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.
The book of Revelation is structured around a series of dramatic visions that John, writing from exile, struggles to put into human language. In chapter 9, after a trumpet blast signals divine judgment, creatures rise from a place called the Abyss — a symbolic pit of darkness. John describes them as locust-like, but entirely unlike any locust: they move like warhorses, wear what appear to be golden crowns, and have faces resembling human faces. These images borrow heavily from the Old Testament book of Joel and represent organized, intelligent, overwhelming destructive power. John is not writing a nature documentary — he is reaching for metaphors to convey something that exceeds his vocabulary.
God, you are wider than my vocabulary. Thank you for the strange, unsettling beauty of John's visions — for the reminder that you are real and vast and impossible to fully contain. Teach me to sit with mystery without fear, and to trust what I cannot yet articulate. Amen.
Notice the grammar John uses: "looked like," "something like," "resembled." He is a man trying to describe something that does not fit any existing category. This is the honest language of the transcendent — a series of approximations and near-misses, as if reality is just slightly wider than the words available to contain it. Physicists reach for the same grammar when explaining quantum behavior. Grief counselors use it when clients describe what loss actually feels like inside. Mystics have always written this way about encounters with the divine. "It was like..." is sometimes the most truthful sentence a person can write. There is a quiet invitation in John's imprecision. When you try to describe a moment when something broke open in prayer, or you felt accompanied in the middle of 3 AM grief, or something shifted in you that you still cannot fully explain — do you abandon the attempt because it sounds too strange, too inarticulate, too unverifiable? John did not. He wrote down his approximations with specificity and humility, trusting that "something like" was more honest than silence. Your imprecise experiences of the divine are worth writing down, even badly.
Why do you think John uses so many comparative and approximate words throughout Revelation — what does that grammatical humility suggest about what he was trying to describe?
Have you ever had a spiritual experience that was genuinely difficult to put into words? What did you do with it — did you share it, write it down, or let it fade?
Some people dismiss Revelation's imagery as too bizarre to be meaningful; others take it hyper-literally as a roadmap of future events. What is the value and the danger of each approach?
How do you respond when someone describes a spiritual experience in imprecise or unusual language? Do you make space for it, or are you quick to be skeptical?
This week, try writing down one moment when you sensed God's presence — even imperfectly. What images, comparisons, or approximations come to you?
And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
Revelation 4:4
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
Daniel 7:8
The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
Daniel 7:4
The locusts resembled horses prepared and equipped for battle; and on their heads appeared to be [something like] golden crowns, and their faces resembled human faces.
AMP
In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,
ESV
The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.
NASB
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.
NIV
The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.
NKJV
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces.
NLT
The locusts looked like horses ready for war. They had gold crowns, human faces,
MSG