What do locusts symbolize? (Revelation 9:3, 7)


locusts


And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. [...]
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.

Revelation 9:3 + v7 - King James

 

 

⚪ The old-time Methodist

Rev. 9:2 [...]
9:3. And there came out of the smoke locusts. - An Immense number of followers.—Judges 7:12.
Upon the earth. — Among order-loving people.
And unto them was given power. — To attend an oldtime Methodist meeting and witness the "getting the power" was to see the sight of a life-time.
[...]
9:7. And the [shapes] LIKENESSES of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle. — The battle-cry of the old-time Methodist was "All at It, and always at It".

Source : 🇺🇸 1917 - Studies in the Scriptures, Vol 7, The finished mystery, page 156, page 157, page 158 + Cover

 

⚫ The remnant of spiritual Israel

The symbolic locusts resembling horses with stings like scorpions are the remnant of spiritual Israel who deliver God’s judgment message, which brings torment to all false Christians
[...]
But what an appearance they take on as John sees them in prophetic vision!
Coming out of a great smoke that ascends from the abyss and bedarkens both the sun and the air, they look like a strange species of locust. [...] Under command of their heavenly King Jesus Christ, the remnant of anointed witnesses of Jehovah swarmed forth in 1919 from their abysmal condition of restraint, heated up with godly zeal as if emerging from a furnace. [...] These symbolic locusts were really the ones that were sealed with the “seeil of God on their foreheads,” for they were the remnant of those spiritual Israelites, 144,000 of them, whom John saw undergo this sealing, according to his description in Revelation 7:1-8. As longhaired women are obedient to their husbands, so these symbolic locusts are subject and submissive to their King, Jesus Christ, their Bridegroom to be.

Source : 🇺🇸 The Watchtower, December 1 1969, page 720, page 721 + Cover