S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

A locust swarm has the potential to devastate all vegetation in its path and can cause economic disaster in a region. Ancient Israel was predominantly an agricultural society. As such, threats to t...

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July 01 2013 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Lena Wms Supporter Student @Christ Gospel Church, S.S.Teacher, Observer

I have seen what a swarm of locust can do to a field. When they finally leave, there is nothing left but dirt. 
God's punishment on Israel for her disobedience to His Divine Ordinances was justified. God warned Israel through her prophets, through the written Torah, and through her priest not to worship or follow idolatrous ways. When Israel went after idolatry she was punished. Taking her food source was the first step of punishment. The last step being total destruction and slavery by her enemies. 
In reality, if Israel repented following a swarm of locust she was blessed. She was accepted back by God, and she avoided His continued wrath. 
Today, we in the USA are like the nation of Israel. God had smiled on us, but like the nation of Israel, we choose to follow the idolatrous ways. We have chosen to accept things we know are abominations in God's Eyes. We have allowed ungodly people to convinced us that God's Holy Word should be taken from the hands that teach our children and we have raised generations of children that have no reverence for God or the Laws He Created for us. We sit and watch in horror as our shores are pounded with wind and rain, only to shake our tiny fist and declare we will rebuild. Never considering it was God that allowed it for us to repent of our ways and turn to HIM. 
The Bible predicts of greater more evil locust to come. Rev. 9:3-10 these evil locust will no longer hurt the earth or crops, but will seek to harm all man. Man that will not bow to a Living Loving God now, will fall under the Wrath of God in that Day of Judgment in the Great Tribulation. 
We have a choice! As individuals we can choose to serve God now and be saved from the Wrath to come by the LORD Jesus Christ or we can serve ourselves, our own lust and face with the whole world what is soon to come.

Thank God for a choice, thank God for Jesus!

Be Blessed 
Lena

November 17 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Danny Hickman Supporter Believer in The Gospel Of Jesus Christ

God didn't use a locust swarm to punish Israel; he used the locusts and the prophet Joel to instruct Israel on how to view their lives and their relationship with him. The same life principle taught in Joel 1 applies to the life of the believer today, as well as the church at large. And here it is: sin will eat you alive! 

The swarming locust, the hopping locust, the cutting locust, the destroying locust; these are a picture of how varying tragedies that attack our lives are all of the same brand. They are different forms of the same enemy: Sin!

Sin is our enemy, and it destroys everything it touches in our lives. What one sin doesn't destroy, another does. This is the message here. The message isn't that God punishes sin. He does, but that isn't the promise. We need a solution, not a diagnosis. We know what is the problem! 

"Awake you drunkards, and weep and wail all you drinkers of wine.." (Joel 1:5) What's he saying? That's the diagnosis! Joel is telling us the condition of our soul; we are impaired; 
He describes how everything in our life dries up. "The vine, the fig tree, and gladness" all dry up. We're told to "put on sackcloth and lament, to wail." (humble yourself)

This was/is a message from God to instruct us on what to do about the thing that destroys our life, what to do about our worst enemy, what to do about sin. He didn't tell the people to call an exterminator, he told them to:

"Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord." (vs 14)

In the western world, we don't walk the floor at night worried about our crops. Today there are supply chain concerns due to Covid and other societal problems, but we're not yet too fearful that we might run short on food. We expect to be able to keep a storeroom to capacity by going to the Kroger up the street. 

So what is an example of our "locusts" in the United States? What is an example of how our peace is attacked, and our gladness (soul) dries up? One example is gun violence. It has various forms: School shootings, road rage, armed muggings, and random senseless violence against churches, synagogues, movie goers and nightclub patrons. (As I'm writing this, I'm hearing of a 15 year old who went on a shooting rampage in Raleigh, North Carolina on yesterday evening. He killed 5 people, and had an hour long standoff with police before being taken into custody). 

Gun violence is just one example of our "locusts." It is not the disease, it is the symptom. The disease is Sin. The cure is Christ Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

"To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field. Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness" (Joel 1:20). 

He says twice that fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. That's astonishing! A wilderness is a wasteland, a desolate place. But their "wilderness" had pastures; pastures are areas covered with grass used for the grazing of livestock. He's describing comfort and a bountiful supply in a place where there should be lack. God was supplying it, but now it was under attack. 

There are at least two views of the scriptures: God is telling us he's going to punish us for our sins. That's one view; the other is that God is telling us what to do about the "swarming locust," our sin. The locusts won't go away on their own accord. Even when they do leave, the damage to our life is already done. They move on to another land because there's nothing left to destroy. 

"Even the beast of the field pant for you." (vs20) 

Even unbelievers will cry out to the Lord when tragedy strikes close to home. God isn't the source of the tragedies, Sin is.

October 14 2022 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeffrey Johnson Supporter

Why did God use a locust swarm to punish Israel?

God used a locust swarm to punish Israel as a divine, agricultural judgment designed to wake them up from spiritual apathy, repentance for abandoning their covenant, and to demonstrate His sovereignty over nature. The swarm functioned as a "great army" to destroy food sources, calling them back to God. 

The locusts were a direct consequence of Israel’s sin and abandonment of their covenant with God, signalling that sin causes total devastation.

Described in Joel 1, the locusts were portrayed as a "mighty, numberless army" sent by God to lay waste to the land.

Since Israel was an agricultural society, the destruction of crops, vines, and trees served as a severe economic punishment and a warning of the "day of the Lord".

The plague was designed to break the people's stubbornness, leading them to fast, pray, and return to God.

The punishment was not meant merely for destruction; it foreshadowed a call to repentance, with a promise that God would restore what the locusts had eaten. 

The primary reason for the locust swarm was the fulfilment of specific "curses" laid out in the Mosaic Covenant. In Deuteronomy 28:38-42, God explicitly warned the Israelites that if they were disobedient, they would "sow much seed" but "harvest little, because locusts will devour it". The swarm was a literal, legal consequence of breaking their agreement with God. 

Locusts consume leaves, stalks, and bark, leaving nothing but bare earth.

The swarms in Joel's time destroyed every major food source, including grain, wine, and oil (the "staples" of life and temple worship).

Stripping the land caused immediate famine and long-term poverty, as they often ate the seeds saved for the following year. 

The severity of a locust plague was intended to be so overwhelming that it would "wake up" the nation. Unlike other punishments, a locust swarm affected everyone—from the priests to the drunkards—forcing a national call to fast and pray. 

Joel used the plague as a harbinger of a future, final day of divine reckoning. 

By controlling these tiny creatures, God demonstrated His absolute authority over creation. Just as He used locusts to humble Pharaoh in Egypt to show that He was the true Lord, He used them against Israel to remind them that their prosperity was not an accident but a gift contingent on their faithfulness

Joel hears a distant roar. The sky darkens, and the eerie sound grows as the darkness spreads overhead. Then a smokelike cloud descends. It is an army of millions of insects. And what devastation they cause! Now consider Joel 1:4: the insect invaders are not limited to winged migratory locusts. Oh, no! Coming, too, are hungry hordes of creeping, wingless locusts. Brought on the wind, the locusts arrive suddenly, and their sound is like that of chariots. (Joel 2:5) Because of their voracious appetite, millions of them can quickly turn a virtual paradise into a wilderness.

Also on the move are caterpillars—the larval stage of moths and butterflies. Vast armies of hungry caterpillars can shear away the leaves of vegetation piece by piece, leaf by leaf, until plants are nearly denuded of their greenery. And much of what they leave, the locusts eat. And what the locusts leave, fast-moving cockroaches are sure to finish off. But notice this: At Joel chapter 2, verse 11, God identifies the locust army as “his military force.” Yes, he was the Source of the locust plague that would devastate the land and cause severe famine.

15 hours ago • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report