Chapter Twenty-Three/The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry -Myriads of Myriads - Conclusion

 Jehovah purposed that this plaguing message should "kill a third of the men." Hence, its specific target has been Christendom. But it has reached lands far beyond Christendom, including many where the hypocrisy of Christendom's religions is well known. Have the people of these lands drawn closer to Jehovah as a result of seeing the plaguing of this corrupt religious organization? Many have! There has been a ready response among meek and lovable people who live in areas outside Christendom's immediate sphere of influence. But as for the people in general, John describes their reaction: "But the rest of men who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, so that should  not worship the demons and idols of gold and silver and copper and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their spiritual practices nor of their fornication no of their thefts." (Revelation 9:20, 21) There will be no world conversion of such unrepentant ones. All her persist in their wicked ways will have to face adverse judgment from Jehovah in the great day of his vindication. But "everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will get away safe." - JOEL2:32; PSALM 145:20; ACTS 2:20, 21. 

What we have just discussed is part of the second woe. There is more to come before this woe runs is course, as we shall see in the chapters that follow. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty- Four/A Sweet-and-Bitter Message

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 In other places, Kingdom literature continues to expose Christendom's Babylonish doctrines and ways, bringing her deserved harm in a figurative way. By using updated printing methods, this numerous cavalry in the 50 years before 1987 was able to distribute, in upwards of 200 of earth's languages, Bibles, books, magazines and brochures to the astronomical number of 7,281, 078, 415 copies-many times more than a literal two myriads of myriads. What a sting those tails have inflicted! 

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 A most zealous division of this cavalry is made up of brothers in lands where the work of Jehovah's Witnesses is under ban. Like sheep amidst wolves, these have to be "cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves." In obedience to Jehovah, they cannot stop speaking about the things they have seen and heard. (Matthew 10:16; Acts 4:19, 20; 5:28, 29, 32) Since they have little or no printed material to distribute publicly, must we conclude that they have no share in the cavalry charge? Not all!  They have their mouths and authority from Jehovah to use them to express Bible truth. This they do informally and persuasively, establishing studies in the Bible and "bringing the many to righteousness." (Daniel 12:3) Though they may not sting with their tails in the sense of leaving behind hard-hitting literature symbolic fire, smoke, and sulphur issue from their mouths as they witness tactfully and with discretion concerning Jehovah's approaching day of vindication. 

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 That cavalry needs equipment for the warfare.  And how wonderfully Jehovah has provided this! John describes it: "For the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are serpents and have heads, and with these they do harm." (Revelation 9:19) Jehovah has ordained his dedicated, baptized ministers for this service. Through the Theocratic Ministry School and other congregation meetings and schools, he has taught them how to preach the word, so that they are able to speak authoritatively with "the tongue of the taught ones." He has put his words in their mouths and sent them forth to make known the judgments "publicly and from house to house." (2 Timothy 4:2; Isaiah 50:4; 61:2; Jeremiah 1:9, 10; Acts 20:20) The John class and the great crowd have behind a stinging message, corresponding to "tails," in the thousands of millions of Bibles, books, brochures, and magazines distributed over the years. To their opponents, who advised of coming "harms" from Jehovah, these armies of cavalry truly seem like two myriads of myriads. 

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 The great crowd has continued to declare its unqualified unity with the John class in pouring out the plagues on Christendom. In 1988 this great crowd made up more than 99.7 percent of the work force that Jehovah is using in the field. Its members are wholeheartedly in accord with the John class, concerning whom Jesus prayed at John 17:20,21: "I make request, not concerning these only, but also concerning those putting faith in me through their word; in order  that they may all be one, just as, just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am in union with  you, that they may also be in union with us, in order that the world may believe that you sent me forth." As the anointed John class takes the lead under Jesus, the zealous great crowd shares with them in the most devastating calvary charge of all human history!

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 Has this crowd had a part in the cavalry charge that got underway in 1922 and that received particular emphasis at the Toronto convention in 1927? Under the direction of the four angels, the anointed John class, it certainly has! At the world-circling "Everlasting Good News "Assembly of 1963, it joined with the John class in a rousing resolution. This declared that the world "faces an earthquake of world trouble the like of which it has never known, and all its political institutions and its modern religious Babylon will be shaken to bits." The resolve was expressed that "we will continue to declare to all people without partiality the 'everlasting good news' concerning God's Messianic kingdom and concerning his judgments, which are like plagues to his enemies but which will be executed for the liberation for all persons who desire to worship God the Creator acceptably with spirit and with truth." This resolution was adopted enthusiastically at 24 assemblies around the globe by a grand total of 454,000 conventioners, of whom well over 95 percent were of the great crowd.  

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 In 1935 those of the Jonadab class were specially invited to attend the convention of Jehovah's Witnesses in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. There, on Friday, May 31, J.F. Rutherford gave his famous talk "The Great Multitude," in which he clearly showed that this group of Revelation 7:9 (King James Version) was the same as the sheep of Matthew 25:33 -A dedicated group with earthly hopes. As a harbinger of things to come, at that convention 840 new Witnesses were baptized, most of them being of the great crowd.

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Chapter Twenty-Three/The Second Woe -Armies of Cavalry - Myriads of Myriads

 From 1918-1922, the John class began to hold out to distressed humanity the happy prospect that "millions now living will never die." In 1923 it was also made known that the sheep of  

Matthew 25:31-34 Would inherit life on earth under God's Kingdom. A similar hope was held out in the booklet Freedom for the Peoples, released at the international convention in 1927. In the early 1930's the upright Jehonadab class and the 'men sighing and groaning' over Christendom's sorry spiritual condition were shown to be identical with the spiritual sheep having earthly life prospects. (Ezekiel 9:4; 2Kings 10:15. 16) Directing such ones to modern-day "cities of refuge," the Watchtower of August 15,1934, stated: "Those of the Jonadab class have heard the sound of God's trumpet and have heeded the warning by fleeing to Gods people, and there they must abide." - NUMBERS 35:6. 

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 Nevertheless, those of the John class still remaining on earth number fewer than 10,000-less than one literal myriad. How  could they be likened o countless thousands of cavalry? To become myriads even in a symbolic sense, would they not need reinforcements? That is what they have needed, and by Jehovah's undeserved kindness, that is what they have received! From where have these come? 

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Chapter Twenty-Three/The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry - Two Myriads of Myriads

 How can there be two myriads of myriads of this cavalry? A myriad is literally 10,000. So two myriads of myriads would come to 200 million. Happily, there are now millions of Kingdom proclaimers, but their number is far short of hundreds of millions! Remember, though, Moses' words at Numbers 10:36: "Do return, O Jehovah, to the myriads of thousands of Israel. (Compare Genesis 24:60) That would mean literally, 'Do return to the tens of millions of Israel.' Israel, however, numbered only about two or three million in Moses' day. What, then, was Moses saying? No doubt he had in mind that the Israelites should be unnumbered as "the stars of the heavens and like the grains of the sand that are on the seashore," rather than be counted. (Genesis 22:17; 1 Chronicles 27:23) So he used the word for "myriad" to indicate a large but unspecified number. Thus, The New English Bible renders this verse: "Rest Lord of the countless thousands of Israel." This agrees with a second definition of the word for "myriad" found in Greek  and Hebrew dictionaries: "an innumerable multitude," a "multitude." The New Thayer's

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament; Gesenius' A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. translated by Edward Robinson. 

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Chapter Twenty-Three/The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry

 So, what does this cavalry symbolize? Just as the anointed John class started the trumpetlike proclamation of Jehovah's judgment of divine vengeance against Christendom, with authority to 'sting and hurt,' so we would expect the same living group to be used in the 'killing,' that is, in making known that Christendom and its clergy are completely dead spiritually, cast off by Jehovah and ready for "the fiery furnace" of everlasting destruction.  Indeed, all of Babylon the Great must perish. (Revelation 9:5, 10; 18:2. 8; Matthew 13:41-43) preliminary to her destruction, however, the John class uses the "sword of the spirit, that is, God's word, in exposing Christendom's deathlike condition. The four angels and the riders of the horses give direction to this figurative killing of "a third of the men." (Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 9:15, 18) This indicates poor organization and theocratic direction under the oversight of the Lord Jesus Christ as the awesome band of Kingdom proclaimers charges forth to the battle. 

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 Apparently, the cavalry thunders forth under the guiding direction of the four angels. What a fearsome spectacle! Imagine your reaction if you were to be the target of such a cavalry charge! Its very appearance would strike terror in your heart. Did you notice, though how similar this cavalry is to the locusts that preceded it? The locusts were like horses; in the cavalry there are horses. Both, then, are involved in theocratic warfare. (Proverbs 21:31) The locusts had teeth like lions. Both are therefore tied in with the courageous Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, who is their Leader, Commander, and Exemplar. - REVELATION 5:5; PROVERBS 28:1. 

Both the locusts and the cavalry share in Jehovah's work of judgment. The locusts emerged from the smoke that portended woe and destructive fire for Christendom, from the mouths of the horses, there issue forth fire, smoke, and sulphur. The locusts had breastplates of iron signifying that their hearts were protected by unbending devotion to righteousness; the cavalry wear breastplates colored red, blue, and yellow, reflecting the fire, smoke, and sulphur  of the lethal judgment messages that gush from the mouths of the horses.  (Compare Genesis 19:24, 28; Luke17:29, 30) The locusts had tails like scorpions for tormenting; the horses have tails like serpents for killing! It seems that what was started by the locusts is to be pursued by the cavalry with greater intensity to a completion. 

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Three/The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry - Conclusion

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