“You could hear the millions of jaws biting and chewing… Grasshoppers went into the house with them. Their clothes were full of grasshoppers. Some jumped into the hot stove where Mary was starting supper. Ma covered the food till they had chased and smashed every grasshopper. She swept them up and shoveled them into the stove.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Banks of Plum Creek
It sounds like a work of fiction; however, the history books tell the stories of great invasions of grasshoppers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. July 1874 saw one of the worst plagues to hit the Midwest. It repeated itself in 1875.
“Millions of insects, more accurately called Rocky Mountain locusts, descended on the prairies from North Dakota to Texas without warning. They arrived in swarms so large they blocked out the sun and sounded like a rainstorm.”1 A drought was already affecting what meager crops there were. The drought provided the breeding ground for the grasshoppers to be born from their larvae and to enter this world hungry.
One farmer reported that the locusts seemed “like a great white cloud, like a snowstorm, blocking out the sun like vapor…After eating the crops, they moved on to eat the wool from live sheep, clothing off people’s backs, paper, tree bark, sawdust, leather, and even wooden tool handles were completely devoured. A visit to a farm could last two days to a week, leaving behind a devastation that appeared as if the land had been destroyed by fire.”2 It’s hard to imagine in America but many people who were unable to emigrate to other places died of starvation.
Several states ordered their citizens to work in the fields or face a fine or penalty. Fields were to be plowed, unearthing the grasshopper eggs and larvae, killing them and preventing them from hatching. Missouri offered $1 per bushel of dead locust, incentivizing people to get involved in the eradication of these invasive insects.
On this day in 1931, history repeated itself in Iowa. “Added to the woes of farmers in the state come stories of the great grasshopper invasion along the western border, bringing pictures of destruction caused by the ravenous insects…” reported the Cedar Rapids Gazette and Republican on August 3, 1931.3
If there had been a way for the grasshoppers/locusts to have been exterminated immediately, don’t you think the people would have jumped on the opportunity? They would have given all they had to get rid of this menace. It would have been insane to allow it to continue to happen when a solution was available.
Not all people are sane!
Exodus 1 records the oppression of the Egyptian Pharaoh over the Israelites. The next few chapters
tell of how God raised up Moses as the deliverer of God’s people. Chapter 7 begins the showdown between the Pharaoh and Moses and Aaron as well as the story about the 10 plagues. Each plague was intended to demonstrate the power of God in order to get Pharaoh to release God’s people. The plagues were also for the benefit of the Israelites. They needed to see the power of God as well.
God told Moses that Pharaoh was going to be stubborn and wouldn’t release the Israelites. Exodus 7:3-4 says, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. (4) But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.” Did Moses know that it was going to take 10 signs before Pharaoh would agree to let the Israelites go?
The first plague that God delivered through Moses was turning the waters of Egypt into blood. That’s gross and you would think this would have gotten Pharaoh’s attention. It didn’t. Neither did the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh plagues! Talk about being thick headed! By the eighth plague, Pharaoh was going to let the people go but with conditions.
“And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me. (4) Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: (5) And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: (6) And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. (7) And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? (8) And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go? (9) And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD. (10) And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. (11) Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence. (12) And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. (13) And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.” (Exodus 10:3-13)
It’s easy to point fingers at the Pharaoh but let’s turn this story around and point fingers at ourselves. Yes, Pharaoh was pigheaded. But aren’t we just as pigheaded at times? None of us can say that we obey the Lord instantly all the time. Maybe some who are reading this right now are in a state of defiance against something the Lord is trying to correct in their lives. What will it take for the Lord to have His way in your life? What “plague” will you have to endure for the Lord to get your attention?
Wherever obedience is lacking in your life, get it right today before God has to take drastic measures.
I don’t want to ruin the end of the story for you, but it wasn’t until the 10th plague that the Israelites were allowed to go without conditions. The story will take you through Exodus 14. Let me close with the last verse of that chapter: “And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:31)
1https://legendsofkansas.com/grasshopper-plague/
2Ibid.
3https://www.notesoniowa.com/post/iowa-history-daily-july-27-great-grasshopper-swarm-of-1931
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