The
Sixth Vial
Euphrates
Dries Up
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river
Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the
east might be prepared.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth
of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the
false prophet.
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go
forth unto the kings of the Earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the
battle of that great Day of God Almighty.
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth
his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew
tongue Armageddon.
Rev 16:12-16 KJV
Euphrates—(Hebrew, Perath; Assyrian, Purat; Persian
cuneiform, Ufratush, whence Greek Euphrates, meaning "sweet water."
In the Bible the Euphrates is named as one of the four
rivers that the river of the Garden of Eden divided and joined (Gen 2:14).
In Exodus 23:31 it is called "the river"
and in Deuteronomy 1:7 “the great river.”
It is next mentioned in connection with the Covenant
which God entered into with Abraham (Gen.15:18), when He promised to his
descendants the land from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
In some other passage, this Promise was confirmed to
the children of Israel, and it reads:
Every
place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the
wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the
uttermost sea shall your coast be.
Deut
11:24 KJV
In the NIV, “the uttermost sea” is referred to as
“the western sea”—this is disclosed as the Mediterranean Sea in the Amplified
Bible.
In Joshua 1:4, it reads,
From
the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates,
all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the
sun, shall be your coast (KJV).
“The great sea toward the going down of the sun” is
referred to as “the Great Sea on the west” in the NIV; and ‘Mediterranean Sea’
in the Amplified Bible.
This Covenant Promise was afterwards fulfilled in
the extended conquests of David (2 Sam 8:2-14; 1 Chron. 18:3; 1 Kings 4:24).
Just as the Nile represented in prophecy the power
of Egypt, so the Euphrates represented the Assyrian power (Isa 8:7; Jer. 2:18).
The Euphrates is by far the largest and most
important of all the rivers of Western Asia. From its source in the Armenian
mountains it then heads west toward the Mediterranean Sea, turns to the south,
swings in a wide bow through Syria, and then flows some 1,000 miles southeast
to join the Tigris River before it empties into the Persian Gulf.
It has a course of about 1,700 miles. It has two
sources, (1) the Frat or Kara-su (i.e., "the black river"), which
rises 25 miles north-east of Erzeroum; and (2) the Muradchai (i.e., "the
river of desire"), which rises near Ararat, on the northern slope of
Ala-tagh. At Kebban Maden, 400 miles from the source of the former, and 270
from that of the latter, they meet and form the majestic stream, which is at
length joined by the Tigris at Koornah, after which it is called Shat-el-Arab,
which runs in a deep and broad stream for above 140 miles to the sea. It is
estimated that the alluvium brought down by these rivers encroaches on the sea
at the rate of about one mile in thirty years.
The three frogs are demonic spirits that work
miracles for satan, the beast, and the false prophet—deceiving the kings of the
Earth, and the nations. The three demonic spirits will stir-up national armies
for the battle of Armageddon.
There’s no misunderstanding of who “the kings of the
East” are coming to fight—they’re clearly intent on fighting God. But,
unfortunately for them, it will be “the battle of that Great Day of God
Almighty.”
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the Earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed…”
Psa 2:1-2 KJV
Regarding “the Day of the Lord” 1 Thessalonians
5:2-10 says:
For yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night.
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden
destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they
shall not escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should
overtake you as a thief.
Ye are all the children of Light, and the children of the day:
we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and
be sober.
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken
are drunken in the night.
But let us, who are of the Day, be sober, putting on the
breastplate of Faith and Love; and for an helmet, the hope of Salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain Salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with Him (KJV).
The Day of the LORD will come unexpectedly, ‘like a
thief in the night.’
The saints that are asleep will not be able to stay
awake at the arrival of “the Bridegroom.” The church that do not watch, cannot
know what hour the Master will come.
“…If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief,
and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee” Rev 3:3 KJV
“…
Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may
not go naked and be shamefully exposed"(Rev. 16:15 NIV).
The garment that is kept is spiritual robe— we are
to watch as watchmen and keep our Heavenly garments in order with the Lord.
The Seven Vials of God’s Wrath are for the ungodly
who refuse to repent; not for the righteous.
At such a time reckoned in the Scripture as
"the Day of the Lord" the heavens [firmament] will pass away with a
roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the Earth will be
destroyed with fervent heat.
But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in
the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the Earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up.
2 Peter 3:10 KJV
After the heavens [firmament] and the Earth passes
away, there shall be a New Heaven and New Earth.
Back to Revelation 16, verse 16 says:
And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew
tongue Armageddon.
Rev 16:16 KJV
The LORD Himself is the One that will gather the
kings of the Earth to the place of the battle of Armageddon.
The nations will be gathered together into the
valley of Megiddo. This is the battle of Armageddon.
JESUS CHRIST Himself will win this battle against
“the dragon,” “the beast” and “the false prophet” –and against the kings who
lent their power to the Antichrist (read chapter 17).
HE shall rule the nations with ‘a rod of iron,’ for
He is “KING of kings and LORD of lords.”
HE shall destroy Babylon (chapter 18).
"The Sixth Trumpet" in Revelation 9 also is
connected with the Euphrates.