Armageddon

When the angel pours out the sixth bowl, the kings will assemble for battle on that great Day of God Almighty. “Behold, I am coming as a thief.” “And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.” This will be the last war before the millennium. Then Jesus will come again as a thief.

Armageddon, an ancient theater of war, is located in Palestine. During this judgment of God, the Jews have dwelt safely in Palestine. They have seen how God’s punishment of the Gentiles has raged around them. Thousands have fallen on the one hand, and ten thousand on the other, but it has not come near them. Ps. 91. When they came to Palestine, they were able to bring their silver and their gold, because it belongs to the Lord. They lack nothing.

When the kingdom of the beast is plunged into darkness and men gnaw their tongues in pain, a thought enters the mind of the false prophet—Gog, in the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. He begins to make an evil plan and says, “I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates—to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out [my] hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.” Ezek. 38:10-12.

During God’s time of punishment, the Gentile nations will have become poor. They will be in need. Then they will turn their eyes to the Jews who are living in prosperity, and they will say: “Have they not stolen from us? Have they not traded with us, and cheated, and stolen from us? They have taken everything with them to their land; come, let us take it back!”

“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.” Joel 3:1-2.

“Proclaim this among the nations: ‘Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am strong.”’” Verses 9-10.

What good is the beast’s model government if God does not let it rain, when water turns to blood and the sun burns like fire? Nothing will grow on the earth; the vines will die. This is the heaven that the ungodly and the proud have created for themselves. Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” 1 Cor. 3:6-7. Here we can see that Paul gives all the glory to God. We must never allow ourselves to be contaminated by those who do not expect help from on high.

The salvation they have obtained and the heaven they have created by rejecting God and setting themselves up in His place is an earth that is scorched by the sun and where nothing grows. The beast is the color of scarlet, and the water has now turned into blood, but they will not humble themselves. They continue to blaspheme God, and a terrible war spirit rises up in them. These are the frog-spirits at work. Rev. 16:13-14. They have no need for hoes and pruning hooks now, and they cry out for them to be made into swords and spears. “Prepare for a holy war!” The false prophet manages to convince them that this is a holy war. “Why should the Jews sit in their glory and we sit here in our poverty and starve?”

“Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow—for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through her again.” Joel 3:11-17.

Jehoshaphat means “God judges.” Then the seventh bowl will be poured out. He has gathered all His enemies in the valley of Jehoshaphat to be a footstool under His feet. Jesus is sitting at God’s right hand and is waiting for that day. Heb. 10:12-13; Ps. 110:1.

The Gentiles do not know the thoughts of the Lord, nor do they understand His counsel—that He has gathered them like sheaves for the threshing floor. Micah 4:12. Like sheaves! How significant. All the nations, all organizations have rejected God. People have been bound together as sheaves—they have taken the mark of the beast, and now they are being gathered onto the threshing floor.

In this need the daughter of Zion will travail like a woman in labor. The Jews will be terrified. They have neither gates nor barriers and are unable to withstand this army. It has still not dawned on them that it is God who has gathered them in Palestine and has been gracious to them during His judgment over the Gentiles. They attribute it to their own strength, their politics, and their own capabilities. But now at last they have been humbled so that they are able to acknowledge their helplessness. In their need they turn to God in earnest, and the promised Messiah can return as King.

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” Zech. 12:10.

Then Jesus will come as King, and it must be terrible then for the Jews to realize that it was He whom they crucified. However, the Jews have always been stiff-necked. Acts 7:51. The first time Moses wanted to help them, they rejected him, and he had to flee. The second time, they received him. The first time Moses came with the tablets of stone, he had to break them in pieces; but when he came the second time, they received them and kept them. The first time they were supposed to enter the land, they would not, and they had to wander in the desert for forty years. The second time, they entered in. It will be the same with Jesus. When Joseph rebuked and exhorted his brothers, they rejected him and sold him. They did the same to Jesus. But when they came into need, it was Joseph who had to save them. However, by then Joseph had taken a bride in Egypt. This is also how they will receive Jesus in their need. He will come as King together with His bride, who, for the most part, is taken from among the Gentiles. There will be, as it were, an invasion of “paratroopers” that will liberate the world from sin and unrighteousness.

Then Jesus will set His feet on the Mount of Olives from which He once ascended. He will come, together with all the saints. Zech. 14. This is when the seventh and last bowl is poured out. The second sickle will be thrust into the earth to harvest the grapes from the vines of the earth, and the fruit will be cast into the great winepress of God’s wrath. “And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.” Rev. 14:20. It doesn’t pay to be a branch on this vine.

All the good that the true vine produces is the result of sacrifice. By these good works, the blood of our self-life is sacrificed. Those who are branches on the true vine die as a grain of wheat in order to bear fruit. It is the opposite with the branches on the false vine. All the good they do is motivated by self-interest. They seek honor in all their charitable organizations and think only of their personal advantage as they implement their social and welfare schemes. But now their time has come. Their blood will be pressed out in the winepress of God’s wrath, and the blood will come up to the horses’ bridles.

None of those who went down to Armageddon, to the valley of Jehoshaphat, will come back alive. Now evil will be pulled up by the root. “Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.” Rev. 19:20-21.

The beast and the Antichrist are thrown alive into the lake of fire, while Christ and His bride ascend into heaven.