In popular interpretations of the book of Revelation,
the “kings of the east” command a vast army from Asia intent on invading
the Middle East to attack Israel. This understanding ignores the context and
the verbal allusions judgment pronouncements on Babylon from the book of
Jeremiah.
This view assumes that the “kings of the
east” rule over identifiable modern nations bent on Israel’s destruction
[e.g., Hal Lindsey, Late Great Planet Earth, (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1970) pp. 70-71, Grant Jeffrey, Apocalypse (New
York: Bantam Books, 1992), p. 240].
There
is no description of an actual battle in the passage; it never states this
force intends to attack national Israel or invade Palestine. Instead, it
describes how the “kings of the whole habitable earth” are assembled by
demonic deception to the “battle of the great day of God the Almighty.”
But the enemy to be destroyed is not identified until the seventh bowl, namely,
end-time Babylon.
(Revelation 16:12) – “And the sixth
poured out his bowl upon the great river: the Euphrates; and the water thereof
was dried up, that the way might be prepared of the kings who were from the
rising of the sun” [Citation from The Emphasized Bible].
The actual “battle” is not portrayed
until Revelation 19:11-21 when the Beast and its allies gather
to make war with the Lamb; again, not with national Israel. There is no
description of a drawn-out conventional battle; the Beast and the false prophet
are simply cast alive into the “lake of fire.” All remaining armies are “slain”
and left on the field for birds to consume (19:17-21).
Chapter 16 serializes the meting out of God’s
final wrath on the Beast and Babylon into seven “bowls” or “last
plagues.” The seven angels with the “seven last plagues” are seen
exiting the “sanctuary of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven” before
they receive the bowls (15:5-6). The “seven last plagues” are
implemented as each angel pours out his bowl. Throughout the series, God
initiates the action, even when he uses agents of the Dragon to execute His
purposes (i.e., demons, the kings of the earth).
The sixth bowl prepares the way for God’s use
of the Beast, the false prophet and the “kings of the whole earth” to
destroy “Babylon.” They are assembled to implement His judgment, for the “kings
of the earth” are gathered to the “battle of God the Almighty.” This
is His “battle,” not that of the Dragon or the Beast.
The description of the way “prepared for
the kings of the east” employs language from Jeremiah’s prophecy of the
destruction of ancient Babylon by the Medes (“the water thereof
was dried up, that the way might by made ready for the kings that come from the
east”). In the sixth century BC, Babylon was captured in one
night when a force of Medes and Persians damned
the Euphrates River (“dried up”) to allow it to enter the
city unopposed.
Note well the verbal parallels between the
sixth bowl and the related passages from Jeremiah:
(Revelation 16:12-13) – “And the
sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river: the Euphrates; and the
water thereof was dried up, that the way might be prepared of the
kings who were from the rising of the sun. And I saw out of the
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of
the mouth of the false-prophet, three impure spirits as frogs, for they are
spirits of demons doing signs, which are to go forth unto the kings of
the whole habitable earth to gather them together unto the battle of
the great day of God the Almighty.”
(Jeremiah 50:35-38) – “A sword is
upon the Chaldeans, says Yahweh, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon…A drought
is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a
land of graven images, and they are mad over idols. Therefore the wild beasts
of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell
therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall
it be dwelt in from generation to generation.”
(Jeremiah 51:25-38) – “Behold, I am
against you, O destroying mountain, says Yahweh, which destroys all
the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon you, and roll you down from the
rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain..Set up a standard in the
land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against
her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and
Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the
rough canker-worm.…Prepare against her the nations, even the king of the
Medes and of the whole earth, his rulers and all his
captains…Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take
vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons…without
inhabitant.”
The passage from Jeremiah was used previously
to portray the second trumpet (Jeremiah 51:25; Revelation 8:8 –
“The second angel sounded and a great mountain burning with fire was
cast into the sea”). The repeated use is deliberate; Revelation is
portraying the paradoxical destruction of end-time Babylon, for God will
use the very “kings of the earth” that profited from her commerce to
implement her downfall.
The language from Jeremiah used in the sixth
bowl does not mean the “kings of the east” are identical with the
ancient Medes and Persians. The passage from Jeremiah provides fitting imagery
for God’s judgment of end-time “Babylon.” After the kings of the earth are
assembled, Babylon partakes of the “wine of God’s wrath” (16:19-20);
her overthrow is announced in the seventh bowl but not described until chapters
17 and 18.
The image of the kings crossing
the Euphrates in verse 12 is interpreted in verses 13-16. This is
indicated by what John saw (“and I saw”). At the start of the seven
bowls John “heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to
the seven angels, Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the
earth” (16:1). Now he describes what he sees, demons from the
Dragon, Beast and false prophet gather the “kings of the whole habitable
earth unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty”; what he sees
interprets what he hears. The “kings from the east” comprise the
same group as the “kings of the whole habitable earth”; the two are
identical.
Elsewhere the “kings of the earth” are
allied with the Beast and corrupted by Babylon (6:15; 17:2; 17:18; 18:3; 18:9; 19:16-19).
The destruction of
end-time Babylon pronounced by the seventh bowl is elaborated in the
next two chapters. The ten horns of the Beast represent ten kings that
make war against the Lamb, but he “overcomes them, for he is Lord of
lords, and King of kings…The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you
saw, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate and
naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire. For God
put in their hearts to do his mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their
kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God are accomplished” (Revelation
17:14-18:3).
Note well; God “put it in their hearts”
to do His will by destroying Babylon. Though allied with the Beast, that
situation only lasts “until the words of God are accomplished.” The destruction
of the Beast, false prophet AND the kings of the earth follow in the next
chapter.
Thus, the Beast and its allies become God’s
instruments to destroy Babylon. When Babylon is overthrown an
angel makes a proclamation that uses additional verbiage from Jeremiah’s dirge
against the ancient city, as follows:
(Jeremiah 50:35-38) –
“it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be
dwelt in from generation to generation.”
(Jeremiah 51:37) – “And Babylon shall
become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a
hissing, without inhabitant.”
(Revelation 18:3, 21-23).
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a
habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of
every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication
all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed
fornication with her…Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be
cast down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and
minstrels and flute-players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in
you; and no craftsman of whatsoever craft shall be found any more at all in
you; and the voice of a mill shall be heard no more at all in you; and the
light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in you; and the voice of the
bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you.”
(cp. Revelation :3, 21-23).
Jeremiah pronounced
that Babylon would be “without inhabitant.” The list of social
groups in Revelation 18:21-23 no longer found in the city is
an expansion of this pronouncement. It is the “kings of the earth” that
are allied with the Beast that turn to wage war on Babylon; they become
God’s agents to destroy her.
In the seven bowls of wrath, God’s enemies
are pronounced destroyed in sequence. In the sixth bowl, the “kings of the
earth” are assembled for the “great day of the battle of God the
Almighty” to carry out the Almighty’s bidding by destroying Babylon.
This is pronounced in the seventh bowl.
The actual “battle” is described in chapter
19 when the Lamb rides from heaven on a white horse to destroy his enemies with
the “sword proceeding out of his mouth.” Note the verbal links between
the two passages:
(Revelation 16:14) – “They
are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth to the kings of
the whole habitable earth unto gather them together unto the
war of the great day of God, the Almighty.”
(Revelation 19:15-21)
– “And out of his mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it he should smite
the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the
winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. And
he has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, king of kings
and lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried
with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid heaven, Come
and be gathered together unto the great supper of God…And I saw the
Beast, and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered
together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against
his army.”
In short, the events unleashed by the sixth
bowl of wrath have nothing to do with national Israel or any armed
conflict in the Middle East. Revelation continues to use Old Testament
language to build its picture of how God will destroy the Dragon’s earthly
agents: the Beast, the false prophet and “Babylon.”
The “kings of the earth” may be allied
with the Beast but become God’s instruments by which He destroys
end-time Babylon. The same “war” or polemos is in view in
the sixth bowl, the vision of the final downfall of Babylon (17:14-18:23),
and the “war” between the Lamb and the Beast (19:17-21).
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