Exodus 10:4

Locusts

Tomorrow will I bring locusts into thy border. Exodus 10:4.

Locusts are insects which are found in large numbers in Eastern countries. We have no proper locusts in this country, but our crickets and grasshoppers belong to the same family. In itself a locust is a small thing. So is a snowflake. But if there are snowflakes enough they can stop a train, or bury a town. So if you have thousands upon thousands of locusts, each hungrily eating every green leaf it can find, a field will soon be stripped bare.

When the locusts came to Egypt they came with an “east wind.” That is how they always come to Egypt, because the locusts are hatched in the desert places to the east, and when the wind blows strongly from that direction, it blows them in front of it. They cannot fly against the wind. It catches them and whirls them round and round. That is why the Psalmist says, “I am tossed up and down as the locust.”

The locust lays its eggs in the ground. The eggs are contained in egg-cases, and each case holds about one hundred eggs. From these eggs the young locusts are hatched. They are then in what is called the larva stage. They have legs but no wings, and they move by hopping about. They immediately join together in large numbers and spread themselves over every growing thing. They change their skins six times before they are full-grown. When they have moulted (changed their skins) four times they have reached what is called the pupa stage, and you can see their small wings growing, but they cannot use them yet because they are enclosed in cases. They now stop jumping and begin to walk. Twice again they change their skins, and after the last change they appear as full-grown locusts. They have two pairs of wings. The front wings are straight, and the back wings are very large and wide and are folded like a fan under the front wings. They have six legs, the hind pair very long and strong so that they can leap with them. When they have moulted for the last time they spread out their wings in the sun till they are dry; then they mount up into the air and fly away in clouds.

They fly long distances, and in such multitudes that they darken the sky like a cloud, and the noise of their wings is like pattering rain. At night they settle on the trees in such numbers that they break down the branches. As soon as the sun rises they fly on again.

While they are flying they eat very little; but at the places where they rest they lay their eggs. So when people see them about to alight on their fields or gardens, they beat iron pans and fire guns and shout in order to frighten them off. Where the locusts do land, men and women, and children too, catch as many as they can, put them into sacks, and destroy them. Then they hunt for the eggs and destroy as many as they can find. But alas! the seekers cannot find all the eggs, and in about three weeks those left hatch out into larvae and begin their terrible march.

By some instinct they keep together. As it says in the Book of Proverbs, “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.” They march straight forward in regular lines like armies of soldiers, their leaders in front. They cover the ground for miles sometimes to the depth of several inches. Nothing can stop them. They climb trees and walls, and get into houses. They even walk straight into water. They have been seen to drop in swarms into the river Jordan where the fish were eagerly awaiting them with open mouths.

And where they have passed there is utter desolation. Not a leaf is to be seen, not a blade of grass. The trees are stripped of their very bark. No wonder the Egyptians were terrified when Moses threatened them with a plague of locusts!

By the law of Moses, locusts were allowed as food, and they are still eaten in Palestine. They are dried and ground into meal, or toasted and eaten, Sometimes they are stewed with butter. Cooked thus they taste rather like shrimps. John the Baptist lived on “locusts and wild honey.” It was strange fare, but just what could be got by a hermit in the wilderness of Judaea, where locusts are plentiful, and the clefts of the rocks are full of wild bees and their stores.

Now, as I said before, fortunately we have no real locusts in this land, but I think we all have our plague of locusts nevertheless.

What is your plague of locusts? I'll tell you mine. My plague of locusts is the little faults that will keep hopping up where they are not wanted. These are a real plague to myself and a worse plague to those around me. I should not be at all surprised to hear that your plague of locusts resembles mine.

What shall we do then with our locusts you and I? What shall we do with the little hot tempers, and the jealous feelings, and the sulky looks, and the selfish natures, and the greedy longings that threaten to eat our hearts bare of all that is good and wholesome and lovely?

There is only one cure for the real locust. There is only one cure for our special locusts. Kill them in the egg stage. Don't let them ever grow up.