Billions of Locust
A Plague Of “Billions” Of Locusts Threatens to Create A Horrific End Times Famine All Over Africa
About a year ago there was a locust outbreak around the Red Sea that was disastrous for that area. Both sides of the Red Sea were destroyed by locust.
It's that time of year again when locust begin to breed and eat their way across deserts and territories. DW News, out of Germany, is reporting that right now in Africa billions of locust are eating everything in sight in east Africa. This swarm has affected Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and is moving into Uganda.
A single locust swarm can have “up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer". A swarm can be 60 kilometers or 37 miles long and 40 kilometers or 24 miles wide. This is larger than most cities. Hundreds of thousands of acres of crops are being destroyed. Swarms like these can destroy enough crops that could feed 2,500 people each day. So far, the Kenya administration estimates the damage is around 7 billion schilling range.
People have completely lost their livelihood. This has happened from Yemen to Red Sea to Africa. It not only affects the crops but also the grazing supplies for livestock. So if there is no place for livestock to graze, livestock will die as well.
The locust are spreading 150 kilometers or 93 miles a day. This plague could soon affect
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and India. The locust population could increase 500 times in the next few months. With more rain in coming in April, farmers will start to plant. Locust can eat their own weight in food every day. Every single day many farms are being completely wiped out. Unfortunately, authorities are telling us that what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. It can be difficult to imagine a plague of “billions” of locusts. After all, there are
only about 7 billion people living on the entire planet.
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization has described the situation as “extremely alarming” representing an “unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa.” If this plague continues to get worse, the stage is being set for a famine that is far greater than anything any of us have ever witnessed.
Unfortunately, Kenya only has four planes currently flying for spraying and the same goes for Ethiopia. Recently the UN has stepped up with 10 million dollars of additional funding for aerial spraying but that won’t really go too far. The UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock says families across the region “now face the prospect of watching as their crops are destroyed before their eyes.”
The terrible part of this story it what is being projected and we are being told that the worst is yet to come. The United Nations said that when rains arrive in March and bring new vegetation across much of the region, the numbers of the fast-breeding locusts could grow
500 times before drier weather in June curbs their spread. Many relief organizations are fearing the worst.
Save the Children’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Ian Vale, said in a statement that their staff in Kenya are battling swarms so thick they can barely see through them. Even before 2020 began, millions upon millions of Africans were dealing with “acute hunger” and the outlook for the coming year was grim.
But now nobody has any idea how there will possibly be enough food for everyone. 1.2 billion people live in Africa and right now the locusts are stripping farm after farm completely bare. The spread of sicknesses such as Ebola and the coronavirus is a foretaste of pandemics that will be part of the end times.
Jesus referred to future plagues associated with the last days (Luke 21:11). The two witnesses of Revelation 11 will have power “to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want” (Revelation 11:6). Seven angels will release seven plagues in a series of final, severe judgments described in Revelation 16.
Some critics of the Bible claim that there is no evidence to support the Bible’s account of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. They say there is no record of the Hebrew people in Egypt or the ten plagues as described in the book of Exodus. The detractors who say the ten plagues and the Exodus are just myths have been silenced. The Ipuwer Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian document now held in the Dutch National Museum. It provides an independent record of the ten plagues in Egypt. It describes a great disaster that took place in ancient Egypt. The oldest copy dates to around 1400 BC placing it close to the time of the Exodus (circa 1446 BC).
The first plague was turning the Nile to blood. The Nile River, which formed the basis of daily
life and the national economy in Egypt, was devastated as millions of fish died and the water
was unusable. Pharaoh was told by God, “By this you will know that I am the LORD” (Exodus
7:17). The Ipuwer Papyrus says, “Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere” (2:5–6).
“The river is blood. . . . Men shrink from tasting human beings, and thirst after water”
(2:10). “That is our water! That is our happiness! What shall we do in respect thereof? All is
ruined” (3:10–13).
The fifth plague was the death of livestock. God protected His people from this plague while
the cattle of the Egyptians died. God was steadily destroying the economy of Egypt, while
showing His ability to protect and provide for those who obeyed Him. Pharaoh even sent
investigators (Exodus 9:1–7) to find out if the Israelites were suffering along with the Egyptians, but the result was a hardening of his heart against them. The Ipuwer Papyrus says, “All animals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan” (5:5). “Behold, cattle are left to stray, and there is none to gather them together (9:2–3).
The seventh plague was hail and fire. This hail was unlike any that had been seen before. It
was accompanied by a fire which ran along the ground, and everything left out in the open was devastated by the hail and fire. Again, the children of Israel were miraculously protected and no hail damaged anything in their lands (Exodus 9:35). The Ipuwer Papyrus says, "Forsooth, gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire” (2:10). “Lower Egypt weeps. . . The entire palace is without its revenues. To it belong [by right] wheat and barley, geese and fish” (10:3–6). “Forsooth, grain has perished on every side” (6:3). “Forsooth, that has perished which was yesterday seen. The land is left over to its weariness like the cutting of flax” (5:12).
The ninth plague was darkness. For three days, the land of Egypt was smothered with an unearthly darkness, but the homes of the Israelites had light (Exodus 10:22–23). The Ipuwer
Papyrus says, “The land is without light” (9:11).
The tenth and last plague was the death of firstborn males. Every household that did not apply
the blood of the Passover sacrifice saw the death of the firstborn (Exodus 12:23). The Ipuwer
Papyrus says, “Forsooth, the children of princes are dashed against the walls” (4:3 and 5:6).
“Forsooth, the children of princes are cast out in the streets” (6:12). “He who places his brother in the ground is everywhere” (2:13). “It is groaning throughout the land, mingled with lamentations” (3:14).
The Ipuwer Papyrus also contains a possible reference to the Hebrews’ departure from Egypt,
laden with treasures: “Gold and lapis lazuli, silver and malachite, carnelian and bronze . . .
are fastened on the neck of female slaves” (3:2; cf. Exodus 12:35–38). Further, there is a possible description of the pillar of fire: “Behold, the fire has mounted up on high. Its burning
goes forth against the enemies of the land” (7:1; cf. Exodus 13:20–22).
Egyptologist David Rohl, who doesn’t claim to be a Christian, has written two books on how
biblical accounts relating to Egypt, Joseph, and Moses are astonishingly accurate. He believes
Joseph and Moses were historic characters and cites Bronze Age slave lists containing Hebrew names, the grave goods of an underclass discovered at Avaris (the biblical Goshen), and Egyptian “plague pits” full of skeletal remains.
While the Bible does not need confirmation from secular historians, and Christians do not
require extra-biblical accounts in order to believe the Bible, it is interesting that independent
records of biblical events exist—records with remarkable parallels to the biblical accounts.
Whether is be locusts or viruses, we need to realize that these are a foreshadowing of what is to come in the end times. God is giving us a taste of what's to come so that we, as a church, are able to offer answers to the world. We don't need to answer the meaning of the locusts or the viruses but we do need to know the answers about God and His Word and show them the hope of Jesus.