Huu ni msimu wa locusts nchini. We watch the news keenly to see where locusts will strike next in fear for our crops. When I heard of them being spotted at kirinyaga, I knew any small change of the wind’s direction could mean havoc upon my kin’s farm.
Locust swarms are a sign of judgement upon the land. In the book of Joel, God gives the Israelites hope after a particularly nasty locust invasion. He says, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust,
The consuming locust, And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God And there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.” Joel 2:25-32.
We have seen the devastation these pests have wrought upon our people but in the midst of this scary development, I was reminded about another species of locusts, “supernatural locusts” that are prophesied to come in the book of Revelation.
In the second half of the 7 year Tribulation, demonic, supernatural locusts will be released from the bottomless pit inside the earth to torment unrepentant sinners for five months. These supernatural locusts will not eat crops like normal locusts.
Revelation 9:1-12
- The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.
2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.
3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.
4 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.
5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.
6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.
8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.
9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.
10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.
11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
Scary stuff guys and gals, I hope no one reading this message will contend with these monsters.
