The fifth trumpet vision in Revelation chapter 9 draws a clear parallel to the book of Joel. Joel’s mission was to inform “all inhabitants of the land”[1] about the calamities brought by successive locust plagues. This devastation was a wake-up call for God’s people, who neglected the link between their welfare and their covenant with God—a bond that needed mending in anticipation of the Day of the Lord[2]. Joel assured that those who renewed their commitment to God would endure the Day of the Lord’s trials and regain God’s blessings[3].
Similarly, at the onset of Revelation 9, the Church, as depicted in chapters 2 and 3, has strayed and must reaffirm its devotion to God as the events of chapter 6 unfold, signaling the approaching Day of the Lord. The Holy Spirit urges each church to heed its guidance. Echoing Joel’s era, the Church and the world have suffered through years of destruction from four celestial events[4]. Paraphrasing Joel[5], what the hail and fire has left the burning mountain has consumed, what the burning mountain has left the star Wormwood has destroyed, and from what Wormwood has left the shining of the sun, moon, and stars are taken.
Joel’s narrative shifts in chapter 2 from the locust-induced ruin to the forthcoming Day of the Lord, heralded by a trumpet blast. It’s a day marked by “thick darkness” and the emergence of an unprecedented “people.[6]” Revelation 9 mirrors this with its own trumpet signal, unveiling an abyss from which locusts emerge, resembling a formidable army. The Hebrew word “am” that Joel used to describe the army belonging to God[7] is used in the collective sense to refer to a group of a particular kind; a troop in this case. Both texts depict this force with the appearance of horses, charging into battle amid chariot-like clamor[8].
Joel forewarns of a consuming fire preceding the army’s arrival, leaving desolation in its wake[9]. In parallel, Revelation 8’s trumpets scorch the earth with fire before the locusts’ first woe, and the subsequent mounted troops’ second woe will render the earth barren.
Furthermore, both Joel and Revelation describe the populace’s “anguish”[10] in the face of the locusts. The plagues of Egypt, particularly the locusts, spared God’s elect, a motif that recurs in Revelation where the locusts harm none bearing God’s seal.
Post-Temple dedication, God conveyed to Solomon that drought, locusts, and pestilence would serve to humble His people, urging them to repentance and promising healing and forgiveness upon their sincere return to Him[11]. In Daniel’s final vision, an angelic messenger tells that while the enlightened will guide many to recognize the imminence of the Day of the Lord, not all who align with them will be genuine or bear God’s seal[12].
The fifth trumpet may thus serve a dual purpose, akin to sunlight on ice and clay: to soften some hearts towards sincerity or to solidify others in opposition to God, reminiscent of Pharaoh’s hardened stance in Exodus.
[1] Joel 1:1-2 ESV
[2] Joel 1:15 ESV
[3] Joel 2:12-19 ESV
[4] Revelation 8 The first four trumpets
[5] Joel 1:4
[6] Joel 2:1-2
[7] Joel 2:11 ESV
[8] Joel 2:4-5, Revelation 9:9 ESV
[9] Joel 2:3 ESV
[10] Joel 2:6, Revelation 9:5-6 ESV
anguish – excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain:
Synonyms: torture, torment, agony
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/anguish June 27, 2024
Joel 2:
6Before them peoples are in anguish;
all faces grow pale.
Revelation 9:
5They 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. 6And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
[11] 2 Chronicles 7:11-15
[12] Daniel 11:33-35