Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #19 of Revelation, chapter 9, and we are going to be reading Revelation 9:7:

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

We have seen that due to the context of this being Judgment Day, the locusts are the true believers.  God is using the figure of locusts to represent the whole company of the elect, as Christ judges the world and all the saints with Him, as the Bible says.  We also know that God saved a great multitude out of the nations of the world during the “little season” of the Great Tribulation.  Locusts swarm in masses and they very nicely represent that great multitude.

We saw that the locusts did not come out of the pit, but they came out of the smoke which came out of the pit.  The smoke typified the wrath of God.  We also saw, in Revelation 15, concerning the seven messengers, the true believers (clothed in white linen and that can only be the clothing of God’s elect), came out of the temple, carrying the seven vials full of the wrath of God.  Then it said in Revelation 15:8:

And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power…

Therefore, the seven messengers came out of the smoke, as God sent them forth to pour out the last seven vials full of the wrath of God in the Day of Judgment.  So the locusts match that description, as they are said to come out of the smoke, as the smoke came out of the pit and rose to the earth above.  God’s anger was so fierce that the smoke even darkened the sun and the air.

Now God has been describing the locusts in verse 7, telling us their shapes (or their “likeness”) was like unto horses prepared unto battle.  We saw in our last study that in several places God identifies the Day of Judgment as a battle; Christ comes with His saints on horses, in Joel, chapter 2, and in later on in our chapter in Revelation 9, with the 200 million horsemen, and their horses are breathing fire and brimstone.  They represent the elect.

In Revelation, chapter 19, the Lord Jesus Christ is seated upon a white horse and all the armies of heaven accompany Him.  It is Christ and His elect, in Revelation 19:13-14.  Again, and again, and again, the information here is solidly confirming that the locusts are God’s elect.

Then we saw in Revelation 9:7:

… and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold…

We should not be distracted because it says the crowns were “like” gold.  After all, this is speaking of locusts, so the image is a spiritual one.  Just as Christ would give a parable, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like…”  It is because the things discussed in the parable were pointing to the spiritual meanings.  Likewise, in our verse, these are said to be locusts and locusts are not men and they are not God’s elect and they certainly do not wear crowns of gold.  God uses that figure of speech (“and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold”) and, of course, it is parabolic language and we must look for the spiritual meaning of it. 

We were discussing the crowns in our last study, so let us go back to Proverbs, chapter 4, because we only quickly read this last time.  It says in Proverbs 4:7:

Wisdom is the principal thing…

You could read Proverbs 8, where “wisdom” is personified and, clearly, Jesus Christ is in view, or you could read 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, which is a very good verse.  God often gives one or two verses like this to define a term or to define a spiritual meaning.  It says in 1 Corinthians 1:30:

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom…

God is defining the word.  He is defining the attribute.  He is defining true wisdom.  Therefore, in Proverbs 4, He says, “Wisdom is the principal thing,” because it is referring to Christ Jesus and to salvation; if you are able to “obtain wisdom,” then you have obtained the Lord Jesus Christ – He is your Saviour and He is in you.  And, of course, that is the “principal thing.”  It is the chief and greatest thing.  There is nothing that compares in importance to obtaining “wisdom,” not the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom that is the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, going back to Proverbs 4, it says in Proverbs 4:7-8:

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

Of course, if anyone does have true Wisdom, the Lord Jesus, they will be exalted into the heavenlies.  They will be exalted into the kingdom of God.   They will be exalted into eternal life.  That is a glorious and honorable thing, if anyone is able to find eternal life, by God’s grace.

Then it says in Proverbs 4:9:

She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace…

We are not surprised that it refers to “she,” or wisdom, in the feminine form.  Wisdom is Christ and Christ will give grace.  It fits perfectly: “For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”  It is God’s gift of salvation.

…a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

Here is the picture that God is using of salvation, with a crown representing salvation.  In 2 Chronicles 23, we also know that kings are crowned.  Remember, Jesus is the great King and when someone becomes saved and enters into the family of God, they become of royal blood; they are said to be “prophets, priests and kings.”  In this passage, we have an historical situation where a young boy is being crowned king.  It says in 2 Chronicles 23:11:

Then they brought out the king's son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king.

This is just an historical record that really illustrates what God does when He saved a sinner; He made him of the bloodline of the Lord Jesus Christ, a son of the King and of royal blood and, therefore, spiritually speaking, he became a king.  So God “placed a crown,” spiritually, upon the head of a believer to represent the truth that this person is now of the family of God.  He is adopted into the royal family and he is a “prince” or “king,” and he will rule in eternity future, as God does give other information of setting those that He saves over “cities.”  So we can expect that there will be some sort of rule for each one of God’s elect in eternity future.

Let us also look at 1 Corinthians 9:24-25:

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

Here, again, we see how the crown of glory is said to be “incorruptible,” pointing to salvation, which brings eternal life to the one who has become saved.

It says in James 1:12:

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

That crown of glory – that incorruptible crown – is a crown of life and all who wear the golden crown receive eternal life.  But, hold it! Hold it!  Are there not verses that seem to indicate you can lose the crown?  After all, God says in Revelation 3:11:

Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Why does God say that, if it is a crown of life, an incorruptible crown, given to each of the elect?  No man can take eternal life away from a man to whom God has given it.  Well, God uses this figure because those that profess to be Christians claim that they have the crown, so God goes along with them: “Alright, very well.  You have the crown.”  God even says they can lose that crown, in Lamentations 5:16:

The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

Is it possible that someone could have received the crown of glory and eternal life and then lost that crown due to their sin?  No; this is looking at it, once again, from the vantage point of those in the churches and congregations that profess to have the crown of Christ, the crown of salvation; yet, they have never become saved.  Therefore, God does use the language, in the Bible, of taking away that crown because it was never truly theirs.  We read in Ezekiel 16:12:

And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

Now in Ezekiel 16, God is speaking about those in the corporate church that He decks with beautiful things because they have identification with His Word and with His kingdom; they are part of the outward representation of the kingdom of God to the nations of the world (or they used to be during the time of the church age).  Due to that relationship and their position of being close to the Word of God, God uses the language of putting jewels on their foreheads and earrings in their ears and a beautiful crown upon their heads, but as we read in Lamentations, they lost the crown because it was never true salvation that they had; they never became born again.

You may wonder: How can we know the difference?  How do we know that the locusts are not these professed Christians, in Revelation 9:7, where it says, “and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold”?  How do we know that they are not the same as almost two billion in the churches today that God does liken to wearing crowns, but they lost their crowns because they sinned; that is, when God came in judgment on the churches, due to their unfaithfulness.  When He abandoned them, they lost the crown that they had.  We can know that the locusts are true believers because it says “crowns like gold.”  It does not just say “crowns,” but “crowns like gold.”  It says, “On their heads were as it were crowns like gold,” and that makes all the difference.  There is no place else in the Bible (that I can find) where we find this applies to unsaved individuals or, even to those in the corporate churches that were never truly saved.  Yes, there is language of them wearing “crowns,” but there is no place where it says they wear “crowns like gold.” 

Why not?  Well, the language of “crowns like gold” is interesting.  We find, for instance, in Exodus, that this kind of language is used, but not used about a person.  Speaking of the ark, it says in Exodus 25:11:

And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

Also, in Exodus, it is found a few times in Exodus, chapter 37.  The first time is in Exodus 37:2:

And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.

Speaking of the table that was in the Holy of holies, it says in Exodus 37:11:

And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made thereunto a crown of gold round about.

Then it says in Exodus 37:25-26:

And he made the incense altar of shittim wood…And he overlaid it with pure gold,both the top of it, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns of it: also he made unto it a crown of gold round about.

There were three items inside the Holy of holies that are said to have a crown of gold.  Then it says in Exodus 39, speaking of attire for Aaron the High Priest of Israel, in Exodus 39:30-31:

And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it on high upon the mitre; as JEHOVAH commanded Moses.

So we find this very specific language, “crown of gold,” used in relationship to items inside the Holy of holies and to the crown placed upon the mitre of the High Priest of Israel.  Remember, the High Priest would enter into the Holy of holies once a year in the Day of Atonement to offer atonement for the sins of the people.  It pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ’s atoning work.  Actually, the “crown of gold,” since it is used in items inside the Holy of holies (as God had it built according to His pattern), was used to illustrate the need for a Saviour to perform the atoning work on behalf of those He would save.  So the “crown of gold” points to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It says in Psalm 21:1-4:

The king shall joy in thy strength, O JEHVOAH; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.

The way this Psalm is written, it could be a Messianic Psalm (and I think it is), referring to Christ, but it also could have application to the people that God saves.  The words would fit both and could be applied to both.  We know that God does speak of setting a crown of gold on the heads of the elect and giving them eternal life.  So this Psalm fits Christ and it also fits the true believers.  In the Book of Esther, we find that Mordecai (after he was given the house of Haman) was said to have worn a great crown of gold, in Esther 8:15; and Mordecai is a type of Christ.  We also read in Revelation 14:14:

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

So the golden crown certainly identifies with Jesus Christ and it identifies with the elect.  Again, remember it said in Revelation 4:4:

And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment…

That “white raiment” points to the righteousness of Christ, meaning their sins have been purged and paid for by Him.

…and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

So Christ has a crown of gold, as the King, and His people have crowns of gold, as the twenty four elders would represent twelve elders from the Old Testament and twelve elders from the New Testament, the apostles of the Lamb.  The total of twenty four represents all of God’s elect from the Old Testament and New Testament, throughout time.  All of Christ’s people wear not just a crown, but a crown of gold.  Why do they wear a crown of gold?  Remember, it said in a previous chapter, in Revelation 3:18:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear…

You see, God counsels, “buy of me gold tried in the fire,” and when the Lord Jesus Christ performed His atoning work, He received a crown of gold because He went through the fire of the wrath of God and paid the penalty for the sins of all His people.  He was thereby crowned with a crown of gold that was purified because it had gone through the fire.  Likewise, all whose sins were laid upon Christ were “in Him” from the foundation of the world; as He paid for their sins, He guaranteed their salvation and He guaranteed that in a future time when they were born into the world, He would visit them with His Word and create in them a new heart and they would become saved.  So they also have received crowns of gold.

At this time when God is judging the world, He uses language of “trying” His people and He uses the figure “as gold and silver are tried,” so, in a sense, we could look at it this way:  there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of people that say they are saved; they all say they have a crown.  So God has developed a “test” and a “trial of faith” to see if the crown is true, or not.  If it is a “crown of gold,” it will go through the fire and endure, for that crown points to eternal life.  But if it is a “crown of profession” or a crown that a church has placed upon a sinner or the sinner himself has placed upon his own head because he thinks he has the power to do so, then that crown will be burned up along with the sinner.  There will be no purifying of it.  There will be no enduring of the flame or going through the fire. 

So God’s elect have “crowns of gold,” and so, too, the locusts are said to have “crowns like gold.”  If it just said “crowns,” we might think there was a possibility they might be just professed Christians, but there is nowhere in the Bible that speaks of anyone but the true believers and the Lord Jesus Christ wearing “crowns of gold.”

Note:  A later correction was made by Chris McCann to this study regarding “crowns of gold,” which is an addendum to Study #20 included herein.