• Why doesn't God come right out and say that there is going to be some tremendous battles in some particular place, and what this means?


• Why expressed in such difficult terms?
• Why can't God give us a specific event?
• Why does God have to be so difficult? (God why are You so vague?)
• If we are going to have to go through such momentous times, why don't You speak to us more directly and more plainly?

Anyone who has wrestled with Revelation must wonder why things seem to be so hidden, when the book is called Revelation. The answer resides in this fact: God does not want us to simply pinpoint events. He wants us to understand issues. Furthermore there is a certain sense in which God has left history in a flux; of not puting things down too closely, almost as if He were too specific it might lead to a conception of determinism.

Now, something to consider is that symbols always have a pointing function; they point to some larger issue, some greater truth than the symbol itself. The significance here is that I think God wants us to concentrate our attention on, and consider issues.

This word HAR-MAGEDDON (or ARMAGODDON); if we could discover what it means we would have the key to the climax of this whole drama. The word has no meaning in Greek; it is a sound-a-like word. The Greek word HAR-MAGEDON is simply a sound-a-like word taken from some Hebrew expression.
If we take that sound-a-like Greek word and form the Hebrew words, we have two words. The first word is HAR, and this means mountain. There is no question about that, no one will argue about that. But, the second word "MAGEDON" can either refer to the word Megiddo, which is a city in the southern part of the plain, or the valley of Megiddo, in western Palestine, which in fact is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Valley of Armageddon. Or, it can refer to the word "MO`ED" (or MOGAD), which means assembly or gathering.

Now the other word MOGAD, is from a Hebrew word YA`GAD, which means "to gather in assembly", to get together in some kind of congregation for some kind of festival or some kind of meeting. When looking up Old Testament verses where this expression is used, the word is either used for a special festival where all the people got together around the Tabernacle or Sanctuary, and it referred either to the festival or to the point of gathering.

At first look, it may not make a lot of sense. What does it mean, "Mount of the Congregation", "Mount of Gathering"? But that is the way it is. In fact it became to be used as an expression where it referred to the Sanctuary itself, when and where God was supposed to manifest His presence.

In the wilderness, when all the congregation got together it was spoken of as the Tent of the Assembly; God was ruler and the people were gathered around the Sanctuary. Later when Solomon's temple was built on the northern rim of the crest of Mount Olivet, anyone coming into the city of Jerusalem could see it. And what had been referred to as the Tent of the Meeting, became transferred to this elevation, when they no longer carried the Tabernacle around with them in a Tent. When the Temple was put on this northern edge of the Mount of Olives, then the expression became Mount of the Congregation. And this is where God met with His people, and whenever they got together, here were God's people and God was their ruler; Ruler of the Congregation. But what did this have to do with Revelation 16:16?

Then comes the picture from Isaiah, referring to Satan's claims against God originally:

    
How you are fallen from Heaven, 
      O Day Star, Son of Dawn! 
How you are cut down to the ground, 
      you who laid the nations low! 
You said in your heart, 
     `I will ascend to heaven; 
          above the stars of God 
I will set my throne on high; 
      I will sit on the mount of assembly 
          in the far north; 
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, 
      I will make myself like the Most High.

NOW here is this expression "Mount of Assembly"! if we were to translate that into the Greek sound-a-like expression we would say "I will sit upon Har-Magedon"; Mount of the Congregation, Mountain of the people of God in the far north. You see the symbolism that was used to refer to Solomon's temple on the north ridge in this elevated place, where everyone could see it, is where God dwelt. But that was only the symbol for God who is in the temple in Heaven and who rules all the earth. But Satan says; "I will ascend to the mount of the assembly, I will be a better ruler. I can do a better job. I can run a better government. I want to ascend to this elevated place where I can be king of the mountain".

God who claimed to be ruler of His people (His congregation) from the recesses of the north, was being "bumped" by Satan who is claiming to be able to run a better government. And thus we have this expression from:

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised 
     in the City of our God! 
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, 
     is the joy of all the earth, 
Mount Zion, in the far north, 
     the city of the great King. 

Ah, this is Armageddon. Mount of the Congregation where God rules His people. Again, we are told that Satan's original claim was: "I want to be King of the Mountain". And that claim I believe he will make again under the sixth plague.

Let no man deceive you in any way; for that day will 
not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the 
man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, 
who opposes and exhaults himself against every so-
called god or object of worship, so that he takes his 
seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 

That is what Satan does under the sixth plague.

Let us now read the most profound statement that describes this plague:

Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be 
revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-
working demons.  The spirit of devils will go forth to 
the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to fasten 
them in deception, and urge them on to unite with Satan 
in his last struggle against the government of heaven.  
By these agencies, rulers and subjects will be alike 
deceived.  Persons will arise pretending to be Christ 
Himself, and claiming the title and worship which belong 
to the world's Redeemer.  They will perform wonderful 
miracles of healing and will profess to have revelations 
from heaven contradicting the testimony of the Scriptures.

Here is a paraphrase of the sixth plague: "the spirit of devils going forth . . . to fasten them in deception". What is this deception? They, the people of this earth are going to get darkness; it is the people of God who are at fault, it is not us! People are searching for answers and Satan creates this confusion in preparation for his own presentation.

As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The Church has long professed to look to the Savior's advent as the consumation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come.

Armageddon (Har-Magedon) is a condition in which Satan personates Christ and makes this one final claim to be God, to master and rule the entire world. The deception has been prepared under the fifth judgment, and then finally, God speaks in the seventh judgment.