Destructive Emotions

2005-6-11 04:45:00

Here are the next verses:

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

Revelation 9:7-12

First let us examine verse 7:

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Actually, if a locust is magnified it looks a little like a horse prepared for battle. Many have read this and feel that the locusts represent John's attempt to describe the modern day helicopter.

It is true that many correspondences to modern day happenings and inventions can be seen in this book. This happens by using the Law of Correspondences with any inspired work. However, if one attempts to predict a literal unfolding of the future from this or any other book he will always go amiss. It is useful to look at the signposts through analogy and use them as common sense dictates, but to expect to accurately predict any end of times from this on a literal basis is to miss the point of the book.

And what is that? I will repeat for this is an important point. It is the unveiling of Jesus Christ, or the unfolding of the consciousness of the disciple and its effect on mankind as he treads the path of becoming as Christ.

Paul spoke of this when he said:

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Colossians 1:27

When Christ is "in you," then the Revelation of John will present a Key that will make the path understandable.

So what does it mean that the "locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle?"

Remember that the locusts represent released guilt and negative emotion. The horse here represents intelligence applied with passion. The fact that the locusts are like horses prepared for battle tells us that the intelligence of those who are releasing negativity will use their minds to channel their emotion as if they are in as personal war and attack those who stimulated its release.

Again, we see this in the life of Christ. He opened the bottomless pit of suppressed emotion and guilt among the authorities and these people used their intelligence to guide their emotions to battle against him, seeking to take his life.

and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold...

Notice it says "as it were," meaning that they did not have real crowns, but symbolic ones.

Powerful emotion is seen as a sign of authority. If a person feels with enough intensity he then feels he has the right to act. If another commands him with enough emotion he feels he must obey or at least respond.

and their faces were as the faces of men.

Here is a revelation that the powerful emotion has "the faces of men." Indeed the released negativity comes from our own fellow men (or women).

Verse 8:

And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

I remember when long hair came in style in the sixties. A lot of people thought the fulfillment of this verse was at hand. Many visualized a great war where helicopters would be manned by hippie-type soldiers with long hair.

Hair is a symbol of strength, as in the case of Samson, and long hair great strength. The fact that it looked like the hair of women tells us that strong emotion is connected with the female side of our being.

and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

Powerful negative emotion indeed has teeth that has the scare of a bite of a lion.

Verse 9:

And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

Those who are in the process of releasing negative emotion have a breastplate of iron over the heart center. They have great feeling, but the spiritual love of the heart has a barrier over it as strong as iron.

Wings pull the consciousness to the plane of mind and reason, but in the midst of great emotion any attempt at logical thinking is drowned out the sound of many conflicting thoughts (many horses) mixed with illogical feeling.

Verse 10:

And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

This repeats the thought that negative emotion, especially guilt has a power to cause hurt as the sting of a scorpion.

Verse 11:

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Abaddon and Apollyon mean "destroyer." Because of this and the fact that the angel directing the locusts fell from heaven to the earth most interpreters assume this refers to the devil or Satan.

Many forget that the Son of God also descended from heaven to the earth as noted in this scripture:

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.  John 3:13

The disciple who treads the path of Christ is a destroyer as well as builder. When he teaches he stimulates the release of powerful negative emotion and before it is dissipated is destroys all in its path just as a swarm of locusts. Negative emotion, on the other hand, is indeed the adversary of Christ. When we keep in mind that Satan means "adversary" we see another thought surfacing.

Fortunately, the consciousness of Christ has power to give the command to the negativity to not hurt any "green thing," thus preserving spiritual life as negative emotion is transmuted into positive.

This section ends with:

One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

The next verses to interpret read:

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

Revelation 9:13-16

It is useless to send armies against ideas. Georg Brandes