6. How does John describe the armies of cavalry that he next sees?

⁶ “And the number of the armies of cavalry was two myriads of myriads: I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them: they had fire-red and hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow breastplates; and the heads of the horses were as heads of lions, and out of their mouths fire and smoke and sulphur issued forth. By these three plagues a third of the men were killed, from the fire and the smoke and the sulphur which issued forth from their mouths.”​—Revelation 9:16-18.

7, 8. (a) Under whose guiding direction does the cavalry thunder forth? (b) In what ways is the cavalry similar to the locusts that preceded it?

⁷ Apparently, this 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 into 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 those of lions; the horses of the cavalry have heads like those of 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.

⁸ Both the locusts and the cavalry share in Jehovah’s work of judgment. The locusts emerged from smoke that portended woe and destructive fire for Christendom; from the mouths of the horses, there issue forth fire, smoke, and sulfur. 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 sulfur of the lethal judgment messages that gush from the mouths of the horses. (Compare Genesis 19:24, 28; Luke 17:29, 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.

9. What does the cavalry symbolize?

⁹ 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 proper organization and theocratic direction under the oversight of the Lord Jesus Christ as the awesome band of Kingdom proclaimers charges forth to the battle.

Two Myriads of Myriads

10. In what sense are there two myriads of myriads of cavalry?

¹⁰ 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.a 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 to 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 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.

11. For the John class to become myriads even in a symbolic sense, what would be needed?

¹¹ 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 to 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?

12, 13. What historical developments from 1918 to 1935 indicated the source of the reinforcements?

¹² From 1918 to 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 symbolic sheep having earthly life prospects. (Ezekiel 9:4; 2 Kings 10:15, 16) Directing such ones to the 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 God’s organization and associating with God’s people, and there they must abide.”​—Numbers 35:6.

¹³ In 1935 those of this 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.b

14. Would the great crowd have a part in the symbolic cavalry charge, and what resolve was expressed in 1963?

¹⁴ Has this great crowd had a part in the cavalry charge that got under way 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 peoples 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 of 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 454,977 conventioners, of whom well over 95 percent were of the great crowd.

15. (a) In 2005 the great crowd made up what percent of the workforce that Jehovah is using in the field? (b) How does Jesus’ prayer at John 17:20, 21 express the unity of the great crowd with the John class?

¹⁵ The great crowd has continued to declare its unqualified unity with the John class in pouring out the plagues on Christendom. In 2005 this great crowd made up more than 99.8 percent of the workforce 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 you, Father, are in union with me and I am in union with you, that they also may 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 cavalry charge of all human history!c