Prayer Army

In the first phase of the sixth trumpet, a voice instructs the trumpet angel to release the four angels at the Euphrates (Revelation 9:14). When they do, a 200 million horse cavalry appears. It’s a huge army; what sort of army is it?

The horsemen and horses are terrifying, fire-breathing creatures (v. 17). They kills people, lots of them (v. 18-19). Yet they are released, and appear to be led, by angels. What sort of army is this?

The Lord’s army.

This is suggested by the position of the army. In a strict sense, the Jordan River was the eastern boundary of the land, but in a number of passages the Euphrates is envisioned as the boundary (Genesis 15:18; Exodus 23:31; Deuteronomy 1:7; 11:24; Joshua 1:4). An army massed at the Euphrates River is ready to come into the land. That could be an army of Babylon invading the land, and that is certainly part of the allusion. The Babylonian army that invaded and destroyed the temple was doing the Lord’s will. 

But an army amassing at the Euphrates to come into the land could also be the Lord’s own army coming back from exile and re-taking the land. This is a new conquest. It’s the end of exile.

Besides, the Old Testament uses the term “myriad” positively. Rebekah is blessed as she leaves home to go to marry Isaac, that she would become “thousands of ten thousands” (Genesis 24:60). When the glory cloud settles on the tabernacle, Yahweh returns to the myriad thousands of Israel (Numbers 10:36). Yahweh comes to His mountain amidst myriads, thousands of thousands of chariots (Psalm 68:17). When you have two myriads of myriads, 200 million horses led by four angels, it seems likely that this is intended to be an angelic or saint army. 

Their outfits support this suggestion. Both horses and riders have breastplates of fire, hyacinth, and brimstone. Breastplates are part of a military outfit, but also part of a priest’s garb, who is also a warrior and a specialist in death as he offers sacrifice. The high priests had breastplates covered with precious gems, which flashed with light and fire, and the high priest’s breastplate itself was woven of gold thread, along with purple and scarlet, so it too was a breastplate of fire. These horsemen are small glory-clouds; as God travels in a cloud of fire and smoke, so do the priests and so does this army.This is the “chariot and horsemen of Israel” in which Elijah ascended.

Earlier in Revelation 8, smoke refers to incense and therefore the ascending smoke of prayer. At the beginning of Revelation 9, smoke represents the hellish prayers coming from the abyss. Here we are back to smoke as an image of prayer. On the day of atonement, the priest ascends to God in a cloud of incense smoke, a robe of prayer. But every day he labors in the Holy Place in his normal garments of glory and beauty, he is robed in a smoky garment. The priest is a man enveloped in garments of prayer, and, similarly attired, the army of Revelation 9 is a priestly army.

This is a prayer army, slaying people (like Jesus, Revelation 1, 19) with what comes from their mouths, with prayer and the fiery sword of God’s word.