Why will the armies in the end-times judgment be packed into the valleys?
They are packed into those valleys because a sovereign God forces them there, contrary to sound military strategy, so they can be gathered like grapes into the wine vat of His wrath. The armies are concentrated in Israel's low-lying areas—the valley of Esdraelon and the Jordan Valley—to be crushed.
Les explains that the gathering of grapes into the wine vat pictures the gathering of military people into the valley of Esdraelon, down the Jordan Valley, and in all the low-lying areas of Israel. They will be packed in like sardines in a can, contrary to good military operation, but they are forced by a sovereign God to pack their men into these valleys. That is the wine vat—like putting grapes in the vat—and the very presence of God will come and crush them as grapes. The angel thrusts in his sickle, gathers the vine, and the armies are brought to the Middle East and cast into the great wine press of the wrath of God. God's wrath is not being poured out now; floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes are nothing compared to what it will be when His wrath is finally released.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.