The Army of Two Hundred Million Horsemen (verses 16-19)

John describes horses and horsemen. The number of the army of horsemen was two hundred million. The horsemen had breastplates of glowing fiery red and sulphur yellow and hyacinth blue [“Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow,” verses 16-17a]. The implication here is John’s attempt in describing just how dreadful these horsemen were in their appearance, just how destructive they were in their actions.

From the mouths’ of the horses came fire and smoke and sulphur, corresponding, apparently, to the breastplates of the riders [red and blue and yellow]. Their heads are like the heads of lions, again indicating just how terrible they were in their appearance, just how destructive they were in their actions [“…and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.” verse 17b.].

Someone said, and I thought it was a good point, that if you wanted to describe some of the weapons of war that we have today in a graphic way, how would you describe them? How would you put those things into words? Well, you would use the things that were the most terrifying, the most colorful, in an attempt to describe their destructive potential, and so on.

And then, three plagues, that killed the third part of men, came from their mouths. The plagues coming from their mouths were fire, smoke and brimstone [“By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed — by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths,” verse 18.].

To the power of their mouths is added an additional power. In John’s description, their tails resemble serpents which have heads to torment and wound. Both heads and tails destroy and kill. [Verse 19: “For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.”]

Fire and sulphur are often associated in Scripture with punishment of evil. What was it that rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah, for example? [Genesis 19:24, 28: “Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens…Then he (Abraham) looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.]

This hellish nature of these horses and riders is indicated by the description of fire and sulphur associated with them and what they were able to do. This is a warning, a clear warning that is given to mankind. There is a choice that man can make. Man can continue to go down this road of destruction, to fall prey to the self-defeating power of evil, or, man can turn to God in repentance. To men who will not respond to His Word, God speaks through the evil that they have brought upon themselves so that they may learn from their tragic experiences and turn to Him. This is a description of man in every age and we see this going on today. How often men repeat the same old mistakes, fail to learn from their moral failures and their tragic experiences! They shut their eyes; they close their ears; they refuse to heed the warnings.

The things that John describes here in these first two “woes,” the fifth and sixth trumpets, are going on all around us today. No, we not be able to specifically point and say, “There’s something that looks like a locust with the face of a man, the hair of a woman and the tail of a scorpion,” or, “Here’s this rider bent on destruction,” but those things, in a descriptive kind of way, are the forces of evil in this world today. They will be the forces of evil if the world goes on tomorrow, as they were yesterday.

The Failure of the Survivors to Repent (verses 20-21)

“But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

The rest of mankind who were not killed did not turn from their idolatrous worship, which the Scriptures consider the worship of demons. That’s how Paul described it in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 20-21 [“Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons.”].

These ones that John describes here in this image, in this vision, continued to bow down before their idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood—idols that could not respond, that could not bless them. Again, this is what is happening right now today. No, men may not be literally bowing down to images, but they are worshiping materialism. They refuse to acknowledge the true Creator of the gold, the silver the bronze, the stone and the wood. They continue to walk in their ways of immorality and lustfulness. Their refusal to repent, in spite of all the warnings given, shows the hardened character of sinful hearts. Yet, these warnings show the mercy of God and vindicate His justice in leaving men without excuse as they reject His revelation, as they spurn salvation and close up their lives to His warnings.

A Brief Summary of What We Have Studied Thus Far

The first four trumpets have brought God’s warning call in the natural calamities that we saw, the natural calamities that took place on land, on sea, in the fresh waters, and even in the heavens. The fifth trumpet has brought the torment of demonic locusts that take the peace and happiness away from men’s spirits. And this sixth trumpet presented God’s judgment in the warfare and the terrific, devilish horsemen killing and slaughtering men, as if to say that these are man’s own God-defying efforts turned against them. What a startling, what a terrifying picture to a sinful and rebellious world!

Next week, we will be studying chapter 10. The scene is going to shift from the heavenly scene back to an earthly one.