Revelation 16:12-14 - To gather them for battle

16:12

The sixth bowl is rather different, in that it involves the evil forces taking action against God (always a futile exercise!). First we are told that the great River Euphrates will be dried up. There may be reference to Cyrus defeating Babylon hundreds of years ago, for he came across the drained bed of the Euphrates. So “to prepare the way for the kings from the East” is saying that God is preparing the way for the forces that will defeat “Babylon”, the kingdoms of the world. 

16:13,14

Now we get the response from the beast, the dragon and the false prophet. Impure spirits like frogs come out of their mouths’. And they go out to the world, performing miraculous signs, with the purpose of gathering an army to do battle against the Lord. We need to remind ourselves that this is a vision, so it is portraying what will happen, but not necessarily in physical form. I.e. there is no need to expect that we will see actual frogs! The key thing to remember is that this is part of the Lord’s plan, and the battle is described as “the great day of God Almighty”. This is God’s day, not Satan’s day! Ps 2:4-6 are relevant here. This is not about what Satan is doing, rather it is about what God is doing!