 |  |
When the prophet Joel would speak of the terrors of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord, he uses the figure of the locust. It is probable that Joel 1: 4 refers to the locust
under four stages of its development. The children's children were to tell the children of
another generation of this destructive scourge. "Alas", says the prophet, "for the day! for
the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come"
(Joel 1: 15). The second chapter under the blowing of a trumpet speaks of this terrible
visitation in language that applies to man. "A great people and a strong". Yet they are
not ordinary men for, "there hath not been ever the like, neither shall there be any more
after it, even to the years of many generations" (Joel 2: 2).
The Assyrian invasions were foreshadowings of the day of the Lord. That is why
Isaiah, in the midst of his prophecy concerning the future, breaks off to tell of
Sennacherib and his overthrow. In Prov. 30: 27 we are told that "the locusts have no
king". As the locusts of Rev. 9: have a king, it follows that these are a different kind
from the natural order.
The description of these strange beings is fairly full, if at the same time strange:--
1.
They are like horses prepared unto battle.
2.
They wore as it were golden crowns.
3.
Their faces were like the faces of men.
4.
They had hair as the hair of women.
5.
Their teeth were like the teeth of a lion.
6.
They had breastplates of iron.
7.
They made a sound like many chariots
8.
They had tails like scorpions.
9.
And they had a king named Apollyon.
There is a resemblance between the natural and the supernatural order of locusts in
that five months is the space over which their ravages extend. The natural order appear
usually in May and cease in September. Ordinary locusts destroy vegetation. These
locusts are forbidden to hurt the grass, green herb or tree, but only the men who have not
the seal of God upon their foreheads. When the trees are smitten, or when the waters
become blood, the innocent suffer together with the guilty. This first woe discriminates,
and does not punish man by destroying his food, but signally attacks those only who are
devoted to the beast. The power of death was not given to them, but the power to torment
men for five months. The limitation imposed upon Satan in connection with Job will
come into mind. The torment is indeed terrible, for men will seek death and not find it.
The reference to the hair on the locust, together with the general setting of the vision,
makes one think of Jer. 51: 27:--
"Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the
nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and
Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her: cause the horses to come up as the rough
caterpillars" (or locust bristling with hair).
In Rev. 9: 3 we read of the locusts that "authority was given to them as the scorpions
of the earth have authority". There is nothing strange in reading that these locusts from