If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. – Exodus 10:4-5

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 15, 2015): Exodus 10

From March to October, 1915, locusts invaded Palestine. The locusts stripped the area of almost all vegetation. Nothing was able to grow from the ground without being eaten by the locusts and the situation in Palestine grew desperate. According to The New York Times, the price of flour had increased to $15 a sack (in 1915 a 5 lb. bag of flour would normally cost about $0.21) and potatoes were selling for six times their normal price. Sugar and petroleum couldn’t be bought at any price and The Times said that money had ceased to circulate. As a result of the plague, the military began a campaign to try and burn the locusts off of the fields. And at one point a law was enacted that required every male between the ages of 15 and 60 to collect 20 kilograms of locust eggs or pay a fine. And the law was strictly enforced.

The 1915 infestation, only 100 years ago, is just one example of the seriousness of a locust infestation. There have been several other locust infestations that destroyed crops in the last century. They come almost in cycles. But the devastation that they bring are almost always the same. Crops are destroyed, prices increase and starvation becomes a real possibility. Plagues of locusts in the past have obscured the sun for hours and have covered the ground inches deep.

But experts believe that while locusts have been a real problem all over the earth many times in history, this may have been a first in Egypt. They had heard of locust plagues, but up until now they had never really experienced the devastation that these things can cause. Up until now it was as if the gods of Egypt had been able to protect the land from this devastating occurrence. But once again the gods of Egypt proved to be impotent when they come up against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But students of the Bible can’t help but notice that this plague, early in the second book of the Bible, seems eerily like the one that occurs in the last book of the Bible. And once again it is locusts that play the leading role. Except this time it is not the grass or the trees that are the target. It is anyone who does not bear the seal of God on their forehead. And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads (Revelation 9:3-4).

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 11