Revelation 9:7

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war; and upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold, and their faces were as men's faces.

This description of the locusts seems designed to make them appear as disgusting as possible; but there are significant revelations in these details.

Horses prepared for war ... Here is the true prophecy of what the locusts will soon become. For all the prohibitions against their killing anyone, the wicked ideas, doctrines, and philosophies of the devil are embryonic war horses; and, given a little time, the holocaust will arrive! These "horses" point the direction in which the locusts travel. Their thundering wings carry the echo of a cavalry charge.

Crowns like unto gold ... These are not genuine, but false. The wicked ideas are always advocated from premises of virtue and benevolence; false ideas promise all kinds of victories and utopias; but, alas, the crowns are not really gold at all, but tinsel.

Faces ... as men's faces ... Ah! These locusts are not symbols of invisible demons, but of very evil, visible, and destructive men advocating the delusions of hell itself. Back of every evil on earth, in the last analysis, there looms the face of an evil man. Thus, "Under the symbolism of a locust plague, John describes the power and influence of hell operating in the hearts and lives of wicked men."[38] "Human agents are denoted by these locusts."[39]

Fanciful Arabian poets compared locusts: in head to the horse, in breast to the lion, in feet to the camel, in body to the snake, and in antennae to a girl's long, waving hair.[40]

[38] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 146.

[39] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 265.

[40] James Moffatt, op. cit., p. 407.