Then they gathered
the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Revelation 16:16
Armageddon is mentioned only once,
here in Revelation. Megiddo is mentioned
in the Old Testament 12 times in reference, mostly, to a battle.
This Battle of Megiddo is recorded
as having taken place in 609 BC with Necho II of Egypt leading his army to
Carchemish to fight with his allies the Assyrians against the Babylonians at
Carchemish in northern Syria. This required passing through territory
controlled by the Kingdom of Judah and Necho requested permission from its
king, Josiah. For unknown reasons this permission was not granted and a battle
took place in which Josiah was killed. The battle included a number of super
powers in one place.
Another battle occurred there in
the 15th Century – Egypt versus Canaanites.
In 1918: The Battle of Megiddo
known as the Battle of Armageddon and sometimes called the Rout of Nablus or
the Battle of the Nablus Plain by the Turks, from 19 September to 1 October
1918, culminated in the victory of British General Edmund Allenby's conquest of
Palestine during World War I. British Empire forces defeated Ottoman (Turkish)
forces in the valley.
Battles have been fought in
Armageddon before and Jesus never returned.
What was John talking about?
Armageddon stands for a place of a great
battle. Earlier in this chapter, John talked about 7 bowls of wrath that are
about to be poured out. In the past,
bowls of wrath poured out on Jerusalem.
John was saying that the
culmination of God's wrath will be poured out in a great battle on
Jerusalem. That occurred in 70 AD and
was the most devastating battle Jerusalem ever saw, leveling it beyond
imagination, with a million slaughtered in the streets.