Posted By: Charity
The Euphrates & Kings of the North, South & East - 05/25/17 03:46 PM
Part I
Prologue: My purpose in the following article is to stimulate awareness, study, discussion and to get your feedback. As with all teachings this one should be prayerfully considered and compared with the Word. The article discusses the identity of the three kings of end-time prophecy – the Kings of the North, South and East. In the time of Daniel at the overthrow of Babylon, the river Euphrates was diverted and Cyrus the Great and his armies penetrated Babylon's fortifications via the dry river bed when it fell on the night of Belshazzar's feast. Revelation draws on that history to illustrate the final fall and destruction of spiritual Babylon and helps identify for us the three kings of the end-times.
According to Genesis 2 the Euphrates is the fourth of four rivers that originated from the central spring in the Garden of Eden that watered the entire earth before the flood.
The name Euphrates means “rushing” or “to break forth” implying a river prone to overflow its banks and flood. This characteristic is used in scripture after the flood to describe the nations that occupied the Euphrates basin, the Assyrians and Babylonians. These empires were notorious for their grasping ambition that was pictured as an overflowing river that would not be contained within its own banks but would flood the surrounding lands, capturing and subjugating neighboring nations.
Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. Isa 8:7-8.
The Euphrates is also significant in scripture as the divinely appointed north-eastern boundary of the Promised Land. Israel because of it's unfaithfulness only extended it's territory to the Euphrates briefly under King David and Solomon's rule but all of the territory to the south-west of the Euphrates was allotted to them by God as part of their divine inheritance:
And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. . . .Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. . . . 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. Exo 23:31 Deu 1:7, 8, 11:24.
God through the prophets warned the Israelites that they would be dispossessed and taken captive beyond the Euphrates. They were removed beyond that limit because the Euphrates marked the north-eastern boarder of the promised land:
For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger. 1Ki 14:15.
In Isaiah we have an ancient prophecy that helps us identify the Kings of the East that cross the dried up Euphrates in Revelation 16:
The Kings of the East of Revelation 16 are the dispossessed of spiritual Israel who repent and return to God via the “highway for the remnant” that God provides in the last days for their liberation. In their humiliation they overcome as kings and are liberated from the bondage of sin, set free by divine decree. Just as the Jordan was dried up to allow Israel passage into their inheritance the Euphrates is dried up to allow back the remnant of Israel into the heavenly Promised Land. And just as the crossing of the Jordan was immediately followed by the miraculous overthrow of Jericho, so the drying up of the Euphrates portends the overthrow and utter destruction of Babylon at the hand of the hosts of spiritual Israel in the battle of Armageddon.
The method and timing of the overthrow of Jericho by Israel's armies is prophetic of the battle of Armageddon and of the overthrow of spiritual Babylon. At Jericho's overthrow there was a seven fold warning of impending doom, each day beginning with a warning blast of a trumpet like the seven trumpets of Revelation 8 to 11 that portend the overthrow of spiritual Babylon. The overthrow of Jericho culminated in a seven fold march around the city on the seventh day and as Jericho's destruction was immediate and complete, at the end Babylon is completely destroyed in one hour. The final trumpet and shout that brought down the mighty walls of Jericho apparently resonated with the earth. In the same way, the quaking of the earth by the armies of God is the means God uses at the final destruction of Babylon at the seventh trumpet and plague:
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, [as with Jericho, the trumpet blast, voices and shouts of the host announce that the fall of Babylon and the reign of Christ] and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. . . . And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail [these are the tools that God uses to bring Babylon's rule to an end]. . . . And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Rev 11:15, 16; Rev 16:17 -19.
Prologue: My purpose in the following article is to stimulate awareness, study, discussion and to get your feedback. As with all teachings this one should be prayerfully considered and compared with the Word. The article discusses the identity of the three kings of end-time prophecy – the Kings of the North, South and East. In the time of Daniel at the overthrow of Babylon, the river Euphrates was diverted and Cyrus the Great and his armies penetrated Babylon's fortifications via the dry river bed when it fell on the night of Belshazzar's feast. Revelation draws on that history to illustrate the final fall and destruction of spiritual Babylon and helps identify for us the three kings of the end-times.
According to Genesis 2 the Euphrates is the fourth of four rivers that originated from the central spring in the Garden of Eden that watered the entire earth before the flood.
Quote:
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: . . . And the name of the second river is Gihon: . . .And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: . . .And the fourth river is Euphrates. Gen 2:10-14 .
The name Euphrates means “rushing” or “to break forth” implying a river prone to overflow its banks and flood. This characteristic is used in scripture after the flood to describe the nations that occupied the Euphrates basin, the Assyrians and Babylonians. These empires were notorious for their grasping ambition that was pictured as an overflowing river that would not be contained within its own banks but would flood the surrounding lands, capturing and subjugating neighboring nations.
Quote:
Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. Isa 8:7-8.
The Euphrates is also significant in scripture as the divinely appointed north-eastern boundary of the Promised Land. Israel because of it's unfaithfulness only extended it's territory to the Euphrates briefly under King David and Solomon's rule but all of the territory to the south-west of the Euphrates was allotted to them by God as part of their divine inheritance:
Quote:
And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. . . .Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. . . . 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. Exo 23:31 Deu 1:7, 8, 11:24.
God through the prophets warned the Israelites that they would be dispossessed and taken captive beyond the Euphrates. They were removed beyond that limit because the Euphrates marked the north-eastern boarder of the promised land:
Quote:
For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger. 1Ki 14:15.
In Isaiah we have an ancient prophecy that helps us identify the Kings of the East that cross the dried up Euphrates in Revelation 16:
Quote:
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, [the Euphates] and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. Isa 11:15 and 16.
The Kings of the East of Revelation 16 are the dispossessed of spiritual Israel who repent and return to God via the “highway for the remnant” that God provides in the last days for their liberation. In their humiliation they overcome as kings and are liberated from the bondage of sin, set free by divine decree. Just as the Jordan was dried up to allow Israel passage into their inheritance the Euphrates is dried up to allow back the remnant of Israel into the heavenly Promised Land. And just as the crossing of the Jordan was immediately followed by the miraculous overthrow of Jericho, so the drying up of the Euphrates portends the overthrow and utter destruction of Babylon at the hand of the hosts of spiritual Israel in the battle of Armageddon.
The method and timing of the overthrow of Jericho by Israel's armies is prophetic of the battle of Armageddon and of the overthrow of spiritual Babylon. At Jericho's overthrow there was a seven fold warning of impending doom, each day beginning with a warning blast of a trumpet like the seven trumpets of Revelation 8 to 11 that portend the overthrow of spiritual Babylon. The overthrow of Jericho culminated in a seven fold march around the city on the seventh day and as Jericho's destruction was immediate and complete, at the end Babylon is completely destroyed in one hour. The final trumpet and shout that brought down the mighty walls of Jericho apparently resonated with the earth. In the same way, the quaking of the earth by the armies of God is the means God uses at the final destruction of Babylon at the seventh trumpet and plague:
Quote:
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, [as with Jericho, the trumpet blast, voices and shouts of the host announce that the fall of Babylon and the reign of Christ] and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. . . . And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail [these are the tools that God uses to bring Babylon's rule to an end]. . . . And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Rev 11:15, 16; Rev 16:17 -19.