Stover, Gerald: Armageddon 02 ~ Revelation 16;12

Keeping these facts in mind, I would like you to turn back to the twelfth verse of this same chapter, Revelation sixteen, and I would read from it, and the sixth angel poured out his bowl. The word, uh, sometimes is translated vial, V-I-A-L, but more properly translated bowl, poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Now the term kings of the east refers to the kings of the sun rising, to the oriental powers now organized, evidently, uh, as part of the demon activity that we referred to in the thirteenth through the sixteenth verses of this same chapter sixteen. Now, the kings of the sunrise, uh, evidently approach the riverbed of the Euphrates, now dried up, and make their way over the familiar course, the overland route into Palestine. Some time ago, I, uh, picked up the data contained in a news release that I think will be of real interest, uh, to each one of you. The release had to do with, uh, the project of building a dam over the Euphrates River in, uh, uh, Syria. Uh, the news release carried a picture of, um, King, uh, Assad, and at the same time, or should I say the president of Syria, Assad, and at the same time it located the dam up near the headwaters of the Euphrates River. Uh, you might be interested to know that the Euphrates River is one of the mighty rivers of Earth. It, um, is about eighteen hundred miles in length, and it, um, averages about thirty feet in deep, in depth. It is not a river that is fordable, uh, with any ease whatsoever. Uh, for that reason, the river was really the boundary between the east and the west. Uh, many ancient armies went, uh, to that river, could not cross it, and so they established the Euphrates as the boundary, the eastern boundary of their military operations. Now, the river is about three hundred yards wide in its, uh, more narrow points, but it does extend to eighteen hundred yards wide, which makes a mighty river indeed. Now, the Soviet state helped to finance the Euphrates Dam, and I believe that they poured in enough money to build this three hundred million dollar project. It is true that Poland and Czechoslovakia and Hungary and uh Romania and uh other states uh contributed or loaned funds to Syria to do this work, but the bulk of the money came, uh, from the USSR. I understand from the news release that about one thousand uh, Soviet engineers and technicians were involved, and, uh, about eleven thousand Syrian technicians and laborers. It took about four years to build, and when completed, the dam rose about two hundred feet above the riverbed, and at the same time it formed a lake stretching fifty miles upstream, and it stores approximately twelve billion cubic yards of water. It is, in all probability, the third largest dam in all the Middle East. And of course, um, it was built primarily for the purposes of irrigation, and it is contemplated that it will irrigate about one point five million acres of land that, uh, have not to this day, uh, been, uh, cultivated, um, in the great Syrian desert. Now, uh, this is interesting to me because if man can build a dam, and by the closing of the gates of the same, shut off the waters of the Euphrates River. And this is precisely what this dam can do. Then I believe that we have no problem, uh, in reading the scripture and, uh, understanding that God will either direct or permit the waters to be dried up in the Euphrates River. I'll come back to this in a moment, but it will be of interest to you also to know that such a dam has been constructed in Iraq, uh, at a lower point of the Euphrates, and a dam is under construction in Turkey at, um, a higher point or a point, uh, more to the north and up in the upper reaches of the headwaters of the Euphrates River. Now, uh, I say again that if God can direct or permit such an operation, uh, it has a purpose, and the purpose primarily is to make a way for this huge land army from the Oriental states to move up into the Middle East, and there to, um, accomplish, uh, their purposes of aggression. Now, as we think in terms of this particular twelfth verse, I am reminded of the ninth chapter of the Revelation, and if you'll turn to that chapter, we'll look at, uh, another passage beginning at verse 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. Now, uh, this is the reason why I say that God either directs the operation of drying up the Euphrates, or he permits the operation, meaning that this passage declares that God, uh, instructed the sixth angel to loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. Now, these are not righteous angels. Uh, these are the messengers of Satan. They are demon powers. The righteous angels in scripture are not bound. They are free to carry out the sovereign purposes of God. But God has bound certain demons and has made it impossible for them to operate further in carrying out the dictates of their master, Satan. Now, it pleases God at this point in verse thirteen to release four demon powers that these might perform supernatural operations and, uh, leading to the drying up of the Euphrates River. So that God does either direct the operation or he releases demon powers and thus permits the drying up of the Euphrates River. The result of this is to provide a virtual highway for the oriental kings from the Persian Gulf up into the upper reaches of the Middle East, and then to follow the familiar land, uh, overland route into the land of Palestine. Now, the result of this is declared in verse sixteen, that the, an army passed over the dried river bed, and uh, it is numbered two hundred thousand thousand. Thousand, which means two hundred million men. And there, uh, the, the hosts of this army, uh, are described in verses seventeen through twenty one, and it presents us with an awesome picture of great power. It does declare that in the course of marching into the Middle East, that evidently a great many, many thousands of persons were slain. Now, I am asking you to consider this as an opinion on the part of a teacher. Uh, I would ask you also to, uh, research it very carefully and, uh, determine whether or not this is so. But I would suggest to you that the great city of Babylon will be rebuilt in the future. I have another release before me here, a copy of it. This is an Associated Press release from Iraq, and uh, from Babylon in particular. Now, of course, Babylon is nothing but rubble and ruin today, but this uh, Iraqi release carried by the Associated Press indicates that the state government of Iraq has hired the same architect who helped to restore the city of Nineveh to draw plans and to oversee the operation of restoring ancient Babylon to its former beauty. Now, there are many, many places for sightseers, et cetera, to go in the Middle East, and many beautiful things to see. And it's quite clear that Babylon, which was once one of the great wonders of the world, so to speak, uh, that it should be restored, and thus Iraq draw much tourism into that particular state. It would be wonderful to be able to see Babylon as it once was in its restored condition, and it would doubtless draw many tourists. Now, according to Revelation eighteen and some passages in other portions of the Revelation, I'm satisfied that Babylon is going to be restored because of the prophecies of God in Jeremiah, for example. Babylon was never, never, never destroyed, as predicted in the scripture. Uh, General MacArthur said that old soldiers, uh, never die, they just fade away. The city of Babylon did not have a catastrophic end. It was not a city that was destroyed in a campaign or even in a series of military operations. It was a city that died. It existed up until the time of our Lord. In Jesus' day, Babylon was a thriving city and a great, uh, and very intelligent Jewish community existed in the city of Babylon in that day, and it continued to exist, although it was gradually becoming less and less, um, a city, and it became really nothing but a village in time. Uh, but in, uh, later centuries, uh, up into the eleventh and twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it was a village, and in time it became nothing but, uh, acres of ruins, a- and that is its condition today. But what Jeremiah and others predicted was that the city of Babylon would be destroyed quickly by the hand of God. In the revelation, this is fulfilled, and it's one of the reasons why I believe that the city of Babylon will be a literal city of the future, perhaps the eastern capital of the western United States of Europe in its expanded form. Now, the result then is that as these two hundred million, um, uh, this two hundred million army passes up the riverbed of the Euphrates and into Palestine, great carnage results. And, uh, from the description of the destruction of Babylon, it would seem to me to be a serious possibility that it is destroyed by this great oriental army. And because fire is so definitely associated with the destruction of renewed Babylon, there is every likelihood that it is bombed, uh, completely out as a city, perhaps even by destroyed by atomic weapons. Be that as it may, the riverbed is dried up, uh, the river's dried up, and the riverbed becomes the means of an army passing into the Middle East. Now, we have previously read that when the campaigns take place in Daniel eleven forty to forty five, that bad news comes to the Russian, uh, armies located now, uh, in Egypt and probably at different points of Palestine, because, uh, this represents a very large operation. The, uh, dictator of the Western United States of Europe has perhaps been considered by some prophetic students to be slow to respond to Israel's need when Russia invaded the land, and yet perhaps it was a part of military strategy to delay the response, because with Russia in Egypt, her military supply lines are very, very long, and it is always hazardous for a militarist to extend his supply lines too long. Be that as it may, the West does respond and moves its armies into northern Palestine, and thus news out of the north comes to the Russian forces in the east, or excuse me, in the south. Now, the Orientals move in from the east, and I'm satisfied personally that this is the bad news that is delivered to the Russian commanders in Egypt, with the result that the Egyptian operations are suspended and the full power of the Russian armies are moved back, or is moved back, uh, between the seas, that is between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, and in that hill country, which of course provides great opportunities for any militarist to, uh, set up defenses. In that hill country between the seas, Russia sets up what in the English says the tabernacles of, um, his palace, but actually it reads that this area becomes his center of military operations. It becomes his command posts, his lines of defense. Now, there is nothing said in scripture that I know of about, um, Russia or the Middle East moving down into, uh, that particular area and there to meet the Russian forces that have returned from Egypt. Nothing said that indicates that Russia is destroyed by those powers. The reason being that God has reserved the destruction of Russia for himself. And if you are to read, or were to read the end of Ezekiel thirty eight, you would read that which we have referred to before, namely that the Russian power is destroyed by rain and, uh, hailstones and fire from heaven, uh, by insanity on the part of the army, and the result is that the name of our God is magnified by many nations. Now, not by all nations yet, but by many nations, because Armageddon is not over yet. The destruction of Russia is just one point in the whole of the war of Armageddon, but destroyed this great colossus of the north will be. And, uh, may I suggest that we do not think of the Russian people as being destroyed, or the Russian state itself in its topography and its cities. We're thinking now of the Russian military power, and to reduce Russian military power to nothingness is, of course, to provide a tremendous vacuum in the upper reaches of Europe, so that it is understandable why the dictator from the West, from the United States of Europe, and uh, uh, Chinese communism move into the land, because to occupy that land area now, uh, vacated by Russian military power, would it be, would be, of course, to increase, uh, their holdings tremendously. I point out in the study that, um, according to the word, and I'm referring now to, um, a passage in the Revelation, and I believe it will be found in the fourteenth chapter. And, uh, give me just a moment, and I'll come up with that passage for us. It, um, is one that, um, reminds us of the length and breadth of the, um, operations in the land of Palestine in that day. I said that the East and the West are established in the land now, each one interested in, uh, the expansion of their powers. Now, evidently, uh, from the word, we can gather that they stretched their forces out and positioned their armies for conflict. In, uh, Isaiah chapter sixty three verses one to three, we are reminded of the fact that some of this, uh, great, um, army, uh, on both sides is evidently positioned in Edom. And then from Joel three and verses one and two, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which would be central and near Jerusalem. And then, of course, uh, the armies are positioned at Megiddo because Armageddon indicates the Mount of Megiddo, the mountain of slaughter. And in the, um, fourteenth chapter of the Revelation, we read in verse 20, and God is likening the whole of this warfare as the treading of a wine press. And he says, and the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the wine press even onto the horses' bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Now, it does not mean that blood, uh, flowed at a depth up to the horse's bridles, but the Greek text there indicates that the blood was spattered on the bridles of the horses. I'm sure that that is the sense of the passage, and that this took place over a space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Now, a furlong is six hundred feet, so that, uh, this actually stretches out over a hundred and eighty two plus miles, meaning this, that the whole land of Palestine, from its northern to its southern extremity, uh, is involved in the conflict that is envisioned between the East and the West. Again, we do not read, um, in the word that the East and the West actually, uh, come to military blows. But we do know this, that Jesus Christ chooses this moment in the perfect plan of God to return in power and glory. And that return we have read at the beginning of this message from Revelation chapter nineteen. And in Zechariah fourteen and verse three, when in the midst of all of these conflicts, Jerusalem has been virtually destroyed, and the women ravished, and the spoils of Jerusalem and the things Israeli there have been taken by foreign forces. At that moment, it says that the Lord will return. And when he returns, it says he fights for his people as in the day of battle. And verse four of Zechariah fourteen says that his feet will stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. And verse nine records the glorious fact that in that day the Lord will be king in all the earth and his name one. Zechariah fourteen then concludes in the remaining verses, uh, with a description of the changes wrought in the land as the king establishes his kingdom over not only Israel, but over the whole of the world. So, as men would, uh, dictate to God, uh, by their actions and by their words, as others would discount the existence of God and speak reproachfully, and as some would replace God with other forms of worship, the truth of the matter is that in the final analysis, God will, as always, have the last word. So that as we bring this message to a close, we are assured of the fact that though kings and their counselors array themselves against the eternal God, yet according to Psalm two, God said to his son, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. This is the, the story of Armageddon in the word, lasting over three and one half years, covering the latter half of the tribulation period. And while there is carnage and destruction throughout the whole of that three and one half years, indeed for believers, there is glory and joy ahead as they share the reign and rule of the Redeemer and Savior and future King of all the earth, even our Lord Jesus Christ. And may the Lord bless you as you have heard the message and as you contin- con- uh, continue to ponder the great facts, yet future, but certain, just as certain as is the word of God certain. May the Lord richly bless you as you continue to study the Word.