By: Joseph Evans, Ph.D.

Something For Sunday

Nairobi, Kenya: Billions of locusts swarming through East Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods, experts say on Friday. Dense clouds of ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the regions worse infestation in decades. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated at around 2,400 square kilometers (about 930 square miles) – an area of almost the size of Moscow – meaning it could contain up to 200 billion locusts, each of which consume their own weight in food every day. The locust invasion is the biggest in Ethiopia and Somali in 25 years, and the biggest in Kenya in 70 years, according to the FAO. www.dawn.com (April 2, 2020)

The opening epithet describes swarming locusts that plague East Africa. Others have reported that swarms of locusts have invaded also Pakistan. Scientists claim that the regions parched droughts are a primary cause for mercurial changes in climate that have brought the emergent locusts. These result in East Africa’s citizens’ ongoing vulnerabilities.  Among these vulnerabilities that the locust have caused is food shortages in that region; a region that has been plagued by these shortages for decades. We now add that the locusts have created a global security threat. What the does this mean to the preacher? Are there correlations to be made between the invasion of locusts, the coronavirus and the apocalypse?  What is certain, our current preaching cannot be considered as authentic – prophetic preaching without grappling with these possibilities.

Coronavirus/COVID19 Graphic – “Our current crisis demands a species of preaching that preachers employ in order to seek and discover a “beyond here” proclamation (Kerygma).” Dr. Joseph Evans

Additional Perspective: https://www.reelurbannews.com/babylon-markets-preachers-and-proclaiming-the-biblical-narrative/

There must be something different now. Post-virus worship cannot continue as it has previously. Christian worship must respond with a new paradigm in order to have an impact upon those who will seek answers.  Focused – prophetic word-driven preaching must be central in our Trinitarian focused worship. Indeed post –virus preaching has changed our approach to our pulpit work for the unforeseeable future (otherwise it may not be recognized as preaching to anyone). These and other current rising storms have revealed finally how trivial and superficial are the wasted words “turn to two neighbors.” We need pulpit oratory that rises to a different dimension – something other; a pulpit power that wrestles with biblical texts beyond our current political, economic, psychological experiences and comprehension.

Our current crisis demands a species of preaching that preachers employ in order to seek and discover a “beyond here” proclamation (Kerygma). Thus, with this kind of preaching in mind, we write and grapple with our current existential crisis (our Sitz in Leben). We have an invasion of locusts that plagues a large land region of the earth and simultaneously; we are experiencing a virus that attacks human respiratory systems but does not harm animals or the environment.  As a response (and not a reaction), can we find biblical texts that are approximate to our current circumstances? We believe so, and we identify these two as: Joel 1: 1-12 and Revelation 9:1-11.  

We concede that our exposition is inadequate in part because; the scripture swathe is too broad. Secondly; the writer is a not a theologian but a preacher trained in homiletics and without many resources at hand that would add definition, dimension and depth. Like the readers, the writer is quarantined by the deadly virus but it is the virus that the Spirit has used to inspire this piece.   Therefore, we begin with the Prophet Joel’s work. It appears that he has autographed his manifesto in a post-exilic period. A neo-Babylonian power occupied Judah in 586 B.C., around the time of Joel’s work. It is a call to awake and to remember the crisis that the community has faced and newly overcame but only with the strong arm of Yahweh. It is a call to remain aware that the Day of the Lord is coming: 

The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel (v.1): Hear this, all inhabitants of the Land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers (v.2)? Tell your children of it; and let your children tell their children and their children to another generation (v.3). What the swarming locust have left, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten (v.4).

Joel prophesies the revelatory word of the Lord to the oppressed community.  He interrogates their elders “hear this” (v.2) and “Tell your children” (v.3). He demands that the drunkards to awake (v.5). [You are to] “Lament [and you are] like a virgin” (v.8). The “Priest mourn” (v.9). [You are to] “Be ashamed, O tilers of the soil; [and] wail, O vinedressers” (v.11).  

We turn to the locusts’ devastation and destruction: [The locusts] it has laid waste to my vine and splintered my fig tree” (v.7). We notice that “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord” (v.9). “The fields are destroyed…the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, [and] the oil languishes” (v.10). The harvest of the field (the wheat and barley) has perished (v.11). Finally, the “vine dries…the fig languishes…all the trees of the field are dried … and gladness dries…from the children of man [woman] (v.12).” What is described here is a completely pale and anemic depravity that is akin to T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland:

What is that sound high in the air Murmur of maternal lamentation Who are those hooded hordes [locusts] swarming Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth Ringed by the flat horizon only What is the city over the mountains Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violent air Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal. “What the Thunder Said” in The Waste Land Part V

Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, essayist, publisher playwright, and literary critic. T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri but would move to England in 1914 at the age of 25 and went on to settle, work and marry there. Eliot became a British citizen in 1927 and subsequently renouncing his American citizenship.

Eliot’s words serve as a prophetic warning for then contemporary Europe’s stubborn and unrepentant admission of its imminent decline into an immoral and unethical wasteland. The decline however does not compare adequately to that which the Prophet Joel witnessed: The cutting locust, the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the destroying locusts left destruction to the Israelite’s infrastructure and food supply. Joel the writer said, the locusts “it has laid [lain] waste my vine and splintered by fig tree (the symbols of his peace and prosperity).  

Rev. Barry Black, Ret. Rear Adm., Chaplin of United States Senate prays with his multi ethnic staff before delivering the prayer to open the legislative day of the U.S. Senate. Photo Credit: NPR

Any experienced exegetes however cite Joel 1:6 as a consequential verse.  It stands against all that which has been written thus far about a literal locust’s invasion of Israel.  In this verse however; Joel refers to the locusts as a nation. What follows are verses 5-6 in order to provide context:

Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all of you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut from your mouth. For a nation [it] has come up against my land, [it is] powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions teeth, and it has fangs of a lioness (Joel 1:5-6).

If we consider these verses together, they are metaphors. Drunkards here are not considered to be the Mr. Neb’s standing intoxicated and reciting scripture on the corner. Instead the meaning of “Drunkards” means you are unawake or you are unaware. This is an accurate description of the existential crisis survived by the nation of Israel according to Joel the writer.  What is more, a supporting clause makes this clear, “For a nation has come up against my land” (v.6), personifies the locusts as an invading army. Other biblical writers have employed “the locust metaphor” as a way to amplify the physical and devastating presence of invading armies. One example is located in Jeremiah 5:15-17:

Behold [awake], I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel declares the Lord.  Its and enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open tomb; they are all mighty warriors. They shall eat up your harvest [locusts] and your food; they shall eat up your sons and daughters; and shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword.

Jeremiah’s metaphoric language (Jer. 5: 15-17) is similar to that which we have located in Joel 1:1-12. In short, both prophets are masters of symbolic language. In both instances, we understand this is the language of the oppressed; it is language that softens the humiliation of being the oppressed. On the first hand, the occupied people group is demoralized by invaders and occupiers of their land and on the second hand; the prophetic insider tells the truth that the invasion is caused in large part because; the citizens of the occupied territory are unwilling to follow Yahweh.    

The locusts of Joel add to our anxieties as we grapple with the locusts that are located in Revelation 9: 1-11. We begin with verses 3-6:

Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.  And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. 

Like those in the book of Joel, these locusts are figurative or political code language and representative of otherness. We notice that these locusts were told what was permissible and what not permissible (vv.3-4).  The locust obeyed. The locusts had a King (v. 11) and locusts do not have a King. It seems likely these locusts were a viral breed of men (and perhaps women too). These locusts personify an organized army that was given orders to impose mass human destruction. 

The locusts in chapter 9 of Revelation have power “like the power of scorpions” (v.3). Scorpions are armed with a poisonous and or a viral sting (see v. 11). These locusts (with scorpion powers) were told, “[do] not harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree” (v.4). This is similar to the current strand of coronavirus. Indeed scientists struggle with the coronavirus – as previously mentioned the virus attacks human respiratory systems but not the environment or animal systems. 

What is more, the locusts of Revelation chapter 9 were given directives for whom to harm: “[harm] only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” (v.4).  This is graphic and foretelling of what we can express as our Apocalypse. In Revelation chapter 7:3, we read “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of God on their foreheads” and we read in Revelation 14:1, “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”  

According to John the Revelator, we will experience these crisis events and those who do not have the seal of God will be stung by the locusts with the power of scorpions.  Let us now briefly examine Revelation 9: 7-11:

In appearance, the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth [were] like lion’s teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. They have a king over them the angel of the bottomless pit [see Revelation 9: 1-2].  His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

The locusts that John grapples with appear to be machines of war that are – manned and operated by humans “their faces were like human faces” (v.7).  These machines are propelled like our contemporary helicopters “their hair like women’s hair” (v.8). The machines have outer protective metal armor: “they have breastplates like breastplates of iron” and their propellers were like “the noise of wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle” (v.9).  The writer of John envisions a machine of war armed with some kind of missiles “They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people” (v.10).   

The five month period, which is the permissible time of this demonic activity, is painful but it’s not unending. Whether this means a literal five months for us, we do not know but we do know that it has limitations that provide for us hope.  The demonic people are described metaphorically as locusts with scorpion like powers. And indeed the locusts have a king. But their king does not have all power. There is another King above this demonic King. The demonic King from the bottomless pit does not have authority to harm the elect of God. The King above all kings has absolute power. Those who have been sealed by God and King are provided his elect protection.  The five month period is horrific but it is also a time that points to an eternity of blissful grace. It points too toward mercy. Those who do not possess the seal of redemption may have time to repent.  

The current events that have taken place in East Africa are biblical in proportion.  The region has swarms of locusts. This is historical and verifiable facts reported by nearly every credible news outlet in the world; though we claim that this human tragedy is underreported and nearly unnoticed by Western civilizations.  However the realness cannot be denied and should be a topic of discussion of all people of African descent across the world. If we do not raise these issues of human suffering among our ancestors, we have failed to cry out for them – Justice! Justice! 

The Apocalypse – An Artist Rendering “Preachers, is this apocalypse now?” Dr. Joseph Evans

We cannot stop there. We must grapple with the obvious – these locusts’ events that are coupled with the current coronavirus pandemic are equally biblical in proportion.  Preachers, is this apocalypse now? Does this not make preachers want to make her and his congregations aware of the eminent dangers that our worldwide and universal existential crisis represent?  Can preachers agree that there is a correlation between the “locust metaphor” in Joel 1:1-12 and Revelation 9:1-11? Our view, should we have the integrity to preach with a newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other, we may bring an awareness of the evil that is around us and to bear the faithful witness of God in our streets and in our zip codes.

Cover Photo: A farmer’s son surrounded by desert locusts while trying to chase them away from his crops, in Katitka village, Kitui County, Kenya. Photo Credit/Associated Press

By Joseph Evans, Ph.D., Dean, Morehouse School of Religion. Dr. Evans is the author of “Reconciliation And Reparation Preaching Economic Justice. Dr. Evans contributes ecumenical and social perspective to ReelUrbanNews.com.
Joseph Evans Forthcoming Title “The Art of Eloquence, The Sacred Rhetoric of Gardner C. Taylor” Available July 2020