Sunday School Notes: Revelation 16:15-16

¹⁵ (Behold I am coming as a thief. Blessed [is] the one who is alert [or awake] and is keeping his garments so that he might not walk naked and they might see his shame.) ¹⁶ And they gathered them to the place called in Hebrew Harmagedon [i.e., Armageddon].

Last time we discussed the vision John is shown of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet with demonic frogs coming from their mouths. Those frogs go to summon the kings of the inhabited world. We left hanging the question: what does this all mean? Especially since we believe these are symbols and shouldn’t be taken literally. What do these represent? And will there be a literal final battle at a place called Armageddon, wherever that might be?

We established that the dragon is Satan (chapter 12), the beast is the first beast mentioned in chapter 13, and the “false prophet” is the second beast of chapter 13. These form an unholy parody of the Trinity. The first beast presents himself as a false Christ, and the second beast draws people to worship the first beast, in a similar way that the Holy Spirit draws the elect to follow Christ. The second beast’s actions can also be seen as mirroring the work of the prophets who speak on behalf of God, and the Apostles who go out to witness and disciple. These three work together to draw earthly kings for battle.

At the end of verse 14, John refers to this battle as “the battle of the Great Day of Almighty God.” We’ll see in chapters 19 and 20 how this battle is supposed to be against the Lord and His people, but the Lord will use it to judge the world. The term “Great Day of Almighty God” is an echo of a similar term we find in the Old Testament. Two passages stand out in particular: Joel 2-3 and Zephaniah 1:7-18. Joel 2:10-11 speaks of earthquakes, and the sun, moon, and stars going dark. “Who can endure the Day of the Lord?” the prophet asks, just like the earth-dwellers fleeing from the wrath of God and the Lamb at the end of Revelation 6. Zephaniah also foretells this day in the context of judgment. It’s a day of judgment against Judah and the wicked nations, though he closes with a message of hope for Israel, the daughter of Zion: “the King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil” (3:15).

From both the context and what’s said, it clear that verse 15 is an aside. “Red letter” Bibles (which put the words of Jesus in red, as if those words are more inspired or special than any other words in Scripture–which they are not) color verse 15. Although there’s no attribution of these words to Jesus in the text, what’s said here reflects things that we know from the Gospels and the seven letters (Revelation 2-3) Jesus said.

The warning to “be ready” are like the exhortations in Revelation 13:9-10, 18, and 14:12. Also in the letter to the church in Sardis, Jesus warns the church, “If you won’t wake up, I will come like a thief and you won’t know what hour I’m coming against you.” He also commends those in Sardis who “have not soiled their garments.” Jesus promises those people they will “walk with me in white.” The “soiled garments” represent sin and rebellion, and an unwillingness to submit to Jesus and be made pure. That purity is represented by white garments. Jesus also commends the one who “keeps his garments” and “doesn’t walk around naked.” Back in 3:18, addressing the Laodicean church, Jesus said they need to buy white garments from him “so you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen.”

Verse 15 is, therefore, an exhortation for the church to be alert, clothed in Christ’s righteousness, and not willing to shed those garments in order to conform with the world. The “shame” people might see is probably a reference to the same “shame” of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden–that which they covered with fig leaves. This would be fitting in the culture of John’s readers given the surrounding pagan worship (see Ezekiel 16:35-36 and Nahum 3:1-7 for similar references to “shame of nakedness” in the Old Testament in the context of idolatry). Christ will return suddenly and unexpectedly. Those who are his people need to be found by him in their proper garments, not wearing the shame of the world.

So far we have seen symbolism in everything except these kings summoned to gather armies. But it would be inconsistent for everything else in this passage to be symbolic but the kings, their armies, and the place they gather to be literal. Before we explore the symbolism, we need to consider the place mentioned as the gathering point for the kings: Armaggedon, or in Hebrew, har-megiddōn (Greek: Harmagedōn).* Is this a real place? Are we to look for this battle in or on Armageddon sometime in the future, or is this symbolic too?

Megiddo is most certainly a real place. It’s about two days’ walk north of Jerusalem. As we are told in Zechariah 12:11, however, Megiddo is a plain. The Hebrew word har in Har-Megiddōn means “mountain,” so Harmegiddon is “Mount of Megiddo.” At best, the city of Megiddo would be a tell, which is an artificial mound made from the remains of old settlements. The best it would be is a hill. Not a mountain. Har can sometimes refer to a tell, but the usual translation is “mountain.” To claim this as an instance where har means “tell” is special pleading and would require some evidence to support the claim.

So one strike against “Armageddon” as a real place is there is no Mount Megiddo. Also, if we look at other allusions to where this last battle will take place, they point to a location right outside of Jerusalem. Revelation 14:20 says the winepress of God’s wrath will be trodden outside the city, and the Joel and Zephaniah passages we looked at earlier suggest this war happens outside “the city” (i.e., Jerusalem). As we noted, Megiddo is two days’ walk north of Jerusalem.

This leads us to the conclusion that this Mount of Megiddo is symbolic, just as Babylon and the Euphrates are symbolic. But what does it symbolize? Why Megiddo? If we look at references to Megiddo in the Old Testament, we see that it is a place where God’s people defeated oppressive kings, destroyed false prophets, and is also a place of mourning for the nations that came against Jerusalem but God destroyed (see Zechariah 9-14; Judges 5:19-21; 1 Kings 18:40; 2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:20-22).

Armageddon is, therefore, symbolic of the place where the earth-dwellers rise up against God and His people, but God brings judgment upon them. It also looks forward to a final confrontation between the Lord and sinful mankind, those that wear the mark of the beast. Where is this battlefield? Everywhere! This battle has been raging on various fronts throughout the world for the past two thousand years, and has not been contained in one literal plot of land in a literal country (that would, no doubt, be too small for a battle between all the kings of the inhabited world). That’s not to say there won’t be a literal battle at some point at the end, but I don’t think that’s what we’re to be looking for. We, as the church, as God’s people, need to be aware that this battle has been going on, but God has been raining judgment down on those that hate Him and persecute His people. And this battle will, one day, come to a head. On that day, the forces of the worldly kingdoms will be brought low. And God, and His people, will be vindicated.

We’ll pick up with the seventh bowl next time…

*In class, I said the English dropped the “H” because of the Latin. However, I double-checked and, in fact, the Latin does have an H at the beginning (Hermagdon). So why does the English drop the “H”? I’m not sure. It could be because in Greek the “h” sound is indicated by a mark that could easily be overlooked by someone transliterating. But that’s speculation on my part. If anyone knows for sure, please comment and let us all know!