Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 16:13-14

"And I saw [coming] out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty." — Revelation 16:13-14 (ASV)

And I saw . . .—Better: And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the wild beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, like frogs. For they are spirits of demons, doing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty.

Some have thought that the kings of the East are the representatives of the Christian powers, and that the drying up of the Euphrates is the preparation for their entrance into the land of promise. The overall direction of the chapter seems to me to be contrary to this view. The two hostile kingdoms are being brought slowly into open antagonism; the great issues are to be brought to a decisive test; the time comes when a decision must be made: “If God be God, follow Him; if Baal, then follow him.”

The situation becomes so strained that it is useless to maintain the appearance of a respectable neutrality, for forces have been at work that are gradually drawing all powers into the conflict. The forces at work preparing for this outcome are evil forces; “unclean spirits,” little frogs, spirits of demons go out to gather every world-power to the struggle. All this points to the final mobilisation of the hosts of evil for an attack upon the kingdom of Christ.

Every impediment is removed, and the Euphrates is dried. The kings may advance: like the hosts of Pharaoh, they may enter the dried-up sea in the fervent haste of their hatred for all righteousness. Evil is reckless now and moves toward its destruction, but it cannot do so without acting on people.

Three evil spirits go out for this purpose. There are three radical foes of Christ and His righteousness: the dragon, representing the hatred of evil spirits; the wild beast, representing the hostility of world-power; and the false prophet, representing the antagonism of world-culture and intellectualism—these three each send out their emissary, appealing to the pride and passions of people.

What are we to understand by them? We must consider their origin. The world-power would have us worship the things seen. It sends out the spirit of earthliness, the spirit that works in the voluptuary, the ambitious, and the avaricious—the spirit that makes earthly things its end (Philippians 3:19).

The world-culture sends out its spirit of intellectualism, which denies humanity's spiritual nature and substitutes taste and culture for spirituality. The dragon sends out the spirit of egotism, of proud, self-sufficient independence, which culminates in an utter hatred of the Creator. The three spirits combined make up that wisdom which St. James described as earthly, sensual (unspiritual, psychical), devilish (James 3:15). We may compare the three foes in the “Red Cross Knight”: Sansloy (without law), Sansfoy (without faith), and Sansjoy (without joy)—Spenser’s Faerie Queene. They are like frogs: this is again a reference to the Egyptian plagues.

These spirits gather all earthly powers to the war (not “battle”) of the great day of God the Almighty. The day that will test the power of combined evil, the day that, beginning in rash pride, will end in bitter defeat—to this the evil spirits lure their followers, as the false prophets lured Ahab to his overthrow at Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings 22:20). Such is one of the final aspects of evil.

The voice of inclination is listened to as if it were prophetic. The suggestions of sinful desire are not only obeyed but reverenced as oracles. The wicked hath an oracle of transgression in his heart (Psalms 36:1 and following).