. It also ran through Babylon.

A dried-up river should remind us of the great rescues in the Old Testament. The Red Sea was parted for Israel, and God promised through Isaiah that he would dry up the rivers and open the way for Cyrus, who conquered Babylon (Isaiah 44:27-28; 45:1). Ancient writers say Cyrus took the city by diverting the river, though John's readers did not need that to hear the echo. In those stories, a drying river meant God clearing the path for his purposes.

So there is an irony. The same drying that once made way for God's people now makes way for those who will gather against him. Scholars differ about "the kings that come from the sunrise." Some think of Rome's eastern rivals, some of the old powers of the East as symbols for all the world's armies, and some of a future gathering. What all agree on is that God is the one who prepares the way, and that his hand is on the river.

16:13-14, 16Three frogs and a gathering place

Now we meet an unholy trinity. From the mouths of "the dragon," "the beast," and "the false prophet" come "three unclean spirits, something like frogs." We know these three from chapters 12 and 13: Satan, the political power he empowers, and the voice of propaganda that makes people worship it. Frogs were the second plague of Egypt, and in Exodus the magicians could imitate them but not remove them (Exodus 8:5-7). Here they come from mouths, which tells us their weapon is words. They are "performing signs," and the signs are lies.

Their mission is to go "to the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to gather them together for the war of that great day of God, the Almighty." The deception is thorough: the kings think they are choosing to fight, but they are gathered for a "great day of God."

The meeting place is "Megiddo," or Armageddon in many translations, from the Hebrew for the mountain of Megiddo. Megiddo overlooked a great plain where many battles were fought, including the one in Judges 5:19-21, where "the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo" and were swept away. Readers differ on whether this is a literal place or a symbol for every doomed alliance against God.

Notice something else: no battle is described here. The kings gather, and then the seventh bowl comes.

16:15The voice that interrupts

Right in the middle of the gathering of armies, a new voice cuts in: "Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn't walk naked, and they see his shame."

This is Jesus. It is the third of seven blessings in the book (the first was in 1:3). And it is not a battle report. It is a personal word to his people, in the middle of the chaos, to stay awake.

The thief image is one he used himself (Matthew 24:43-44) and which the apostles took up (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4). It means the coming is sudden and unannounced. We have also heard this before in the letters: to Sardis he said, "I will come as a thief" (Revelation 3:3), and to Laodicea he offered "white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed" (Revelation 3:18).

So what does it mean to watch and to keep your clothes? To stay alert, and to remain in the righteousness Christ has given, not casting it off through compromise. It is striking that in the middle of the most terrifying scene yet, Jesus does not give a timetable. He gives a blessing. Watchfulness, not calculation, is what he asks of us.

16:17-21The seventh bowl: it is done

The seventh angel pours his bowl "into the air." The air was thought of as the domain of the powers of darkness, which Paul calls "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). The last bowl strikes there, at the realm of the enemy's influence.

Then comes the voice from the throne: "It is done!" The same declaration returns at 21:6, when God makes all things new. On the cross, Jesus said "It is finished" (John 19:30). The Greek words differ, but the connection is hard to miss. What was won at Calvary is here brought to its end.

What follows is the greatest shaking so far: lightnings, thunders, and an earthquake "such as was not since there were men on the earth." The great city splits into three, the cities of the nations fall, and "Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." That sets up the next chapters. Islands flee and mountains vanish. Hailstones "about the weight of a talent" fall, perhaps some forty kilograms each, recalling Egypt's hail in Exodus 9 and the hail that fell on Israel's enemies in Joshua 10:11.

And yet, at the end: "People blasphemed God." The final response is the same as the first.