How many of you like grasshoppers? I can remember as a child, my brothers teasing me with grasshoppers. I also remember trying to catch grasshoppers, the bigger the better, for fishing bait. Then there was the year that grasshoppers ate holes in our window screens. Of course, they also go by the name of "locust" in the mid-east, and were the main protein for John the Baptist. (Yuk!)
When swarms of them would hit the crops at once, whole fields would be stripped bare. One of the plagues on Egypt was of locusts. Sometimes swarms of them were sent by God as an army, destroying the crops and generating repentance among Israel, as our original text in Joel indicates.
People in this country might remember a time (or remember reading of a time) when swarms of locusts (grasshoppers) descended like a cloud upon the wheat fields and destroyed the entire crop. These pests, en masse, bring darkness; they devour all that is green and strip the bark off trees, and can even break boughs off trees by their cumulative weight.
Of course, my garden doesn't have that many, yet, but the presence of grasshoppers means that leaves will be eaten and string beans will be marred.
What the swarms of locusts symbolize are the huge sweeping problems that overtake us: the destruction of property by a storm or fire; the sudden loss of loved ones from a tragedy; an attack on the country, as on 9/11/01; an assault on one's person, from a mugging or rape; or any other catastrophic event that totally consumes us.
God may allow these events to come into our lives to get our attention, to cause us to seek him. Sometimes they are the direct result of someone else's wrong choice (the terrorist, mugger, or rapist's), in which case we should not blame God. Unfortunately, such things are a part of life, like the insects and pests in my garden.
But we have God's promise that after the event, there will be blessing, as we look to him. "Don't be afraid, animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness will grow green; the fig-tree and the vine give their strength"—Joel 2: 22. The fields and pastures and trees and vines will grow again, green and fruitful. Our lives will again have joy and hope and growth.
After all, the life span of a grasshopper (in the nymph and adult stages combined) is only 2-3 months (with the total lifespan, including the egg stages, is only about a year). The adult stage is only about 30 days.
So, of any locust type problem in our life, we can realistically say, "This, too, shall pass."
"For our light affliction, which is only for a moment, works for us a far more excellent and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen (the locusts), but at the things which are not seen (the joy and hope that God wants to give us); for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen (spiritual things) are eternal"—2 Corinthians 4: 17, 18.
Next week: "Cankerworms"
Crack in the Liberty Bell
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7/4/2022
Resurrection Miracles
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4/16/2022
Globalism: Olympic Games Canceled
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2/20/2022
Happy Valentine's Day from God
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2/13/2022
Beginnings and Endings
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12/30/2021
The Light of the World
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12/24/2021
He Is Risen As He Said
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4/2/2021
Three M's of Christmas
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12/25/2020
Silenced and Silent
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8/4/2020
The Right Way
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7/13/2020
"Let Freedom Ring"
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7/3/2020
Caring and Sharing
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6/20/2020
One Race -- Two Creations
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6/10/2020
An End to Racism
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6/2/2020
With One Voice
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5/24/2020
Trust in God
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5/17/2020
A Firm Foundation
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5/9/2020
No Fear!
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5/2/2020
Author of Peace, Not Confusion
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4/28/2020
Too Timid to Tell
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4/24/2020
Resurrection Promise
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4/11/2020
God's Mercies
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4/2/2020
Yet I Will Rejoice
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3/18/2020
Slow Suicide—Part 2
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3/5/2020
Slow Suicide—Part 1
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3/2/2020
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y
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2/6/2020
A Stable and an Empty Tomb
Vicki Dorshorn
12/24/2019
Do Definitions Matter?
Vicki Dorshorn
12/17/2019
Darkness Creeping In
Vicki Dorshorn
11/26/2019
The Presence and Purpose of Pain and Sorrow
Vicki Dorshorn
8/31/2019
Salt and Light
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8/21/2019
Real Rainbows and True Light
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8/17/2019
The Light of Life
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8/7/2019
A Giant Eraser
Vicki Dorshorn
4/23/2018
He Is Risen
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3/30/2018
Rejection
Vicki Dorshorn
7/22/2015
Liberty Bell & more
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7/4/2015
Breaking News
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6/22/2015
Cracked Foundations
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6/12/2015
Power Transformers
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6/5/2015
Transformers
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5/28/2015
What is my name?
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5/20/2015
What age is Jesus for you?
Vicki Dorshorn
12/21/2014
Part 2 - Stories of Sovereignty from England
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11/21/2014
Stories of Sovereignty from England
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11/15/2014
Coincidence or Sovereignty?
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11/3/2014
Time to Care
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8/24/2014
"Lion on the Loose"
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8/16/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 6
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8/10/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 5
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8/3/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 4
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7/27/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 3
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7/20/2014
"Lessons from My Garden -- Part 2"
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7/12/2014
Lessons From My Garden - Part 1
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7/7/2014
Dreams, Revisions, and Renewal
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6/29/2014
A Dream that is Reality
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6/21/2014
The Return of the Swallows
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6/14/2014
Part 2 - Where will I go when I die?
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6/7/2014
Where will I go when I die?
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5/31/2014
Truth or Deception
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5/24/2014
Deliverance from Falling
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5/16/2014
Deliverance from Tears
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5/10/2014
Deliverance from Death
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5/3/2014
The Significance of Death
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4/27/2014
Conclusion of Why Bad Things Happen
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4/19/2014
Good and Bad, Relatively Speaking
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4/12/2014
The Potter and the Clay
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4/5/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 5
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3/29/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 4
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3/21/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 3
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3/15/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 2
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3/8/2014
"Bad Things" - Part I
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3/1/2014
Who are "good" people?
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2/26/2014
Why do bad things happen to good people?
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2/22/2014