We are in chapter ten of Exodus with our word for today. אַרְבֶּה Locusts, migratory locusts, migratory grasshopper having a short antennae. It is used 24 times in the Old Testament, used seven times in our chapter. Most of the time our word is used to describe God bringing judgment on a nation. A good example is in Joel 1:4 What the locust swarm has left the הָאַרְבֶּ֖ה great locusts have eaten; what the הָאַרְבֶּ֖ה great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten. This is how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 10:4-6, 12-15 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring אַרְבֶּ֖ה locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh…Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the בָּֽאַרְבֶּ֔ה locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the הָאַרְבֶּֽה locusts. The הָֽאַרְבֶּ֗ה locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of אַרְבֶּה֙ locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
It was so bad Pharaoh referred to it this way in verse 17, “remove this death from me.” We see this event referenced in Psalms. Psalm 78:43, 46 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt… He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the לָאַרְבֶּֽה locust. Psalm 105:34-35 He spoke, and the אַרְבֶּ֑ה locusts came, grasshoppers without number; they ate up every green thing in their land, ate up the produce of their soil. The message from Psalms and other references to the Exodus in the Bible is to remember God’s power and ability to save his people. This in itself is a great and wonderful thing which we have and will see as we continue looking at God’s words from his word together. What is also just as amazing and wonderful is what God wants to do when we have experienced his judgment because of our sin. As we saw earlier in the book of Joel how God judged his people with the locust because of their sin. We see later in the same book this great promise that I will close with. Joel 2:13-14, 23-26 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing…Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. “I will repay you for the years the הָֽאַרְבֶּ֔ה locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you.
