Saturday, September 19, 2020
Locusts arriving in Israel in spring 2013
Locusts
This is what the Lord God showed me: He was forming a locust swarm when the late growth began to come up [the late growth after the king’s mowing]. While they were eating all the grass in the land, I said: Forgive me, O Lord God! How will Jacob stand? He is so small! And the Lord repented of this. “It shall not be,” said the lord God.
We have read through the words and woes that Amos offers us so that we might examine our lives to see how we deal with those who suffer oppression. We have asked ourselves if we are victim or bully, one with a great deal or one with little. Today Amos presents us with the first of several visions. What can these locusts mean?
God says: The king has taken his first cutting of the harvest and has left the second growth for his people but locusts arrive and devour all that gives sustenance. Calamity strikes. Fear grips everyone and yet remember . . . I will tend to the faithful. They shall not perish. It shall not be. Even amidst the swarm of locusts that devours all in its path.
In some parts of the world the threat of swarming locusts is a very real hazard but although for us the threat of total devastation is a distant threat we know the unease that comes with impending doom. Natural disasters, acts of criminal violence, medical aberrations are all present dangers to our comfortable living. In Old Testament thinking we would assume that these calamities tell us that we have somehow angered God. New Testament thinking tells us that although catastrophes occur we are likely not to blame . . . and it reminds us that we can rely on God to say: It shall not be.
In this time of pandemic and social unrest, we lean on the prophets of old for guidance.
To read news about a locust invasion in the Middle East in the spring of 2013, click on the image above or visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/israel-braces-for-locust-invasion-ahead-of-passover_n_2816136.html
To read more about the locust, go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Desert_locust
The Noontimes 
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