“…and he ate locusts and wild honey.”

~ Mark 1:6 |  Bonus Word study: Revelation 9 – locusts. Revelation 10 – honey.

God almost never chooses things for no reason. He speaks to us even in the mundane things of life.

If you believe the Bible to be God-breathed (and I do), then the Holy Spirit of God speaks to us from all the details of Scripture. There are layers of spiritual meaning in the depths of Scripture that we never find because we usually read for surface level understanding. Only the Spirit of God can reveal the truth of His Word, and God only gives the Spirit to those who have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

Last time we explored how honey—one of two foods mentioned in Scripture that John the Baptist ate in the wilderness—is symbolic of the Word of God. Today, we are going to delve into the spiritual significance of John’s other choice of food.

Locusts.

Why locusts? Well, where do we find locusts in the Bible? The first reference to locusts in the Bible is in Exodus Ch. 10 where locusts were the 8th out of 10 plagues that God brought upon the stubborn and rebellious nation of Egypt. Egypt is often used as a type or symbol in Scripture of “the world”—representative of our life before Christ and of the vast amount of people who live without Him. At this ancient time, God used locusts among other things as a punishment or judgment on Egypt because they would not obey His command to let the people of Israel go.

However, the last reference to locusts in the Bible is in Revelation Ch. 9. Yet, the locusts of Revelation are not natural locusts, rather they come from hell itself and are led by a destroying angel named Apollyon. These locusts are demonic entities sent to plague those who, like Egypt, “did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries [can be a reference to witchcraft or drugs] or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Rev. 9:20-21).

That’s a heavy word.

So locusts are, according to the Bible, a creature sent by God for judgment against rebellious people. In Exodus, we find the physical creature being sent in the natural realm. In Revelation, we see the the spiritual creature being unleashed in the spiritual realm. The locust carries with it spiritual significance and points to a spiritual reality beyond the physical world.

Why do locusts—particularly the locusts we cannot see with our eyes but the very one’s that sow destruction in our lives—come?

Sin.

Sin opens a spiritual door and gives the Devil legal ground to come into our lives which causes destruction in our world. There is a bitter, destructive, consuming force on earth; and we are all to blame, for we all have a hand in allowing evil to thrive.

John the Baptist, as God’s messenger, first had to eat the bitter messenger of sin (locusts) before he could preach the healing message (honey) of God’s redemption through Christ. Yet John understood both: the sin of the people and the hope of the Savior. For he said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

The locusts were never God’s desire for us, to eat or to reap the consequences of physically or spiritually. But God gave us free will to show us that without Him we are capable of bringing forth and sometimes even inviting all manner of evil into our lives and our world.

Nevertheless, even in the midst of our desolations caused by sin, God, who loves us with an everlasting love, speaks this word to us: “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten” (Joel 2:25).

He does this first by showing us our sin.

Then He shows us His salvation through Jesus Christ!

And here is where the spiritual meets the physical again. John the Baptist was merely eating physical locusts, but as he fulfilled his ministry by preaching the word God gave for him to deliver to the people there were spiritual locusts being consumed by the power of God from the lives of people. On earth John was eating the physical creature, but in the spiritual realm God was consuming the spiritual locusts that His people had let loose in their lives and in their world by sinful practices.

And God does the same for us today whenever we choose to speak His Word rather than the lies the enemy wants us to believe and practice. It is the Lord God Almighty who restores the years the locusts have eaten from our lives, both now and in eternity.

Our Father, we thank You for the depth and intricacies of Your Word. Your Word contains spiritual hidden treasure worth more than all the physical treasures of earth. May we eat Your Word like honey, letting it sit in our mouth and filling our heart, and when we speak, let us speak out of the treasure of Your Word, so that the locusts of hell would be consumed and that people would be set free. In the soul-saving, sin-washing Name of Jesus, Amen.