Revelation 9 - Lake Erie Bible Church

Chapter 9
THE REVELATION TO JOHN
4. Its belated reference is in part designed to note that all of the judgments in view are a
part of one great scene historically, Daniel’s 70 th week.
5. Further it indicates that John is in a state that we might call “virtual reality” having all
the senses available to experience first hand something not real in his world, but very
real in the world of reality in its future time.
6. In the near context, his reference to the vision indicates that his report now centers on
what he saw compared to the audible of vss.13-16.
7. As is clear, these horses and those who sat on them clearly point to a different
group than the 4 demon angels of the preceding verses.
8. They in effect become the vehicles of demonic attack.
9. In understanding the descriptive nature of this massive army, we keep in mind that
while he was familiar with the weapons and tactics of warfare in his day, he is
describing events not to occur for some 2000 years.
10. His descriptions are based on what he is familiar with in their appearance, yet
completely unfamiliar with the modern technology behind their reality.
10. He simply provides us information about how the riders appeared to be dressed, and
the damage that is accomplished by the horses that are clearly the agents of
devastation.
11. Those that recognize that a human army is in view have acknowledged that the
horses described by John are nothing like ordinary horses and symbolic.
12. They are symbolic of high tech ground cavalry used in future times as we would
envision tanks, armored personnel carriers and other mobile weaponry vehicles.
13. That the army is described corporately in this fashion denotes a mass production of
these vehicles as the main source of military advance for the Eastern Confederation.
14. The Greek structure of vs.17 clearly indicates that the horses were what grabbed
John’s attention as they are mentioned as the first direct object and separated
grammatically from those that sat on them.
15. In fact, we are told nothing about the riders apart from their uniforms that would
indicate anything out of the norm about them as would be the case if they were
simply human soldiers.
16. The Greek grammar of vs.17 does not clearly tell us whether or not John is referring
to the horses, riders, or both with respect to “having breastplates the color of fire
and of hyacinth and of brimstone”.
A. The first possibility is that only the horses are wearing the breastplate, which this
would be the case if John were indeed only focusing on the horses and not the
riders.
B. Only the riders are wearing the breastplates, which is the quite natural to
associate breastplates with the breastplates of men (cf. NASB, NET).
C. Both wear the breastplates, which would be a fitting picture of modern
mechanized weapons of war having a color semblance matching their operators.
17. The Parthians (c. 50 BC) used chain mail protection on their horses and their armor
was very similar to Scythian armor with plaited rings laced together
18. The three colors are likened to fire, hyacinth, and brimstone that have traditionally
been understood to mean red, dark blue, and yellow.
Lake Erie Bible Church
P-T Ken Reed
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