Revelation 16:13, commentary and pictures

The three frog-like unclean spirits coming from the mouth of the dragon and the beast and the false prophet are spirits of devils working miracles to gather the kings of the earth and the whole world for the battle of the great day of God Almighty. They belong to the vision of the seven last plagues of God's full wrath, which are poured out only after Christ finishes His interceding work in the most holy place and mercy's invitation has ended. Their gathering work is Satan's final masterpiece of deception through Spiritualism, built from his first lie in Eden that humanity would not die, using supernatural signs to undermine the Bible and confirm rebellion. It is a united earthly effort to make void God's law by destroying the Sabbath memorial of creation and setting up a spurious sabbath in its place, compelling worship of Sunday observance. The adjoining warning to watch and keep garments means to remain clothed in Christ's righteousness and ready for His coming, for only those sanctified through the truth and hid with Christ will stand when the plagues fall.

Plague Vision and Timing

Revelation 16:13 belongs to the vision of the seven last plagues poured from the vials of God's wrath upon the wicked, especially the ungodly who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark and who have no shelter. It is part of John's portrayal of the future day of God's wrath against the wicked, falling just before and at the deliverance of the saints following the pattern of Egypt's plagues before and during Israel's deliverance from bondage. Those who fail to recognize the signs of the times in a wicked and adulterous generation will perish under these plagues when human wickedness has exceeded the bounds of God's grace.

The seven last plagues are future and contain the full measure of wrath in the day of wrath against the living wicked. They are poured out only after Jesus finishes His priestly interceding work in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, lays off His priestly attire, is clothed with the garments of vengeance, steps out from between the Father and humanity, and takes His role as King and Judge when mercy's invitation has ended. When poured out the plagues enrage the wicked against the righteous, making them think the righteous brought the judgments upon them and that if they could rid the earth of them the plagues would be stayed.

The anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead are separate events following one after another in order. Michael has not yet stood up and the time of trouble such as never was has not yet commenced; the nations are now getting angry, but when the High Priest finishes His work in the sanctuary He will stand up, put on vengeance, and then the plagues will be poured out. The four angels hold the four winds until that sanctuary work is done, and trumpet after trumpet is sounded and vial after vial is poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth in solemn events yet to transpire.

The plagues will come because the swellings of unrighteousness have reached a fearful pass, men have exceeded the bounds prescribed by God and rushed on to outrun the limits of His grace. They have trampled His holy law under foot with more than common contempt, transgressed His law, broken His covenant, trampled upon His Sabbath accepting in its place a spurious rest day, and made human laws supreme, so God will not long delay but must interfere to vindicate His honor. The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who thus transgress.

Drops and sprinklings from the vials are already falling and being let fall on the earth, affecting the elements of the air, the land, and the sea. They come in awful calamities by sea with vessels hurled into eternity without a moment's warning, and in accidents by land, unusually destructive fires consuming hoarded riches and sweeping away the most costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven, earthquakes burying cities and villages, terrible railway accidents, tornadoes and floods destroying property and thousands of lives, powers of darkness vitiating the air with deadly miasma, pestilences and unexplainable diseases, cholera, and diphtheria gathering little children and falling upon men and upon vegetable life. These disasters of 1889 and 1890 and present judgments are only faint representations of what will be in the near future, when greater mortality, greater crimes, weeping and lamentation and woe, more widespread earthquakes with premonitory convulsions giving way to terrible shocks, the renting of the earth's crust by elements concealed in its bowels, lordly palaces becoming heaps of ruins, sweeping away of wealth gained by oppression, and a terrible shaking of the religious world will come, for the end of all things is at hand.

God permits these destructive judgments to come that the world may take heed, that professing Christians may be brought to their senses, and that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him, showing how fast the last great crisis is approaching and calling for less time in strife and contention and more sober thought about what is coming. The vision indicated that some people then living would suffer those plagues, and people of every rank from kings and nobles to the poor will be humbled before Him under God's withering plagues. Those who cannot see the signs of the times in this wicked and adulterous generation will be found among those who perish under those plagues.

Identity and Mission of Spirits

Three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, and they are spirits of devils that work miracles through supernatural wonders and signs to confirm false claims. They perform those wonders to deceive rulers and people throughout the world and to gather people into rebellion against God. Those who accept their claims become intensely active in that rebellion.

They go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather rulers and people for the battle of the great day of God Almighty. In doing so they form in the last days a deceived company working counter to God. Those who follow them have rejected truth until the light of God has departed from them.

The vision sets two sides and forces a choice of sides. On one side are God's commandment-keeping people who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, and on the other side are the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, with the dragon wroth with the woman and making war with the remnant of her seed. As prophecy rapidly fulfills, people take those opposing sides, some preparing to serve the Holy Spirit while others align with the prince of evil.

The spirits urge the world to unite with Satan in his final struggle against the government of heaven. Their warfare is against their Creator and Redeemer, as those gathered seek to take God's place. They stir one another with religious enthusiasm and confidence in their numbers. Their work is Satan uniting the enemies of God's kingdom in a desperate confederacy to gain control of the world, and that work is advancing rapidly. It reaches its culmination in the time of trouble, when trumpet after trumpet is sounded and vial after vial is poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth, and when every form of evil springs into intense activity with evil angels uniting their powers with evil men of centuries of experience in deception for a desperate final struggle without yielding, with all the world on one side or the other.

Assault on God's Law

The verse describes a united effort on earth to make void the law of God by giving power and strength to the beast and making war with the Lamb, who will overcome them together with those who are called and chosen and faithful. The three unclean spirits are a miracle-working power that gathers the world for the final conflict against God's law. From the dragon and the beast and the false prophet go out deceptive powers to destroy the memorial of creation and to set up a spurious sabbath in its place in order to bring about worldwide apostasy. Those powers place men and women on Satan's side of the controversy, leading even professed Christians who are not sealed by God into idolatry.

The corrupt union inspired by these spirits promotes Sunday observance as a false sabbath opposed to the seventh-day Sabbath. It exalts and worships the idol Sunday sabbath, a day God has not blessed, giving to a man-made institution the glory and honor due to God's Sabbath day and compelling others to worship that idol. That evil inspiration blinds discernment and perverts God-given ability to help the devil and his angels, so that its followers cannot see that the exaltation of Sunday observance is entirely the institution of the Catholic church. In this way the union is formed to tear down God's memorial of creation, the hallowed seventh day given forever as a sign between God and His people.

The controversy brings a time when everyone takes sides between the Sabbath of the fourth commandment which the Lord sanctified and blessed and the spurious sabbath instituted by the man of sin. The false sabbath is enforced as Nebuchadnezzar enforced worship of the golden image in the plains of Dura, by proclamation of imprisonment and death against all who will not reverence the Sunday institution, trampling the Sabbath of the Lord under foot. Those who disregard the fourth commandment and thus break the whole law will surely be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy upon unrepentant despisers of His law.

Masterpiece of Final Deception

The three unclean spirits like frogs are spirits of devils working miracles that go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather rulers and people for the battle of that great day of God Almighty. This gathering is Satan's final effort to deceive the world in the last remnant of time, his masterpiece of deception in the development of Spiritualism from his first lie that humanity would not die. The foundation for this work was laid little by little by the assurance given to Eve in Eden, Ye shall not surely die, and that in the day of eating the eyes would be opened and men would be as gods knowing good and evil. That preparation continued step by step until full accomplishment is reached in the last remnant of time.

He works through spiritual manifestations and lying wonders to draw attention away from Christ and to undermine confidence in the Bible. These deceptions present false claims about the dead and teach that Scripture is uninspired and that salvation is assured regardless of belief or conduct. Demonic powers working through signs confirm his claims and gather people into rebellion against God, making those who accept them intensely active, stirring one another with religious enthusiasm and confidence in their numbers as they seek to take God's place. Their warfare is against their Creator and Redeemer.

He is permitted to work through deceptive agents while God's people are being sealed and prepared for the seven last plagues, and the unclean spirits like frogs hold people in error through false signs and false reformations that are not genuine change from error to truth. He stirs religious excitement among fallen churches, so that those who rejected the truth think God is working there. This is meant to mislead honest people, but before the plagues they will recognize the truth, leave those churches, and join the remnant.

The deception lulls people into a fatal security and a false sense of security that leaves the world unprepared for the seven last plagues, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God when His judgments fall. Except those who are kept by the power of God through faith in His Word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion.

Gathering for Final Battle

The mustering of armies for battle is one of the terrible scenes that mark the coming of Christ. In that mustering men's hearts fail them for fear while the earth is moved out of its place, the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, and the waves roar and are troubled. The opening of the vials of wrath brings pestilence and famine and death upon the inhabitants of the earth. Trumpet follows trumpet and vial follows vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth, and in that sequence the battle of Armageddon is fought. It is fought when every form of evil springs into intense activity and evil angels unite their powers with evil men of centuries of experience in deception and battle, for a desperate final struggle without yielding, with all the world on one side or the other of the question.

When the plagues are poured out they enrage the wicked against the righteous. The wicked come to think that the righteous brought the plagues upon them and that if they could rid the earth of them the plagues would be stayed. They therefore turn against the righteous to destroy them.

In the fearful agony and great rage of that suffering there is bitter reproach between parents and children and between brothers and sisters, each blaming the other for keeping them from receiving the truth that would have saved them from that hour. The people turn upon their ministers with bitter hate for failing to warn them. They had told them that all the world was to be converted and had cried peace to quiet every aroused fear, and they had called those who warned of that hour fanatics and evil men who would ruin them. False shepherds who led people to destruction do not escape the wrath of God but are subject to continuing judgments until His purposes are complete, and they acknowledge that God loved the saints because they held to the truth and kept His commandments. Their suffering is tenfold greater than the suffering of their people.

Safety and Watchful Readiness

The three unclean spirits like frogs from the mouth of the dragon and the beast and the false prophet are demonic spirits working miracles to gather the rulers of the earth and the whole world for the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Set in the midst of that gathering is the warning that Christ comes unexpectedly, to watch and keep the garments, which means to remain clothed in His righteousness and ready for His coming. To be without a garment is to be without His righteousness and exposed to shame.

Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand when sin and shame and sorrow and darkness cover every side after the angel of mercy leaves the world and the seven last plagues are poured out. God still holds out the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light and error for truth and sin for righteousness, but His patience and mercy will not always wait. The storm is gathering and the bolts of His wrath are soon to fall, and when He begins to punish transgressors there will be no period of respite until the end. Many will come up to the falling of the plagues unready and without shelter because they have not received the Holy Ghost, and when the plagues begin they will wring their hands in distress, for the hour to get ready will then be too late; therefore the present call is to get ready because He is coming. Those who are sanctified will be hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast.

The figures of this symbolic prophecy carry important meaning and require close, prayerful study rather than interpretation by human ideas, with the whole book of Revelation read from beginning to end. Understanding its warnings shapes conduct so that people will not receive the coming plagues. Its special meaning shows how fast the last great crisis is approaching, calling for less time in strife and contention and more sober thought about what is coming.

These are solemn last-day prophecies of the final events of earth's history and the vials of God's wrath to be poured upon the world, made known by Christ to John on Patmos. They are fulfilling in events among the world and the churches, and as prophecy rapidly fulfills people take opposing sides, some preparing to serve the Holy Spirit while others align with the prince of evil. They call to watch for Satan's efforts to deceive, even the elect. That day must find none sleeping but wide awake as wise virgins having oil in vessels with lamps, which is grace and the power of the Holy Ghost upon them, sustained by the power of God to keep faith and courage. Trumpet after trumpet is sounded and vial after vial is poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth, and these scenes of stupendous interest are right upon us as sure indications of the presence of Christ, who has directed every aggressive movement, accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and pledged to be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world to vindicate His truth and cause it to triumph. The battle of Armageddon will be fought then, when every form of evil springs into intense activity and evil angels unite their powers with evil men of centuries of experience in deception and battle for a desperate final struggle without yielding, with all the world on one side or the other of the question, while the Captain of the Lord's host stands at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle and supplies His faithful ones with motives and power of purpose and hope and courage and valor in increased activity as the time is at hand.