Revelation 9:8-9; Teeth of Lions

Revelation 9:8-9 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 

Robert L. Thomas observed insightfully, “Ordinary locusts have teeth (cf. Joel 1:6), but not the powerful teeth of these creatures. These lionlike teeth denote voracity (Bullinger, Beckwith). Yet in spite of their fierceness, these demons do not tear their victims apart (Mounce). They had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the sound of their iron breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings [was] as the sound of many chariots of many horses running into battle. One was their iron breastplates. The noun refers originally to the human chest – ie., the area from the neck down to the navel. From this, it developed the meaning of a breastplate of armor covering the chest and the back.”

Breastplate of iron, designed to protect the vital organs and preserve the life of the soldier, here symbolize the demon horde’s invulnerability; they will be impossible to resist or destroy. [MacArthur]

The other battlefield resemblance lies in the sound made by the wings of the agents of misery. The loud rushing sound of the swarm creates a formidable psychological problem for mankind and implies the hopelessness of resisting them. Joel compares the noise of locusts’ wings to the clatter and clangorous of chariot wheels and the hoofbeat of horses moving swiftly into battle (Joel 2:4-5; cf. 2 Kings 7:6; Jeremiah 47:3). [Thomas]

There is no escape from so formidable a foe that God raised to torment the inhabitants of the earth with the exception of those who possessed the seal of God.

1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 

Amen.