Locusts

1. Locusts

2. Joel 1:4 • 1:4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten. • Locusts: The worst plague they’d experienced since the plague in Egypt (Ex 10:14). • Locusts have been called the “incarnation of hunger.” • When they swarm, they eat not only the plants but the roots below ground (you can actually hear their munching sounds at night). Devastation to the community: not only the loss of subsistence, but the spread of disease and loss of trade followed, with the inevitable inflation, etc. could literally wipe it out. • Scientists have found a single hormone that, when activated, causes locusts to swarm. • They become aggressive and gregarious; the hormone causes changes in coloration, physiology, metabolism and behavior. • They travel in a compact, military-like march; • They make a wind-like noise in flight — they can even darken the sun ! • They can fly 17 hours at a time; • Swarms have been spotted 1200 miles out at sea • In 1889, a swarm in the Red Sea covered 2,000 square miles • Density in a swarm can be 120 million locusts/square mile

3. Joel 1:4 • 1:4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten. • Locusts are Orthopterans (along with cockroaches, mantises, grasshoppers, and crickets) • There are 24,000 different species (282 in Arizona alone). • Some can grow up to 10" in length! • They multiply by parthenogenesis - if a male isn’t around the female takes care of it alone • Each female locust can lay 250-300 pods; with 70-80 eggs/pod. • Cypress, 1881: 1300 tons of egg masses were dug up to try to prevent a plague (Lev 1:22?). • Larvae go through 4-13 stages; sometimes taking 6-7 years to fully mature. • 1) Gnawing locust: gazam. Emerges from egg (in spring); has no wings. • 2) Swarming locust: arbeh. Most common winged locust. • 3) Licking locust: yalah (“caterpillar”) Jer 51:27. Third phase; old skin; small wings. • 4) Consuming locust: chasil (“cankerworm”). 3" long; 1" antennae.

4. 10 Plagues Judgment was against the gods they worshipped (Num 33:4, Jude 10:14). A public display of power (Ex 9:16) A warning to other nations: Rahab, Josh 2:8-9; Philistines, 1 Sam 4:8; Gen 12:3. Exodus: 1) Warning #1EX 7:14-25 Waters turned to blood. 2) Warning #2EX 8:1-5 Frogs on land, homes. 3) (No warning)EX 8:10-19 Lice on persons (this prevented worship by their priests; 8:18). Magicians could not reproduce this one. Remember they did three other times: 1) rods into serpents 7:12 (2 Tim 3:8); 2) water into blood, 7:22; and 3) frogs, 8:12. Compare with miracles by enemies (Rev 16:14). 4) Warning #3EX 8:20-24 Flies on homes (Beelzebub = Fly God). 5) Warning #4EX 9:1-7 Disease on Cattle. 6) (No warning) EX 9:8-12 Boils, sores: man & beast. 7) Warning #5EX 9:18-35 Thunder, hail. 8) Warning #6 EX 10:1-20 Locusts; Pharaoh: “I have sinned.” 9) (No warning)EX 10:21-29 Darkness (3 days). 10) Warning #7EX 11, 12 Firstborn, Man and Beast. cf Ex 4:22, Israel = “firstborn.”

5. Patterns Other 10 Plague Patterns 1, 2, 3 Rod of Aaron 5, 6 Cattle involved 4, 5, 6 (No rod?) 4, 7 Goshen exempted (8:22; 9:26) 7, 8, 9 Rod of Moses 3, 8Admission by enemies 2, 9 Darkness 1, 10 Death Prophetic 1) Jacob’s trouble; affliction: Isa 60:14; Jer 30:5-8. 2) Cry to God; heard: Jer 31:18-20. 3) God will command oppressors; let them go: Is 43:6 4) Two witnesses, with miracles before enemies: Rev 11:3-6. 5) Enemies will also perform: Rev 13:14,15. 6) Sore judgments from God: Jer 25: 15, 6. 7) God will protect His people: Rev 7:4; 12:6; 14-16 8) Water turned to blood: Rev 8:8; 11:6; 16:4, 5. 9) Satanic frogs: Rev 16:13. 10) Plague of locusts: Rev 9:2-11. 11) Boils and blains: Rev 16:2. 12) Hailstones from heaven: Rev 8:7. 13) Darkness: Isa 60:2; Rev 16:10. 14) Hearts hardened: Rev 9:20, 21. 15) Death to multitudes: Rev 9:15. 16) Israel to be delivered: Zech 14:3, 4; Rom 11:26. Why 10 plagues ? God told Moses at the burning bush that Pharaoh would not truly yield until God had proven himself stronger than Egypt’s gods and Pharaoh recognized it. Exod 7:3-5 Each of the plagues attacked one of Egypt’s gods.

6. Locusts • Judgment in “fours”: • Jeremiah 15:3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. • Ezekiel 14:21 For thus saith the Lord God; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? • Joel’s plague of locusts: Joel 1:3 • Exodus 10:2-6 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord. [3] And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me. [4] Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: [5] And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: [6] And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. • Deut. 28:38-42 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. [39] Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. [40] Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit. [41] Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity. [42] All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. • But there is also something else going on, something more sinister. • Proverbs 30:27 The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;

7. Locusts: Prov 30:27 • The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; • Compare with Rev 9:3-11; Amos 7:1 • Rev. 9:3-11 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. [4] And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. [5] And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. [6] And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. [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. [8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. [9] And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. [10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. [11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. • Amos 7:1 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.

8. Amos 7:1 • Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. • Puzzling. Have no idea what it means—translation problems? • Hebrew word gov = large grasshopper, locust. • (Govah = come from the earth) cf Ex 10:4; Deut 28:38; Ps 105:34; Prov 30:27; Nah 3:17; Rev 9:3,7... • Spring or latter rains of March and April known as malqosh. • Gaz, mowing, shearing. • Earlier text, all 4 versions of LXX: • “The Lord hath shown me, and, Behold, a swarm of locusts were coming, and behold, one of the young devastating locusts was Gog the King.” • Magog => Scythians => Russians • Hesiod, 7th century B.C. Herodotus • Josephus Philo • Wall of China = Sud Yagog et Magog, Ramparts of Gog and Magog • Caucasus = “God’s Fort” • Who is “Gog” ? Not Gyges, et al Summarian gug = “darkness” • God intervenes on behalf of Israel; describes the use of nuclear weapons (energy for seven years, clean-up of battle).