END TIME LOCUST - NYOBS 89.33

End Time Locust

The four stages – Palmer Worm – Canker Worm – Caterpillar – Mature Locust

First Word

·         The Book says if we seek out His Word, He will give us HIDDEN MANNA, understanding; the Holy Spirit will guide us into TRUTH and declare to us the things that are to come.

·          The LORD gave a message to the prophet Joel as an example of the upcoming judgment upon judgment, scourge upon scourge upon man, until he either yields or perishes.  Joel said; “Hear this, you leaders of the people. Listen, all who live in the land.  In all your history, has ANYTHING like this happened before? - Tell your children about it in the years to come.
Let your children tell their children. - PASS THIS STORY DOWN FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.” - Tell them the story of the time of the Locust a period of FIVE MONTHS which is from May through September.  (This is a fact of a time in nature for locust activity and may or may not be a specific period of time for the End Time Tribulations.)

·         Most of us do not live in a land that is arid, where you live season to season depending on crop to crop for your substance. - Joel expresses the Locust, the weakest and most contemptible creature, so as to take away the comforts of man and applies it to the destruction of a country. - The locust are one of God’s ordinary punishments for sin and come in wave after wave.  What one wave leaves behind the next wave destroys.  Locust numbering in the hundreds of millions have darken the sky like a cloud, eating many times their weight in one day devastating every living green plant in their path.

·         Note: Make no mistake, the Locust judgement of Joel is a Covenant CURSE from God, they are His great Army. They do NOT EAT anything GREEN, not even a tree.  They only attack mankind, specifically those who do not have the Seal of God on their foreheads. – The SEAL OF GOD is the knowledge and Wisdom of the Word of God implanted in the MIND (the forehead) of mankind by the Holy Spirit, protecting them from the lies and deceptions of Satan that are to come in the final End Times. – Believers are sealed before this terrible tribulation even begins.

·         Locust do their devastating work in successive waves, there are about 90 different sorts of locust.  The Book records four Hebrew words implying FOUR stages, species or names; the Palmerworm, Cankerworm, Caterpillar and the Locust which are all named for their peculiar properties of destruction.

·         Consider the Seals, Trumpet and vials of “Revelation” that are poured out one after another, each one worse than the one before. - But between each wave there is a time for repentance. – Note: there were FOUR successive waves of invaders of Judah that came wave after wave; the Assyrians, Chaldaeans, Macedonians and the Romans.

·         The Book binds repentance and forgiveness together; REPENT AND BE FORGIVEN, if we don’t repent, we cannot be forgiven.

Revelation 2:17 – God has Hidden Manna to give us
¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers

I WILL GIVE SOME OF THE HIDDEN MANNA, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ (ESV)

John 16:13 – The Holy Spirit will guide us into TRUTH
¹³ When THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH comes,

HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL THE TRUTH, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and

He will declare to you the things that are to come.

(ESV)

Joel 1:1-3 - Tell the Story of the Time of the Locust
¹ the LORD gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.
² HEAR this, you leaders of the people. LISTEN, all who live in the land. In all your history, has anything like this happened before?
³ TELL YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT IT in the years to come, and let your children tell their children. PASS THE STORY DOWN from generation to generation. (NLT)

Deuteronomy 28:38 – Covenant Curse from God
³⁸ YOU WILL PLANT MUCH BUT HARVEST LITTLE,

FOR LOCUSTS WILL EAT YOUR CROPS.

(NLT)

Joel 2:25 – The Locust is GOD’S great army
²⁵  I will restore to you the years that the swarming LOCUST has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,

MY GREAT ARMY, which I SENT AMONG YOU. (ESV)

 Revelation 9:1-12 – Torture men for five months
¹ Then the FIFTH ANGEL BLEW HIS TRUMPET, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
² When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.
³ Then LOCUSTS CAME FROM THE SMOKE and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions.
⁴ They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
⁵ They were told not to kill them but to

TORTURE THEM FOR FIVE MONTHS with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting.
⁶ In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!
⁷ The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces.
⁸ They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion.
⁹ They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle.
¹⁰ They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for

FIVE MONTHS THEY HAD THE POWER TO TORMENT PEOPLE.
¹¹ Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is ABADDON, and in Greek, APOLLYON—the Destroyer.
¹² The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming! (NLT)

Time of the Locust

·         Three times God has used Locust as a vehicle of judgement.  We read that Moses unleased a plague of Locust on Egypt.  In Joel we read about how Locust are used to utterly destroy and in the great “end of time” book of Revelation, we read Locust are released from the Abyss at the sound of the fifth trumpet to destroy. - One square mile of locust will contain 100 to 200 MILLION of these creatures with such a dense multitude that the blackened ground seems to ungulate as if it were moving, living behind only bare and barked twigs.

·         The Locust army that appears on the scene in the book of Joel, with “CROWNS” on their head are symbolic of powerful strong men; multitudes of people without number that strip bare the people. – The vine they are stripping away is the Church of Believers; remembering Jesus telling Peter that Satan wanted to “SIFT HIM LIKE WHEAT”.

·         The FOUR STAGES of the Locust are emblems of the progression of SIN in our life that germinates and then explodes, eating away at our existence, consuming our harvest; our promised blessings. – Locust and Sin do not run the course of four stages and then stop, it replicates, repeating at each stage along the way, never ending; a succession of destroyers, over and over; consuming wave after wave, each more fatal than the preceding wave.

·         FOUR MORAL PLAGUE WAVE STAGES:

1)   LUST that creeps upon man with all its body.

2)   GLUTTONY and eating for SELF gratification and satisfaction 

3)   LOVE OF THE FLESH, love of human praise, love of ambitious desires; resisting holiness.

4)   SELF-EXALTATION, flies and leaps with vain glory and empty presumptions.

·         The locust descend upon earth coming in the SMOKE of deception just like Sin.  The SMOKE darkens the understanding of hearts and souls of the whole world; cutting, stripping, devastating and devouring. – Notice how the Christian influence has already been “stripped” away with the removal of the TEN COMMANDMENTS and PRAYER in schools and public places.  The advocating of the murder of unborn babies through abortion, calling it Pro-Choice instead of Pro-Life. – “Blowing Smoke”, calling Homosexuality just an alternate lifestyle instead of an abomination.  - Like Locust, Sin travels great distances and affects generation after generation.  This generational CURSE can be broken through confession, repentance and a change of one’s lifestyle.

·         1st stage: This stage is in the spring, the locust have just emerged from the egg without wings or legs and have the peculiar properties of cropping or sheering off of leaves and fruits; it’s known as the Palmer Worm stage. 

·         PALMER WORM - “Gazam” its voracity; the devourer of the leaves cutting short the stems preventing the future harvest of good fruit or making the remaining fruit rotten. – They are the Chewing Cutting Gnawing Locust. – This state is a World System that perverts, twists and manipulates the message of Jesus Christ and bends the words of the Holy Bible. Renouncing the supernatural; the virgin birth and the resurrection, reducing Jesus Christ to just to another good man and Christianity to just one of the many religions.  (This is NOW)

·         2nd stage: This stage SIN is hopping like fleas, busy gnawing and licking up with its tongue and consuming anything green as well as bringing forth a vast increase of multitudes of larva in the pupa stage without legs or wings. – The gnawing, arguing, debating, disagreeing, distracting, wearing you down process of annoyance that prevents the full growth of the Word and stopping you from prospering; this stage is known as the Cankerworm.

·         CANKERWORM “Yelek” it’s licking up; the young Hopping Crawling Devouring Locust - It’s about False Teachers and Preachers calling EVIL GOOD; perverting the word of God; teaching pro-Choice NOT pro-Life – Affirming Homosexuality as another lifestyle NOT an abomination; it’s about Mother Earth NOT Father God; it’s about the god inside, NOT the God above.

·         3rd stage: This stage is casting off the old skins and now with small wings encased in sacks and are able to jump and leap with the properties of consuming and wasting of all that is in their path; this stripper before growing it wings in its final stage attempts to remove the outer bark (our Flesh) that protects the inner live bark (our Soul), which is our mind and  will, our emotions and sight, our ability to smell, touch and hear; the breaking down of the protective bark causing death to the tree (our Spirit). This happens through alcoholism, drugs, pornography, homosexuality, lust, and gluttony.  It’s known as the Caterpillar stage.

·         CATERPILLAR – “Chasil” its destructiveness; the Stripping Consuming Locust.  It’s money changers selling religious good luck artifacts and amulets, making the house of God a den of thieves, it has now become an entertainment center; NOT a house of prayer. -  Projecting Social functions NOT praise and worship, entertainment NOT enlightenment of the Word. – The world is shouting that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are SINCERE.  

·         4th stage: This stage is now a matured enumerable multitude of winged destroying locust about 1 to 1¾ inches long, that consume whatever remains in its path that has not already been consumed. The actually heads of these flying invading locust are shaped in the form of a “little horse”; reminiscent of the four CONSUMING horses that ride forth in the end of times; White, Red, Black & Pale Green.   NYOBS 35.24 – FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE.

·         The female locust drills thousands upon thousands of holes in the earth laying its Multiplier’s or Swarmer’s eggs that have a short incubations period of just one week to two months, and like SIN, they seems to be always be emerging; Sin covering up more Sin .

·         Our enemy Satan; looks for ways to drill holes or opening into our life by exposing us in our early age to something that later in life will come back to restrain us from our maturity as a Christian.  Things such as physical abuse, alcoholism, adultery and even gossip. The enemy Satan strategically sows SEEDS OF CAPTIVITY in your early life that remains dormant till years later, where it is awakened to give birth to more SIN.  It is known as the Locust stage.

·         LOCUST – “Arbeh” its multitude; to multiply with immense increase; the Swarming Locust. The Book does not apply today, it was written for another century; just LOOK INSIDE; you have everything that you need already inside of you to be all that you can be; save yourself.

·         The Book says that at the return of Christ it will be just like in the time of Noah, with the Nephilim taking wives; producing hybrid children, DESECRATING mankind the very image of God.

·         NOTE: Do not miss this. – The Babylonian army advanced against Jerusalem in SUCCESSIVE WAVES; cutting, stripping, devastating and devouring. – Joel’s specific locust in reality are armies of Men sent by God to spank mankind; to get their dependency for a physical and spiritual life back on HIM; the tribulations are a second chance to find God before we die; then after that it’s the judgement; it’s God’s WILL that none should perish. - It’s in the Book

Revelation 9:3 – Smoke is a cloud of deception
³ locusts came from the SMOKE and DESCENDED ON THE EARTH, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. (NLT)  

Exodus 10:14-15 – So many locust the land was darkened
¹⁴ And the locusts swarmed over the whole land of Egypt, settling in dense swarms from one end of the country to the other. It was the WORST LOCUST PLAGUE in Egyptian history, and there has never been another one like it.
¹⁵ FOR THE LOCUSTS COVERED THE WHOLE COUNTRY AND DARKENED THE LAND. They devoured every plant in the fields and all the fruit on the trees that had survived the hailstorm.

NOT A SINGLE LEAF WAS LEFT ON THE TREES AND PLANTS throughout the land of Egypt. (NLT)

Joel 2:25 – Swarming – Crawling – Consuming - Chewing
²⁵ So 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. (NKJV)

Joel 2:25 – Swarming – Hopping – Stripping - Cutting
²⁵  The LORD says, “I will give you back what you lost to the SWARMING locusts, the HOPPING locusts,

the STRIPPING locusts, and the CUTTING locusts.

It was I who sent this great destroying army against you. (NLT)

Joel 1:4 – Palmerworm – Locust – Cankerworm - Caterpillar
⁴ That which the PALMERWORM hath left hath the LOCUST eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the CANKERWORM eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the CATERPILLER eaten. (KJV)

Joel 1:4- Cutting – Swarming – Hopping - Striping
⁴ After the CUTTING locusts finished eating the crops, the SWARMING locusts took what was left! After them came the HOPPING locusts, and then the STRIPPING locusts, too! (NLT)

Deuteronomy 28:38-40 – Plant much but harvest little
³⁸ You will plant much but harvest little, for

LOCUSTS WILL EAT YOUR CROPS.
³⁹ You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will DESTROY THE VINES.
⁴⁰ You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for THE FRUIT WILL DROP BEFORE IT RIPENS. (NLT)

1 Kings 8:37-38 – Pray to God for relief of the Locust
³⁷ If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or ATTACKS OF LOCUSTS OR CATERPILLARS, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is—
³⁸ and if your people Israel PRAY ABOUT THEIR TROUBLES, RAISING THEIR HANDS TOWARD THIS TEMPLE, (NLT)

Joel’s Look Inside

·         In that day the fields will be ruined with the land stripped bare. - The grain will be destroyed and the grape vines will have shriveled, the olive oil will be gone.  All the fruit trees will have dried up and withered.

·         The animals and herds of cattle will wander about confused moaning with hunger because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep and goats will bleat in misery.

·         The seeds in the parched ground will die; the grain crops will fail and the barns will stand empty with the granaries abandoned.  Your joy will dry up within you as the food supply disappears right before your very eyes.

·         There will be no joyful celebrations held in the house of God because there will be no grain or wine to offer God, because the wheat and barley crops of the field are ruined.

·         ALERT: Call All the church leaders together for a solemn meeting in the temple of God with all the members and announce a time of fasting. -  Dress yourselves in burlap and weep and wail in despair; CRY OUT to God in repentance for His Mercy, Relief and Compassion.  

Joel 1:10 - Grain destroyed – Grapes shriveled – Olive oil gone

¹⁰ The fields are ruined, the land is stripped bare. The grain is destroyed, the grapes have shriveled, and the olive oil is gone. (NLT)
Joel 1:11 – Farmers wail, Growers weep – wheat & barley ruined

¹¹ Despair, all you farmers! Wail, all you vine growers! Weep, because the wheat and barley— all the crops of the field—are ruined. (NLT)
Joel 1:12 – Fruits dried up and withered

¹² The grapevines have dried up, and the fig trees have withered. The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees— all the fruit trees—have dried up. And the

PEOPLE’S JOY HAS DRIED UP WITH THEM. (NLT)
Joel 1:13 – A time to weep and wail – No offerings to give

¹³ dress yourselves in burlap and WEEP, you priests! WAIL, you who serve before the altar! Come, spend the night in burlap, you ministers of my God. For there is NO GRAIN OR WINE to offer at the Temple of your God.  (NLT)
Joel 1:14 – A time of fasting to cry out to the Lord

¹⁴ Announce A TIME OF FASTING; call the people together for a SOLEMN MEETING. Bring the leaders and all the people of the land into the Temple of the LORD your God, and CRY OUT TO HIM there. (NLT)
Joel 1:15 – How terrible the Day of the Lord

¹⁵ THE DAY OF THE LORD is near, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. HOW TERRIBLE THAT DAY will be! (NLT)
Joel 1:16 – Food disappears, Joy is stolen

¹⁶ Our FOOD DISAPPEARS before our very eyes.

NO JOYFUL CELEBRATIONS are held in the house of our God. (NLT)
Joel 1:17 – Seeds die – Grain crops fail – Barns empty

¹⁷ SEEDS DIE in the parched ground, and the GRAIN CROPS FAIL. The barns stand empty, and granaries are abandoned. (NLT)
Joel 1:18 – Animals moan, sheep and goats bleat is misery

¹⁸ How the ANIMALS MOAN with hunger! The herds of cattle wander about confused, because THEY HAVE NO PASTURE. The flocks of SHEEP AND GOATS BLEAT in misery. (NLT)

Eat My Words

·         The Prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah as well as John the Revelator were all told to EAT the WORD of God.  

·         God commands us to consume His SWEET words even though some words are BITTER to the taste. -  In the end, knowing the SWEET from the BITTER will save our souls. – To the Believer the words are SWEET, but to the unbeliever they are BITTER and they HATE them.

Ezekiel 3:1-3 – EZEKIEL was told to eat and digest His Words
¹ The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you—

EAT THIS SCROLL! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.”
² So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll.
³ FILL YOUR STOMACH with this,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. (NLT)

Revelation 10:10 - JOHN told to eat His Word Sweet and Sour
¹⁰ So I took the SMALL SCROLL from the hand of the angel, and

I ATE IT! It was SWEET in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned SOUR in my stomach.

(NLT)

Jeremiah 15:16 – JEREMIAH devoured God’s Word with delight
¹⁶ WHEN I DISCOVERED YOUR WORDS, I DEVOURED THEM. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. (NLT)

John 17:14 – The World hates the Word of God
¹⁴ I HAVE GIVEN THEM YOUR WORD. And

THE WORLD HATES THEM because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. (NLT)

The Take Away

• Joel paints a picture of Sin that emerges from the Smoke; the deception of the mind and soul from false teachers with false teachings that cut, strip, chew, gnaw, crawl, hop and fly to distract us from the TRUTH of God’s Word. – Containing moral waves of 1) Lust, 2) Gluttony, 3) Love of the Flesh and 4) Self-exaltation. 
• SIN like Locust starts very tiny, but later comes wave after wave, replicating itself over and over till it strips our very soul of its last breath.
• The prophet Joel points to a valley; the same valley where Jehoshaphat fought his battle, where the Messiah would soon destroy the armies of the nations and establish His kingdom. Joel called it The Valley of Decision.

·         We have that same Valley today; THE VALLEY OF DECISION; why would you fight in the battle of Armageddon down in the valley as a participant, when you could sit up on the mountain top as a spectator watching it all unfold. - Why would you drive a defective car for 10 years, then finally fix it in order to sell it when you could have fixed it in the beginning and enjoyed it for 10 years. - Don’t wait for the tribulations to find Jesus Christ, find HIM NOW and enjoy HIM today and then for eternity.

·         Life is Choice Driven; choices you make on this side of eternity have eternal consequences.

- It’s in the Book -

Joel 3:9-14 – THE VALLEY OF DECISION

9 Proclaim this among the nations: PREPARE FOR WAR! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.

10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, `I am strong!

11 Come quickly, all you nations from every side, and assemble there. Bring down your warriors, O LORD! Let the nations be roused;

12` let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for

there I will sit to JUDGE ALL THE NATIONS on every side.

13 Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow-

SO GREAT IS THEIR WICKEDNESS!

14 MULTITUDES, MULTITUDES IN THE VALLEY OF DECISION! For the day of the LORD is near in the VALLEY OF DECISION.

NIV

In the multitude of counselors,

there is wisdom.

Proverbs 11:14

I am grateful to those that went before me providing concepts, ideas, historical

information, and scripture verses.  Because of them I can stand on their shoulders

                         and see further that I otherwise ever could have.              

                                                                                                                                     

Antiquity of the Jews – Flavius Josephus Matthias

Apocrypha – Goodspeed

Baker Commentary on the Bible – Elwell

Bible Almanac; The – Packer-Tenney-White

Bible Commentary – F.B. Meyer

Bible Dictionary – Harper and Row

Bible Dictionary – Nelson’s

Dake’s Annotated Bible – Dake

English Standard Version Bible – ESV

Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Frank E. Gaebelein

Forgotten Books of Eden; The – World

Gospels Interwoven; The – Karmit Zarley

Illustrated Bible Dictionary; The – Tyndale

Interlinear Greek-English New Testament – Baker

Invisible War; The – Donald Grey Barnhouse

King James Version Bible – KJV

Lost Books of the Bible; The - World

Lost Books of the Bible; The - Bell

Matthew Henry’s Commentary - Zondervan

Meredith’s Book of List; 1&2 –Bethany House Publishers

Missing Books of the Bible; The – Halo Press

Mysteries of the Bible – Readers Digest

Nag Hammadi Library; The – James M. Robinson

Nave’s Topical Bible - Zondervan

New International Dictionary of the Bible; The – Douglas - Tenney

New International Version Bible (2011) – NIV

New Living Translation Bible - NLT

Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls – Hugh J. Schonfield

Systematic Theology – Wayne Grudem

Thru the Bible – J. Vernon McGee

Unseen Realm; The – Michael S. Heiser

Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament – Mac Donald

Who’s Who in the Bible – Paul D. Gardner

Wycliffe Bible Commentary; The – Pfeiffer & Harrison

Wikipedia –

Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible; The – Tenney