<p>9:7 <em>And the shapes of the locusts were like horses</em>- Clearly the locusts represent fighters charging to war. The Arab Bedouin call locusts <em>Farras el Jundy, </em>&lsquo;soldiers&rsquo; horses'. The description of these horsemen from the East accurately fits the Parthians, who were massed to the East of the Roman empire. There was much angst amongst the Romans of the first century as to whether the Parthians would invade; they did not. But the similarity is explained if we accept that Revelation is open to many possible fulfilments. It could have all happened in the first century, and God moved the players into place. But due to human failure, the whole scenario was delayed to our last days.</p><p>&ldquo;Like unto&rdquo; continues the idea that John is seeing in outline form something he finds hard to describe, and he keeps likening the vision to things he is familiar with. Hence &ldquo;As&hellip;as&hellip; like unto&hellip; as it were&rdquo;. This is understandable if he saw modern military hardware.</p><p><em>Prepared for war</em>- This is the process we see ongoing around us. The Joel allusions encourage us to see this as Joel 3:9: &quot;Prepare war, wake up the might men&quot;. The gathering of thousands of fighters to support an Islamic State in the land promised to Abraham is surely the fulfilment of this.</p><p><em>And upon their heads as if crowns of gold, and their faces were as men's faces</em>- The <em>stephanos </em>may suggest they are victorious, for a brief period, over the land. But John saw their appearance <em>like </em>this. Turbans as worn by Moslems today were not used in his day. If he saw, as I suggest, hordes of latter day Moslems streaming into Israel to proclaim a radical Islamic state, then this is how he would've described them- wearing something like a <em>stephanos</em>. The Greek literally means something wrapped around the head. This is the picture of Moslem turbans and jihadist headgear. The Hadith records Mohammed as saying &quot;And turbans are the crowns of Arabs&quot;. &quot;Like gold&quot; means he saw a yellow colour. Perhaps this group of jihadists will have yellow headgear or turbans? According to Suyuti's Commentary on the Koran, there are Hadith which make this association: &quot;Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr: The latter was wearing a yellow turban on the day of Badr, so the angels descended wearing yellow turbans... the Prophet himself came wearing a yellow turban... The day of Badr the angels came down on piebald horses, wearing yellow turbans&quot; view these quotations online at <a href=http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/islamic_dress.htm>http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/islamic_dress.htm</a> .</p>