Duke Jeyaraj
There is a locust attack in NorthWest India as I write these words in May 2020. It is a terrible attack. Mohammed Iqbal writes the following lines for The Hindu: “The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has given permission to the Rajasthan government’s Agriculture Department to use remotely piloted aircraft systems for anti-locust operations in the large areas where the insect swarms have landed. The locust attack has affected about 90,000 hectares in 20 districts of the State.” The Prophet Joel of the Bible talked about a locust plague during his time. Joel 1:4 reads this way: “We have been invaded! What the cutting locusts left, the swarming locusts consumed; What the swarming locusts left, the creeping locusts consumed;
What the creeping locusts left, the stripping locusts finished off” (Joel 1:4, The Voice). Before I attempted to learn the theology of Joel, I was wowed by his zoology! I did not know that so many different kinds of locusts even existed! For Joel, the locust plague were pointing to an event far more destructive! I read this online: “A Desert Locust adult can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day, that is about two grams every day. A very small part of an average swarm (or about one tonne of locusts) eats the same amount of food in one day as about 10 elephants or 25 camels or 2,500 people” (fao website). Can something be more destructive than the locust plague? Yes, says Joel. He goes onto talk about that event? What event? The Day of the Lord. He pens, “Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes!” (Joel 1:15, ESV). He writes, “Eternal One: Blow the trumpet in Zion; signal the alarm from My holy mountain! It is almost here. Let all who live in the land tremble because the day of the Eternal One is coming” (Joel 2:1, The Voice). The Day of the Lord prophecy has an immediate fulfillment, and an eschatological fulfillment. The immediate fulfillment was this: an enemy nation is going to invade Israel/Judah! The eschatological fulfillment will be this: the day of the return of the Lord Jesus is around the corner (Rev. 6:17)! So, what should we do? Joel replies: “Eternal One: Even now, turn back your heart and rededicate yourselves to Me; Show Me your repentance by fasting, weeping, and mourning” (Joel 2:12). So, let’s repent! Let’s do it ‘now’! Before it is too late! It will be ‘too late’ after the return of Jesus! It will be ‘too late’ after death! It will be ‘too late’ after the Holy Spirit stops speaking with our hardened heart!
(Rev. Dr. Duke Jeyaraj is the founder of Grabbing the Google Gen from Gehenna Mission, G4 Mission. Find out more at http://www.dukev.org. Watch Duke’s messages videos at http://www.Youtube.com/visitduke).
