The Great Ribulation

112 THE QREN l’RlaulAnoN
be “myriads of myriads,” an expression taken from
Psalm 68:17, which reads: “The chariots of God are
double myriads, thousanh of thousands”– in other words,
an incalculable number, one that cannot be computed.
Attempts to turn this into an exact figure (as
in the supposed size of the Chinese army, or the armed
forces of Western Europe, and so on) are doomed to
fmstration. The term simply means muny thou.sanh,
and indicates a vast host that is to be thought of in
connection with the Lord’s angelic army of thousands
upon thousands of chariots.
Avoiding the dazzling technological speculations
advanced by some commentators on Revelation
9:17-19, we note simply that while the number of the
army is meant to remind us of God’s army, the characteristics
of the horses — the fire and the smoke and
the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths
— remind us of the Dragon, the fire-breathing Leviathan
(Job 41:18-21), and of hell itself (Revelation 9:2;
19:20; 21:8).
Thus, to sum up the idea: An innumerable army
is advancing upon Jerusalem from the Euphrates,
the origin of Israel’s traditional enemies; it is a fierce,
hostile, demonic force sent by. God in answer to His
people’s prayers for vengeance. In short, this army is
the fulfillment of all the warnings in the law and the
prophets of an avenging horde sent to punish the
covenant breakers. The horrors described in Deuteronomy
28 were to be visited upon this evil generation
(see especially verses 49-68). Moses had declared:
You shall be driven mad by the sight of whatyou see
(Deuteronomy 28:34).