Eucharistic meditation

Exodus 10:4-5: Tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.  And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.

In the eighth plague, Yahweh calls out the locusts.  Locusts cover the land as the waters of the flood covered the earth with a primordial watery chaos.  Locusts blanket Egypt so thickly that they darken the land.  They eat all the green leaves and fruit that the hail hasn’t already destroyed.  The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but a blighted wilderness behind, and nothing escapes them.  Locusts are killers, and the eighth plague is another devastating decreation.

The numerology of the story reinforces this theme.  The word “locust” is used seven times, since Yahweh uses them to throw creation into reverse.  The word “eat” is used four times, a compass pointer to the four corners of Egypt.  Swarming locusts, gnawing locusts, creeping locusts, and stripping locusts bury the land from north to south and east to west, and eat everything to boundaries of the land.

As Pastor Sumpter pointed out, what happens to the locusts foreshadows what will later happen to Pharaoh and his chariots.  The east wind that blows the locusts into Egypt will later blow the waters back so that Israel can pass through the Red Sea.  Like Pharaoh later, the locusts are driven into the sea and drowned.

If Pharaoh and his chariots die like locusts, it is because they have lived like locusts.  Like locusts, they blanket the land and turn the garden land of Goshen into a howling waste.  Like locusts, they chomp the life out of the Hebrews.  Like locusts, they try to kill everything young and green that springs up in Israel.  Pharaoh and his officials are the chief agents of destruction in Egypt, and when Pharaoh and his strength go down to the depths like stones, Yahweh displays His symmetrical justice: Destroyers destroyed, eaters swallowed by the Sea.

As we enter the New Testament, Israel herself has become an Egypt, covered with swarms of Pharisees who devour widows’ houses and Roman tax collectors who gnaw at the fruit of the land.  The gospel announces a new exodus, a final deliverance from a deadly plague of locusts and from the enemy who stands behind all of Israel’s enemies.  The gospels begin with the ministry of a man who eats locusts for breakfast and climax with Jesus’ triumph over death, the ultimate decreation, the ultimate plague.  Death swallows us all.  The grave is the great devourer.  But by His resurrection, Jesus has swallowed up death in victory, and makes a mockery of the devourers.

Because of that triumph, we eat and drink here every week, confident that all Pharaohs, all the locusts who darken the earth, every enemy to life, and finally even death itself will be swallowed up in Jesus’ resurrection, blown away by the Spirit of the sea.