The coronavirus pestilence has caused a reported 365,000 deaths worldwide. At the same time, a locust plague is devouring tens of thousands of acres of cropland and pasture in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, and India. “In Kenya, the locusts are eating in one day the amount of food consumed by all Kenyans in two days” (“Locusts attack crops,” The Times of India, May 26, 2020). “Iranian officials say the current swarm has already attacked more than 494,000 acres of orchards and farmland in seven of Iran’s 31 provinces, and caused damage exceeding $7 billion” (Israel Today, May 23, 2020). But this is not the Day of the Lord. The wars and pestilences and locusts of the Day of the Lord will make the current problems seem like a picnic. At the very beginning of the Day of the Lord one-fourth of the earth’s population will die from “sword, hunger, and death [pestilence]” (Revelation 6:8). Currently the world population is 7.8 billion, so the death toll would be 2 BILLION! Global health care and emergency systems will be completely overwhelmed. The locusts of the Day of the Lord that are described in Revelation 9 are not ordinary locusts. They are demonic. They don’t hurt the grass of the earth, they attack men with a tormenting sting like a scorpion, but the torment lasts five months and is so terrible that men will “desire to die, and death shall flee from them” (Revelation 9:5-6). There will be no vaccination. After this, one-third of the remaining world population will be killed by a rampaging two million-man army spewing out fire and brimstone (Revelation 9:16-19). That will be another 1.7 BILLION. And those are only some of the judgments that will fall on the earth during the Day of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ described it as follows: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Mt. 24:21-22).
(Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)