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DECEMBER 27
these plagues; and they did not repent and mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the
give Him glory. beast, and out of the mouth of the false
10 Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl prophet. For they are spirits of demons, per-
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on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom forming signs, which go out to the kings of the
became full of darkness; and they gnawed earth and of the whole world, to gather them
their tongues because of the pain. They blas- to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
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phemed the God of heaven because of their 15 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is
pains and their sores, and did not repent of he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest
their deeds. he walk naked and they see his shame.”
12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl 16 And they gathered them together to the
on the great river Euphrates, and its water was place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
dried up, so that the way of the kings from the 17 Then the seventh angel poured out his
east might be prepared. And I saw three bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of
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unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying,
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“It is done!” And there were noises and thun-
derings and lightnings; and there was a great
earthquake, such a mighty and great earth-
quake as had not occurred since men were on
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16:16 Armageddon. The Hebrew name for the earth. Now the great city was divided
Mt. Megiddo, 60 miles north of Jerusalem.The into three parts, and the cities of the nations
battle will rage on the nearby plains, site of fell. And great Babylon was remembered
Barak’s victory over the Canaanites (Judg. 4) before God, to give her the cup of the wine of
and Gideon’s victory over the Midianites the fierceness of His wrath. Then every
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(Judg.7).Napoleon called this valley the great- island fled away, and the mountains were not
est battlefield he had ever seen. But the Battle found. And great hail from heaven fell upon
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of Armageddon will not be limited to the men, each hailstone about the weight of a tal-
Megiddo plains—it will encompass the length ent. Men blasphemed God because of the
of Palestine.
plague of the hail, since that plague was
exceedingly great.
DAY 26:What was Zechariah’s relationship to Haggai?
Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Zechariah was also a priest (Neh.12:12–16).According to tradition, he
was a member of the Great Synagogue,a council of 120 originated by Nehemiah and presided over by
Ezra.This council later developed into the ruling elders of the nation,called the Sanhedrin.He was born
in Babylon and joined his grandfather,Iddo,in the group of exiles who first returned to Jerusalem under
the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest (Neh. 12:4). Because he is occasionally men-
tioned as the son of his grandfather (Ezra 5:1;6:14;Neh.12:16),it is thought that his father,Berechiah,died
at an early age before he could succeed his father into the priesthood.
Zechariah joined Haggai in rousing the people from their indifference,challenging them to resume
the building of the temple.Haggai’s primary purpose was to rebuild the temple.His preaching has a tone
of rebuke for the people’s indifference,sin,and lack of trust in God.He was used to start the revival,while
Zechariah was used to keep it going strong with a more positive emphasis,calling the people to repen-
tance and reassuring them regarding future blessings. Zechariah sought to encourage the people to
build the temple in view of the promise that someday the Messiah would come to inhabit it.The people
were not just building for the present,but with the future hope of the Messiah in mind.He encouraged
the people,still downtrodden by the Gentile powers (1:8–12),with the reality that the Lord remembers
His covenant promises to them and that He would restore and bless them.Thus the name of the book
(which means “The LORD remembers”) contains in seed form the theme of the prophecy.

wakened out of his sleep. And he said to me,
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December 27 “What do you see?”
So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lamp-
stand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and
on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to
Zechariah 4:1–6:15
the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one
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Now the angel who talked with me came at the right of the bowl and the other at its
4 back and wakened me, as a man who is left.” So I answered and spoke to the angel
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