Locusts

Many people today may not know what locusts look like even though many peoples have been brought to the brink of extinction by their activities on the environment. They were well known by the ancient peoples. Locusts are winged insects belonging to the group of grasshoppers and are brown in colour. They thrived well in the wilderness where the conditions were dry, sandy lands covered with vegetation and uninhabited. They moved in great swarms from one area to another searching for vegetation and breeding. Once a swarm had infested an area, it fed heavily on the vegetation leaving the land bare. It eventually settled on ground, laying millions of eggs that hatched out producing millions of larvae which matured quickly forming even greater swarms.

These insects occur in many verses in the Bible, and they represent different things:

1.

Food to God's people

The Israelites were God's chosen people and they were forbidden to eat unclean insects. God said: "With the exception of those that jump; locusts of all varieties ­ ordinary locusts, bald locusts, crickets and grasshoppers may not be eaten" (Leviticus 11:22). In the New Testament, however, God fed John the Baptist on locusts while preaching the gospel in the wilderness of Judea before the baptism of Jesus: "Now John the Baptist wore garments of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins, and his food was locusts and wild honey" (Matthew 3:4). This was God's personal love and care for His people. Even now God can do the same if we can obey Him.

2.

Punishment to those who disobeyed

On the other hand God used locusts to punish people who disobeyed Him. After turning a deaf ear to Moses, a plague of locusts was sent upon Pharaoh to terrify him and destroy all vegetation. "And the locusts covered the land of Egypt from border to border; it was the worst in Egyptian history, and there will never be another" (Exodus 10:15; Psalm 105:34; 78:46). Such miracles of terror in the land of Egypt demonstrate God's power and we should thank Him for all the glorious things He does.

3.

Invasion of enemies

Prophets were given visions of enemies invading those kingdoms that disobeyed God. Babylon was one of the greatest nation that fell as the consequence of the sins it had committed. "The Lord Almighty has taken you, and sworn to it in his own name; your cities will be filled with enemies like fields filled with locusts in a plague, and they shall lift to the skies their mighty shouts of victory" (Jeremiah 51:14).

4.

Glorifying God in unity

God uses locusts to emphasize the idea of unity in our ecclesias. We know that by gathering together every Sunday in our ecclesias in breaking bread and drinking wine, we demonstrate oneness in Christ. At times we fall short of God's glory because of our weakness, our disunity, unlike these small creatures that are united and perfectly glorify God: "Locusts have no king yet all of them march in rank" (Proverbs 30:27). It pleases God when believers live in unity always.

It is thought by many that

the "locusts" John ate were possibly the seeds and pods of the locust tree. --MH

Bro Manasseh & Sis Dorcus Wamamili (Chwele, Kenya)