December 12

Revelation 16:13‑16
THE name “Armageddon” has caught the imagination of many as signifying a crisis in the great age-long conflict between good and evil. The word means “the mountain of Megiddo.” In the valley below several great battles have been fought which had a decisive effect upon the destiny of the nation of Israel. The last effort of Satan through his unclean minions is to be staged in the same place. There will rage the battle of the great day of God Almighty. And there can be but one possible result. The hosts of hell will be vanquished by the armies of heaven. It is in view of this that the Word goes forth: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”
The nearer we draw to the end of the age, the more we should be concerned about our personal testimony for Christ and about individual holiness of life. It is too late to be careless or indifferent. The times demand godliness of life and faithfulness in witnessing for Christ.
“Earth, what a sorrow lies before thee!
None like it in the shadowy past;
The sharpest throe that ever tore thee,—
Even though the briefest and the last.
I see the fair moon veil her luster,
I see the sackcloth of the sun;
The shrouding of each starry cluster.
The threefold woe of earth begun.
I see the shadow of its sunset;
And wrapt in these the avenger’s form;
I see the Armageddon-onset;
But I shall be above the storm.
There comes the moaning and the sighing,
There comes the hot tear’s heavy fall,
The thousand agonies of dying;
But I shall be beyond them all.”
—H. Bonar.