Revelation 16:12

The Euphrates was the great eastern boundary of the Roman empire. It was the regular line to which they carried their conquests. So the drying up of the Euphrates would seem to mean that this side of the empire would be left open. The eastern powers could then come and mingle with those of the west, or attack them. One effect of this bowl, then, would be the removal of the eastern barrier. So the way of the kings from the east is prepared, probably for the great closing conflicts.

The sixth angel pours out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. We see clearly that the beast is not destroyed, although its empire is made miserable. There is an interval here, as after the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet. The river Euphrates, which is the barrier of the prophetic earth on the side of the east, is dried up. The barrier falls, and the kings from the east can enter.

It is famous in Bible history and prophecy. Israel's great ancestor, Abram, came from its other side into the land of Canaan. The rivers Nile and Euphrates are prophetically named as the limits of the promised land (Gen. 15:18). For a short season David and Solomon extended the royal authority to the Euphrates... The Euphrates was the natural boundary separating the nations of the east from Palestine. Its broad stream flowed between Israel and her powerful enemy Assyria.

We need not understand this, any more than the previous judgments, literally. The Euphrates was the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire. Its waters dry up to make a way for the kings of the East. That is a natural picture of the breaking down of that boundary line of the revived empire under the beast.

The Euphrates was the boundary of the Roman empire and the land of Israel. This barrier is now completely removed, so that the kings from the sunrise can invade the land. The term "Kings of the sunrise" may even mean the far Eastern Asiatic nations, like China and Japan. The drying up of the Euphrates therefore seems to mean the removal of the barrier. Then the predicted gathering of the nations can take place (Joel 3:2). What began under the sixth trumpet is finished when the sixth bowl is poured out. It is an act of judgment-wrath. At the same time these opposing nations are gathering for the great day of God Almighty.

The Euphrates is the scene of the sixth trumpet as well. That would seem to give only an earlier attack by the same powers that are in view here. The door is now set wide open for them by the drying up of the river, the old boundary of the Roman empire. In the trumpet there was only a raid into the empire. Now there is much more than this: it is the gathering for the great day of God Almighty!

The drying up of the river would symbolise that a barrier will be removed. It is the barrier that keeps the Eastern and Western nations from mixing. The way is prepared for the kings of the East. That would suggest that all the evil superstitions of the East will be allowed to flood the West.