16
I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Revelation 22:16
Apocalypse Revealed #447
447. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million. (9:16) This symbolizes their reasonings concerning faith alone, with which they had filled the interiors of their minds, springing from nothing but an abundance of falsities accompanying evil.
Armies symbolize goods and truths, and in an opposite sense, evils and falsities - here falsities accompanying evil, as we will see presently. Horsemen symbolize reasonings concerning faith alone, because a horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word (no. 298) and also a destroyed understanding of the Word (nos. 305, 312, 320). Horsemen consequently symbolize reasonings based on a destroyed understanding of the Word - here reasonings concerning faith alone, because the subject is people caught up in that faith. Two hundred million does not mean two hundred million, but an abundance. The number two is used because two is said in application to goodness, and in an opposite sense, to evil (no. 322); and a hundred million, or ten thousand times ten thousand, is said in application to truths, and in an opposite sense, to falsities (no. 287).
It can be seen from this that the number of the army of horsemen being two hundred million symbolizes reasonings concerning faith alone, with which these people had filled the interiors of their minds, springing from nothing but an abundance of falsities accompanying evil.
[2] That armies in the Word symbolize the goods and truths of heaven and the church, and in an opposite sense, evils and falsities, can be seen from passages where the sun, moon and stars are called armies or hosts, and where the sun symbolizes the goodness of love, the moon the truth of faith, and stars concepts of goodness and truth, and the antithesis in an opposite sense (nos. 51, 53, 332, 413). All of these are called armies or hosts in the following passages:
Praise (Jehovah), all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars...! (Psalms 148:2-3)
My hands stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded. (Isaiah 45:12)
By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. (Psalms 33:6)
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. (Genesis 2:1)
(The male goat's horn) grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground... He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host... And the host was sent under the yoke for its transgression, (because) it cast truth to the ground... Then... a holy one said..., "How long will... the sanctuary and the host be trampled under foot?" (Daniel 8:10-14)
Jehovah has given forth His voice before His army. (Joel 2:11)
...(on the roofs of the houses) they have burned incense to all the host of heaven... (Jeremiah 19:13)
(Lest you bow down to and serve) the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the host of heaven... (Deuteronomy 4:19; cf. 17:3, Jeremiah 8:2)
So, too, Isaiah 13:4; 34:4; 40:26, Jeremiah 33:22, Zechariah 9:8, Revelation 19:14.
[3] Since the hosts of heaven symbolize the goods and truths of heaven and the church, therefore the Lord is called Jehovah Zebaoth, or Jehovah of Hosts. And therefore the ministry of the Levites was called military service (Numbers 4:3, 23, 30, 39).
Moreover, we read in the book of Psalms,
Bless Jehovah, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His will. (Psalms 103:21)
Evils and falsities in the church are symbolically meant by the armies of the nations in Isaiah 34:2; and by the army of the king of the north with which he came against the king of the south, in Daniel 11:13, 15, 20. The king of the north is the falsity accompanying evil in the church, and the king of the south is the truth accompanying goodness in it.
The Lord says,
When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its devastation is near. (Luke 21:20)
Jerusalem there symbolizes the church, and the armies symbolize the evils and falsities that will devastate it. The subject is the end of the age, which is the final period of the church.
Evils and falsities are symbolically meant by armies in Joel,
I will restore to you the years that the locust, the beetle grub, the locust's larva, and the caterpillar has eaten, My great army which I sent among you. (Joel 2:25)
To be shown that the locust and the rest symbolize falsity of the lowest sort, see no. 424 above.
Revelation 8
1
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
2
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
3
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
4
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
5
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
6
And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
8
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9
And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
12
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13
And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, Woe, Woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
